Category: Shintoism

The World Is Not Enough: Isekai and the Hope for More

When it comes to anime and light novels, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an isekai series or six. Countless stories spanning many genres have used the person-travels-to-another-world premise. To borrow language from the infamous TV Tropes, the isekai concept has been played straight, played with, inverted, subverted, parodied, deconstructed, reconstructed, and more.… Read More The World Is Not Enough: Isekai and the Hope for More

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Something More: Ghost Hunting, Spiritual Personas, Suffering from God and Djinns in Final Fantasy

Hola mis amigos! To all those who have been looking forward to Something More, I hope I meet your expectations. I am Samuru, one of the staff writers here at Beneath the Tangles who enjoys writing on video games and occasionally anime. I used to write a column on Geeks Under Grace called Treasure Chest… Read More Something More: Ghost Hunting, Spiritual Personas, Suffering from God and Djinns in Final Fantasy

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Annalyn’s Corner: Working!!, Shinto, and Prayer’s Effectiveness

Beneath the Tangles | Shinto, Prayer, and www.Working!!

Episode 4 of http://www.Working!! manages to incorporate Shinto, Christianity, and a realistic but humorous discussion of prayer into its comedy. So as soon as I saw it yesterday, I dropped my original blog post plans and switched to this. Shinto, Japan’s oldest and most widespread religion, shows up all over anime. Shinto folklore is key in anime… Read More Annalyn’s Corner: Working!!, Shinto, and Prayer’s Effectiveness

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Something More: Fan (Dis-)Service, Tsundere for Jesus, and “Playing God” until you Run out of Chimeras

Every-so-often, creators like to throw their fans a juicy bone–putting favorite characters into high-action power fantasies, or allowing an emotional build-up “just for the feels.” Fandom pandering can certainly lead to a watered-down story if creators cater to every imagined whim of their doting followers, but, sometimes, a little sprinkling of fan service can go… Read More Something More: Fan (Dis-)Service, Tsundere for Jesus, and “Playing God” until you Run out of Chimeras

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Something More: Belonging in Bungou, Berserk “Sunday School,” and Dangerous Flying Witches

Anime often revels in deviant storytelling. Add that to its cultural roots, and it’s easy for misunderstanding and stereotyping to occur among Western audiences. Christians, especially, seem hesitant to embrace anime due, in part, to its oftentimes default spiritual content. Witches, demons, spirits, and magic frequently flavor Japanese storytelling, which can sound worse in word… Read More Something More: Belonging in Bungou, Berserk “Sunday School,” and Dangerous Flying Witches

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Something More: Fullmetal Anti-Semitist, Re:Samaritan, and Ultimate (Idolatrous) “Harmony”

Anime, especially in the dark fantasy/dystopian genre, thrives on the concept of freewill. Death Note shows the futility of forcing the world into a mold to which it cannot conform. Kiznaiver reveals that shared adversity and duty-driven empathy aren’t enough to keep people (or the peace) together. Psycho-Pass… well… you get the picture. At least as far… Read More Something More: Fullmetal Anti-Semitist, Re:Samaritan, and Ultimate (Idolatrous) “Harmony”

Cutsceneaddict7 Comments