Composer Usman Riaz Talks about Crafting ‘The Glassworker’

August 14, 2025 Swara Salih

Usman Riaz has achieved his lifelong dream of realizing his story, The Glassworker, to the screen. Drawing from his own love and practice of art and music, it is easy to see how both characters are avatars for Riaz, as he uses his own experiences to masterfully craft his anti-war story, serving as the film’s writer, director, and co-composer.

Animation, Movies, Reviews1 Comment

NOC Review: ‘The Glassworker’ Masterfully Crafts its Anti-War Message

August 14, 2025August 14, 2025 Swara Salih

Writer, director, and co-composer of The Glassworker, Usman Riaz, worked on his inaugural animated film for over a decade. And the results show vividly in the finished feature, giving us a simultaneously intimate and grand story showcasing the beauty of art against the horrors of war.

Conventions

NOC Guide to the Top SDCC 2025 Offsites

July 19, 2025July 19, 2025 Mike Manalo

Comic-Con is just five days away everyone! As we discussed in our NOC San Diego Comic-Con Guide, we will be on the ground covering as much of the fun nerdtopia festivities as possible! However, SDCC is not just about panels. There’s so much to do around the convention center, including some events you don’t need a badge for. So allow us to sort through the entire collection of offsites happening during SDCC 2025, and bring you our Top Picks!

Conventions1 Comment

Your NOC Guide to SDCC 2025

July 16, 2025July 16, 2025 Mike Manalo

We are exactly one week away from San Diego Comic-Con, folks! As per tradition, The Nerds of Color is going to be there on the ground, not only bringing you the latest and greatest from the panels, but also participating as panelists in some of them (Looking at you, Swara, you rock star!) So as you gear up and prep for the biggest nerd event of the year, we’re going to break down the best panels and events you can’t miss!

Anime, Movies, Streaming

Max and GKIDS Extend Exclusive Deal to Stream Studio Ghibli Films

March 12, 2024March 12, 2024 Keith Chow

In a press release this morning, Max announced it was extending its exclusive deal with GKIDS to stream Studio Ghibli films in the U.S., including the rights to Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning The Boy and the Heron.

Anime, Movies, Reviews1 Comment

Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Challenges the Ghibli Generation on How to Live

December 11, 2023November 25, 2024 Lauren Lola

In Genzaburō Yoshino’s 1937 novel, How Do You Live?, there is a quote that’s striking in what often comes to mind when thinking of the vastness of the universe, in comparison to our humble existences: “On a night like this, to think about the distant celestial world was to feel that one was disappearing into the atmosphere.”

Anime, Movies, Trailers

‘The Boy and the Heron’ English Dub Given First Look in New Trailer

November 2, 2023November 2, 2023 Lauren Lola

Say what you will about English dubs, but they are, in fact, a thing. With Hayao Miyazaki’s newest film, The Boy and the Heron, soon to be available internationally and outside the film festival circuit, audiences were teased the performances of the English language cast in a new trailer that came out earlier today.

Anime, Movies, Trailers

An Alluring Story is Glimpsed in ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Teaser Trailer

September 6, 2023December 23, 2023 Lauren Lola

On July 14, Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, The Boy and the Heron (or, as it’s called in Japan, How Do You Live?), was released to Japanese cinemas with no marketing for it whatsoever, aside from this poster:

Anime, Movies1 Comment

‘The Boy and the Heron’ is an Unnecessary Title Change for Hayao Miyazaki’s Final Film

July 21, 2023July 20, 2023 Lauren Lola

Last Friday, the highly anticipated final film from Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki (that is, unless, he decides to come out of retirement again for the umpteenth time), How Do You Live?, was at long last released in Japan. That same day, film distributor GKIDS announced that it had acquired the North American distribution rights for the film, and set it to come out later this year. The big kicker is that it will be released not as How Do You Live?, but under a different title, The Boy and the Heron.

