Anime / The Golden Laws

One hundred billion years ago, Eternal Buddha created "existences" with His will. And He also created "time" with His will.
"Time."
Now, let's talk about Eternal Buddha's will hidden within time.

—Opening Quote

The Golden Laws (黄金の法―エル・カンターレの歴史観, Ougon no Hou―Eru Kantāre no Rekishikan, lit. "The Golden Laws: El Cantare's Historical Perspective") is a 2003 anime film directed by Takaaki Ishiyama, animated by Group TAC, and distributed by Toei Company. It is the third of nine anime movies produced by the Japanese religious movement Happy Science, whose plots combine anime with a Japan-centric, blatant form of New Age spirituality and a flawed understanding of both history and Buddhism to push a religious message. It is also based on the second book of a trilogy written by Ryuho Okawa, The Golden Laws: History Through the Eyes of the Eternal Buddha.

The story is set in the 25th century at the city of New Atlantis, where a boy named Satoru stumbles upon the titular book and borrows it to read on the way home. However, his reading is interrupted when a strange spaceship crash-lands into the backyard of his house. When he goes outside to investigate, he meets the driver, a girl from the 30th century named Alisa who traveled through time to meet him. However, when the commotion inevitably alerted the police, Satoru hitches a ride to 21st Century Japan, but the journey goes awry and end up traveling to 2300 BC, where they meet Hermes after he defeated a sea serpent. From there on, the duo resumes their journey, meeting important people through different eras on their way and learning they're connected.

The movie can be watched in English here.

Tropes:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The story is set in the 25th century.
• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Alisa's time machine, the sea it travels, and the multicolored sea serpents that appear to create a downpour over Prometheus' altar are mostly rendered in CG.
• Adaptational Villainy: Of all myths, Prometheus gets hit with this. In the original Greek myth, he was a Titan who rebelled against Zeus and gave fire to mortals. In this film however, he is a musclebound human who built a cult around himself to trick people with false promises.
• Adventures in the Bible: Alisa and Satoru briefly do this twice, the first in 1200 BC when they buy Moses enough time to escape the Egyptian forces, and the second when they travel to 33 AD, where they witness Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.
• A God Am I: The Prometheus from this film is a red-skinned, fiery-haired man who declares himself a god and erected a Cult of Personality around himself. However, it all falls apart when Hermes uses his powers to demonstrate who's the real deal.
• Astral Projection: Hermes does this when Prometheus surrounds him in a flaming circle and sets out to find the King of Sea Serpents to drown out the flames.
• Back from the Dead: Alisa and Satoru witness, along with the women guarding Jesus Christ's tomb, the resurrection of the Son of Man. Satoru then has a revelation that He is also a reincarnation of Hermes.
• Been There, Shaped History: Alisa's time machine becomes responsible for several events in history after malfunctioning: it inspired the helicopter hieroglyphs, was mistaken for the Ancient Astronauts over the Nazca Lines, was part of Prophet Ezekiel's visions, broke the Sphinx's nose, and helped Moses and the Israelites get to the Red Sea and get to the other side before Pharaoh could even arrive at the shore.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The film portrays Jesus Christ and Buddha as incarnations of Hermes, who himself is an incarnation of El Cantare.
• Call-Back: When Prometheus creates a circle of flames to overwhelm King Hermes, he takes out his winged sandals from the first film and flies to the Spirit World. There, his companions Pan and Agape, also from the first film, make a comeback and set out with him to find the Sea Serpent King so he'll drown out the fire.
• Cruel Elephant: Like in the original legend of Nalagiri, Devadatta and his group try to sic an enraged elephant on Buddha. However, the elephant stopped as it was about to stomp him before backing down, getting on its knees before him, and crying in repentance.
• Eye Scream: After Hermes threw a spear at the Sea Serpent attacking his fleets (and chasing after Alisa's time machine), he jumps into the the monster's eye and stabs it. However, this doesn't stop its rampage and keeps attacking until Hermes uses a Golden Arrow and the Staff of Kelyukaeyon to bring it down.
• Fictional Counterpart: The University of Happiness Science in this film is this for the real-life Happy Science University, which is a higher-education institute founded by Ryuho Okawa.
• Gender Flip: Manjushri, a male Bodhisattva in the original Buddhist texts, is female in this movie and a reincarnation of Aphrodite.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Devadatta, a figure regarded as evil in the history of Buddhism, is depicted here as a jealous man who seeks to kill his cousin Siddhartha Gautama so he could take over the latter's religious group.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Frustrated at his latest scheme to kill Buddha via elephant failing, Devadatta dips his pinky's long, sharp nail in a poison bottle to stab him. However, this stunt becomes his undoing, not only exposing him as the culprit in front of the townsfolk and King Ajatashatru, but ends up biting his poisoned fingernail after being given a sermon by Buddha, and spends his last moments crying in despair as the poison slowly kills him.
• Hologram Projection Imperfection: When Prometheus' followers apprehend Satoru, Alisa creates a holographic lion to scare them into letting go and get away safely. However, it glitches shortly after and turns into a harmless white cat before disappearing as her device runs out of battery.
• Immediate Sequel: The film starts with the final scenes from the previous movie The Laws of the Sun before starting the proper story, which is set in the 25th century.
• Kid from the Future: At the end of the film, Alisa is revealed to be Satoru's great-great-granddaughter, and the reason she time-travelled was for a school report. Moreover, her parents reveal he has become a honored reverend in Alisa's time.
• Mercury's Wings: When Prometheus imprisons him in a circle of fire, Hermes puts on his winged sandals from the first movie and flies to the astral plane.
• Monumental Damage: When Alisa and Satoru arrive at Ancient Egypt, Alisa's time machine accidentally rips off the Sphinx's nose. When several carriages come out of the palace, Alisa thinks it was because of the nose until seeing them ride past the ship.
• Parting the Sea: Back in 1200 BC, in Ancient Egypt, Alisa and Satoru witness Moses parting the Red Sea firsthand, getting away safely. Because of Alisa giving Moses an early warning, the Red Sea returns to normal by the time Pharaoh gets to the shore.
• Playing with Fire: In reference to the classical myth of Prometheus giving fire to man, this movie's Prometheus controls fire and uses it to overwhelm Hermes.
• Technicolor Fire: The arena where Hermes faces off with Prometheus has torches of green, blue, and red fire, which the latter uses to attack the former and show off his power.
• Tengu: When Alisa's malfunctioning time machine ends up very high over a forest in ancient Japan, she accidentally heads towards a traveler in reentry, causing him to mistake it for a tengu attacking him. While Alisa manages to warp at the last minute before crushing the poor guy to death, he is evidently traumatized by what he saw.
• Villainous Breakdown: While Devadatta is far from sane, he completely loses it after biting his poisoned fingernail in anger at a sermon from Buddha and realizing too late what he did. Therefore, he spends his last minutes crying in despair while the other monks futilely try to help him.
• When It Rains, It Pours: When Hermes, Pan, and Agape find the Sea Serpent King and convince him to rain down on Prometheus' altar, he obliges and sends his cohorts to send a heavy downpour to drown out all fires.
• You Shall Not Pass!: Alisa uses a holographic recreation the fire column at the Red Sea to stall Pharaoh and buy Moses some more time to escape Pharaoh and his forces.