ANIME SANCTUARIES

THE ANIME STUDIO

December 2025 •Japanese

Japan's anime studios have captured the world's attention. In this program, we go behind the scenes for an in-depth look at the most prominent studios — usually closed to the public — to find out the secrets behind their creativity.

Manben: Behind the Scenes of Manga with Urasawa Naoki

December 2025 •Japanese

Urasawa Naoki no Manben (Naoki Urasawa's Manga Exertions) is a TV Documentary airing on NHK Educational TV. It follows acclaimed mangaka Naoki Urasawa (creator of 20th Century Boys and Monster) as he sets out to break new ground for manga even further than he already has. In an attempt to educate viewers about manga and preserve the intricate craftsmanship and process of Japanese artists on video for future generations, he invites a manga artist to have their workplace filmed for a couple of days, so as to display them in the process of crafting chapters for their current serializations. After the footage has been shot, Urasawa meets with the artist and they discuss the footage, talking about the artist's workplace and workflow, the difficulties involved in the mangaka lifestyle, their reasons for drawing manga in the first place, and their perspective on the current industry and their own work.

Naoki Urasawa's Manben neo

December 2025 •Japanese

Reboot of the original Manben series from 2014-2017. Naoki Urasawa is returning to visit eight different manga authors, observe them in their daily work and discuss the creation of manga.

ANIME MANGA EXPLOSION

December 2025 •English

The size of the Japanese animation market was 2,426 billion yen by 2020. More than half of that amount came from overseas sales. The manga market is also expanding, reaching 675.9 billion yen in 2021. Those unique visuals and stories from Japan have struck a chord with fans around the world and are growing into a huge industry. ANIME MANGA EXPLOSION will actively feature major works that are highly recognized by overseas fans and reveal the secrets of Japanese anime and manga creation through the series.

OT23: La gira

December 2025 •Spanish

10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki

December 2025 •English

A chronicle of the creative process of the legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, a passionate artisan, a steadfast trailblazer, and a father butting heads with his son…

SHIROBAKO

December 2025 •Japanese

In a school in northeastern Japan, five friends in the animation club, Aoi, Ema, Shizuka, Misa, and Midori swear to complete a new anime called "Shinbutsu Konkou SHICHIFUKUJIN" with some donuts. Since then, day after day, the five spend all of their time on anime production. The awe of going from rough sketches to animation, and the awkward acting in the after-recording session... The final product was finished at the cultural fair six months later. After they graduated they still pursued animation and swore on some donuts that they would make another anime together.

Hey, Your Cat Ears Are Showing!

December 2025 •Chinese

Daisū is a a manga creator who grew up in an orphanage, and whose works do not sell very well. Daisū lives each lonely day in boredom, but one day he meets a young man named Myō who has cat ears, and his everyday life completely changes. Myō gets in trouble every day, but for the first time in his life, Daisū’s heart experiences "warmth."

30 for 30

December 2025 •English

30 for 30 is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This currently includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series under the ESPN Films Presents title in 2011–2012, and a series of 30 for 30 Shorts shown through the ESPN.com website. The series has also expanded to include Soccer Stories, which aired in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and audio podcasts. This entry refers to the main Volumes of the series presented by ESPN

Green Porno

December 2025 •English

A series of very short films inspired by the amazing and often bizarre sexual practices of insects and other creatures.

Escape to Chimp Eden

December 2025 •English

Escape to Chimp Eden is a television series broadcast on the Animal Planet network that premiered on February 8, 2008. The series examines the rescue of abused and neglected chimpanzees.

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

December 2025 •English

Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska - “The National Parks: America's Best Idea” is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background – rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.

Horizon

December 2025 •English

Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you've never seen before.

Beyond Tomorrow

December 2025 •English

Beyond Tomorrow is an Australian television series produced by Beyond Television Productions. It began airing in 1981 as Towards 2000, then in 1985 was renamed Beyond 2000, a name the show kept until its cancellation in 1999. It then started airing again in 2005 with the name Beyond Tomorrow.

Countryfile

December 2025 •English

The people, places and stories making news in the British countryside.

Scariest Places on Earth

December 2025 •English

Scariest Places on Earth is an American paranormal documentary reality television series that originally aired from October 23, 2000 to October 29, 2006. The program was produced by Triage Entertainment for the Fox Family Channel, which is now ABC Family and owns the rights to the show. The show featured reported cases of the paranormal by sending an ordinary family to visit the location in a reality TV-style vigil.

20/20

December 2025 •English

20/20 is an American television newsmagazine that has been broadcast on ABC since June 6, 1978. Created by ABC News executive Roone Arledge, the show was designed similarly to CBS's 60 Minutes but focuses more on human interest stories than international and political subjects. The program's name derives from the "20/20" measurement of visual acuity. The hour-long program has been a staple on Friday evenings for much of the time since it moved to that timeslot from Thursdays in September 1987, though special editions of the program occasionally air on other nights.

Antiques Roadshow

December 2025 •English

Antiques Roadshow is a British television show in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom to appraise antiques brought in by local people. It has been running since 1979. There are also international versions of the programme.

Arena

December 2025 •English

Arena is a British television documentary series, made and broadcast by the BBC. Voted by leading TV executives in Broadcast as one of the top 50 most influential programmes of all time, it has run since 1 October 1975 with over five hundred episodes made, directed by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Alan Yentob, Roly Keating, Frederick Baker, Volker Schlondorff and Vikram Jayanti. Arena's subjects are a roll-call of the world's best known cultural figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, from singers Bob Dylan and Amy Winehouse to academics Edward Said and Eric Hobsbawm, from writers Jean Genet and V S Naipaul to artists Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois. The current series editor is Anthony Wall.

The Royal Variety Performance

December 2025 •English

The Royal Variety Performance is a televised variety show held annually in the United Kingdom to raise money for the Royal Variety. It is attended by senior members of the British Royal Family. The evening's performance is presented as a live variety show, usually from a theatre in London and consists of family entertainment that includes comedy, music, dance, magic and other speciality acts.