The aptly-named “Anime Architecture” exhibit shines the spotlight on just that: the environment art. The towering, bustling cityscapes of classic cyberpunk-leaning anime, with the snake-like pipes and cables that weave seamlessly through its architecture. The fictitious cities once only dreamed up in the words of Philip K. Dick and William Gibson’s fiction, realized visually once the pen went to paper in Japanese animation. Berlin’s “Anime Architecture” exhibit, curated by Stefan Riekeles and Nadejda Bartels, features a number of original drawings from iconic anime, such as Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell (1995). For many of the sketches, this is the first time they’re being seen outside of their respective films, previously residing in studios’ old cardboard boxes, collecting dust.

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Many of my favorite scenes from anime have a lot to do with their environments. Like the towering skylines of Neo-Tokyo in Akira’s (1988) opening bike race, soundtracked by the pounding drums of “Kaneda’s Theme.” The lived-in grime of Mars’s capital city in the year 2071,as seen in the standalone film Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (2001). The susceptible-to-another-apocalypse, dystopian city of Tokyo-3, the scene for many mecha battles, in Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995). The environments in anime and manga are often sprawling, dizzying, and may even appear a bit real. Despite being the background to the action, in a lot of cases, the environments can breathe more life and context into the world it represents than the actions of its characters.