Manga artist Moyoco Anno to visit Honolulu

If you’re dedicated to attending every otaku-tinged special event this year, you’re going to have a very, very busy year ahead.

Consider this: We’re only 14 days into 2015. The Ohana Festival at the Japanese Cultural Center already happened on Sunday (and I completely missed talking about that, *sob*). But coming up, there’s The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses concert on Jan. 30 and confirmed dates for the Honolulu Festival (March 6-8), Kawaii Kon (March 27-29), HawaiiCon (Sept. 10-13) and Taku Taku Matsuri (Oct. 3). Throw in the two new events that I probably won’t talk about too much here unless a more overt anime/manga link emerges — Kawaii Kon’s sci-fi spinoff, Hoku Kon (July 24-26) and the Amazing Hawaii Comic Con (Sept. 18-20) — and a handful of events I’m told are in the works but haven’t been publicly revealed yet, and it’s clear the hardest of the hard-core fans are going to have to start saving up their pennies now.

One of the events carrying over from last year is the “Modern Love: 20th-Century Japanese Erotic Art” exhibit at the Honolulu Museum of Art, on display through March 15. One of the artists whose work appears in the exhibit, josei manga artist Erica Sakurazawa, stopped by the museum in December to talk about her work and lead a master class. Now comes word that another featured manga artist, Moyoco Anno, will be visiting the museum next month.

Anno’s works have been translated and released in the United States by a number of publishers over the years, including Flowers & Bees (Viz), Happy Mania (Tokyopop), Sugar Sugar Rune (Del Rey), Sakuran, In Clothes Called Fat and Insufficient Direction (all from Vertical Comics), and Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen, Buffalo 5 Girls and The Diary of Ochibi (available digitally from Crunchyroll Manga). An Indiegogo campaign aimed at producing an animated short film of Ochibi is in progress. She’s married to Hideaki Anno, longtime director of the Evangelion anime franchise and voice of Jiro Horikoshi, central character in The Wind Rises. For pretty much anything you want to know about Moyoco Anno and her work, check out Melinda Beasi’s interview with her at New York Comic Con 2012 (posted on comicsbeat.com) and the January 2013 Manga Movable Feast archive.

Anno will be participating in several events that are free and open to the public on Sunday, Feb. 22. Here’s the day’s schedule:

• 10:30-10:45 a.m.: Book signing in the Doris Duke Theater (900 S. Beretania St.; there’s a direct theater entrance on Pensacola Street). Copies of Sakuran will be available for purchase.
• 10:45-11:45 a.m.: Artist talk, also in the theater.
• 11:45 a.m.-noon: More book signing.
• Noon-1 p.m.: Break in official events. Go grab something quick to eat at that gas station on Ward, or McDonald’s or Burger King down Beretania Street. Or you could just wander around and hack/capture/upgrade Ingress portals. Up to you.
• 1-2 p.m.: Drawing demonstration at the Honolulu Museum of Art School (1111 Victoria St.), room 200.

Seating is limited, so you’ll want to get to those somewhat sorta early-ish.

Those of you who are Japanese art aficionados may want to continue your art museum visit after the demonstration ends; in addition to the “Modern Love” exhibit, another exhibit, “Dreams of Mount Fuji: Masterpieces of the Honolulu Museum of Art’s Japanese Print Collection,” opened … well … today, in fact. The exhibit, which runs through March 22, displays highlights from two centuries’ worth of woodblock prints, paintings and sculptures by more than 20 artists, with the main attraction being three pieces from Hokusai’s “36 Views of Mount Fuji” series. “The Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa” is first up through Feb. 8, followed by “Red Fuji” from Feb. 10 to March 1 and “Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit” March 3-22.

The Honolulu Museum of Art is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays; admission is $10 general, free for children ages 17 and under (although you probably won’t want to take the kids into the “Modern Love” exhibit, just sayin’). Visit honolulumuseum.org.