A beloved Japanese anime move released in 1988, My Neighbor Totoro tells the story of two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, as they deal with the separation from their mother who is in the hospital, and their adventures with the forest creatures they meet called the Totoro. In Joe Hisaishi's Soundtrack for My Neighbor Totoro Soundtrack (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), K ... Show More
Yesterday
Nozomi Naoi, "The Land of Happiness: How the Japanese Department Store Visualized Modern Life" (MIT Press, 2026)
The Land of Happiness: How the Japanese Department Store Visualized Modern Life (MIT Press, 2026) explores the far-reaching influence of the Japanese department store on modern life and our imaginations. In this gorgeously illustrated volume, Dr. Nozomi Naoi explains how Japanese ... Show More
43m 6s
Yesterday
Jonathan Cheng, "Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult" (Knopf, 2026)
Of the two Koreas, it is the South which appears much the more Christian today, with all major cities dotted with church spires and illuminated crosses. But a century ago it was the northern half of the peninsula that was the more established home for Christianity, the northweste ... Show More
1h 5m
Dec 2023
Hayao Miyazaki’s Magical Realms
Margaret Talbot, writing in The New Yorker in 2005, recounted that when animators at Pixar got stuck on a project they’d file into a screening room to watch a film by Hayao Miyazaki. Best known for works like “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Princess Mononoke,” and “Spirited Away,” which r ... Show More
49m 10s
Dec 2024
Hayao Miyazaki’s Magical Realms
Margaret Talbot, writing in The New Yorker in 2005, recounted that when animators at Pixar got stuck on a project they’d file into a screening room to watch a film by Hayao Miyazaki. Best known for works like “My Neighbor Totoro,” “Princess Mononoke,” and “Spirited Away,” which r ... Show More
48m 58s
May 2021
Studio Ghibli: The next generation
This week, The Cultural Frontline explores family, legacy and creativity.Studio Ghibli is one of the biggest names in animation, famous for films such as The Wind Rises, My Neighbour Totoro and the Oscar winning Spirited Away. For years, Studio Ghibli was led by its co-founder, t ... Show More
27m 36s
May 2020
392 - Hayao Miyazaki's Ambitious New Movie Steadily in the Works (20.05.20)
In this episode, we discuss the latest updates on Studio Ghibli's future animated film, How Do You Live?, which is being worked on by the legendary animator, Hayao Miyazaki, who's back from retirement for one final time. We also talk about Nintendo's heartwarming put-together of ... Show More
23m 24s