AC-bu
"GIFTOOOON"

Following successful runs at the Nihombashi Mitsukoshi Main Store Contemporary Gallery (Tokyo), OVERGROUND (Fukuoka), and Nekoyamachi Building (Hiroshima), the acclaimed exhibition GIFTOOOON by the creative team AC-bu is coming to Osaka as part of its traveling showcase.
To celebrate the Osaka edition, a one-man live concert by the music duo group_inou, long-time collaborators of AC-bu through music videos and visual artwork, will be held on Thursday, April 24 at Umeda CLUB QUATTRO.

Manga, one of Japan’s leading pop culture forms, has been a central theme for AC-bu since their formation in 1999. Their unique artistic methods have expanded the possibilities of manga expression through groundbreaking works like “High-Speed Kamishibai” and “GIF Manga,” gaining attention both domestically and internationally. Most recently, their ongoing manga series Kanbare! Rota Momo in Monthly CoroCoro Comic (Shogakukan) represents their latest foray into reaching a broader audience.

At the Osaka venue, i GALLERY OSAKA, visitors can experience The Automatic Manga Artist—a viral installation in which a robotic hand holding a pen moves in coordination with projected images of a human face and arm, mimicking a cyborg-like figure seemingly struggling to draw.

Other featured works include the award-winning music video for “HAPPENING” by group_inou (see Note 1), the GIF Manga digital comics that seamlessly link monochrome animation GIFs, and canvas works that recreate the granular texture of GIF dithering by meticulously hand-painting each pixel.
This exhibition is a rare opportunity to dive into the uniquely original visual world AC-bu has crafted over the years as visionary moving image artists.

A wide selection of exclusive merchandise will be available at the venue, including newly designed items for the exhibition, as well as previously released goods from the Iruka no Iruka-kun series and official AC-bu merchandise.

​

​

Note 1: “HAPPENING”, produced by AC-bu as a Music GIF Manga for the music duo group_inou, is a vertical-format video work that fuses GIF-style manga with music. Released at the end of 2023, it quickly garnered attention from multiple media outlets and was later adapted into the web application Kindolphin in 2024. The app allows free scrolling and scratching, giving viewers access to past GIF Manga works. As of January 2025, it has won four awards both in Japan and internationally.

​

-「HAPPENING」 (MV)  Link

-「Kindolphin」 (WEB APP) Link

Video: AC-bu, Interactive Design: Baku Hashimoto, Music: group_inou