Helen McCarthy

Are you joining the hunt for the One Piece?

From: The Kidnapping of the Sun and Moon (1968), dir. Sándor Reisenbüchler, Pannonia Film Studio

Note: flashing images

#Manga Reading Platform comici MANGA Launches in 12 Countries Bringing #Manga to the World!!: Manga Reading Platform comici MANGA Launches in 12 Countries

#Manga Reading Platform comici MANGA Launches in 12 Countries

‘Little Shark’s Outings’ #Anime 2nd Season Sets Premiere Date With New Promo The #anime adaptation of the Little Shark’s Outings manga debuted previously with an August 1st,...

‘Little Shark’s Outings’ #Anime 2nd Season Sets Premiere Date With New Promo

I really enjoyed doing it!

Overjoyed to have finally received the first issue of the @animeherald.com Magazine. Huge shout out to @sam-animeherald.bsky.social for going through with that reprint - the demand is certainly here, happy the gate was not closed to this latecomer!

Haiku in English: March 5, 2026 - The Mainichi winter moon I talk to the child I never had -- Marili Deandrea (Torino, Italy) Selected by Dhugal J. Lindsay

The English edition of Japan's Mainichi newspaper regularly publishes #haiku in English from poets all over the world. This appeared yesterday.
mainichi.jp/english/arti...

Russian picture book revisits Japanese displacement from Sakhalin - The Mainichi MOSCOW (Kyodo) -- A picture book published in Russia last year examines the experiences of Japanese civilians who were forced to leave Karafuto, locat

Entire ethnic groups are being forced out of their homes all over the world. A Russian artist living in Italy made a picture book about a Japanese girl forced to leave her home and possessions in Sakhalin in 1945, and how a small fragment of what she lost returned to her. mainichi.jp/english/arti...

time to go dancing
to the music of the wind
in the bright new grass

#haiku #poetry #springgreens #dancewhenever

Reeling from loss, Niigata’s animation festival refuses to fold After losing key organizers and the death of its founder, the festival wasn’t sure it could go on. Instead of going dark, however, NIAFF rebuilt from scratch.

While anime booms around the globe, Niigata's animation festival provides a platform for new talent despite facing serious challenges. Matt Schley's latest article outlines the problems, aspirations and determination to keep Niigata on the anime map.

www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2026...

I know! That's what comes of having a fab editorial team!

We have a few in our attic archive, but obviously nothing approaching a full run. I wonder if one exists in the West? What a gift for a college library - a full archive set of a Japanese magazine from robot anime's Golden Age!

THE MUSIC OF STUDIO GHIBLI Complete collection of the timeless masterpieces from Joe Hisaishi for iconic Studio Ghibli's films

In London on 12 July, 90 minutes of pure musical bliss. Book now and be transported to a perfect summer's evening in Ghibli World.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-music-...

A $1.5T company just turned 7 million bedrooms into training data. Last week, Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten published a joint investigation. Meta contractors in Nairobi…... A $1.5T company just turned 7 million bedrooms into training data. Last week, Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten published a joint investigation. Meta contractors in Nairobi ...

Jatin Modi's LinkedIn report on an investigation by two Swedish newspapers into RayBan's AI glasses output. Turns out that your personal life is being scraped to train #GenAI. You are sharing intimate photos of your children with no idea how they'll be used.
www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

cover of Animec 2019 special issue

Brief b/g on Animec:
www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/...

An interesting choice of name. The new Kadokawa/Aniplex venture is leaning in to Japan's old school anime fan heritage and Tomino's Declaration of a New Anime Century. Animec was a Kadokawa Shoten anime magazine published from 1978-1987 and revived for one issue only in 2019. More info in comments.

The Manga Bible, UK edition out today, with German and French editions. Hot pink covers overprinted with black graphic imagery by Baron Yoshimoto. Block capital lettering in yellow for the title and white for author name.

Happy New Book Birthday to me! #TheMangaBible is in the shops today. I can't go into town and seek it out on the shelves because I have to stay at home until my shoulder heals, so please help me see how it looks in the wild. Pls post any sightings - photos if poss! - and link to reviews you see.

