Manga exition is British Museum's biggest show

The show included 70 manga series, including Osamu Tezuka's seminal work "Astro Boy".

Manga is now as synonymous with Japan as sushi, geisha and Mt Fuji.

Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, said: "Manga is the modern graphic art of storytelling first perfected in Japan and is now loved all over the world. Building on Japan's centuries-old tradition, the best manga have the visual power to excite us and draw us into their world, with inventive storylines that engage our emotions."

It included the earliest forms of manga by master painters to sketches and illustrations of today's popular anime and video game characters such as Pokemon.

The manga exhibition was the largest display of manga material ever assembled outside Japan.

The art form can trace its roots back nearly 1,000 years in Japan but it is only in recent times that it has taken off globally.

Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, said: "Manga is the modern graphic art of storytelling first perfected in Japan and is now loved all over the world. Building on Japan's centuries-old tradition, the best manga have the visual power to excite us and draw us into their world, with inventive storylines that engage our emotions."

Such is the popularity of manga outside Japan, an exhibition of manga works proved to be the most popular show at the British Museum in 2019.