Anime, Reviews, Theatre

Audiences Will Be ‘Spirited Away’ in Stage Adaptation of Miyazaki Classic

April 25, 2023May 1, 2023 Lauren Lola

Spirited Away is undoubtedly one of — if not the most — well-known film from director Hayao Miyazaki. The Academy Award-winning fantasy-adventure of a young girl having to navigate the spirit world she’s trapped in is a story that has captivated and inspired audiences all over the world.

Anime, Reviews, Star Wars

NOC Review: When Grogu Met the Soot Sprites

November 12, 2022November 19, 2022 Lauren Lola

It’s been three years since the first-ever Star Wars live-action series, The Mandalorian — as well as the platform it lives on, Disney+ — debuted. In celebration, viewers received a little treat, by way of a collaboration between two beloved studios.

Anime, Star Wars1 Comment

Studio Ghibli and Lucasfilm Team on a Grogu Short

November 11, 2022November 12, 2022 Keith Chow

Yesterday, Studio Ghibli, the iconic Japanese animation house founded by Hayao Miyazaki, set the internet ablaze when it cryptically tweeted a video of the Lucasfilm logo morphing into its own studio card.

Anime, Movies, Nerd Nostalgia

25 Years of Encouraging Dream Pursuits in ‘Whisper of the Heart’

July 15, 2020July 13, 2020 Lauren Lola

Over the course of Studio Ghibli’s 35 years of movie-making, only seven of its theatrical releases have been directed by people other than the company’s co-founders, Hayao Miyazaki and the late Isao Takahata. While the eighth film of its kind, Earwig and the Witch directed by Miyazaki’s son Gorō, will be released later this year, this summer holds significance in the fact that its been 25 years since the first time such a project was released from the studio. That film is Whisper of the Heart. Continue reading “25 Years of Encouraging Dream Pursuits in ‘Whisper of the Heart’”

Reviews, Streaming, Television

First Impressions of HBO Max

May 27, 2020May 15, 2021 Keith Chow

After months of anticipation, HBO Max has finally arrived. And while we’re still a year out from Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the latest entrant into the Streaming Wars has a lot to offer, and a few things to work out. Granted, it’s only been available for a few hours, but many of the bells and whistles promised during a WarnerMedia event in October — such as the ability to combine viewing profiles and celebrity-curated recommendations — were not ready at launch.

Continue reading “First Impressions of HBO Max”

Hard N.O.C. Life, Movies, Streaming

Hard NOC Life: Casting Cat and Breaking Bad

October 21, 2019May 15, 2021 Hard NOC Media

On this week’s Hard NOC Life, Dominic gets Keith through his very own “flu game” to score all the points on the week in Nerd Pop.

Continue reading “Hard NOC Life: Casting Cat and Breaking Bad”

Animation

Sex Kills: Urbance Pilot Available For Public Viewing

March 3, 2016March 3, 2016 Valerie Complex

Originally posted at The Anime Complexium

Urbance is a dystopian animated series — complete with sex, drugs, and violence — against a gritty environment. This show has some stunning animation, coupled with its Japanese anime influences and trip-hop music, and comes together to create one trippy ride during the eight-minute Urbance pilot. Written and directed by Joel Dos Reis Viegas and Sebastian Larroude, with Studio Ghibli animator Hiroshi Shimizu, these three create a project that is all-inclusive.

Continue reading “Sex Kills: Urbance Pilot Available For Public Viewing”

Anime, Movies4 Comments

Forever Ghibli

August 7, 2014August 7, 2014 Alice Wong

It might be sad commentary that I get my breaking news from my Facebook news feed. I suspect the same is true for millions of others. Earlier this week, I was alarmed when several friends alerted me to an announcement by Studio Ghibli that they will be closing their production division.

Translation: no new Studio Ghibli animated magic.

