Something More: A Hero’s Journey, Grace in Clannad, Anohana, and the Holy Spirit

Welcome back to Something More, your monthly round-up of spirituality and anime (among other forms of entertainment!) articles. I do my best to search the internet for posts that fit this feature here at Beneath the Tangles. If you happen to find one and believe it merits being on our list, tag us via Facebook or Twitter, email it, or let me know in the comment section. I promise I will take a look and see if it can be added! God bless, and enjoy.

It was a little difficult to find my featured piece for the month this time, but just when I was about to give up and try to figure out what to do, this popped up. I did a search for “anime Christianity” in the past month, and I discovered this gem!

Jason Morehead wrote for the Christian Research Institute about anime and what we can gain from it spiritually as Christians. I dislike when the body of Christ is so quick to dismiss a form of media they neither understand nor have experienced, so it’s refreshing to read articles like these. He uses the typical examples like Haibane Renmei, Kenshin, and Studio Ghibli to show the morality and ambiguity of the anime represented.

This is like reading three or four articles that are written here on BtT but packed into one lengthy one. If you are new to reading about spirituality in anime, or want a fresh perspective, then be sure to check this one out.

>>  Unpacking Anime’s Thematic and Spiritual Depth

One of my personal favorite writers, Lady_TeresaChristina, penned a fantastic article about heroes, myths, the Bible, and anime. How can we find truth in fictional stories like Naruto, Star Wars, or Gilgamesh? She puts it all together and gives us a look into the Hero’s Journey archetype. (Otaku in my Veins)

Charles discusses the power of grace in Clannad After Story. If you have never watched this anime, it’s one of my personal favorites because it’s so real and heart-breaking. Even though life isn’t perfect for the main character, Tomoya, he finds hope and strength for his daughter.   (Geekdom House)

Zach and Brandon discuss religion in JRPGs. The video starts off slow so you can forward a little bit.   (Theology Gaming)

Drawing from the anime Anohana, Micah (Neighborhoodotaku) compares Jintan’s experience with Menma to our experiences with the Holy Spirit. Jintan gets frustrated because in the show he’s the only one that can see her, similar to when we feel God’s presence and don’t know if it’s just in our minds.   (Otaku Collision)

>>   Micah connects Christians to Kiznaiver, which is an anime about a group of high school kids that experience pain at the same time. The body of Christ is together because of our shared faith and suffering in Christ, which you can find out more about by reading this excellent piece here!  [2]

Eric from GUG compares Kenshin and Vash (Rurouni Kenshin and Trigun) to the Apostle Paul. Using our gifts for good or selfish reasons is a struggle we all deal with, and he explains how we can learn from each of these characters to do the right thing.  (Geeks Under Grace)

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As part of the Something More series of posts, Beneath the Tangles links to writings about anime and manga that involve religion and spirituality. If you’ve written such a piece or know of one, please contact us to be included.

Samuru
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4 thoughts on “Something More: A Hero’s Journey, Grace in Clannad, Anohana, and the Holy Spirit”

  1. Thanks for linking to the Clannad article. That covered my top favorite episode in the whole Clannad series.

  2. Ooh! I gotta check these out. Good lineup of Chrisitan-based tie-in articles.

    Also, I’m very flattered that you used the image I created for the Kenshin/Vash article as the header image for this column :3

    1. Thanks! I didn’t know you made that one, its very nice. Yeah it was a little tricky to find some good ones as I try to branch out as much as possible, thank God for the featured one which was the last one I found

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