In Rovigo on display a manga... European: an exhibition all about Radiant, Japanese-style comics

It’s Japan-mania in Rovigo this fall: in addition to the exhibition on Japanism in European art between the 19th and 20th centuries scheduled at Palazzo Roverella from Sept. 28, 2019 to Jan. 26, 2020, another exhibition in the Veneto city explores the connections between European art and that of the Land of the Rising Sun. It is Radiant. Winds of the Orient in European Manga, an exhibition that even in its title is linked to the one at Palazzo Roverella (the latter is in fact titled Japonism. Venti d’ Oriente nell’arte europea 1860 - 1915): set up at Palazzo Roncale from October 16, 2019 to January 26, 2020, the exhibition brings to life the impact of Japanese comics ( manga) on European ones, in particular taking the famous Radiant comic strip as an example.

Contemporary forms of Japonisme indeed pass through manga and anime (the latter term by which Japanese cartoons are designated). Thus, testifying to the influence of Japanese aesthetics on European visual culture in the 21st century, here is, as anticipated, a comic book that has emerged in recent years as one of the main standard bearers of the new diffusion of styles and models from Japan: Radiant. The comic, created by young French cartoonist Tony Valente (Toulouse, 1984), stages an imaginative world populated by creatures fallen from the sky and wizards, engaged in the search for the enigmatic “lair” of the monstrous creatures. Radiant is proposed as an initiatory adventure immersed in a fantasy setting typical of Japanese shonen manga ( shonen are comics aimed mostly at a male audience of teenagers), led by a young hero, built by progressive settings and challenges and rich in figures resulting from an original reworking of both Japanese and European references: natural disasters, biological mutations, medievalism.

Valente’s drawings offer a softness of line that is typically European, while allowing some famous Japanese models such as Dragon Ball, Hunter X Hunter or Bleach to shine through in the design. This balance between East and West has earned Radiant several awards as the best Western work in “manga style,” including the Daruma award at the 2016 Japan Expo festival for best international manga. The international fortune of Radiant, produced since 2013 in France by publisher Ankama and published in Italy by J-Pop Manga, has also generated some significant firsts for the series. In fact, it is the first French manga to have also been published in Japan, and it is even the first French manga adapted into an animated series for Japanese TV (in fact, it is an unusual case for a European-produced manga to become a Japanese cartoon).

The exhibition Radiant. Winds of the Orient in European Manga, curated by Matteo Stefanelli and included in the program of the exhibition Giapponismo. Venti d’ Oriente nell’arte europea, presents for the first time in Italy a path around this original European manga, in collaboration with Arcadia Arte, J-Pop Manga and Ankama through original plates, illustrations, color studies and sketches. Author Tony Valente will also visit Rovigo on the occasion of the exhibition to meet the public and illustrate the genesis and recent and future developments of Radiant.

In Rovigo on display a manga... European: an exhibition all about Radiant, Japanese-style comics

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