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April 16, 2025
 

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ANIME

Mori Calliope fan Taylor Jones holds a penstick as fans await entry to the historic venue Hollywood Palladium for a sold-out concert by Virtual YouTuber Mori Calliope.
CULTURE / Music
Apr 14, 2025
Digital divas: Can Japan's virtual YouTuber craze crack America?
VTuber agency Cover Corp. recently opened a U.S. office to accelerate business in North America.
Momoka Matsui and her co-worker Saki Matsumoto take photos of acrylic stand figure models of their favorite idols with cakes and teas, which they ordered at a Tokyo cafe where Matsui’s favorite boy band stopped by.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Apr 5, 2025
Can Japan's take on fandom help drive spending?
The explosion of "oshikatsu" (supporting favored celebrities or characters), which entered the mainstream during the pandemic, has economists and the Bank of Japan taking note.
Goro Miyazaki joined Studio Ghibli in 1998 and directed films including 2006's "Tales from Earthsea" and 2011's "From Up on Poppy Hill."
CULTURE / Film
Apr 2, 2025
AI may be coming for anime, but Hayao Miyazaki is irreplaceable, son says
Goro Miyazaki says that though nothing can replicate the depth of his father's work, new technology brings "great potential for unexpected talent to emerge."
The bus stop sign for the Ghibli Museum at Mitaka Station. The viral trend of AI-generated Ghibli-style images reflects both a longing for comfort in uncertain times and the ongoing debate over AI’s impact on art.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2025
For a brief moment, everything was Ghibli
ChatGPT will make almost anything Ghibli-ish, but it won’t draw Totoro.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 2, 2025
Ghibli effect: ChatGPT usage hits record after rollout of viral feature
The viral trend saw users from across the globe flood social media with images based on the hand-drawn style of the famed Japanese animation outfit.
A screenshot of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's Ghibli-style profile picture on X
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 28, 2025
Copyright questions loom as ChatGPT's Ghibli-style images go viral
The images raised questions about copyright infringement by OpenAI, which already faces lawsuits regarding the use of source material without permission.
The film to beat for the Niigata International Animation Film Festival’s top prize seems to be Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s “Look Back,” one of the two Japanese features in competition.
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2025
Indie films vie for views at Niigata animation festival
From Satoshi Kon tributes to indie gems, this year's Niigata International Animation Film Festival continues its dedication to feature-length animation.
A passenger jet with a special livery featuring the popular anime series Gundam is unveiled at Haneda Airport, Tokyo, on Monday ahead of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 4, 2025
JAL and Bandai Namco unveil Gundam jet ahead of Osaka Expo
The Boeing 737-800 jet, whose livery also features the expo's official mascot, Myaku-Myaku, will be used for domestic flights until around November.
Koichiro Ito, a producer of the hit Japanese anime film "Your Name," has been convicted of "violating laws on child prostitution and pornography" as well as non-consensual sex and the filming of indecent images, a Wakayama District Court spokesperson said on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 3, 2025
'Your Name.' anime producer jailed over obscene acts against minors
Koichiro Ito was reportedly accused of paying a 15-year-old girl money in return for sex, and demanding that another teenager take and send him explicit photos of herself.
From her early love for "Cardcaptor Sakura" and "YuYu Hakusho" to her rise on "RuPaul’s Drag Race," Rock M. Sakura’s anime inspirations are central to her drag persona.
CULTURE / Stage
Feb 25, 2025
When anime meets drag: The manga-inspired world of Rock M. Sakura
A drag queen who merges manga, anime and queer culture, Rock M. Sakura's persona resonates deeply with fans worldwide.
“Hypnosismic — Division Rap Battle — Movie” centers on groups of male rappers from neighborhoods around Tokyo and Japan at large.
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2025
‘Hypnosismic — Division Rap Battle — Movie' lets viewers remix the narrative
Armed with LED-lined gloves and their smartphones, audiences take control of the action for Japan’s first interactive movie.
Documentary director Kaku Arakawa’s filming style — naturalistic, intimate and unobtrusive — proved essential to portraying anime powerhouse Hayao Miyazaki as a man as flawed and human as he is a visionary artist in “Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron.”
CULTURE / Film
Jan 31, 2025
Two decades of unparalleled access into the world of Hayao Miyazaki
Documentary director Kaku Arakawa has spent years filming the anime powerhouse to reveal the man beyond the myth.
Gensho Yasuda’s “Make a Girl” follows an inventor whose relationship with the robot girlfriend he builds becomes increasingly complicated as she develops an unexpected sense of independence.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2025
