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February 22, 2025
 

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ANIME

“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.
Despite impressive visuals that hark back to Peter Jackson’s live-action trilogy from the early 2000s, Kenji Kamiyama’s “The War of the Rohirrim” falls flat in its storytelling as a standalone film.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2024
‘The War of the Rohirrim’: Striking visuals, insipid storytelling
Kenji Kamiyama's anime addition to J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" universe has impressive qualities, but lacks the magic of Peter Jackson's film adaptations.
Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada attends the red carpet event for FX's "Shogun" at the Academy theater in Los Angeles in February.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 25, 2024
Demand for Japanese content booms after 'Shogun' success
With interest coming from overseas producers, Japan-based companies are trying to help creators get their stories told.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
CULTURE / Film / 2024 in Review
Dec 20, 2024
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
International collaborations and indie risk-takers steered the film industry in a fresh direction in 2024.
Tokyo Comic Con took place at Makuhari Messe in Chiba on Dec. 6, 7 and 8.
CULTURE
Dec 18, 2024
Comic cons are far more than just cosplay
The conventions allow fans of comics to meet their heroes — both actors and authors — with manga and anime playing an increasingly bigger role each year.
A poster for Hayao Miyazaki's anime film "The Boy and the Heron" (in the foreground) is displayed at a theater screening the film in Beijing.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2024
Japanese films tug at Chinese moviegoers' heartstrings
Most of the Japanese movies making waves in China are anime titles capable of making solid profits.
In a year of anime hits, Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s “Look Back” stood out from the bunch.
CULTURE / Film / 2024 in Review
Dec 13, 2024
Big franchises and bold voices dominated anime in 2024
In a year of major box-office hits such as “Conan” and “Haikyu!!,” smaller animators used nontraditional tools to stand out from the rest.
“Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron" provides an in-depth look into the octogenarian auteur’s creative process and personal reflections.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 11, 2024
‘Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron’ documentary meditates on auteur's creativity and legacy
Filmed with unparalleled access to Studio Ghibli, director Kaku Arakawa captures the vulnerability and genius behind master animator Hayao Miyazaki’s latest feature.
Japanese creatives, athletes and activists saw their efforts recognized on the world stage in various ways this year. At the Oscars (left) Takashi Yamazaki and his team took a prize for “Godzilla Minus One,” while later in the year Anna Sawai and Hiroyuki Sanada (center) took Emmys for their work in “Shogun.” Shohei Ohtani (right) was arguably the biggest Japanese star of the year.
CULTURE / 2024 in Review
Dec 4, 2024
Japan's soft power soared to new heights in 2024
From Oscars and Emmys to a Nobel Peace Prize, it was a year of awards and triumphs in key cultural fields.
The Cultural Affairs Agency in the city of Kyoto
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2024
Japan to use AI to tackle online manga and anime piracy
The Cultural Affairs Agency's plan will have AI scour the web for sites pirating manga books and anime, using an image and text detection system.
People take pictures of an Ito-Yokado store in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, that closed on Sunday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 25, 2024
Ito-Yokado closes store that inspired 'Crayon Shin-chan' supermarket
Many customers and fans gathered and gave applause and words of gratitude when the store was closed.
Yen advances past ¥150 per dollar as BOJ rate-hike bets ramp up
The Japanese currency climbed as much as 1% to ¥149.95 against the dollar on Thursday, a level it hasn’t touched since Dec. 9.
Japan release of Shiori Ito's documentary in limbo
Shiori Ito, who won a civil suit over a rape case against a TV reporter, in 2018. Her former lawyers claim her documentary includes footage used without the consent of sources.
Record percentage of Japanese firms plan wage hikes, survey shows
Some 61.9% of over 11,000 surveyed companies intend to pledge pay increases as part of annual wage negotiations culminating in March, according to a survey by Teikoku Databank.
Japan’s inflation speeds up, keeping BOJ on rate hike path
A customer visits a store along the Togoshi Ginza shopping street in Tokyo on Jan. 23. Rising fresh food prices contributed to the acceleration in overall inflation in January, as vegetable prices, including cabbage, soared.
Victor Wembanyama expected to miss remainder of regular season with blood clot
Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (right) is expected to miss the rest of the NBA season, the team announced on Thursday.
Japan release of Shiori Ito's documentary in limbo
Shiori Ito, who won a civil suit over a rape case against a TV reporter, in 2018. Her former lawyers claim her documentary includes footage used without the consent of sources.
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown ready to sprint past Paris disappointment
Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (center) runs during a 100-meter heat at the Paris Olympics on Aug. 3, 2024.
What is the ceiling for sumo’s newest yokozuna?
Newly promoted grand champion Hoshoryu (center) performs a dedication ceremony at Meiji Shrine in Tokyo on Jan. 31.
‘Yasuko, Songs of Days Past’ puts overlooked star in the spotlight
“Yasuko, Songs of Days Past” centers on a real-life love triangle between poet Chuya Nakahara (Taisei Kido, left), actor Yasuko Hasegawa (Suzu Hirose, center) and literary critic Hideo Kobayashi (Masaki Okada).
Japan’s English-language education doesn’t pass the test
One-third of elementary school students in Japan do not like learning English, according to a 2021 poll, an 8% rise since 2013. The pressure of taking proficiency tests is eroding children's engagement with studying English and its benefits.

Podcast

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Longform

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