If you want to practice your Japanese listening skills, Suzuki's Ghibli Sweat podcast links from the Ghibli blog. www.tfm.co.jp/asemamire/

Happy New Year from Studio Ghibli's blog, with Miyazaki's own New Year greeting and a pre-Christmas photo of Miyazaki and Suzuki. www.ghibli.jp/info/014035/

Happy new Year my beautiful butterflies! May 2026 be a kinder, more hopeful year for all of us - and may we each do our part. Here's the Associated Press video of celebrations in Tokyo. www.youtube.com/watch?v=72oC...

Comic Market celebrated its 50th anniversary, and 300,000 showed up!

Kemono Friends at the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum in Takarazuka: the exhibition celebrates Tezuka's enduring themes of the value of life and of respect for every living thing. japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/culture/mang...

A New York Italian standup comedian takes his tour to Asia in 2026. What's his strategy? Well, it involves 'Dragon Ball'... www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2025...

After over a decade of saying we stand with Ukraine while not doing anything that might seriously upset Russia or America, it's time we put up or shut up. Do or do not, but don't pretend it's a game we can win while hedging our bets. www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2...

#ShareGoodNews - cancer was a curse on the 20th century and we learn more every day about reducing its terrifying power. As more of us survive into old age, dementia is a curse on the new millennium - science can give us potential new treatments and new hope. #ForScience #ScienceIsPower

#Manga podcasters and bloggers - my new book THE MANGA BIBLE is out in March 2026. You could say it's the full meal version of the supersnack 'A Brief History of Manga' with all the trimmings - or you could invite me for a chat. Contact the PR team at Ilex Press via [email protected] soon.

begin and begin every breath begins a new piece of possible #senryu #haiku #poetry #endless

another year ends as all around it many lives and times begin #haiku #senryu #poetry #OldYearNew

Hey #bookshops - I'm happy to talk to readers and sign copies of my new book The Manga Bible in any #bookstore All you have to do is contact the PR team at Ilex Press via [email protected] - but do it soon, there's only one of me and my shiny new diary is already filling up!

I think a lot of people who don't often write (or who just don't care) understand how easy it is to spot "AI" text once you've been exposed to it. It's gotten to the point that I can look at a piece of "AI" writing and tell if it was written by ChatGPT or some other LLM. They have "house styles."

Ticket link and info for my Studio Ghibli talk in Taunton on 10 February next year. Anyone know any good places to eat in Taunton open before 5pm? helenmccarthy.net/journey-to-t...

Earwig and the Witch, the third film directed by Miyazaki Goro - and Studio Ghibli's second TV movie - was first broadcast five years ago today!

2026 is going to be a great year for Filipino books! Here’s some of my most anticipated reads: 📚The Swan’s Daughter 📚The Elsewhere Express 📚The Night King’s Court 📚Clara & the Devil 📚The Second Life of Snap 📚Nest of Tongues #booksky

I'm in the West Country in February talking about Studio Ghibli! Details and ticket links here: helenmccarthy.net/journey-to-t...

#SomethingBeautiful - nature just being nature

Matsumoto Castle is the jewel in the crown of a beautiful city set in glorious countryside. You can take a day trip from Tokyo but it merits a longer visit to explore more of its treasures.

every day is both ending and beginning for many stories #haiku #senryu #poetry #oldyear #newday

Also coming in 2026 from Science Saru, a new adaptation of Masamune Shirow's manga 'Ghost in the Shell'. sciencesaru.com/en/works/The...

The trailer for Science Saru's coming TV anime 'A Witch in Mongolia' looks both beautiful and intriguing. See it on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqB3...

All of Satoshi Kon's films are now remastered in 4K. ccnews.cinemacity.co.jp/satoshi_kon_...

In this year’s #PlanetaryHealthCheck (www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/late...), the #OceanAcidification boundary has been assessed as breached for the first time. What does this mean? Nice explanatory piece in “Dialogue Earth”, with input from PIK researcher Levke Caesar. dialogue.earth/en/ocean/exp...

A Monster Wolf robot to scare off bears? The mechanical fairytale monster from Ohta Seiki Co. of Hokkaido was mocked on its debut in 2016, but the wolfpack is spreading everywhere humans fear bears. mainichi.jp/english/arti...

