Over the years, dozens of regular and guest writers have contributed their craft and passion to Beneath the Tangles, making the BtT blog a site of rich, biblical reflection on anime, manga, and light novels. So it will come as no surprise that many of us from the current BtT writing team started out first as avid readers!
So with BtT’s 15th anniversary on the horizon, a few of us current writers gathered, like the Israelites of old, in a spirit of remembrance to honor God’s faithfulness in speaking into our lives and directing our paths through the writers who have gone before us (and some who remain with us!). We cast our minds back to the beginning of it all, and, seated at our keyboards like Violet Evergarden, typed out these love letters to the posts that marked our hearts and shaped this ministry.
Without further ado, here are some of our favorite posts from over the years—pieces that inspired us, made us think, and may even have played a part in our joining the BtT team ourselves!
Happy Throwback Thursday!
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Series/Theme:
Big Windup! • Erased • Recommendations Page • Rewrite • Serial Experiments Lain • Sound! Euphonium • Toradora! • Wonder Egg Priority • Yandere • Various Classic Series
Digging Deeper With Mihashi, Teamwork, and the First Party Member: R86
When I started Beneath the Tangles, I felt like I had a lot to say…until I realized that what I really had was very little to say about a lot of different things. In other words, there was plenty of width but little depth, which is a problem when your website is named Beneath the Tangles. Nowadays, it’s no longer a concern with our lead editor Claire pushing writers to find depth that we didn’t even know we could dig for in our drafts, but back then, I had little inspiration to draw from—until “my” site became “our” site.
As with many of our staff, R86 began engaging us by commenting. Just as my mind was being blown by how anime could help us explore Christian topics, he was experiencing the same. The thing is, R86 is more expressive, more intelligent, and more passionate about the topic than me. And so, it actually wasn’t a difficult decision to ask him to join Beneath the Tangles and to turn this personal venture into a collaborative one.
One of his first anime obsessions was the baseball series, Big Windup (Ookiku Furikabutte). For those who missed it, the series is about a group of young men who work together to build their high school baseball team—nothing groundbreaking here. But the writing and characterization are pretty amazing, and R86 dove into that with an article in which he focuses on Mihashi’s growth. That’s a natural place to start, because Mihashi reaches obnoxious levels of “lacking in self-confidence,” but becomes stronger and stronger throughout the series by interacting with coaches and teammates, especially his battery partner, Abe.
It’s a nice little post, and one of several that R86 did about Oofuri and baseball anime. But even more than that, it represents hours of emails exchanged with R86 about anime, faith, and life, which led to a lasting friendship, and more pertinent to all of us, a vibrant and thoughtful ministry. I’ve grown, and this ministry has developed because of relationships—because of God bringing people into interaction with and service in this ministry. And it all calls back to a frequent commenter and a sports anime series. ~ Twwk
We’ve Been Put in This Place and Time: Erased at Annalyn’s Corner
When I was sixteen, I walked to the hills west of my house with three books. I sat down, I prayed, I wrote a declaration of principles, then signed it with my own blood. This overly dramatic touch came from a book. I lived (and live) in dialogue with the stories I read and watch, and I wanted (and want) my life to be intentional and heroic. For that reason, I connected with Erased immediately. It was a story about discovering that a mysterious Providence is operating here and now, and that it has a role for you; a story about what that kind of knowledge can do for someone. The clash with the world experienced after leaving university, and the struggle to keep my life intentional and see it as part of God’s plan, made Erased especially compelling to me. Surfing the web, trying to pinpoint what exactly was so captivating to me, I stumbled upon Satoru’s Purposed Revival at Beneath the Tangles, which was part of Annalyn’s Corner, a column that our writer Annalyn did between 2015 and 2018.