Indie animator Gensho Yasuda paves his own way with a DIY spirit
With “Make a Girl,” the young Japanese creator takes the leap from short videos to full-length films.
“The Rose of Versailles” centers on the real-life Marie Antoinette (voiced by Aya Hirano) and the fictional Oscar Francois de Jarjayes (Miyuki Sawashiro) a few years before the French Revolution.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2025
‘The Rose of Versailles’ opts for empty opulence
Riyoko Ikeda’s seminal manga that tackled themes of political and sexual revolution gets a film adaptation that lacks the depth of its source material.
Shinji Aoba is taken to the Kyoto Prefectural Police's Fushimi Police Station in May 2020. His death penalty has been finalized after he dropped an appeal.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 28, 2025
KyoAni arson suspect's death penalty finalized after appeal dropped
An attack by Aoba in July 2019 at a studio run by the animation powerhouse caused the deaths of 36 people and injured 32 others.
Animated series “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi” premiered on Cartoon Network on Nov. 29, 2004, and ran for three seasons. The show is based on real-life J-pop band Puffy.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 24, 2025
The cartoon chaos of ‘Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi’ was ahead of its time
Love for the J-pop duo’s zany Cartoon Network series has endured online for over 20 years since its premiere.
“The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic” centers on three teenage protagonists who are transported into a fantasy world where they must grapple with a foreign culture.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 11, 2025
Isekai anime offers a key to understanding globalization
The fantastical genre wherein characters are dropped into unlikely worlds — and sometimes bodies — can be read as an allegory for the structure of the contemporary anime industry.
After a dramatic 2024, where Japan saw political upheaval, a record stock market, a major quake and a plane crash and dramatic escape, 2025, with events like major anime sequels, the Osaka World Expo, rising foreign acquisitions, we should expect a transformative year.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 2, 2025
Anime, M&A and the expo: What to watch for in Japan’s 2025
No doubt 2025 has more surprises in store for Japan after an unusually intense 12 months.
Midori Kato has been voice acting the character Sazae Fuguta in the TV animation series "Sazae-san" since it started in 1969.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Dec 30, 2024
Still sounding young at 85, Midori Kato is the voice of old Japan
The voice actor is the last original member of the cast of “Sazae-san,” a cartoon series that premiered in 1969 and never quite joined the modern world.
A poster depicting the characters of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" in Tokyo's Shibuya Station in 2023.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 28, 2024
Sony's Crunchyroll finds its early lead in anime under attack
Netflix, Walt Disney and Amazon are all digging into their deep pockets to license shows, making it more expensive for anime-steaming site to compete.
In a first, Japan issues cease-and-desist order against Google
The Google logo is seen at the company's Bay View campus in Mountain View, California. Japanese authorities on Tuesday issued a cease-and-desist order to Google over an alleged violation of the country's anti-monopoly law.
'Chikan' incidents rise as Japan grapples with mental health and cultural challenges
Overcrowded trains and a lack of legal consequences for groping in Japan have led to a rise in "chikan," or groping, which has been linked to a mental condition and compounded by cultural stigmas.
China halts critical rare earth exports as trade war intensifies
Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, in China's Jiangsu province, in October 2010.
A new tour of Tokyo’s most underground attraction
When you stare into the abyss at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft of the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, the abyss stares back.
Japan’s population shrinks for the 14th consecutive year
Japan’s population has been falling year on year since 2011 after peaking in 2008.
Japan’s population shrinks for the 14th consecutive year
Japan’s population has been falling year on year since 2011 after peaking in 2008.
A new tour of Tokyo’s most underground attraction
When you stare into the abyss at the bottom of the No. 3 shaft of the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel, the abyss stares back.
Two-thirds of fourth to sixth graders in Japan use social media, survey finds
The survey showed that more children are starting to use social media at an earlier age.
Osaka Expo-bound? Take your pick of the city’s new luxury hotels.
The Four Seasons Hotel Osaka opened in 2024, just one of many new luxury accommodations the city boasts ahead of the 2025 World Expo.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

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