School girls, samurai-weilding cats and a smattering of sumo wrestlers are all on offer at the Opera gallery's latest exhibition.

Old meets new in this cutting edge collection of Manga styled works of art. The comic world of Japan Lolitas, eroticism, violence are combined with the historical world of geisha traditions. Even the production method sticks to this style: modern computer graphics are transferred to canvas to produce beautifully detailed oil paintings.

Jimmy Yoshimura's pictures capture the rebellion of traditional hierarchies, his fragmented portraits of old black and white portrait pictures of ceremonies are interwoven with the cartoon images of women going against the grain.

Other artists concentrated more on celebrating the pop style of todays Japanese culture. Hiro Ando's realistic cityscapes of Tokyo are peppered with cartoon pandas, coy carps and school girls daubed in blood, who all seem more like computer game characters than sinister warnings.

It is striking to see normally tiny Manga characters on such a large-scale; and makes each image more powerful and each detail more significant. An interesting exhibition for anyone with an interest in modern Asian art (or killer pandas).

Deborah James, July 2008

For more information visit www.operagallery.com