The Mangaka Paru Itagaki is coming all the way from Japan to Italy for the first time. She is the author and illustrator of many works, one of which is the multi-award-winning breakout manga Beastars, that has made her famous worldwide. Thanks to a collaboration between Lucca Comics & Games and Panini Comics, Paru Itagaki will be a guest at the festival from 29 to 31 October. She will meet her fans and present her two new manga series, Taika No Risei and Ushimitsugao, the latest issue of Sanda and other new publications created exclusively for her visit to Italy.
Originally from Tokyo and born in 1993, the manga artist – whose face remains unknown, as she wears a chicken mask at every public appearance – is one of the most acclaimed mangaka of her generation. As a teenager, she began developing the character who would later become the protagonist of Beastars: Legoshi, the menacing-looking anthropomorphic wolf who, despite the prejudices, hides a kind soul and finds himself caught up in the insecurities of his classmates at Cherryton School, where he fights for them. With irony and originality, the work explores adolescence – with its loves and struggles – as well as themes such as discrimination and racism, set in a world of humanoid animals where herbivores and carnivores coexist. With Beastars, she won, amongst other awards, the prestigious Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shōnen.
What begun as a hobby whilst Itagaki was studying film directing at Musashino Art University, soon became a beloved manga: the unstoppable success of the Beastars universe, whose volumes are published in Italy by Panini Comics, has won over readers internationally.
Panini Comics has also brought her subsequent works to Italy: Parno Graffiti, an autobiographical tale in which Paru Itagaki recounts her family history and her relationship with comics; the manga Bota Bota and the Sanda series – the final issue of which is due to be released in Lucca – set in a Japan of 2080 ravaged by climate change.
And whilst Lucca Comics & Games’ 60th anniversary theme is ‘Legacy’, this extraordinary mangaka represents the new generation that is taking up the baton of the art of comics and manga and shaping its future.