Continue reading “Forever Ghibli”

Anime, Movies, Music1 Comment

Priscilla Ahn to Pen Theme Song to New Ghibli Movie

April 22, 2014April 24, 2014 Keith Chow

This summer, When Marnie Was There, the first Studio Ghibli movie in the post-Miyazaki era, will be released in theaters across Japan. Not only will it be the first Ghibli film without the involvement of either studio founder — Miyazaki or Isao Takahata — it will also be the first one to feature an original theme song written entirely in English. (I guess the closest other one would be Whisper of the Heart and that movie’s Japanese cover of the John Denver classic, “Take Me Home, Country Road.”)

So who have they tapped to write this historic theme song? None other than Asian American singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn.

Continue reading “Priscilla Ahn to Pen Theme Song to New Ghibli Movie”

Anime, Guest Post, Movies3 Comments

Miyazaki Movie Marathon Bingo

February 28, 2014September 15, 2014 Guest N.O.C.

by Sondra Morishima

Up until I was eight, my dad traveled frequently for work, often for weeks at a time. Once, after a long trip to Japan, he returned with a couple of animated movies on VHS: My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Even though I couldn’t understand the dialogue, I watched them repeatedly and reveled in the worlds created by Hayao Miyazaki.

I shared them with my friends and even rewound the cassettes to catch the trailer featuring a dreamy floating castle (I now know this trailer was for Laputa). The characters and art have stuck with me ever since. After three cross-country moves, I can still look to Kiki for support in being a young woman of color figuring out how to make it on her own.

Continue reading “Miyazaki Movie Marathon Bingo”

Anime, Movies2 Comments

The World with Pyramids

February 28, 2014March 14, 2014 Zhouweiwen

In a conversation with an acquaintance about The Wind Rises, I told her I was already inclined to love it (and I did) because I was already a big fan of Porco Rosso. Miyazaki is a man in love with airplanes and through both movies he imparts that love to his viewers. Both films are reminders that the real magic (and really all Miyazaki movies do this) is not in the world but in your choices and in your will.

(Contains spoilers for The Wind Rises).

Continue reading “The World with Pyramids”

Anime, Movies1 Comment

Ponyo’s Magic Realism

February 28, 2014March 3, 2014 Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria

In 2008, a character with a two-syllable name captivated a then 4 year-old NOC-in-training as she watched a movie about a fish-girl, magic, friendship, and bringing balance to the world. Many would guess that I’m describing The Little Mermaid, or even the early stages of Avatar or The Legend of Korra. All are fair assessments, but in this case we are referring to the eighth film from the amazing Studio Ghibli: Ponyo.

Now, I have written before about my introduction to anime while growing up in Peru, but it is my brother Diego that is the expert in our family. I remember him saying that I had to watch Princess Mononoke and Spirited Way, but I never got around it. And it wasn’t until one day he came to our house determined to introduce me and his niece to the world of Miyazaki.

Continue reading “Ponyo’s Magic Realism”

Anime, Guest Post, Movies5 Comments

Satsuki and Mei’s House from Totoro in Real Life

February 27, 2014September 15, 2014 Guest N.O.C.

by Martin Hsu | Originally posted at MartinHsu.com

Among all the amazing animated movies Studio Ghibli has produced, Totoro continues to be my personal favorite for a few reasons. Aside from the mastery in design, animation, and story telling led by Miyazaki-sensei, My Neighbor Totoro brings me back to my own childhood every time I watch it.

Walking into Satsuki and Mei’s house felt like walking into a dream in real life. Due to countless Totoro screenings, the house seemed extremely familiar, as if I’ve been there before. Walking through it brought back favorite moments and chattering between the characters. Opening up their cabinets and unfolding their clothes felt slightly intrusive, but incredibly surreal. I was more than convinced that people lived there.

Continue reading “Satsuki and Mei’s House from Totoro in Real Life”

Anime, Manga, Movies4 Comments

The Three Nausicaäs

February 26, 2014July 8, 2022 Noah Cho

Out of all of the Hayao Miyazaki films I have known and loved, only one has remained my favorite over the years: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaä is famous for a number of reasons, not least of which is for being the film that more or less is the reason Studio Ghibli got off the ground, as its success led to the formation of the studio.