It has been 50 years since the publication of the Chojin Locke/Locke The Superman manga series created by. To commemorate it’s 50th anniversary, the Meiji University located in Tokyo has announced that an exhbition of the series will be held at the university’s Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library with four sessions with different exhibits, from June 9 to July 3, July 7 to August 7, August 11 for September 4, and September 8 to 24.
Meiji Univeristy is a private univerisity with campuses located in both Tokyo and Kawasaki. Established in 1881, the university is one of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s (MEXT) thirteen “Global 30” Project universities, otherwise known as the Super Global Universities program since 2014.
The exhibition will be featuring 200 of the creator, Hijiiri, Yuki’s original manga arts and even sketches from his amateur days for display. Fans can also see the process behind the creations with a short documentary film that will be screened. A main feature to look forward to at the exhibition is that on September 2 at the the 12th floor of the the university’s Liberty Tower (Room 1123), there will be talk session
Originally published in 1967, the manga series was a creation of Hijiri, Yuki when he was a main member of an amateur manga creator group “Sakuga Group” and started off as a part of the group’s doujinshi magazine. Over time, the series released over 100 tankobon volumes and was serialized in more than 10 Japanese magazines. The manga series ended around 1989 but it gained many radio drama programs and anime film/OVAs.
The story of this series began as something that as not entirely concise to the reader but was clear on one thing, it centered on a character named Locke, ‘just Locke’ and his genesis from before the “Cosmic calendar” used in the story. Not much is revealed on the main character other than his adventures of fighting against an evil of some sort. A situation that he often falls into or get entagled with as he cannot ignore those in need of help.
It is later on in the series that the reader is finally clued in to what exactly is going on. And that is that the reader seeing the history of the future through the eyes as Locke, who acts as a medium who looks into humanity as it evolves, travels, discovers, explores, colonizes, conquers, fights, and destroys.
Any other details on the exhibit may be found at Crunchyroll News