Jack Jaegar

While many card games come and go, one that has remained relevant for over two decades is Magic: The Gathering (herein, Magic). Magic has survived the test of time as both a physical and digital tabletop game, with fans that play around the world. One of the reasons it has managed to outlast other card games is that it has managed to stay interesting by adding new cards, including special crossover packs that draw from other popular media. These expansion sets especially keep players interested in the game, releasing them regularly and adding exciting new cards to the game.

Some of the biggest names in the manga industry are working together on revamping a huge project for one of the best-known manga publishing companies, Shueisha. It is not a typical kind of manga story, though, but something altogether different. This special anthology doesn't tell an original story but is meant to be educational, as it turns historical figures and events into a manga to help people learn about history.

Japanese anime, manga, and games are popular in Japan, but Western media also has its place in Japanese pop culture. One of the most popular companies in the country is Disney, and Disney characters, movies, and theme parks are beloved by a huge number of people in Japan. Disney spans across ages, genders, and walks of life in modern Japan, with all kinds of different fans.

It is no secret that a huge source of news for everyone these days is social media platforms, and people around the world are influenced by what is posted there. Social media can be a great source of information, too, when what is posted is actually true and from a genuine source. The danger lies in how easy it is for social media to post something false, or to twist the truth to something that serves the poster's purpose.

Japanese history and anime overlap in the popular anime and mobile game series Touken Ranbu, which has continued to gain popularity in Japan over the past several years. Interest in the series, and to some extent, the history connected to it, is at an all-time high. That makes now the perfect time for less-visited areas of Japan to use anime to try to draw in tourists, which is exactly what Fukuyama City in Hiroshima Prefecture is doing.

Sports anime and manga remain one of the most popular genres, with new ones coming out every season. That doesn't mean the classics are not popular now, however, and one manga is continuing to be published more than forty years after it first debuted. After more than forty years, though, it is going to try something really new to keep fans interested, and keep the manga alive.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the most widely accepted authority on the English language, and is updated quarterly with revised meanings and new words as our language continues to evolve. Sometimes these words are entirely new creations, and sometimes they are words from other languages that have been adopted for common use in English. This past quarter, 23 new Japanese words were officially added to the OED, showing how much of an impact Japanese culture has even outside of Japan.

Gone are the days of trying to find anime to stream online, legally or not so much, if you did not want to wait for the DVD release to maybe come out in your country. These days, streaming sites like Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Disney+ are regularly delivering anime the same day that it is released in Japan, legally and complete with subtitles. This has made being an international anime fan so much easier, and lets otaku around the world stay up to date with the latest anime.

The past five years have been great for anime and gaming fans when it comes to theme parks. First, in March 2021, the Nintendo World part of Universal Studios Japan opened, welcoming fans of Mario and more into a fun playground. Then, in November 2022, the Studio Ghibli theme park opened, letting fans of the beautiful movies step inside of them and experience them firsthand. Nintendo World is in Osaka, Japan, while the Studio Ghibli park in Aichi, Japan.

There are a growing number of anime stores around the world to feed the continually growing trend of anime love, but Japan still has the most stores. And as the birthplace of anime, it probably always will. Some neighborhoods in Tokyo are almost entirely dedicated to anime and anime sales, including the famous Akihabara, as well as Ikebukuro. It is in the latter that a newly renovated anime store has re-opened, and it is huge — record-breakingly huge.

Whether you're a long-time fan of Macross or new to the name, you are about to be in luck. Nearly every series of the long-running anime is coming to subscription streaming service Disney+ this year — and not just in Japan, but around the world! It is the perfect time to get ready for a mega-rewatch of your favorite series, or to get into the fandom for the first time.

In the world of Pokemon, the trainers travel around the world battling one another, catching wild Pokemon, and earning gym badges. Pokemon Champions like Ash Ketchum even travel to other regions and continents in search of new Pokemon and new opponents to face. And now, when you are traveling both domestically and abroad, you can look like you are a Pokemon Master, too!

This Sunday will be the 96th Oscars, or Academy Awards, presentation. While many people are, of course, interested in seeing what movie will win the coveted Best Picture, there is a lot of excitement regarding the Animated Film category this year. Studio Ghibli's film The Boy and the Heron has been nominated alongside Western-produced English-language films, which has anime and Ghibli fans around the world excited about the possibility of an anime movie winning an Oscar (and not even in the foreign film category).

In the amazing world of Pokemon, each Pokemon has its own unique powers and abilities. Some of them are just used for battling with other Pokemon, it's true, but others are shown in the game and anime to be useful for daily life as well. They help humans in the Pokemon universe to traverse the land and water, and even do things like cooking, cleaning, and farming. Another important skill that some Pokemon are able to do is healing.

If you have ever watched an anime with a fast food chain in the story, either as a focus point or just in the background, there's a high chance that it had the name WcDonald's. And no, that is not a typo! Most anime that need to throw in a fast food chain uses this same popular parody, and it is well-known by anime fans who keep their eyes on the background and details of their favorite shows. WcDonald's has always been just that — a parody of a real fast food chain in the anime world. That is, until now.

In Japan, two foreign residents have been arrested for breaking a serious law regarding manga. The two are suspected of uploading images from the popular manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump before the magazine was publicly published. The suspected people are currently being held while waiting for the final trial.

Before Studio Ghibli was established, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata were already in the business of making movies. In fact, 13 years before the famous Studio Ghibli was founded, they made another movie together. The movie still has fans around the world, but for many, it has been lost to time and overshadowed by Studio Ghibli's considerably more famous movies.

January 1st, 2024 saw one of the most devastating earthquakes in recent Japanese history — the most damaging and powerful one since the famous Tohoku Earthquake in 2011. At 7.6 in magnitude, the earthquake caused a lot of structural damage, along with loss of life and injury. While it is easy to get depressed just thinking about the situation, one mangaka is using his voice to encourage and comfort.

2024 had a rough start for Japan, beginning with a 7.6 earthquake at 16:10 on New Year's Day in Ishikawa Prefecture. The earthquake did a significant amount of damage and even caused a minor tsunami along the coastline. Less than a month later, Ishikawa Prefecture is still rebuilding and recovering, and now there is something special and easy that anime fans can do to help.