Re: Does Enjoying Anime or Magna Conflict with the Holy Catholic Faith?

This post is answer to the blogpost Does Enjoying Anime or Magna Conflict with the Holy Catholic Faith? Unlike Nathan Barontini I have watched lot of anime, read manga mainly as easy to obtain and comprehend Japanese language material. I am going to focus on anime, but most things I will write about apply to manga (comics) too.

First in itself anime is not in contradiction to the faith. It is technique to produce content. As far as I know the primary motivation was to produce content cheaply.

In Japan there is industry producing dozens series each year, with various genres and target audience. Like in any tv production most of it is bad or average. Quality (script, characters, etc.) is one criteria how to measure "good" anime and other is whether the show is immoral or promoting immorality. When I say most of it is bad as in any tv production I am not distinguishing between those two criteria. I will focus on the morality and ideas presented rather than the quality of the content. Still there are rare gems, which are definitely worthwhile.

Picture from manga I've recently stumbled upon - Brother Falco (修道士ファルコ)

It is important to realize that Japan is deeply pagan culture unlike Europe or USA. This is visible in culture and consequently in anime. Superstition (amulets), divination, shrines to various animistic deities, Shintoism and Buddhism is not uncommon thing in anime. Some stories or character are based on folklore (i.e. nine-tailed fox). If anime tries to address some real world issue it will be most likely issue related to problems of Japan society.

Sexual morality

In my opinion the biggest danger in watching of anime especially for young people is in regards of sexual morality. I am not talking about explicit pornographic materials (hentai), but rather about erotic scenes or genres of anime. Harem and ecchi anime.

Ecchi is expression for soft-erotic scenes. Such scenes can vary in degree and quantity greatly. It is not genre per say. It is important to say that in series airing on TV nudity is censored.

Harem anime is male protagonist surrounded by multiple female characters or other way around - reverse harem. Speaking about harem seen one seen them all. Harem anime is lazy way to make an anime story. It is kind of emotional and sensual tease. The quality of these is usually pretty low even aside from the question of morality. Most light-novel adaptations fall in this category.
One can notice also kind of obsession with incest in those categories of anime. For example As Long as There's Love, It Doesn't Matter If He Is My Brother, Right is quite self-explanatory title.

Special genres playing on homosexual fantasies are Yaoi and Yuri. Yaoi anime portraits romance between males and Yuri between females. However those are not targeted for homosexuals. Yaoi is generally endorsed more by women.

Catholic Church and other religions in anime

A Certain Magical Index - To Aru Majutsu no Index 

What I find interesting on anime in general or better to say on Japanese authors in general is inability to grasp or portrait the Catholic Church and the faith in meaningful way. In many instances Catholic Church is used for its costumes and art as kind of stage setting. For example in To Aru Majutsu no Index the Church and various protestant communities are just fighting circles of mages (occult practitioners). Similarly in Fate Stay Night too Church is portrayed in this ridiculous way and main villain is a priest. In anime Hellsing Ultimate the 13th section Iscariot, a special secret paramilitary organization of the Catholic Church, plays key role in the story. Its purpose is to perform extermination of natural (heretics, unbelievers) and supernatural (vampires) enemies of the Church. More than offensive it is kind of ridiculous in todays atmosphere of tolerance, dialog and negligence among clergy, this concept of official Catholic group, which would be literally militant and believed strongly in no negotiation policy.
In this case it is not attempt to downplay the Catholic Church, but to make it more badass. I have to admit it does so successfully. Still in those instances the Catholic Church is used as stage setting, rather than attempt to downplay or slander the Catholic faith per se.

I know only one anime that is openly anti-catholic and really offensive. English title is Maria the Virgin Witch (Junketsu Maria in original title transcription from Japanese). If you get your hand on it, you should burn it. The Catholic Church is presented as enemy of common folks with homosexual priests, while "good" witches help poor people and evil Church burns them at the stake and references to St. Joan of Arc in the story make the whole thing even worse.

The Legend of Galactic Heroes - The Earth cult uses manipulation, brainwashing to achieve its goals. 

The Legend of Galactic Heroes another anime, very good in terms of quality, but it portraits religion and at one point it even openly criticizes it as obstacle to human progress. The sole religion existing in this fictional future universe is fanatical cult of planet Earth worshipers. This might by due to experience of Japan with dangerous cults. However it is not the entire point of the story (I think it was in one episode from more than 100), which was spewing ahistorical propaganda against the Catholic Church. I think it is still possible to enjoy it for what is it.

Now the good stuff

While I am not aware of any catholic anime per say. I have among my favorites some, which spoke to my catholic sense.

Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl)

While influenced by eastern understanding, I think this is the best portrait of hell and evil in man. The story revolves around web site provided by hell. Those who are full of hate can access this site at midnight and request services of hell provided by Enma Ai aka Hell Girl. She will quench their thirst for vengeance by sending hated person to hell for a price. The price is their own soul. Therefore the hell gains two souls in the process and is sole benefactor. Even if openly presented with this ultimate price those people still do it most of the times and suffer consequences in this life and in the next.

Saint Seiya (aka Knights of the Zodiac)

Combination of medieval knights, greek mythology and various eastern views. Not perfect in quality with fillers, its general overemphasis on power of friendship and "the force" like concept, but it is openly anti-relativism. It is also the only series where divine plays important role in battle against overwhelming powers of evil. The anime adaptation presents clear argument against Buddhistic view of morality (not in source manga). Strong emphasis on duty and hardships to walk path of righteousness. I consider it kind of the Lord of the Rings among anime.

There are many more decent titles, which are not harmful to faith. I have selected only two, which I consider more positive than just neutral in that regards.

Beyond anime and manga

While Japan produces countless anime and manga titles, it is not the only thing it does. There are some really good TV shows (TV drama in Japanese). I gave up on USA TV shows some years ago. Now it is only homosexual propaganda, silly sitcoms (Big Bang Theory), shock factor like Game of the Thrones and other depravities.

For example of good drama...
Monster Parent

Story about young, ambitious and successful female advocate. In order to forward her career she accepts personal request of her boss to help his old schoolmate. She is assigned into obscure education department handling issues between parents and schools. There she learns about so called monster parents who act over-protectively and nag teachers and school directors about banal issues. However she will eventually learn that things are not always so simple as they seem and that there are more important things in life than career and high paid job. Great drama about parents, teachers and children.

While I think it is very unlikely than you could actually lose faith just due to anime/manga, I think people should consider whether they want invest their time into watching tv in the first place.