There is a term, "Buddha's Truth." It refers to Eternal Buddha's will, His law and His life that keeps transforming. Throughout the past, present, and future of mankind, a golden thread of Buddha's truth has been woven.
—Opening Quote
The Laws of the Sun (太陽の法―エル・カンターレへの道, Taiyou no Hou ―Eru Kantāre e no Michi, lit. "The Sun's Laws: The Way to El Cantare" in Japanese) is a 2000 anime film directed by Takaaki Ishiyama, animated by Group TAC, and distributed by Toei Company. It is the second 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 world religion, namely Buddhism and Christianity, to push a religious message.
This movie, according to Ryuho Okawa, the late founder and president of Happy Science, aims to tell the true history of the universe and Earth through the past lives of El Cantare, from his first life as El Miore, the creator god of Venus, to his latest life, Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Shakyamuni Buddha.
The movie is based on Ryuho Okawa's first book, The Laws of the Sun: One Source, One Planet, One People. It can be watched in English here
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The Laws of the Sun has examples of the following tropes:
- Advanced Ancient Humans: According to Happy Science, Venusians, people of Mu, and Atlanteans were far more advanced than us, but they grew so conceited in their technological prowess that they forgot about their spiritual heritage.
- Artistic License – History: All over the place. Even when ignoring whether the continents of Atlantis and Mu were real, the film has mangled several facts of history to push its religious message. For starters, Rient Arl Croud started up the Incan Empire 7,000 years ago, which is a huge inconsistency since the origins of the real Incan Empire were in 1438. Since the Shakyamuni Buddha was born around 600 BC, Rient Arl Croud should be the latest reincarnation of El Cantare according to the real dates, but this would undermine Happy Science's Buddhist roots.
- Atlantis: In Happy Science lore, Atlantis was a prospering civilization that became the precursor to Egyptian, Roman, and Greek civilization, but it's implied to have gone conceited after the death of its ruler, Thoth, and sunk underwater.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The eight guardian spirits that came to oversee the growth of Earth's immigrant population turn out to be the past lives of the planet's ancient historical and mythical figures we know.
- Amor, Therabim, and Moria - Jesus Christ, Confucious [sic], and Moses.
- Achemene, Orgon, and Kaitron - Manu, Maitrayer [sic], and Isaac Newton.
- Theoria and Samatria - Zeus and Zoroaster.
- Birthday Episode: All the people of Mu gather near the royal palace to celebrate La Mu's birthday one-half of the way through the movie. When the monarch himself shows up, he gives his subjects an announcement to "establish the Kingdom of God on Earth" and lecture them on love and selflessness before enlightening them throughout the land.
- Buried Alive: Two thousand years after Thoth died, the Atlanteans forgot his teachings, spiraled down into sinning, and persecuted the remaining faithful and buried them alive in the town square.
- Creation Myth: The film is a story on how humans came about according to Happy Science. In the beginning, a "branch spirit" of the Primordial God/Eternal Buddha settled down in Venus under the name of "El Miore," where he created the beings known as Venusians. However, when the Venusians couldn't evolve anymore due to achieving perfection, the Primordial God warned El Miore that this would trigger the cataclysm that would turn the planet into the barren wasteland it is now. Taking heed of the warning, El Miore took the most evolved Venusians' souls and reincarnated them on Earth as humans, with his right hand bestowing "wisdom and courage" to the first men and his left hand "grace and elegance" to the first women. Then he changed his name to "El Cantare" and gave them the mission of guiding other immigrant races in their own evolution.
- Earth Is the Center of the Universe: This trope is in full force here. While the film states that El Miore created life in Venus according to Happy Science mythos, he moved the most evolved souls out of there to Earth before a cataclysm turned Venus into the barren planet it is now. Moreover, when he changed his name to El Cantare upon settling on Earth, he made the reincarnated humans into mentors for all immigrant races until Satan's reign in Hell.
- The End of the World as We Know It: After the planet Venus achieved perfection at a rate its people couldn't evolve any further, the Primordial God told El Miore to move some Venusians to Earth to save them from the incoming cataclysm that would destroy their civilization and assist other planets in their evolution.
- Gaia's Vengeance: After Satan's reign in Hell caused the evil spirits to seek living people to possess for energy and drag them there upon death, followed by those new spirits possessing other living people over and over, the Earth's consciousness awakens to cleanse the planet by causing a cataclysm that sunk the decadent civilization underwater.
- God Guise: In times of the Incan Empire, the Reptilians deceived humans by passing themselves as God so they could eat humans under the excuse of a Human Sacrifice.
- Grandpa God:
- Ophealis appears as an elderly Greek sage like in the first film.
