Christie’s to Host First Dedicated Anime and Manga Sale

Following the recent, record-breaking $16.5 million sale of Logan Paul’s “holy grail” Pokémon card—and the ongoing global fervour surrounding Winds and Waves, the franchise’s latest digital releases—it is clear that Japan’s dynamic subculture continues to command international influence. Soon this power will take centre stage at Christie’s, when the auction house launches its first-ever dedicated anime and manga sale later this month.

Taking place from 18 to 31 March, the online sale will run alongside New York’s Asian Art Week. Titled Anime Starts Here: Japanese Subculture Reimagines Tradition, it will feature over 40 lots, spanning a diverse range of formats and eras.

Highlights include original drawings by Osamu Tezuka—the revered “Father of Manga”—and collectibles by contemporary superstar Yoshitomo Nara. The sale also tracks the evolution of Japanese film, offering rare posters ranging from the 1954 classic Godzilla to Katsuhiro Otomo’s 1988 post-apocalyptic masterpiece Akira, alongside original production cels from Doraemon. Notably, the majority of the lots are priced with estimates below $10,000, offering an accessible entry point for collectors.

The auction’s narrative draws a deliberate line from modern pop culture back to ukiyo-e, the mass-produced “pop art” that flourished during the Edo period. This aesthetic has impacted everything from Takashi Murakami’s “Superflat” movement to European Impressionist art and classical music. The auction includes a print of Katsushika Hokusai’s Kanagawa oki nami ura (The Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1831).

A global icon of Japanese aesthetics, the work has been directly referenced in Claude Debussy’s La Mer (1903–1905), Hayao Miyazaki’s 2008 film Ponyo, as well as nihonga painter Shiozaki Ken’s The Great Wave and Two Whales (2021), also featured in the sale. With comparable impressions housed in London’s British Museum and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hokusai print carries an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000.

The move by Christie’s reflects how anime and manga are increasingly recognised as legitimate, high-value art forms rather than niche hobbies. This shift has been mirrored by major exhibitions like the touring Japan: From Myth to Manga—which traveled from London’s Young V&A to Mexico City’s Museo Franz Mayer—documenting the deep-rooted heritage of Japanese visual storytelling.