Manga And More Honored As ‘The People’s Art’ At The Lucas Museum

A Museum For The People

Funded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the project is a culmination of over 17 years of persistence. In a CBS Morning interview, the Star Wars creator described the museum as an inescapable “institution,” and a completely different undertaking compared to filmmaking.

Hobson, co-founder and board chair of the museum, hopes the museum will inspire accessibility and inclusion. “As someone who always felt outside, I wanted everyone who walks in to feel like an insider.” She shared the establishment’s intention to create “a place that’s spectacularly cool, but not elite.”

Lucas describes the institution as a “temple to the people’s art,” which was reflected through the excited eyes of eager pop culture enthusiasts and film fanatics. He defines narrative art as “art that illustrates a story,” and those help shape the myths found in human life.

Manga Among Fine Art

Jedis, Siths and Straw Hat Pirates lined up early on September 22nd, 2026 for the public opening of the museum. With this open interpretation of narrative art, The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has turned a trip to the museum into an entertainment experience itself.

At a San Diego Comic Con panel earlier in July, Bryan Linkof—senior curator and head of film programs at the Lucas Museum—explained that the work on display isn’t usually collected in other museums. “[The Lucas Museum] is a unique institution in that it platforms long and privileged commercial illustration that doesn’t have a home in most art museums.”

Alongside Linkof, Seth Green added to that sentiment. “We’ve lived long enough to see all the stuff we were beaten for loving become the fine art of our day,” he laughed. To his credit, Millennials can now witness the unique sight of Ultraman and ONE PIECE manga illustrations displayed nearby Norman Rockwell paintings.

The Lucas Museum’s manga collection includes familiar influential names and series, bringing different eras of manga to the forefront. From Kamen Rider to Astro Boy, works from legendary authors like Shotaro Ishinomori, Osamu Tezuka and Masamune Shirow are interspersed on the gallery walls.

Curiously, some manga panels on display are from series that haven’t been licensed in English, such as Hiroshi Kaizuka’s Spirit of My Father and all 39 pages of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s The Invisible Corpse. None of the works have translations or explanations on the placard, leaving the viewer to come to their own conclusions.

Younger attendees, who may not be familiar with the significance and impact of works like Akira, find themselves interacting with the Shotaro Kaneda statue as is. Although they couldn’t name the character, two boys enjoyed taking pictures while pretending to be intimidated by his gun.

Even a figure as ubiquitous as Pikachu was accused of “looking like AI” by a teenager staring blankly at the Naoya Kimura artwork. This same art piece drove massive attendance to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The interaction between the young onlooker and Pokémon painting exemplifies the core tenant of narrative art: it’s up to interpretation.

Upcoming Anime Featured in the Museum’s Film Programming

Currently, the first two episodes of Star Wars: Visions and Shinichiro Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop are scheduled daily at the Slavko Vorkapich Theater. The program runs all-day from 10:15 AM – 5:00 PM, which allows visitors to walk-in to the room at any time. These anime series will screen alongside experimental short films, such as Mary Ellen Bute’s Rhythm in Light and Walt Disney’s The Skeleton Dance.

• Star Wars: Visions Season 1, Episode 1, “The Duel” Directed by Takanobu Mizuno
• Star Wars: Visions Season 1, Episode 2, “Tatooine Rhapsody” Directed by Taku Kimura
• Cowboy Bebop Season 1, Episode 1, “Asteroid Blues” Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe
• Cowboy Bebop Season 1, Episode 2, “Stray Dog Strut” Directed by Shinichiro Watanabe

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Research Library

Even without a museum admission ticket, the building has a free library where visitors can read, borrow, and even request books. Visitors can ask for a wristband to the research library at the box office. It’s open everyday at 10AM and closes an hour before the museum.

If the library looks a bit light, it’s because the curatorial staff are still purchasing books right now. Liza Posas, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, pointed to a limited selection of manga related books on the first floor shelf.

At the time, Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere and Matsuba Ryoko’s Manga, Paul Gravett’s Mangasia, Cathy Sell’s What’s Manga? and John A. Lent’s Asian Comics were the only manga related books on the shelf. These were aligned with the other introductory books to global comics, such as Graphic Borders by Frederick Luis Aldama and Christopher González.

“Manga is a new-ish edition to his collection,” mentioned Posas. “There’s some manga on the first floor and some titles in the non-accessible collection.” She specified that manga is one of the collections that the museum will take recommendations for through the catalogue website.