Creative agency TBWA\HAKUHODO has announced the release of the complete documentary film on “Mission: SPACE COMIC,” a project to draw manga in outer space to mark the conclusion of the manga series Space Brothers, published by Kodansha. The agency led strategic planning and creative production for the project.
Executing the first-of-its-kind mission required utilizing the paid commercial utilization scheme for “Kibou,” the Japanese Experiment Module on the International Space Station (ISS) provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The project was over two years in the making. The ground control team operated a robotic arm aboard “Kibou” in microgravity to remotely draw “Episode 425.5,” a phantom chapter never before revealed in the main series.
Space Brothers launched in 2007 and has had an 18-year run. Rather than treating the series finale as a conventional conclusion, TBWA\HAKUHODO applied its proprietary Disruption methodology. The agency asked: What if we connected fiction with reality by literally drawing manga in space?
The project brought together experts across creative industries, software development, and robotics, including Kodansha, Cork, Celsys, and specialized robotics partners, to prove how artistic expression and modern space engineering can intersect.
The full-length documentary details the technical proof-of-concept: transmitting creator Chuya Koyama’s brushstroke data 400 kilometers above Earth to the ISS/”Kibou” robotic arm. The film documents how the team navigated physical and technical constraints, including microgravity-induced mechanical shifts, communication delays of up to six seconds, tight astronaut operation schedules, and strict equipment limits.
“Space Brothers isn’t just a story about two brothers reaching for the stars; it’s a narrative that has empowered readers with the courage to tackle real-world challenges,” said Masatoshi Usami, Senior Creative Director, TBWA\HAKUHODO.
Yet whenever we hit a wall, we drew strength from Mutta’s iconic line: ‘Let’s try doing something that feels just a little impossible.
“That’s why a standard retrospective felt fundamentally wrong for its finale. We wanted a disruptive challenge worthy of the work itself: creating an unreleased chapter of Space Brothers live in space. Bringing the near-future world depicted in the manga together with today’s real-world space technology felt like the ultimate send-off. It was an exceptionally tough road.”
The project has also been featured on NASA’s official Research Explorer platform.
Credits
Senior Creative Director: Masatoshi Usami (TBWA\HAKUHODO)
Senior Art Director: Yuhei Ito (TBWA\HAKUHODO)
Art Director: Rin Okuno (Hakuhodo)
Copywriter / Planner: Junji Tokuoka (Hakuhodo)
Planner: Tsukasa Shimamoto (Hakuhodo)
Motion Graphics Designer: Eiki Kurokawa (TBWA\HAKUHODO)
Editor: Nobuo Mita (TBWA\HAKUHODO)
Producer: Takao Yanagi (Hakuhodo)
