Religious imagery in anime/manga

[MadamePapillon]

I've been wondering this for some time but what's up with all the religious imagery that keeps popping up in the anime and manga and even j-music.

I've noticed a lot of angel figures and the use of crosses, churches, priests and whatnot in anime and manga. To say nothing of the demonic imagery.

I know Japan doesn't take exactly the same meanings to some of the stuff that we do but 666, the pentagram, demons, evil angels and even Lucifer himself tend show up quite a bit.

I was just wondering why this is and if they realize the meaning behind some of it. I'm not christian or catholic but even I get shocked by it sometimes, seeing this stuff in comics and cartoons. Anyone know why this is?

 

[caster51]

Christianity and its history through Japanese animation: anime
Japan anime & Christianity: western influences

http://sd.essortment.com/animejapanchri_rfdy.htm

 

[pipokun]

Many Buddhism temples or Shinto shrines sell "Hello Kitty" talismans
http://news.hachimangu.or.jp/Contents/info_a/Images/20070829111758_1.jpg
Sanrio sells "devil"
http://shop.sanrio.jp/image/cmdty/0/828521.jpg
A musician with a miko priest costume
http://tenslives.blog70.fc2.com/blog-entry-1533.html
A priest doll with a bazooka
http://www.volks.co.jp/jp/la/charactors/faye_newkit/faye_newkit.html
Buddha biscuit and dumpling
http://www.narimasu.info/topics/gotouchi.html

It must be a problem if a bazooka doll fundamentalist would attack shrines, but I've never heard of that sort of story.
When Japanese try to localise their product, they take care of local cultures.
For example,

The first four Dragon Warrior titles suffered from substantial censorship in their North American localizations, largely in keeping with Nintendo of America's content guidelines at the time, which placed severe restrictions on religious iconography and mature content. Both graphics and text were edited, replacing coffins with ghosts, crucifixes with five-point stars, and "Priest" with "Healer," to name but a few. The "puff-puff massage" scenario was also taken out of the first two games.
Dragon Quest - Wikipedia

Honda Motor asked the Vatican if the humanoid Asimo insulted their religion or not. I don't know what North American fundamentalists think, but Asimo is tolerated among Catholic people as long as the robot helps people.

 

[Calchas]

Honda Motor asked the Vatican if the humanoid Asimo insulted their religion or not. I don't know what North American fundamentalists think, but Asimo is tolerated among Catholic people as long as the robot helps people.

Christian fundamentalist, in north america, could care less about Asimo or any robot. They are far more concerned with what they call "prolife" and "lifestyle" issues.

So long as Asimos isn't gay or doing stem cell research he won't be noticed by those groups.

 

[punabutta8251]

It's just like in the states, writers look for shock value to get seen, whatever has influenced the creator. You know the Japanese want their work noticed just like anyone in the field, what pushes the viewers buttons. Each encounter Japan has with the western world has left it with all the crazy stuff that has gone on outside their closed up society, they are all military minded nuts. (not that there's anything wrong with that) Too much sword culture and not enough firearmes like us (USA). Give them all the guns they want and then.....

 

[MadamePapillon]

Christian fundamentalist, in north america, could care less about Asimo or any robot.

Give it time, the more Japan tries to make robots into humans the more attention it will draw from the church. I think they will have serious issues with people trying to recreate human life through robotic technology.


But none of what has been said really explains why western religion is featured so heavily in manga and anime. Most especially demons and angels, those pop up everywhere. Even if there isn't an actual angel/demon character you'll often see art featuring main characters with either angel/devil wings. Why so much attention given to it, and to christian/catholic symbolism?

 

[Calchas]

Give it time, the more Japan tries to make robots into humans the more attention it will draw from the church. I think they will have serious issues with people trying to recreate human life through robotic technology....

Yes, if and when, it becomes a lifestlye or prolife issue in America.
So if a robot tries to recreate life in an American lab they will protest it. But noone in that camp (fundamentalist christians) is concerned with what the Japanese do in Japan that has no effect on American interest.

Now if they make a movie of it and try to show it here or if the professor who designed it came over here for a lecture that might be a different issue.

The Roman church however is another story , I agree with you that they would have an issue with human life recreated via robotic means anywhere in the world.

 

[bakaKanadajin]

Well there is a popular theory (popular amongst its cultist Japanese followers, not so much Christians) that Jesus visited a village called Herai roughly 2000 years ago. An ancient Japanese scroll which is approximately 2000 years old was discovered around the early 1900's in Ibaraki . It supposedly documents the life of Jesus and his brother in Japan following his resurrection. He apparently married a Japanese woman and had 3 children and his tomb and his brother's tomb are still there today.

At any rate, anime is one of those mediums where people can explore and investigate many 'big questions' in a visually exciting and artistic format. There's a lot of philosophy and existentialist discussion in the Ghost in a Shell movies for example, as they deal with the limits of human consciousness, artificial intelligence, so on and so forth. It's not far fetched to think that the Japanese would pick up on something as popular as Christianity, especially when there are possible ties to the very source.

Look how popular and trendy Eastern culture and religion is here in the West. Everyone's all Zen'd and Yoga'd out over here, tons of Eastern influence in architecture, cuisine, hybrid spiritual practices, etc. Just because some here misguidedly think Christianity is the sacred truth doesn't mean diddley. What I mean is, it's not that 'special'. Asking why they chose to explore Christianity is in some cases probably like asking them why they chose Coke over Pepsi. To the rest of the world it's open game for artists to speculate on and create art.

 

[MadamePapillon]

That's very interesting, I've never heard of that legend. Not sure how much truth there is to it but it would explain why christianity seems to be a popular theme of study in manga/anime.
I have to somewhat disagree about the 'coke vs pepsi' thing. It's perfectly normal that we trade off things like foods, ideas, spiritual practices, everyones curious about everyone elses culture. Some japanese like cheeseburgers, some canadians like sushi. On the other hand it can get taken to a strange place...

O-Parts Hunter - Wikipedia

I'd find more examples but I'm lazy. Anyways, there's stuff floating around with characters hanging on crosses, lot of stuff with the pentagram and whatnot. Basically a lot of needless symbolism. CLAMP is a big one for that, sometimes I think they take it a bit far