This year, Nippon Animation Co.’s anime classic “The World Masterpiece Theater Series” celebrates its 50th anniversary.Adapted in part from literary classics from around the world, the series elaborately depicts the daily lives of boys and girls, adorable animals and beautiful landscapes overseas. Beginning with “Dog of Flanders” in 1975, the series became an anime staple for children. To date, there have been 26 works, which are available across various streaming sites.The Yomiuri Shimbun interviewed animator Yoshiharu Sato, 67, who designed characters for “Pollyanna” (1986), “Little Women II Jo’s Boys” (1993) and “Romeo and the Black Brothers” (1995) in the series.Born in 1958, Sato was inspired to become an animator following the broadcast of “Heidi a Girl of the Alps” in 1974, which featured contributions from now esteemed figures in the anime world Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki.“Heidi looked so refreshed waking up in the morning, saying ‘Good morning’ and washing her face,” Sato recalled. “It made me yearn for a life in Switzerland, a place I’d never even been.”After “Heidi,” Takahata and Miyazaki became key players in the early days of World Masterpiece Theater. The art style pioneered by “Heidi” — carefully animating natural gestures and subtle emotional shifts — carried over to the subsequent works, starting with “Dog of Flanders.”

An international art exhibition will be held in the waterfront area of Tokyo from October to December next year, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has announced.

Works by picture book illustrator Yuriko Yamawaki, well-known for her “Guri and Gura” series, are on display at a special exhibition at Ghibli Museum, Mitaka in Mitaka, Tokyo.

Yamawaki began her long-standing collaboration with her sister, Rieko Nakagawa, by illustrating Nakagawa’s children’s story “Iyaiya-en” (“‘No-no’ Nursery School”). Together they created numerous works, including the “Guri and Gura” series.

High-end fashion brands taking part in Paris Fashion Week, which was held from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7, vied for excellence in their attempts at sustainability. Fashion is a key industry in France, and the country has introduced laws and regulations on the issue and is working on public-private partnerships to achieve environmental measures.

A fuzzy-headed bee with diamond eyes, a butterfly with sculpted wings, a perched bird with sapphire and emerald plumage. These are a few of the more minor pieces from jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels at a new exhibit being held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum.

The government aims to realize the use of a system utilizing AI that automatically detects websites displaying manga without permission as early as in fiscal 2026.