A new exhibition opening at Manga Barcelona will explore the dynamic interplay between manga, anime, and Japanese video games. Curated by Víctor Navarro of TecnoCampus, alongside Marçal Mora and Alejandro Rodríguez, “MangaGēmu. anime, manga and Japanese video game” builds upon the Japan Foundation’s ongoing “Gēmu” project-a series of exhibitions examining the cultural impact of Japanese video games-following previous shows in Madrid and San Sebastián. The exhibition highlights how these three art forms are deeply interconnected in Japan, a concept often lost in Western interpretations, and will run from December 5th to 8th.
A new exhibition exploring the close relationship between manga, anime, and Japanese video games will be on display at Manga Barcelona this year. The show, titled “MangaGēmu. Anime, manga and Japanese video game,” is curated by Víctor Navarro, a professor at TecnoCampus, along with Marçal Mora and Alejandro Rodríguez.
The initiative is part of the Gēmu project, a public outreach program launched by the Japan Foundation in 2021 that investigates Japanese video games as a cultural product. Two previous exhibitions have already been held under this umbrella: “Gēmu: Japanese Video Game and Visual Culture,” which was shown at Veranos de la Villa in Madrid in 2024, and “CineGēmu: Fantasy and Terror in the Japanese Video Game,” which recently concluded its run at the San Sebastián International Fantastic Film Festival in 2025.
In Barcelona, the exhibition will feature a smaller format, with six totem displays and two display cases showcasing original manga, anime, and video game materials. The goal is to highlight a broad phenomenon: the constant hybridization between these three industries. “In Japan, manga, anime, and video games are part of the same cultural universe,” Navarro explains. “Here, they are often received as separate fields, but there, the transition between them is natural and constant.”
The exhibition, which will run from December 5th to 8th, will be complemented by a presentation by Navarro and Alejandro Rodríguez on Saturday, December 6th at 6:00 PM in the Manga Academy room.
From Manga to Video Games and Back Again
The exhibition traces some of the most visible connections between manga and video games. Navarro notes that in Japan, “if a series is successful, a video game adaptation almost immediately follows.” Classic examples include Dragon Ball, Ranma, Naruto, and Doraemon – franchises that have spawned dozens of titles in various formats since the 1980s. This cross-pollination demonstrates the power of intellectual property and the interconnectedness of Japanese entertainment.
The curator explains that Nintendo released a Famicom Mini special edition console in Japan a few years ago, featuring only video games based on popular manga. “It was a perfect demonstration of how manga and video games progressed together,” he says.
Navarro also points to examples of how this transition wasn’t always received the same way in the West. “The video game version of Fist of the North Star arrived before the manga or anime, and because the series wasn’t well-known here, it was released with a generic title: The Last Battle. The original franchise was hidden because it was thought it wouldn’t be recognizable to European audiences.”
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A similar case occurred with “Captain Tsubasa,” a popular anime series about a soccer team. The video game arrived in Europe without a license and was rebranded as a generic soccer title, disconnected from the manga and anime that inspired it. “It’s a good example of how the cultural chain is broken, when in Japan it is completely natural,” he points out.
The flow also works in reverse. Series originating in video games, such as “Mario” or “Zelda,” have a long tradition in manga format. “In Japan, it’s common for a success in one medium to expand into others. Many manga based on Mario and Zelda were published during the 90s and are now being re-released in Spanish editions.”
Fifty Years of Visual Culture
Navarro emphasizes that the Japanese video game industry, which began more than fifty years ago, “learned the visual language and storytelling methods from manga and anime,” and that this fusion created one of the contemporary world’s creative powerhouses. “Within a few years, gēmu had become a global force and a major exporter of visual imaginaries.”
“MangaGēmu” aims to condense this history into an exhibition that will serve as an introduction to how a unique cultural ecosystem has been forged through characters, genres, and franchises.
