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Superhero EthicsAuthor: Superhero Ethics
Exploring ethical questions from Superhero movies and TV shows, sci-fi, and everything else geeks love Language: en Genres: Society & Culture, TV & Film Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Manga Bible with Author Helen McCarthy
Episode 384
Tuesday, 17 March, 2026
Helen McCarthy has spent over forty years as one of the West's leading voices on manga and anime — and her new book The Manga Bible is her most ambitious attempt yet to bring that tradition to readers who've never cracked a volume. She joins Matthew to talk about what manga actually is, where it came from, and why it keeps mattering to generation after generation of readers.Matthew and Helen trace the full arc: Helen's origin story (a robot cartoon marathon on Spanish TV in 1981, a partner who'd just had his art-school brain exploded in Mallorca), the London import shops and rented VHS tapes from Japan that built an early UK fandom from scratch, and the wartime suppression that nearly wiped out the medium before Tezuka and others rebuilt it from memory. The conversation covers what manga gave women readers that American and British comics couldn't, why so many Western assumptions about manga history turned out to be wrong, and how Godzilla's origins as post-occupation allegory connects to manga's own post-war reinvention.The episode closes somewhere unexpected — protest songs, One Piece flags at South American demonstrations, and a shared conviction that pop culture's deepest superpower is its ability to carry a rebellion across every language barrier at once.More About Helen and Her BookThe Manga Bible by Helen McCarthy — available from helenmccarthy.net and independent bookstores via bookshop.orgA Brief History of Manga by Helen McCarthyConnect with Helen: helenmccarthy.netDiscussed on Other Superhero Ethics EpisodesGodzilla (1954)One Piece**************************************************************************This episode is a production of Superhero Ethics, an Ethical Panda podcast and part of the TruStory FM Entertainment Podcast Network. Check out our website to find out more about this show and our sister podcast Star Wars Generations.We want to hear from you! Keep up with our latest news and send us feedback, questions, or comments via social media or email.TikTok · Twitter/X · Instagram · Facebook · EmailJoin the conversation in the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the TruStory FM Discord.Want even more content while supporting the podcast? Become a member! For $5 a month or $55 a year you get access to bonus episodes and bonus content at the end of most episodes — and you can even give membership as a gift. Sign up here.You can also support us through our sponsors:Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers, run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master Alan.Use Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one-year membership or gift one through this link.Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.
