The Takeshi Obata 30th Work Anniversary Exhibition: Never Complete was an art exhibition featuring illustrations by Death Note artist Takeshi Obata from throughout his career. It opened July 13, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan, and traveled through five subsequent cities across Japan, closing after its final two-month run in early 2021.
Overview
The exhibition featured 500 pieces displayed in three zones. The first zone highlights artwork from manga illustrated by Obata, including Hikaru no Go, Bakuman, and Death Note. Art featured in Zone One was selected for its representation of story or themes, Japanese style, or difficulty, focusing on the many different themes in Obata's various works. Zone Two featured full-color drawings in Obata's favored Copic marker medium, including book covers, colored manga panels, and series collaborations. The focus of the second zone was to highlight Obata's artistic style over his career. Zone Three focused on unfinished works, including digital and hand-drawn illustrations from the ongoing manga series Platinum End and Obata's new work, Never Complete.
A new artbook by Obata was released at the event, featuring a special dust cover, 400 illustrations, and interviews covering the artist's three-decade career. Information on commemorative goods was announced in June, while additional merchandise continued to be released and varied at each venue. Each location also offered a limited number of attendees the chance to attend a signing with Obata. Additionally, some of the completed manuscripts of the new Death Note one-shot chapter written by Tsugumi Ohba were seen for the first time.
Advance ticket sales were available with a limited number dated for July 13, while a general ticket covered all days after the opening day. The first exhibition ran from July 13 to August 12, 2019, at the 3331 Arts Chiyoda in Tokyo. The exhibition traveled after its close in Tokyo, running from September 14 to November 10, 2019, in the Niigata City Manga & Anime Information Center before traveling to the Umeda Sky Building's Daimaru Museum in Osaka from January 8 to 20, 2020. It was scheduled to run from March 20 in the Yokote Masuda Manga Museum in Akita; after a temporary closure in April and May resulting from the spread of the novel coronavirus infection, the Akita session was extended until July 12. Adjustments due to the spread of the disease caused the exhibition's fifth run, in the Kitakyushu Manga Museum in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, to be rescheduled from July 18 to September 13 to the later dates of October 3 to December 6, 2020. The exhibition's sixth and final session lasted from January 17 to March 28, 2021, in Takasaki, Gunma. Since the closing of the exhibition, some of the remaining merchandise, including the Never Complete artbook, have become commercially available in Jump stores in Japan for a limited time.
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