Culture
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From Abba to enka: how my 10-year-old fell in love with 1940s Japanese music
This post-war Japanese sound, primarily sung by ladies in their 50s and 60s, is adapting to seek a younger aud…
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Legacy of Japan’s Nagakin Capsule Tower lives on in restored pods
One of Tokyo’s most famous buildings was dismantled in April due to asbestos fears. Now 23 of the capsules hav…
- Japan, World cinema, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Eternal 831 review – anime thriller stops all the clocks with a superpower
In Kenji Kamiyama’s drama, a boy discovers that he can halt time when emotionally stirred and that terrorists …
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, World news, Asia Pacific, Television & radio, Books, Television, Anime, Romance films, Culture, Animation in film, Film, Film adaptations
The Quintessential Quintuplets review – sisters compete for love in charming anime
The premise of a high-school tutor forced to choose which of his students to marry could have been disastrous …
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Goodbye, Don Glees! review – stunningly animated film is affecting YA adventure
Anime tells a familiar tale about boyhood friendship and childhood gangs but does so with genuinely intense fe…
- Japan, Star Trek, Science fiction TV, US news, Musicals, Asia Pacific, Television & radio, LGBTQ+ rights, Television, Stage, Theatre, Culture, Race
‘There was one prima donna on Star Trek’: George Takei on William Shatner, love and life as an ‘enemy alien’
TV made him a star, but activism turned him into a hero. Now 85 and still going strong, the actor remembers hi…
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No fun rides but plenty of spirit: Studio Ghibli offers anime fans a new walk in the park
Ghibli Park, which opened this week, offers an immersive glimpse into the worlds created by the likes of Hayao…
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One Piece Film: Red review – eye-popping hijinks in spectacular anime franchise
There are frequent stretches of nonsense in this anime about a pop star, but with music and a central story th…
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Ghouls, demon slayers and socially anxious students: how manga conquered the world
They range from science-fiction epics to high-school romance and are selling faster than publishers can print …
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‘I want to keep being the first’: Hideo Kojima on seven years as an independent game developer
In his 36-year career, Kojima has become one of the world’s best-known game directors – and he has never been …
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Why a brush with Japanese calligraphy was exactly what my life needed | Jennifer Wong
I find myself daydreaming about writing next week’s word, and that first contact the brush has with the paperG…
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Inu-oh review – medieval anime rock opera rips Noh theatre a new one
Masaaki Yuasa’s showstopping animation reframes the classical performance style as a world of rock gods and ca…
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‘There was a bucket where you could squeeze sweat out of your clothes’: OZ, the club that changed Japanese rock
The venue, which opened in Tokyo in 1972, created a pioneering space for musical experiment. As a record of it…
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Mama, just killed a samurai! How Japan used Queen to liven up Romeo and Juliet
How do you give the star-cross’d lovers a lift? Drop them in 12th-century Japan and add a classic Queen album.…
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‘A new way of life’: the Marxist, post-capitalist, green manifesto captivating Japan
Kohei Saito’s book Capital in the Anthropocene has become an unlikely hit among young people and is about to b…
- Japan, Venice film festival, World cinema, Drama films, World news, Asia Pacific, Festivals, Culture, Venice film festival 2022, Film
Love Life review – tangled and tragic human drama about chaotic life twists
Venice film festival: Japanese director Kôji Fukada has crafted a richly painful and quietly comic human drama…
- Japan, MANGA, Comics and graphic novels, Science fiction and fantasy films, World news, Asia Pacific, Books, Anime, Culture, Animation in film, Film
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero review – eye-candy anime is gloriously mesmeric
The immensely popular franchise is back with a cast of brightly coloured characters in a world of bad guys wit…
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Fortune Favours Lady Nikuko review – anime teen embarrassed by ‘Meaty Lady’ mum
Director Ayumu Watanabe navigates the growing pains of a young girl, coping with life on a houseboat with her …
- Japan, Ireland, US news, Nuclear weapons, World news, Documentary films, Asia Pacific, Photography, Culture, Film
US airman who rescued film of A-bomb horrors is honoured at last
Cameraman Daniel McGovern copied footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki devastation to ensure lessons were learnedT…
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Pop iconoclast Rina Sawayama: ‘Drag is turning trauma into entertainment. That’s what I’m doing’
The British-Japanese pop star’s genre-mashing second album is the product of her hard-won self-knowledge. She …