Anime, manga, dramas, cinema, music

The Japanese animated series that shaped the world, from the 1990s classics to this season’s phenomena.

• Astro Boy
• Attack on Titan
• Bleach

Asia’s print and digital series: sprawling shōnen, demanding seinen, Korean webtoons and Chinese graphic novels.

• Berserk
• One Piece
• The Promised Neverland

K-dramas, c-dramas and Japanese series: the television fiction that carried Asia’s cultural wave.

• Squid Game
• All of Us Are Dead
• Twenty-Five Twenty-One

Animated and live-action features, from Kurosawa to Bong Joon-ho, from Tokyo theatres to the Palme d’Or.

• Akira
• Kung Fu Hustle
• Hero

K-pop, city pop and traditional instruments: the scenes and sounds that make Asia’s soundtrack.

• City Pop
• Erhu
• Guzheng

Directors, thinkers, rulers and bands: the figures whose names come up whenever Asian culture is discussed.

• Confucius (孔子)
• Lao Tzu (老子)
• Sejong the Great

The houses behind the works: animation studios, manga publishers and labels that manufacture pop culture.

• Studio Ghibli
• Madhouse
• Toei Animation