Commemorating the 25th anniversary for Cowboy Bebop, Sunrise has done a new exhibition in Shibuya to celebrate the much loved anime.
Cowboy Bebop was originally released back in 1998. Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe with an iconic musical score from Yoko Kanno, Cowboy Bebop managed to capture not only an eager audience in Japan but also all over the world.
It also had a fascinating design team on it as well, with Kimitoshi Yamane penning the ship designs and Shoji Kawamori coming up with the world setting, such as the astral gates littered across our future Solar System.
So an exhibition for the series is very much overdue.
The exhibition itself covered much of the story and characters, but also had some very nice production artwork you could leaf through (although there was a queue for that). There were also a few cels and some custom art done by Yamane of the Swordfish II.
Talking of the Swordfish II, there was also a massive mock-up of Spike’s ride of choice, which was one of a few “photo opportunities” available. With the other being a simple recreation of the lounge area inside the Bebop.
Naturally, there was an an exhibition exclusive shop with all sorts of trinkets and t-shirts on sale. There were also QR code links to other merchandise dotted around as well.
The exhibition itself is technically hosted inside the Seibu department store in Shibuya, but in fact it’s actually inside Muji on the 6th floor around the corner. The signage is pretty confusing and finding your way through the warren of corridors inside Seibu can be a bit tricky. So it’s best to just go straight to Muji.
One additional thing is that you need to reserve your tickets via this website. As you would expect with an exhibition like this, there are quite a lot of people that want to go to it. The reservations are done to make sure it doesn’t end up too crowded.
Tickets are priced at 1,800 yen at the door and you get a fancy clear card memento for your trouble. The exhibition opened today and will run until November 19.
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