17 best things to do in Tokyo this Silver Week

The force behind smash-hit titles including Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen, Japanese animation studio Mappa is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. To mark the milestone, the company is hosting its largest-ever exhibition from September 16, bringing together work from 23 titles at the newly opened Yurakucho Museum.

The exhibition features original drawings, large-scale sets and video projections that immerse visitors in the worlds of Mappa shows and films such as Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, Attack on Titan: Final Season, Jujutsu Kaisen and more.

At the Chainsaw Man exhibition area, you can feast your eyes on exclusive production materials, including drawings that follow the story of The Movie: Reze Arc, from Denji and Reze’s first encounter and the explosive battle between Chainsaw Man and Bomb to the conclusion of their story. Don’t miss the illuminated life-size figure of Bomb, which is being unveiled for the first time.

The Attack on Titan: Final Season zone features original drawings for key scenes, displays explaining the production process, and original hand-drawn watercolour artwork of the symbolic hill from the story’s ending.

The Jujutsu Kaisen area revisits some of the series’ most iconic battle scenes and memorable moments. Production materials are exhibited in the first half of this zone, including original drawings from Season 1 and Jujutsu Kaisen 0, while the second half features materials from Season 2, Hidden Inventory / Premature Death, Shibuya Incident and Season 3, The Culling Game Part 1.

The exhibition will be held in two parts: the first from September 16 to October 25, and the second from October 28 to December 7. Some exhibits will be changed between the two parts, giving you a reason to plan multiple visits.

Tickets are available for specific dates and time slots. You can currently purchase tickets for the first half of the exhibition via Lawson Ticket, and place applications for advance lottery tickets for the second half (from Aug 22).

Sound, visual art and site-specific elements blend together in innovative and challenging ways at Ambient Kyoto, a multisensory, immersive exhibition that now makes its first foray into Tokyo, landing at Azabudai Hills Gallery. The display centres on the installation ‘async – immersion’, envisioned by the much-missed Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani of Dumb Type and first presented in Kyoto in 2023.

Inspired by Sakamoto’s 2017 album async, ‘async – immersion’ features visuals by Takatani and spatial audio design by sound engineer ZAK, whose fingerprints are all over many of Sakamoto’s late-career projects. At Azabudai Hills, the work has been reconstructed exclusively for the venue, with the setup including a 26-metre-wide screen for displaying the video elements of the installation.

True to the title of the work, the aural and visual components are aligned but not fully synchronised; their constantly shifting relationship rewards attentive viewing and encourages visitors to approach the work on their own terms.

One of Tokyo’s premier contemporary art galleries, Nanzuka has opened its brand-new flagship space in Shibuya Axsh, marking the gallery’s return to Shibuya after a 20-year absence. The inaugural exhibition celebrates contemporary artist Keiichi Tanaami with his solo show ‘Do Not Bomb’. Spanning works from the 1960s to unreleased pieces made before the artist’s death in 2024, the exhibition explores Tanaami’s memories of war through around 60 works, including silkscreens, collages, paintings, animations, sculptures and videos.

The work closest to the entrance is ‘Do Not Bomb’, created while Tanaami was preparing for a large-scale solo exhibition in 2024. Made against the backdrop of ongoing wars around the world, the piece features a goldfish at its centre, flying towards the viewer like a cannonball.

The exhibition also features Tanaami’s ‘No More War’ series, which connects to ‘Do Not Bomb’. Created in 1967, the series was submitted to an anti-war poster contest hosted by American magazine Avant Garde in 1968, where it was selected as an outstanding work. Influenced by pop art, the silkscreen prints reflect Tanaami’s early interest in reaching a wider audience through reproduced imagery.

The exhibition runs until October 17. Check the gallery website for more details.