Eye candy is political - but it's also personal, and ultimately it relies on more than geometry. For me, the beauty of Peter O'Toole, Terence Stamp, Sidney Poitier, Jane Fonda, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Jones, was brought to life and given meaning by their spirit, intelligence and experience.

like a fairytale
minarets of muscari
hazy blue towers
their delicate minuscule
conjuring distant dreamscapes

#tanka #poetry #fairydwellings #athousandandonedreams

World Book Day Down the rabbit hole in Parliament...

In honour of #WorldBookDay today, @jhdavey.bsky.social searched through the (digital) pages of Hansard to see which fictional characters have made an appearance in the House of Commons chamber...

Read all about it via our substack:

That's great! The problem with any text is how to give good coverage that new readers and old hands can relate to and still include names less famous in the West.

I think books need surface fun as well as content depth. I called my chapter in Rayna Denison's fab book on Princess Mononoke 'Teenage Wildlife' because every book about art, however scholarly, is improved by a David Bowie reference.

I hope it goes on being fun. ❤️

I wanted to name all the chapters after old bands, but it was getting really weird. Sometimes you just have to let a concept go, y'know?

Quit ChatGPT: right now! Your subscription is bankrolling authoritarianism | Rutger Bregman As a historian, I’ve studied the major consumer boycotts of history. We can take down ChatGPT and send a powerful signal to Silicon Valley, says author and historian Rutger Bregman

Quit ChatGPT. It's easy, and you won't be even slightly involved in unleashing robots that can kill without human authorisation on civilian populations.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Anime producers ramp up domestic direct film distribution Plus: Media Do buys LA-based manga publisher Seven Seas; Twin Engine acquires anime studio Nut; CyberAgent finds success in 'Jujutsu Kaisen' game; and more

Japan's anime rightsholders are shifting away from film distributors like Toho and Shochiku and building their own systems for distributing anime films domestically to retain a bigger share of box office earnings.

Read this and more headlines in this week's business briefing.

I just had great fun recording a '101' segment about manga and #TheMangaBible for Daniel Pascoe's show on BBC Radio West/South West this evening. It goes out between 8 and 9 everywhere between Bristol and Land'sEnd. I'll share the iPlayer link as soon as I get it.

Thank you!

Instagram Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

My new book The Manga Bible is available in the UK from tomorrow. Meanwhile for Instagram users, here's one of the Reels with me talking about my book, and sneak peeks of the gorgeous design and illustration. (I'm biased, but one can be biased and right.)

www.instagram.com/reel/DSnkCaQ...

Cover of "Masaaki Yuasa: Sketchbook for Animation Projects" — a yellow spiral-bound notebook filled with colorful watercolor and ink character sketches, including whimsical figures, a pig, robots, a mandala-like design, and dynamic action poses in Yuasa's loose, energetic style. ©Masaaki Yuasa

Two-page spread from the sketchbook showing vibrant watercolour poster roughs for Crayon Shin-chan, featuring the iconic character surrounded by chaotic, action-packed compositions in bold reds, greens, and blues. ©臼井儀人／双葉社・シンエイ・テレビ朝日・ADK / Masaaki Yuasa

Two-page spread with expressive watercolour concept art from Mind Game (2004), depicting characters flying outward against radiating green, blue, and pink stripes, with a close-up of a wide-eyed face and a Japanese text column alongside. ©2004 MIND GAME Project / Masaaki Yuasa

Dense two-page spread of concept art for the anime Kaiba (2008), featuring watercolour environment designs of blue caverns and archways, character sketches, a colourful peacock-like motif, golden ring props, and handwritten Japanese production notes. ©2008湯浅政明・マッドベラス／カイバ製作委員会 / Masaaki Yuasa

Sketches from Masaaki Yuasa’s "Sketchbook for Animation Projects". Yuasa is an acclaimed Japanese animation director known for The Tatami Galaxy, Ping Pong the Animation, and Devilman Crybaby. He began his career working on Chibi Maruko-chan and Crayon Shin-chan before making his feature debut.