I’ve been debunking the Totoro-as-shinigami theory for years, most recently in my #SeedTalks all over the UK. It’s nice to have official Studio Ghibli confirmation, and see them emphasise the importance of the end credits to the continuing story (long before MCU did tagscenes.) Also, it’s good to have this cleared up officially before the […]
The new Miss Dior ad for the US market is one of the most powerful homages to anime since the Vuitton Superflat ad. Dior talks of its history and its links with French animation masters; I also see echoes of ‘Perfect Blue’ and the ‘Magnetic Rose’ segment in ‘Memories’. Influence of this depth takes years […]
Many thanks to Roland Kelts for gifting the link to this interesting Bloomberg piece on the future of Studio Ghibli. It’s paywalled, like all their content, but Ghibliophiles like us might consider it worth the subscription. It’s an interview with Goro Miyazaki and Ghibli’s new president and CEO Kenichi Yoda, in which they discuss the […]
This week I completed the edits on the updated new edition of my 1999 book on Hayao Miyazaki, and sent them back to McFarland’s editorial team. I still have to check the bibliography, but this means the book is almost ready to go to press. I’ll let you know the publication date as soon as […]
Vintage kaiju toys are achieving astonishing prices at auction – but that’s an incentive for sharks to gather. How can you know when you’re buying the real thing? And providing you think it’s beautiful, cute or otherwise life-enhancing and the price isn’t a rip-off, do you care? #PatrickMacias shares FRIDAY magazine’s report on #Tokyoscope https://www.tokyoscope.blog/p/vintage-kaiju-toys-in-japan-reach […]
Producer Yoshi Ikezawa, head of co-production at Toei, told #Variety magazine in Cannes that a finished Toei co-production may not always wear its Japanese origins visibly — but the underlying grammar remains distinctly anime. “We believe that the anime aesthetic and the storytelling language of anime are already inherently Japanese.” When the mighty Toei Animation, […]
Oh, be still, my heart! Licca-chan, the iconic Japanese fashion doll created by Miyako Maki, renowned mangaka and wife of Leiji Matsumoto, is coming to the American market. The friend and companion of little girls in Japan since 1967, Licca is often described as the “Japanese Barbie” despite her childlike, innocent vibe. Like Barbie, she […]
That’s a question that keeps on coming up in interviews. It’s a real toughie, because the ‘right’ answer depends on the person you’re talking to, and that’s often a theoretical complete stranger – or in an online interview, an Internet of complete strangers. How do you answer? “{It’s) a huge question because it depends entirely […]
The Manga Bible is out today in the US – the right time for me to give the fabulous Mandy Kaplan a crash dive into manga on her podcast Make Me A Nerd We talked One Piece, Nana and Nausicäa, amid many of my trademark diversions, and you can hear us on TruStory FM or […]
I’m with Matthew Fox on the Superhero Ethics podcast. We talked manga and #TheMangaBible and I had a great time. Full disclosure: since you can’t talk ethics (or manga, or superheroes) without also talking politics, especially when talking in 2026 to a host who lives in Minnesota, a little political comment is involved, The show […]