Patrick Ijima-Washburn (a.k.a. “Patrick W.”) has been doing some deep research on certain themes used in manga. Last year, he told us about scary cats in manga; this time it’s (mostly scary) mermaids — or, to be gender neutral, “merfolk.” Thinking it would be a topic easily covered, he was soon caught in a tsunami of manga fish-people, from adaptations of “The Little Mermaid,” to creepy human-like creatures that live in the water, Creature of the Black Lagoon style. He shares his findings here, focusing on merfolk in the works of (clockwise from left) Kazuo Umezu, Rumiko Takahashi, and Osamu Tezuka.
Patrick’s video about mermaids in manga
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This week, we take a look at 
The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly recently passed a law that 
Osamu Tezuka’s “Apollo’s Song” came out in 1970, about the same time as “Ode to Kirihito”. It explores issues of love, sex, and death. How does this “adult” work of Japan’s God of Comics stack up against the masterwork “Kirihito”? Tim and Kumar review.
FLASHBACK! Osamu Tezuka is Japan’s “God of Manga.” Ode to Kirihito may be one of the reasons. Tim and Kumar review.
Tim and Mulele sit in a restaurant in Shinjuku, turn on the recorder, and see what develops. Topics include: Creator time management, Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto, Hope Larson’s Gray Horses, Caveman Science Fiction, the casting of the Popeye movie, podcast promotion, Mulele’s epiphany about his slow productivity the past three years, and the status of his current comic Elbis.
Rumiko Takahashi is Japan’s leading female cartoonist and has created series that are loved the world over. Tim and Kumar discuss two of her series: “Ranma 1/2”, about a gender-switching martial arts master, and “Inuyasha”, about a 16th-century demon, a 20th-century high school girl, and a powerful jewel.
A review of Web comic