After almost 4 months, the weekly posts in the Aniblogger Testimony project are over! If you haven’t kept up, each week a guest blogger discussed his or her own personal faith, as well as anime and manga, though it varied widely how much of one or the other was discussed. And through it all, I… Read More Aniblogger Testimony Wrap-up
Chelsea Machiela published an article in ViewsHound today called “Animephobia – The fear of Anime.” It deals with the perception of anime by outsiders as something dark and unpleasant. There are a couple of concepts that Chelsea introduces which I think are worth mentioning. First, she discusses religion (or lack thereof) in anime. She also… Read More Spirituality in the Anime Blogosphere: Animephobia
Of Kami and Buddhas is a series of semi-regular posts examining religion in Japan. Ano Hana concluded last week in a teary episode, and though some disliked the finale, I found it fitting and emotionally realistic. The group was now finally reaching its goal of sending Menma on. They were able to bring peace to… Read More Of Kami and Buddhas: The Motivation to Placate Menma’s Ghost
Animekritic has one of the most thoughtful blogs I’ve read. He frequently addresses spirituality in anime, among them a really fun post about Faye Valentine, Rei Ayanami, and enlightenment. In it, he makes the connection between the two famed characters through their shared voice actress, Megumi Hayashibara. Then, based on monologues each give, explains where… Read More Spirituality in the Anime Blogosphere: Spiritual Progress of Faye Valentine
The subtitle for the second installment of Evangelion New Theatrical Edition is “Break”…Part 2 “Break” departs, with a few exceptions, from mere reproduction of past material to proceed toward a basically new creation…[marking] a complete updating of the impression Eva originally gave. –Evangelion 2.22 booklet As repetitive and dull as I found the rehashing known… Read More Review: Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance
I intended to end this phase of the Aniblogger Testimonies project several weeks ago, but I’ve been blessed with recent contributions from writers that I admire. One of these anibloggers is Tommy of Anime Bowl, whose piece is below. His is the thirteenth post in the series, joining the others written by Lauren Orisini, R86,… Read More Aniblogger Testimony: Works righteousness
As I’ve emphasized in the past, Japan is by no means a Christian nation. Estimates place the country’s Christian population at around 1-2%. So it’s no surprise that the anime industry employs only a handful that openly claim to be Christian. But there are a few. The most famous might be Trigun creator Yasuhiro Nightow… Read More Christian Seiyuu: Michie Tomizawa