She made sense of the experiences of time-traveller Satoru Fujinuma—who is granted an opportunity to solve a crime that darkened his childhood—in an insightful, focused, practical way, and pointed out the elements of his adventure that had parallels in the Christian life. What made the article different than every other article I had read about Erased was Annalyn’s willingness to find existential lessons in the story and apply them to her own Christian life. In conversation with the characters and the plot, she turned them into wise advice, with moral seriousness and nuance: “Like Satoru,” she concluded, “we can confidently act regardless of our passion level or our own weakness, because we’ve been put in this place and time, with supernatural help, for a purpose, and our lives and deaths will make a difference.” Her authorial voice also shone through, as she shared her own experiences.
I found that approach immensely relatable, and I went on to the recommendations page. After, I would occasionally read her column: Thanks to her, I discovered Re:Zero, Mob Psycho 100, and My Love Story, now all favorites of mine. Though I didn’t always agree with her thoughts, I always found her perspective worth taking into account. Annalyn’s example contributed a lot to my own approach as a writer, and I cannot recommend her articles enough. ~ Gaheret
A Light in the Darkness: Beneath the Tangles’s Recommended Series Page
An old song by DC Talk says, “My God doesn’t change, but he knows the times.” My experience with anime has been one of God using a modern creation—anime—as a means of grace in my life, and Beneath the Tangles has been at the core of that experience. Prior to this, before anime really connected with me, I encountered it a few times (e.g., Cartoon Network, my school’s Anime Club); I even watched a fair amount of Naruto and all of the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist, thanks to the generosity of a friend who loaned me his DVDs. But it wasn’t until some years later that I looked more seriously into anime and manga because I wanted to share something in common with my brother, to have something to talk about as we followed our divergent paths as adults. He gave me several recommendations to start with: Some, like the manga Holyland, really clicked with me; others, like Berserk, I found quite disturbing. From my limited experience, I could see that these media offered amazing potential, yet even Naruto had a lot of content that I would rather avoid. What was a Christian and budding anime fan to do?
Naturally, I did a web search: “anime Christian” or something. Beneath the Tangles was right near the top, and I began browsing the site. “Oh, Recommendations? What have we here?” So I started trying anything that looked interesting: Trigun, Erased, Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, Girls und Panzer, Sands of Destruction, ReLife, Snow White with the Red Hair, and others that became longstanding favorites. All right, I thought, there’s a lot of good anime out there. This is fun to watch. Now I have something to talk about with my bro. I kept watching.
Then tragedy struck my family: Another family member fell quite ill, and as a result, I fell into a dark place in life. During this time, God supported me immensely, and one of the ways he helped me was by bringing me into closer contact with the BtT community. Anime provided a welcome distraction from the darkness, and so did BtT’s articles on various topics and series. One night, as I was watching Restaurant to Another World, I thought, Hey, there are some pretty Christian themes here. So I drafted up my thoughts and reached out to Annalyn, who at the time was spearheading the site. She eagerly and encouragingly invited me to write a guest article, which I did. After a few more posts, I was invited to join BtT’s stable of writers, and the community I’ve found here has been incredibly supportive of me during those times when I need prayer and encouragement. Through the providence of our timeless God, a modern art form on one side of the world has brought together people on the other side (and indeed worldwide), allowing grace to flow in the most surprising ways.
The old Recommended Series page has been completely overhauled and replaced since I first found it, so I link below to the new one. Whether you’re new to anime or an experienced connoisseur, give it a look—you’ll probably find something that speaks to you! ~ NegativePrimes/Dr. Steve
From Caution to Intentionality: Bob’s Challenge & How it Changed Me as a Writer
Out of the writers represented here, I’m the newest to both BtT and anime more generally. Well, I did inadvertently watch a lot of anime as a child, but since it was always dubbed into English or French, I thought these childhood favorites were products of my bilingual nation’s stellar animation industry. (Shoutout to the NFB!) Anyway, I’m a relative newbie. And when I started out, I was pretty…cautious about what I watched. I did a lot of research first and almost exclusively watched completed series—no waiting, and no nasty surprises! But I watched the first episode of Wonder Egg Priority when it aired because of this analysis by kViN and the link to Naoko Yamada, my favorite director. And I loved it! But it also made me nervous. I knew it was going to go to some pretty dark places and take its time in doing so, and so after much consideration, I dropped it.
