The Manga Barcelona show breaks an attendance record with more than 163,000 visitors

The 28th edition of Manga Barcelona closes its doors this Sunday with a new record of more than 163,000 visitors, surpassing the figures for 2019, the last edition before the pandemic.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
11 December 2022 Sunday 16:30
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The Manga Barcelona show breaks an attendance record with more than 163,000 visitors

The 28th edition of Manga Barcelona closes its doors this Sunday with a new record of more than 163,000 visitors, surpassing the figures for 2019, the last edition before the pandemic. The new location and dates have been very well received by an audience that had sold out the tickets for the four days and subscriptions before opening doors. To these tickets must be added those that have been sold each day as the capacity allowed.

Manga Barcelona has once again become the great celebration of manga, anime, cosplay, gastronomy and other expressions of Japanese culture, with many of the activities being sold out and, above all, enthusiastically received. that characterizes the regular public of this room.

The 2022 edition marks the return of Japanese guests, such as Nakaba Suzuki, author of The Seven Deadly Sins, who has filled rooms with his question sessions and drawing master classes. Unfortunately, Shun Umezawa, the guest winner of the Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence Award, was unable to attend in person for health reasons, but through videoconference he has also been able to offer his two sessions to fans of The Darwin Incident. .

The palaces dedicated to editorials and merchandising have been the busiest, but the gastronomic area, the sports area and the stages with music and podcasts have not stopped in the four days of receiving people wanting to move; some of the Dance Stage sessions have rivaled even the Great Stage, dedicated to the most powerful and spectacular concerts, located at the end of palace 7. Highlighting one of the great guests at Manga Barcelona this year, Yoko Takahashi, who has made that the venue was small for a while, and has amazed an audience devoted to the popular songs from the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime with his prodigious voice.

Las Faky have also had a great impact with their choreographies and their very current Japanese pop songs, and Mahousyoujo Ni Naritai have made the audience's heads stop moving like in any Metal concert. But aside from the big music stars, some of the biggest crowd moments on the Big Stage involve the cosplay contests, which always generate great anticipation. Great proposals and a series of winners who will soon travel to Europe or even Japan as Spanish representatives in different international competitions.

The new venue has made it possible to bring together many of the activities and workshops in the same space that is always crowded, with workshops that were almost always full of people wanting to learn a lot about Japanese culture, from the language, the samurai or even about japanese humour. The manga and anime workshops at the Escola Joso are also a classic that has returned with all its strength. And 2022 is also the year of the return of the Manga Kids area, a commitment by Manga Barcelona that is becoming more and more popular, which continues to grow and makes it possible for the more familiar public to find a series of fun and educational proposals.

The Manga Barcelona Auditorium, as usual, has been filled with premieres and projections of some of the anime films of the moment, and it was also the scene of the Manga Barcelona Awards, the awards that recognize the best manga and anime of the last year. Once the room closed and the votes were counted, the Auditorio award for best anime film went to Sing a bit of harmony, in a year in which the average score of the majority of films has been one of the highest since the award began.

After this great reception, this new space is consolidated at Fira de Barcelona Gran Via, as well as the change of dates.