The latest episode of The Anime Business is an interview Justin Sevakis filmed with me about a year ago: “The Anime Business – Helen McCarthy on Discovering Anime, UK Fandom and the Joy of It All.” It’s online here. It was fun to do and fascinating to watch. One of the best things about this […]
That’s where I’m going – thanks to the brilliant PR team at Octopus. I spent an afternoon with them yesterday recording segments about The Manga Bible and they’ll be up on TikTok as soon as they’re edited, promoting the book ahead of its launch on 5 March 2026. It was lovely to try something new […]
Advance copies of The Manga Bible fell into my eager hands this morning, and after I’d finished inhaling that unique, intoxicating new book smell – equal parts fresh ink, newly cut paper and author excitement – I couldn’t wait to share. So here they are in all their shiny new massively-illustrated gorgeousness – the English, […]
I had SO MUCH FUN it ought to be illegal – my first time on the Aunty Sochelle podcast! We talked about my forthcoming book The Manga Bible, the history of manga, fandom, and lots of other fun stuff. This is the blurb for the show, which I didn’t write and am therefore especially proud […]
Well, never say never … but at present it seems unlikely, for three reasons. Firstly, Hayao Miyazaki has spent more than a decade working on two films. The Wind Rises and The Boy and the Heron, that are deeply personal. They are explorations of his own ideas, inspirations and beliefs, and of events and relationships that […]
Frederik L. Schodt is someone whose own scholarship is impeccable. So when he recommends a piece of work on manga history, it’s work checking out. Mattt’s video is an hour and a half of loving, dedicated and accurate research, conveyed with clarity and passion. “How manga broke the US comic industry” really impressed me. It […]
I’m delighted that the proceedings of the Lancaster symposium on transnational anime are now published as an issue of the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies (JAMS), free to read here. There really is something for everyone here, from papers on the nitty-gritty of motion in anime and music in anime to the rise of […]
Although asked in the context of Miyazaki’s and Ghibli’s views on the primacy of the feature film, this question covers an issue that’s been debated in the anime business and anime scholarship for decades. It’s a really interesting question, because some people undeniably consider feature films superior to other forms of moving picture, but when […]
At the beginning of July I was privileged to speak at a symposium on Transnational Perspectives in Anime. It was held on the Lancaster University campus, co-hosted by Dr. Zoe Crombie and Japan Foundation London; I took part from my desktop. It was a truly fascinating day, sparking new ideas and new insights about the […]
62 years ago, in 1963, 35-year-old Osamu Tezuka flew to the USA to present his hit TV series Tetsuwan Atom to the NBC network. According to Tezuka Production’s history, a preview was screened in New York on 10 March, a contract signed in May, and the series began airing as Astro Boy on 7 September. […]