A month or so later, I wrote my first guest post for BtT, and started reading more of the blog’s posts. That’s when I came across Bob’s guest post on WEP and was completely floored. This post hit hard, presenting me with a quiet but unwavering challenge. We need to talk about These Things; these difficult, messy, uncomfortable things that dwarf every platitude and pat answer we can muster up, that demand a response, but defy anything we might offer up glibly, hurriedly, to make ourselves feel better and let us wash our hands of it all. It was a crossroads moment. Was I going to play it safe in this journey with God and anime, sticking to what felt comfortable, to what I felt I could handle and had answers for? Or was I going to open myself up to seeing the pain and lostness and brokenness of the world conveyed through the medium of anime, knowing that some things may haunt me? I realized I had a choice to keep engaging with anime as a diverting hobby that I controlled, or to step up as a mature Christian and let my viewing and writing become a kind of ministry, grappling with the hard stuff as well as enjoying the escapism. It boiled down to this: Was I going to write for my own entertainment, or was I willing to partner with God in a new, riskier way, and discover some of the deeper treasures he has buried in the field of anime?
So I started watching WEP again, this time, with prayer and intentionality. Twwk and I chatted about the series a fair bit, he even wrote a post. And then episode 11 came along, and I felt so strongly that someone needed to write about it, about “the temptation of death,” and shine a light of hope amid the despair of that episode. I tried to convince Twwk to do it; I suggested that maybe Bob could do it; I even asked if there was a youth pastor or someone with pastoral experience on team who could speak into this heavy moment. I didn’t feel qualified; I was sure I would mess it up. But Twwk just said, “Why don’t you write it up? I’ll read it through, and we can decide if we’ll post it.” In retrospect, it was like my moment of commissioning here at BtT. So, I want to thank Bob and this post for challenging me and shifting my paradigm; it’s led me to encounter some incredible stories, full of pain and full of grace. ~ claire
A Hopeful Way Out: Kaze and Japesland’s Rewrite Series
Some stories are spirals: Just when you think they have come full circle, they start again and lead you into a new journey that builds on the previous one. Each new turning of the screw makes you find more and more layers of meaning. The characters become old friends. The events start feeling like memories. A great storyteller can do this four or five times, then give you a great finale that crowns the entire work. Sometimes, the ending connects with the beginning, creating a feeling of eternity. Sometimes, you suddenly realize that the last loop connects with your own world and you yourself. And sometimes, the ending is complex and strange, and you’re left unsure of what you have seen or what you think of it. When that happens, you wish to walk that path again in the company of a helpful guide who can help you appreciate the meaning of it all. But when the spiral in question is an 80-hour-long Japanese romance visual novel, such guides are scarce. Luckily for me, Kaze and Japesland’s Rewrite series was up to the task.
Studio Key’s Rewrite was the first multiple-route visual novel I completed: A Choose Your Own Adventure-style video game where the main choice that separates the timelines is the girl the protagonist decides to court, combined with a fantasy-mystery plot. Completing a storyline takes you back to the beginning, and you get to experience what your character’s life would have been if he had gone to different places, picked different sides, and chosen a different girl. But Rewrite has the genius idea of incorporating the mechanics of the visual novel itself as a part of the story. I won’t say how it does it, but the resulting work has striking similarities to the structure of the Bible, the History of Salvation. Kaze kindly walks the reader through it all, layer after layer, pointing out these parallels as only a passionate fan who is also an informed Christian can, during a four-part epic analysis that culminates in a global structural comparison by Japesland. Kaze had the kindness, too, to patiently respond to my three thousand-plus words of comments, for which I’m humbly grateful. Though my favorite among Key’s novels is Little Busters, Rewrite is one to remember, and the analyses from Kaze and Japesland helped me to appreciate it better, as well as to live in a world where sacrifice does not stop bad things from happening, but certainly provides “a hopeful way out.” ~ Gaheret
Kaze Makes a Dangerous Comparison Between God and an Anime Girl
A type of post we wrote often in the early days of the blog involved making direct comparisons between anime characters and the historical figures of the Bible. That was always a fun exercise for me, and one that others took up as well. But when Kaze did it, he brought his deeply otaku (this is a scientist who studied at Todai, after all) brain and unique perspectives to this type of post when comparing God to the anime archetype of the yandere.
