20200617 Cover The New J Wave webmain

Japanese subculture, with its history of oversize global influence, is again powering back into the mainstream.  © Reuters

From Netflix shows to Nintendo: the resurgence of Japanese cool

Tech is bringing anime, manga and even wrestling into the global mainstream

TOKYO -- Four years ago, Will Ospreay was toiling in the relative backwaters of the U.K. wrestling scene, performing in a red-and-black lucha mask as Dark Britannico -- the evil twin of Leon Britannico, "the lion of British wrestling." His stablemates at the London School of Lucha Libre (tagline: "10,000 volts of sexy mayhem") were Santeria, the voodoo witch doctor, and Metallico, half man and half machine. "I think people were baffled by these four Essex boys in masks," Ospreay, 27, said.

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