- An entity in the form of a bearded, dark-skinned man introducing himself as Brahma, appears to Siddhartha Gautama while he's meditating for enlightenment. However, "Brahma" proceeds to guilt-trip Gautama into returning to the palace and succeeding his father in the throne so he won't become the Buddha. However, the monk eventually chastises the entity and reveals its true identity as Mara, the demon lord of desire.
- Hell: The movie claims that Hell started when the Primordial God and El Cantare created a "Pytron" to create spiritual clones of the Magellanic Cloud immigrants, but soon these forgot their spiritual heritage and sunk into all kinds of worldly desires, becoming the first spirits who fell into the bottom level of the Spirit World, which became known as Hell.
- Kill the Lights: Satan took over as King of Hell and conspired with other demons to blot out the light of Buddha with their evil thoughts. This in turn drove other evil spirits to intrude upon Earth in search of energy, possessing any living person with thoughts as evil as theirs.
- Little Bit Beastly: The first immigrants of Earth to undergo guidance, the Magellanic-Cloud People, are a race of aliens that would look indistinguishable from humans if not for their pointy feline ears and tails.
- Loophole Abuse: The Universal Code stipulated that intervention in other planets is not allowed unless the host planet's inhabitants destroy their own civilization. The Reptilians, who sought to eat Earthly lifeforms, especially humans, circumvented the Code by deceiving some Earthlings into causing chaos and disarray so they could have an excuse to invade Earth.
- Meaningful Rename: After moving some of the most evolved Venusians to Earth to have them serve as guides for other alien races, El Miore changes his name to El Cantare, which in Happy Science lore, means "the beautiful land of light, Earth."
- One-Winged Angel: After Siddhartha deduced he wasn't Brahma, Mara becomes a giant and summons an army of demons to attack him. However, Siddhartha's enlightened wisdom allows him to return Mara, and all those demons, to Hell.
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: When dinosaurs prowled the Earth after El Cantare recreated the Venusians into human beings in there, he summoned immigrants from a warlike race, the Magellanic-Cloud People, to kill the dinosaurs so they won't interfere with the terrestrial group's mission.
- The Power of Love: Rient Arl Croud advises that the only way to drive away the Reptilians deceiving them is to use this power. All of them, even the cultists deceived by the aliens, believe him and start praying, giving Croud the power to illuminate the people and drive away the Reptilians for a while.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Magellanic-Cloud People are talked about as a warlike race, and as they're shown killing the dinosaurs in their first appearance with advanced technology, one of the Narrators says that they're also egocentric.
- Rage Against the Heavens: After falling into Hell from being slain by an angel, Satan instigated a rebellion and became King of Hell. Furthermore, he sent the evil spirits from there to possess people on Earth for energy and drag them to Hell once they died. This created a cycle where the new inhabitants of Hell sought to possess other living people until they died and so on until the Earth's consciousness awakened and caused a massive tsunami to purify itself.
- Reincarnation: The film's main theme and a core tenet of Happy Science; souls are immortal and cannot be killed unlike the body, and follow through a cycle of reincarnations. This in turn is a reminder of humans' "spiritual heritage" according to the cult.
- Satan: The film claims Satan started off as an Earth-born Magellanic Cloud person 120 billion years ago before overthrowing Enlil. From there on, he pursued status, wealth, power, and pleasure until an angel slew him. When he fell into Hell and was barred from returning to a higher dimension, he instigated a rebellion against Heaven and became the King of Hell, conspiring with the other spirits to blot out the light of Buddha.
- Succubi and Incubi: Several succubi-like demons try to seduce a meditating Siddhartha Gautama by taking the form of his fiancée, Yasodhara. Much to their dismay, the monk not only refuses to fall for their charms but gently admonishes them for relinquishing their beauty as angels to drive people astray instead.
- Venus Is Wet: As per Happy Science's teachings about creation, the film states Venus was once a fertile planet because El Miore created plants, animals, and then human-like people to achieve evolution in there, making Venus a futuristic utopia until a cataclysm struck the planet, turning it into the barren, deserted planet it is now.
- Vicious Cycle: Ever since Satan took over Hell and blotted out the light of Buddha, the spirits of the damned venture onto Earth to possess living people in search for energy, exacerbating the vices their vessels already had until they die and fall into Hell themselves to repeat the cycle. This in turn caused another vicious cycle where the Earth's consciousness purified the planet via natural disasters to prevent further corruption. This not only happened to Satan's former domains of Earth, but to Atlantis and Mu as well.
- We Have Become Complacent: Whenever civilizations got conceited in their technological prowess and refused to acknowledge their spiritual heritage, they start becoming complacent and heartless, destroying all those who still do acknowledge it. This eventually causes the Earth's consciousness to awaken and create natural disasters to cleanse the planet, wiping out the offenders and sinking their lands underwater.