Oh, boy.
If you read the article, he threads the needle pretty well. Kaze is obviously a Christian (he was also the co-lead of Beneath the Tangles and the founder of our Discord server…more on all that another time), but he’s also deeply respectful about anime culture. He doesn’t approach the article with humor, as you might expect; he treats the yandere type as a significant part of anime culture. But he also treats the Father with respect. And our readers, too—there are several instances where he explains that he just “doesn’t know” about a theological concept; the audience, here, is non-Christian, which ended up being a smart approach.
You see, “The Greatest Love of All…Is a Yandere?” ended up being one of the earliest articles we had that went “viral”—at least by our small-scale definition of that term. People posted about it on Reddit and other platforms, and discussion was generated among people who would have never otherwise read about Beneath the Tangles. This was a perfect example of what we’ve always tried to do—make faith accessible to non-Christian anime fans. And this article, which was spoken up highly in these spheres outside our own, did just that. ~ Twwk
Humbled with Wonder by stardf29’s Take on My Favorite Series
Sound! Euphonium is easily my favorite anime series, and places at the top of my rankings for film and television writ large. And I’ve never been able to write about it. It’s just…too good. So when I read stardf29’s post, not only did it blow me away with its profound, yet beautifully accessible analysis, likening Kumiko’s journey up Daikichiyama mountain with Reina to holy pilgrimage, but it also filled me with wonder, because, as much as I loved the series and at times pride myself on being able to see God’s hand at work, weaving himself into anime, I had completely missed this parallel. I was humbled and moved and filled with joy!
A couple of years later, I had the opportunity to hike my own way up Daikichiyama to the observation platform and watch the sun sink below the horizon and the lights come out over Uji. I wasn’t alone though, as a score of people, photography enthusiasts and no doubt a few Hibike fans, made the journey too. At first, I was a little disappointed as more and more people attained the peak. I had been hoping for a sacred moment of stillness alone with God, undisturbed by others. But I needn’t have feared. Because instead of the inane chatter of tourists and impatient photographers willing the sun to sink faster so they could get that one viral shot, a thick, velvety hush fell over the people gathering at that peak. Lovesick couples looking for a romantic moment gently wandered a ways down the trail, whispering in quiet tones. No one was texting or scrolling or answering phone calls. We all just stood there patiently, trying not to block anyone’s shot, swatting quietly at the mosquitoes, waiting for the wonder we all knew was coming in companionable, respectful silence. I can’t say I’ve ever experienced anything like it. It wasn’t what I expected or even what I would have wanted when I set out. It was altogether different; and yet, I headed home that night full of exultation, my feet made light with heartfelt praise amid the impenetrable darkness of the rocky path back down. And of course I listened Kumiko and Reina’s duet, raising my hands in wonder at a God who could create such a beautiful moment of encounter in such an unexpected way.
Maybe one day I’ll be able to write about this series. Or maybe I won’t. But either way, I’ll keep re-reading this post to experience anew the wonder of holy encounter. ~ claire
What It Means to Be Human: Twwk’s Serial Experiments Lain Revisited Series
Growing up, my family’s home didn’t have a TV antenna, which meant that the only shows and movies we watched were those already in our possession. Even as an adult, when the Internet came along, I never followed a show as it was airing, and I still hardly ever do: I instinctively go for completed works. Perhaps the first thing I did follow as it was being released was Twwk’s episode-by-episode retrospective of Serial Experiments Lain. I consider Lain my favorite work of the cyberpunk genre, as well as one of the most insightful stories ever told about human nature in the age of the Internet. It is not a story for everyone. The way it unfolds recalls the early Internet world of forums, conspiracy theories, and web investigation, although the creators had a keen eye for the social implications of those discoveries, and if you can disentangle the plot from the surrounding noise, the show feels almost prophetic in retrospect.
