Culture
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: A Lonely Dragon Wants to Be Loved review – sword, sorcery and smartphones
Those not up to speed on the Miss Kobayashi manga may struggle with the full nuance of this dimension hopping …
-
‘Do what you really want to do while you’re still alive’: Masayoshi Takanaka, the Japanese guitar hero surfing a second wave in his 70s
Playing a surfboard-shaped axe, Takanaka was a stadium-level artist at home but little known in the west – unt…
-
‘I considered starting over as a farmer’: Masao Adachi on political cinema, revolution and Japan today
The director and ex-Japanese Red Army militant discusses his new film Escape, about the anarchist fugitive Sat…
- Japan, Science fiction and fantasy films, Action and adventure films, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film, Film adaptations
All You Need is Kill review – time loop anime offers giant alien flower for Groundhog Day with mechs
New version of the sci-fi day-on-repeat sees a perplexed duo repeatedly battle monstrous plants but leaves you…
- Fukushima, Japan, Environment, Japan disaster, Nuclear power, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, Energy, Culture, Film
Fukushima review – a devastating account of disaster and denial in 2011 nuclear catastrophe
A tense return to the disaster foregrounds the heroism of the ‘Fukushima 50’ while raising questions about cor…
- Japan, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Lupin the IIIrd the Movie: The Immortal Bloodline review – eye-popping fan-service in latest in anime franchise
Takeshi Koike’s latest take on Monkey Punch’s vintage manga thief is beautifully animated, but the gossamer-th…
-
‘People ought to know’: Blue Boy Trial brings Japan’s trans history up to date
Kasho Iizuka’s feature casts trans actors to revisit a notorious 1965 trial that made gender reassignment ille…
-
‘Letting the sound happen around you’: powerful sonic memorial remembers the dead
Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork has created a sound installation emulating second world war spaces: a Japanese internme…
- Family films, Japan, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Culture, Animation in film, Film, Film adaptations
Little Amélie review – tender and poignant study of the fragility of early childhood
Based on a 2000 novella, this sweet animation follows a young girl who wakes from a vegetative state on the ve…
-
Sham review – Takashi Miike revisits infamous ‘murder teacher’ trial in unflinching courtroom drama
Based on a real-life case of a teacher charged with abusing a child, Japan’s master of the extreme doesn’t sit…
-
Samurai review: Japan’s lethal warrior class are shown in all their sexy, demonic glory
British Museum, London Extraordinary battle armour, complete with moustachioed masks, enlivens this scintillat…
-
Pikachu and pals go wild: Pokémon theme park opens in Tokyo
From rhino-sized Rhyhorns to worm-like Diglett, visitors to PokéPark Kanto will roam a forest populated by lif…
- AI (artificial intelligence), Japan, Technology, Virtual reality, Computing, World news, Musicals, Asia Pacific, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Cosmic Princess Kaguya! review – trippy anime adapted from Japanese folk dives into virtual reality popworld
Emojis explode all over the screen in this hyperactive adaptation of a Japanese folk tale about a princess who…
-
Rental Family review – Brendan Fraser seeks meaning in pointless Japanese role-play drama
Fraser plays a hapless Tokyo-based actor working for a firm that offers bespoke therapeutic role-play services…
-
Escape review – notorious Japanese revolutionary tells story of country’s most wanted criminal
Director Masao Adachi – formerly of the Japanese Red Army – on the infamous Satoshi Kirishima, who went on the…
-
Sega co-founder David Rosen dies aged 95
Rosen, who led Sega from the 1960s into the 90s and who died on Christmas Day, was a hugely important figure i…
- TV streaming, Japan, Animation on TV, World news, Asia Pacific, Television & radio, Television, UK news, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Demon Slayer economics: how the anime juggernaut became a saviour
Once underground art form now props up slumped box office sales and is used by governments to build soft power…
-
‘We were treated like enemies of society’: Japan’s dangerous hardcore punk scene looks back to its roots
The pressure to conform in Japanese society made being a punk risky – even before you factor in the flamethrow…
- Toys, Japan, MANGA, Studio Ghibli, US news, Hong Kong, Asia Pacific, China, South Korea, Anime, Culture, Children
Labubus, TikTok and KPop Demon Hunters: how childhood went east Asian – podcast
Has east Asia replaced the US as the world’s cultural centre? With Jeff YangFrom matcha and bubble tea to mang…
-
The world’s most sublime dinner set – for 2,000 guests! Hyakkō: 100+ Makers from Japan review
Japan House, LondonThe fruit of a two-year odyssey through the workshops of artisans using ancient techniques,…