Astronautical, astronomical and astrophysical calendars are already packed for 2026. What to watch out for: mainichi.jp/english/arti...

In Yanai, in Yamaguchi Prefecture, it's not just the year of the Fire Horse but the year of the cabbage horse, in this lively, much-photographed local flower bed of ornamental cabbages in three colours. Catch it before mid-February. mainichi.jp/english/arti...

2026: the long-awaited Year of the Fire Horse. In 1966 it was dreaded as a year of fiery newborn girls who would grow up to be husband-killers. This time, with demographic collapse ongoing and a woman in power in Japan, will Mario and Chiikawa brighten it up? www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2...

Final trailer for "Yao-Chinese Folktales" Season 2 by Shanghai Animation Film Studio. 9 new shorts inspired by traditional myths & legends from China. Coming out in 3 days on Bilibili.

Asobi Asobase manga creator Rin Suzukawa, and One Piece Heroines novel writer Jun Esaka with Outsider Paradise's Kine Usuto will each launch new manga next month on Manga ONE.

whoever it was (maybe it was Jimi) who gave London its flocks of jade jewel parakeets gave us a rowdy blessing #tanka #poetry #London #legends #Hendrix

"Anpanman was starting to feel that 2025 maybe hadn't gone as well as he might have hoped"

Nestor Redondo - King Saul and the Witch of Endor, 1990. Print spotted on eBay: ebay.us/m/f6QcRH

Happy Monday my darling butterflies! Victor Tyakht's adorable photo (via Alamy) fronts up some serious science about how and why some living things feel the cold. www.science.org/content/arti...

I loved getting to gush on this pod about how Ai Yazawa’s use of character design and naturalistic dialogue conveys so much about the construction of femininity and masculinity. She is truly one of the greats

A great read!

The willfully-ignorant fool in the Oval Office wants you to believe he cut drug prices by as much as 3,000%. If this were the case, the drug company would pay YOU 30x the price of the drug, every time you got a refill. No wonder he bankrupted a casino.

Going offline I wish you all a joyous Yuletide however you celebrate, and #ShareGoodNews of #SomethingBeautiful - reindeer hunted to extinction in Scotland 800 years ago were reintroduced by Sami people in 1952 and are thriving. There is hope. Love you. Merry Christmas. www.cairngormreindeer.co.uk

You might have noticed I've posted more #haiku and #poetry than usual over the past few days. By my count I've done six extras which fulfils my self-chosen commitment to a poem every day until New Year's Eve. I'll be offline for the holiday (barring huge events.) Have a good one!

sky says snow weather app says no I say hope #haiku #poetry #Christmaswishes

Absolutely a great Christmas watch. Katherine Hepburn never made any fuss of her beauty but here's Peter O'Toole completely ignoring his, and both giving performances among the best of their stellar careers. The entire cast give a nightmare family Christmas the right balance of pathos and bathos.

The Dontosai Festival takes place every Jan 14 at Osaki Hachimangu Shrine in Sendai. People burn New Year decorations in a large bonfire — a ritual to pray for health and good fortune. The night also features the dramatic ‘hadaka‑mairi’ (half‑naked pilgrimage) www.hey-japan.com/event/dontos...

Writers: if you feel the urge to revise a story or make something new, here are some outlets you might consider.

every night is the eve of something that we cannot know or guess all over the world today miracles grow unnoticed #tanka #poetry #ChristmasEve #lifeofmiracles

Feel the POWER in a new trailer for Yoroi Shin Den Samurai Troopers!

Oh, it sounds like the new Lupin III Kabuki got announced! A new story that Google translated to “The Emerald Castle (”Flowing White Waves, Shining Stars, Green and Beautiful Castle”) will premiere on March 5! Almost the whole cast returns, though Ainosuke Kataoka is playing both Lupin AND Goemon!

#SomethingBeautiful - industry and public works collaborating with an environmental charity for the common good and making something positive of spoil disposal. More of this!

If you’re naming me in the same breath as TTRPG studies then you should be following and listening to and citing Professor Torner who has done more for analog game infrastructure than any one person can comprehend. (Any number of us shine from reflecting Evan’s light)

#SomethingBeautiful - human landscape edits can be absolutely lovely.