In the first article, Twwk tells us of his complicated relationship with this 1998 masterpiece, one of my all-time favorites: “I was enthralled by it at first—it was one of the first anime I watched. I sold off my DVDs, however, when I became troubled by the religious content, before later purchasing the excellent BD collector’s set when I had grown enough to grow past my issues with the series.” All that experience with the show shines through in the commentary, in which he provides a golden thread for Lain’s labyrinth, with plenty of bullet points and insightful connections. Even if you have already watched the show and didn’t connect with it (or felt lost), I would encourage you to give it another try alongside Twwk. As long as such attention to the human touch and the signs of divine love persist on the Internet, it won’t ever fully be the confusing, idolatrous nightmare Lain fights in this deeply hopeful story. ~ Gaheret
From Reader to Writer: How I landed at BtT thanks to retro anime!
When I first started on my own path of connecting video games and my faith in Christ, I wasn’t sure what it should look like. The only places I could find on the internet, similar to what NegativePrimes described above, were a few sites that came up after typing “Christians and video games” or something like that into a search engine. It’s been almost 10 years, so I don’t remember how I found Beneath the Tangles, probably from that search, but after perusing several posts, I was excited and in shock! Twwk had the same impression from God that I had, to start creating content about his faith and how it connected with anime. In my case, I wanted to write about video games, but I felt a connection to his passion to reach others with the gospel through the medium.
That inspired me to start typing away at my own articles on WordPress, though my first ones were pretty poor quality! Pinpointing a specific article from BtT that inspired me is difficult, as it wasn’t one post that grabbed my attention; it was the entire ministry. Back then, when we did more columns, even my own Gaming With God, I enjoyed them because of their consistency and style. Something More was a fun one, and I had the chance to run it for a time as well. Anime that I had watched with my friends when I was in high school and then a little into college was what drew me in the most. Kenshin, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Bleach, Naruto, and several others captivated me and drew me into anime. This led me to just scroll and bookmark many articles from Twwk and other past staff members. I always had something to read and be built up by God’s word in each post.
I didn’t only want to read about my favorite anime, but also how scripture was tied into an episode, character, or theme. I’m grateful to have found Beneath the Tangles, which has always encouraged me, a beautiful community of believers from around the world that prays for each other and fellowship together on Discord. I consider this group like a small family, even though I’ve never met any in person; they have been a blessing in my own life and an online corner of my world where I can fanboy over anime, gaming, and ask for prayer at the same time. ~ Samuru
A Friend to Go Before Me: Gaheret’s Minorin POV Watch of Toradora!
There’s a question that I struggle to answer when it comes to anime: “Who is your favorite character?” But I struggle with this one not because there are too many faves to choose from, but rather because I don’t really resonate with characters on an individual basis; it’s not the characters that keep me watching. It’s the stories, the narrative, as a whole; the entire tapestry and the way it’s woven together, including the art, though I’ll watch a poorly animated series if the storytelling is strong.
And yet, every now and then—so rarely that I can count the instances on one hand—a character will stand out for me and win my heart. And one of those rare creations is Minorin from Toradora! I just get her. And I get caught up in rooting for her, the rest of the cast and story be darned. I want her to be happy. I want her heart to be safe.
So when things started getting tense during my daily lunch-break viewing of Toradora! at some point after the Christmas episode; when things in the mess of relationships that have multiplied around Ryuji started to come to a head, tottering on the edge of no return, I had to take a break. I couldn’t handle the tension. Then I turned to BtT, discovering Gaheret’s insightful, tender post on Minorin. The gif of her crying wrecked me; but Gaheret’s prose put me back together.
I don’t think I’ll ever watch the end of Toradora! I’ll continue living in a reality where Minorin has not yet experienced devastation. But I’m grateful to my comrade-in-pen who went on ahead before me, and reported back that all will be well. ~ claire
