Manga and anime at the 17th Impact

Prestigious guests

The author of Fairy Tail, Hiro MASHIMA, exceptionally came for this 17th Impact, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his manga. The artist was giving a conference, during which he also performed live drawing. And on Saturday, Hiro MASHIMA was facing the French mangaka Reno LEMAIRE, the author of Dreamland, at a draw battle!

Among the list of guests you could meet during the festival, there was redjuice, in collaboration with @anime, an illustrator and designer who worked on the chara-design of the Project Itoh trilogy: Genocidal Organ, Harmony, and The Empire of Corpses. You could see him at a panel, masterclasses and signing sessions. And if you still weren’t satisfied, you could go visit the exhibit How to make an anime Episode 1: STUDIO4°C to discover what goes on behind the scene when directing an anime.

The mangaka Kôta HIRANO, who is well-known as a Japanese top creator, especially for Hellsing, attended a panel discussion on his last manga, Drifters, recently adapted in anime, with the editor, Yoshiyuki FUDETANI, and the producer, Yasuyuki UEDA, 

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Lady!! published by isan manga in France, Yoko HANABUSA gave a panel and live drawing. And you could also meet another shôjo author: Harumo SANAZAKI.

Hitori RENDA was also waiting for you at signing sessions on Ki-oon’s booth. The illustrator of the first series of the manga King’s Game came to promote his latest publication in France: Awaken. A manga which combines mysterious characters and a suspenseful plot.

Focus on Saint Seiya

Another manga was celebrating its 10th anniversary: Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas. On this occasion, 4 artists who worked on this series came to Japan Expo. Shiori TESHIROGI, the artist of the manga Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas and Chimaki KUORI, the author of one of Saint Seiya spin-offs, Saint Seiya: Saintia Shô, as well as Osamu NABESHIMA and Yukô IWASA who both worked on the adaptation of the anime were indeed gathered for signing sessions and a flood of other activities, such as conferences, masterclasses or live-drawings.

You could get immersed in the series thanks to 2 exhibits.  First, Kurokawa offered you the chance to get right inside the story with an exhibit for the 10th anniversary of Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas with illustrations by Shiori TESHIROGI and Chimaki KUORI.

And if it wasn’t enough, Cubloom, Kroosty Crew, JPdioramas, and Diorami 13faith gave you the opportunity to take a step back to your childhood through Saint Seiya: 30th anniversary exhibit – For the fans, from the fans, an exhibit of dioramas.

French artists

This year, the French Touch was one of the main themes of this 17th Impact. Many French artists came for this occasion.

Reno LEMAIRE, who also celebrated the 10th anniversary of his major series, Dreamland, was attending panels and signings sessions during the 4 days of the festival. His work was also exhibited next to Pika Édition’s booth.

Thomas ROMAIN, Stanislas BRUNET and Eddie MEHONG, 3 French artists who worked on Japanese animation studios, talked about their career on panels. You could also meet them on signing sessions or masterclasses.

If you wanted to know more about French artists, you could go on the French Touch exhibit: a dozen French animators who now work inside Japanese animation studios, and about 20 French illustrators, who have decided to turn to manga as a means of expression, presented their work on this exhibit.

Lots of novelties

Among many others, the young mangaka, Linco, came to promote her first manga, Chroniques de Lapicyan, a series created for French readers. She attended signing session on the Sumiré area and on Glénat’s booth.

During the 4 days of the festival, Japanese and French artists, but also professionals of art design, gave exceptional masterclasses to explore the drawing and animation technique. Wacom professionals taught you about painting based on photo and initiated you to the software Adobe Creative Cloud.
Some of our prestigious guests welcomed you on masterclasses to teach you techniques of colorization or drawing: Harumo SANAZAKI taught you how to draw shôjo characters and redjuice show you some digital techniques.

So many more panels on Japanese animation movies were waiting for you. You could also attend to the one dedicated to the series Sword Art Online on the occasion of the release of the movie Sword Art Online – Ordinale Scale. A conference who was filled to capacity!

You could attend the panel and screening of Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky presented by anime production studios Sunrise and BANDAI NAMCO Pictures.

And if you are a Gundam fan, the founder of the studio Mannen was invited to a conference about the making of Gunpla. You had the opportunity to improve your techniques and broaden your knowledges of scale model making.

All those encounters couldn’t have been possible without the participation of the publishers, who also prepared many surprises on their booths during the 4 days of the festival!

Kana’s booth, easily identifiable thanks to the giant Naruto, came with another surprise this year: an exclusive attraction inspired by the manga Sky-High Survival by Tsuina MIURA and Takahiro OBA. If you purchased one of the 2 books of the series Sky-High Survival available on Kana’s booth, you could jump from a huge bouncy structure inspired by the manga.

On the occasion of the 10 years of Fairy Tail, Pika Édition was inviting you to an exhibit dedicated to the series and Hiro MASHIMA. This exclusive exhibit reproduced some sceneries of this shônen such as the famous request board or the banner of guild logo banner. Figurines of the most popular characters of the series were also displayed.

Tokyo Ghoul fans could visit a reproduction of the Anteiku café. The French publisher of this series, Glénat, not only organized an exhibit but also many activities and contests. You could, for instance, attend a special Make Up session to turn yourself into a ghoul.

isan manga prepared an exhibit on the occasion for the 30th anniversary of the series Gwendoline with exclusive illustrations.

Of course, you could also enjoy the booth of many French publishers that prepared signing sessions and surprises: Akata, BANDAI x TOEI, Delcourt/Tonkam, Doki-Doki, Kazé Manga, Ki-oon, KOTOJI Éditions, Komikku Éditions, Kurokawa, nobi nobi !, Ofelbe, Olydri Éditions, Ototo, Soleil manga and Taifu Comics.

For more fun, the association prepared a lot of activities for you! La Bande Animée invited you to watch an exclusive episode of their show Raconte-moi un manga.

During the festival, Tengumi gave you the opportunity to express your creativity via/through a drawing contest. Anigetter, with its papercraft and 3D origami demos, caught the attention of many curious, some of whom dared to work hands-on. And the AEUG, faithful to its commitment, helped all mecha fans to build their own models and spread this universe around them!

Gamers were not to be outdone: the association created innovative games for you based on manga or anime. For example, you could participate in a quiz based on Shônen Jump Magazine’s famous series with Forum Thalie or to the game “screen it” invented by BulleJapon to test your knowledges of anime openings and endings. More activities were awaiting you on the booths of Hetalia World, KajiaN and Ze Network Tsundere.

To finish, kids had also their own area to discover the Japanese culture thanks to many activities such as readings, manual work or make-up sessions.