Demon Slayer economics: how the anime juggernaut became a saviour

An animated drama featuring hordes of carnivorous fiends might not sound like classic box office fodder, but that’s exactly what Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle proved to be in September.The film set new records for anime – Japanese animated films and series – making more than $70m (£52m) on its opening weekend in the US and £535m so far globally. To put that in context, Ghost in the Shell – an anime classic released in 1995 – made about £2m worldwide.In that 30-year period, anime has gone from an underground phenomenon to a saviour during one of the worst autumn box office slumps in recent memory. So how did we get here?Mitchel Berger, an executive vice-president and the head of theatrical at Crunchyroll – the specialist anime streaming service – was pleasantly surprised by the Demon Slayer mania

The year of the self-mocking man sketch: ‘Dumb masculinity is very funny’

“I’m gonna miss toxic masculinity,” says the comedian Kiry Shabazz. “I feel like it’s going to be in a museum someday.”In the ensuing standup routine, Shabazz describes a fight with a friend who, like him, is “doing the work” to be a better person. He called the friend several unprintable names while acknowledging: “I’m only calling you that because culturally that’s how I know how to express myself.” The friend’s reply to the torrent of insults: “I hear you and I receive that

‘An Arab in a post-9/11 world’: Khalid Abdalla’s one-man play about belonging comes to Australia

When British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla farewelled the hit series The Crown and his character, Dodi Fayed, he knew he was saying goodbye to a role with a depth and significance well beyond merely a love interest for Princess Diana.“Dodi is one of the first Arab characters I can think of in the history of [western] film that you get to know and love, not fear,” says Abdalla, seated in his London home two years after the series ended. “And so, when he dies, you mourn him.”Glasgow-born Abdalla, 45, whose father and grandfather were leftist political dissidents in Egypt, well understood the cultural significance of fleshing out the character of Alexandria-born Fayed beyond the playboy of legend.He was also acutely aware of the political moment in which his portrayal was being presented

Tension on the streets, the mushroom trial circus and a devastating terrorist attack – looking back on Australia’s turbulent 2025

Fires, floods, murders, a missing child and a massacre – 2025 in Australia brought some of the very worst news.Threaded through the year were themes that persisted from 2024 and will carry on into 2026 – the cost of living, interest rates, immigration debates, the housing crisis, global instability, AI and Aukus.And, of course, the effects of the climate crisis, the battle against it, and the battle against the battle against it.But the year also brought twisty tales, uniquely Australian moments and events that will change the nation for ever.A range of charges were brought under the Australian federal police’s special operation Avalite, targeting antisemitic behaviour

The best films of 2025 … you may not have seen

There’s something almost self-fulfilling about Endless Cookie being an overlooked gem. The crudely animated Canadian documentary, directed by two half-brothers occupying separate worlds between Toronto and Shamattawa First Nation, lives in and finds its voice in the ellipses between typical narrative beats. A fart, a toilet flush, mumbling asides and the squabble of children sharing the same room as Seth Scriver (who is white) he interviews his Indigenous brother Pete are among the overlooked moments that are usually left on a cutting-room floor. But they resonate in Endless Cookie, like life refusing to be silenced in a surrealist self-portraiture that delights in colouring outside the lines. Institutional violence and neglect, intergenerational trauma and over-policing in Indigenous communities are all visible, but often kept at bay

‘I once Bogarted a joint from a Beatle’: Stewart Copeland of the Police

Your 2025 album, Wild Concerto, stars birds and animals as soloists; what animal do you think best represents you, and why?The wolves of the Arctic Circle! Actually, no, no, no – the hyenas of the Skeleton Coast. Hyenas are very cool animals: they’re butt ugly, but they have extremely complex society, they’re very complex vocally, and they’re very strange animals. I don’t know whether I identify with them personally or not. OK, fuck that: let’s go back to the wolf, much more heroic.You’ve been touring your in-conversation show – what is the most common question you get from audiences?Someone always asks me about Spyro [1998 platformer Spyro The Dragon]