What's so appealing about mythology? Hayao Miyazaki offers his opinions of Studio Ghibli's most recent collaborative film. And one person explains why they think The Magicians TV series is better than the books. It's Airy Monday, our weekly segment about magic and religion in popular culture. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

From The Witcher to Thor to Xena: Warrior Princess, it's clear that we love to revisit mythology in books, TV shows, films, and video games. But what draws us to mythology? At Tor.com, William Ritter explains how in his opinion myths fill a particular spot in our consciousness between fact and fiction that gives them a unique appeal.

Have you noticed that magic and the occult seem to be getting more and more visible in our culture? The trend, which some call "mysticore," has been gaining more and more traction of late, garnering the attention of cultural analysts. Laura Bolt writes for Salon about the rise of magic in our culture.

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most beloved creators of the last half century. He's also a legendarily tough critic, sparing neither friend nor family from his harsh eye for quality. It should come as a relief than to fans of Studio Ghibli that Miyazaki found their new film, a collaboration with French-German studio Wild Bunch, perfectly adequate.

Mature and adult-themed comics have gained a lot of traction in recent years. But sometimes you want something you can read with your kids. For that purpose, Comics Alliance recommends Nenetl of the Forgotten Spirits, the story of a perky young ghost named Nena.

Whenever a book is adapted into a new medium, there's always some discussion over whether or not the adaptation lives up to its source material. On rare occasions though, an adaptation is of such high quality that some believe it to improve upon the book. Jody Sallazzo makes an argument for that being the case with Syfy's adaptation of The Magicians.