2D Characters: Origins and Evolution

In countless everyday settings, individuals, companies, administrative bodies and others in Japan use anthropomorphized 2D characters to enhance communication. Following a recent Japanology Plus devoted to various manifestations of anthropomorphism, this time we delve deeper to explore the historical roots of this quintessentially Japanese phenomenon. Our expert guest, Professor Sadashige Aoki of Hosei University, specializes in "character culture." And in Plus One, a street of monsters in Kyoto.
Trailer
Recently Updated Shows

My Life Is Murder
Investigator Alexa Crowe, cannot help fighting the good fight – whether it is solving murders or combatting the small frustrations of everyday life. Fearless and unapologetic, Alexa's unique skills and insights into the darker quirks of human nature, allows her to provoke, comfort and push the right buttons as she unravels the truth behind the most baffling of crimes.

The Walking Dead: Dead City
The Walking Dead: Dead City envisions the popular Maggie and Negan characters travelling into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan long ago cut off from the mainland. The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty, and terror.

Survivor
Eighteen to twenty castaways will compete against each other on Survivor. All castaways will compete to outwit, outplay, outlast and ultimately be crowned Sole Survivor.

Will Trent
In Will Trent Special Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations was abandoned at birth and endured a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta's overwhelmed foster care system. But now, determined to use his unique point of view to make sure no one is abandoned like he was, Trent has the highest clearance rate in the GBI.

Revival
Revival is set on one miraculous day in rural Wisconsin when the recently deceased suddenly rise from their graves. But this is no zombie story as the "revived" appear and act just like they once were. When local Officer and single mother Dana Cypress is unexpectedly thrown into the center of a brutal murder mystery of her own, she's left to make sense of the chaos amidst a town gripped by fear and confusion where everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect.