The Japanese art of manga has risen in popularity in the past few decades. Its roots go back nearly 1,000 years. It is now as well known as sushi, geisha and Mt Fuji. It is so popular outside Japan that a manga exhibition was the British Museum's most popular show in 2019. It was the largest display of manga material ever put together outside Japan. Around 1,920 people paid to see it every day.
The exhibition showed manga's 900-year history, from the earliest forms to sketches of today's popular anime and game characters. The show included 70 manga series, including the seminal work "Astro Boy". The British Museum said: "Manga is the modern graphic art of storytelling first perfected in Japan....Building on Japan's centuries-old tradition, the best manga have the visual power to excite us and draw us into their world."