Manga
Marionette: First Major Original Art Exhibition Features 70 Works
The Vanilla Gallery presents manuscript pages and color illustrations from Mayumi Aida's 1980s shōjo manga.
The first comprehensive original art exhibition for Marionette by Mayumi Aida opened in Tokyo on October 28, 2026. Until November 8, the Vanilla Gallery in Ginza is showing around 70 original works from the shōjo manga, including manuscript pages from the publication and colored illustrations. The gallery and the publisher Hakusensha are working together on the show.
Drawings from the Creative Period
Marionette was serialized between 1981 and 1989 in Hakusensha's magazine Hana to Yume. At its center is Daniel, a boy from a count's family. The story combines family lineage, love, desire and fate with a visual world shaped by Gothic influences. Alongside manga pages, the exhibition features the colored originals in particular. They make it possible to trace Aida's character drawing, the detailing of clothing and the design of backgrounds.
Aida debuted in 1978 with Happy End Story and initially also published comedic manga. Marionette grew into a series after its first installment in 1981 and became one of her best-known works. The gallery describes the presentation as the first larger original art exhibition devoted to this title.
The show joins a series of presentations of classic manga art. Recently announced were, for example, a large exhibition with more than 800 shōjo manga originals and an art book with an exhibition on The Rose of Versailles.
Dates, Admission and Further Exhibits
The exhibition takes place in Room B of the Vanilla Gallery, Ginza 8-10-7. On weekdays it is open from 12 to 7 p.m., and on weekends and public holidays from 12 to 5 p.m. Last entry is 30 minutes before closing. Admission tickets cost 1,000 yen and are sold exclusively on site for cash.
In addition, reproductions of the drawings, an acrylic stand for 2,640 yen and five B6-size illustration cards for 2,200 yen are offered. According to the organizers, Aida will be personally present on several days; the specific dates may change. The official exhibition page contains the current visitor information.
The Meiji anniversary exhibition with original drawings by 40 manga artists this year also features specially presented illustrations, though with works from numerous different series.