MOCA curator Michael Darling was looking for something special to open the museum's new space at the Pacific Design Center. The Los Angeles curator was hoping for a crowd of 5,000, which would have been MOCA's biggest opening ever. He hosted 8,000. It seems like the younger audience gets it right away. They have no problems with the cartoon derivation.
Older viewers require a little time to know what's going on.
When Darling shows the exhibit to older folks, they often reminisce about seeing young people reading comics on the subway in Japan. Darling is pleased by the show's integration of old and new culture, and multiple media. It's a very complicated exhibition with a lot of dimensions. It leads into sociological observations about Japan and world culture. The blending of the tradition and the very conceptual is very rich.