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"Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan, we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff... are Christians... we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool. If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe, we might have rethought that choice." - Producer Kazuya Tsurumaki, talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Through the Japanese perspective, Christianity can be a way to spice up a story with an exotic religion, similar to how in some Western stories, Hinduism, or at least Hinduism-like aspects, are used for the same purposes. These don't stop at simple metaphors; sometimes whole references exist to events or even specific names to Christian folklore or religious texts. These are sometimes unusual, incorrect, or wildly inappropriate.
The notable exception to this is not making explicit references to Jesus (as opposed to a general Christ Figure metaphor) unless it is in a formal context by a religious person or churchworker.
Something interesting to note. Sometimes God Is Evil, but Jesus almost never is; not counting the general metaphor mentioned above.
See also: Creepy Cool Crosses
Examples:
- During the attack in the Christmas episode of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Minmei takes shelter in a Catholic or Anglican church that's portrayed accurately, down to a priest in a collar, and a number of parishioners, making the sign of the cross.
- In an earlier episode, Max Jenius crosses himself in a quite accurate Catholic manner after his and Hikaru's wingman is killed.
- In an episode of Shaman King, Yoh was set to fight someone in a cemetery. While waiting for his opponent to show up, he asks why some of the graves have marks on them shaped like a lowercase t. His diminutive buddy, Manta, has to explain to him that the mark is actually a cross and that those people were Christians.
- In at least the manga, Yoh lightly freaks out, as the idea of physical burial is in stark contrast to the tradition of cremation that he's grown up with.
- As noted above, Neon Genesis Evangelion draws on Judeo-Christian tradition more for its mythic symbology than for any relevant plot points. The name "Jesus Christ" is never actually spoken anywhere in the series (although a few redshirts did exclaim "Oh Jesus!" in the English dub of The End of Evangelion right before being shot). Then again, it did focus almost exclusively on the "Judeo" side of the equation, except for the occasional cross-shaped explosion.
- And, y'know, the name. ("Evangelion" is Greek for "Good News" or "Gospel".)
- Zakuro Fujiwara/Mew Zakuro from Tokyo Mew Mew is some sect of Protestant in the anime, apparently one that has little problem with Schoolgirl Lesbians. She wears a cross, prays and goes to church, but never during actual scheduled mass times. Her weapon, the Zakuross, is a whip with a cross-shaped handle. The Macekred English dub "censored" this by removing the sides from all the crosses, prompting a joke in the fanbase that Renee venerates toothpicks.
- Taken to a rather funny extent in Metal Gear Solid 3. When leading lady EVA makes a joke to main man Snake (What Do You Mean It's Not Symbolic?!) about him being there to tempt her, Snake can then radio back to base, where he is given an unintentionally patronising lecture about the Adam and Eve story, clearly for the audience's benefit; the game was created in Japan, although the characters involved in the conversation are American and British and would have an understanding of the story, even if only by cultural osmosis.
- Once you have seen the scene in Xenogears in which Chu-Chu is crucified, you will never be able to un-see it.
- Speaking of Xenogears, in Xenosaga, Jesus is avoided as a topic, but the terms Yeshua (the Hebrew/Aramaic pronunciation of the name) and "Child of Mary" both come up.
- Of course Xenosaga ("Der Wille Zur Macht" at least) is heavily based on Gnostic mythology.
- It's also worth mentioning that Yeshuah is also the name preferred in the Manga Bible when referring to Jesus, as well as other less traditional translations.
- Black Lagoon features a church which is also a front for an arms smuggling operation, known affectionately as "the Church of Violence". One of the characters, Sister Eda, often makes disparaging remarks about her own religion which can be construed as deeply offensive to a devout Christian. For example she speaks in reference to herself as a nun when she says "she serves the ultimate trickster; the man who walked across the Sea of Galilee".
- In Sailor Moon S Usagi (or, at least, Sailor Moon) is known as The Messiah, and uses The Holy Grail... or at least an item called The Holy Grail (seihai) to become Super Sailor Moon. The villainess Mistress 9 gets the name The Messiah of Silence. In the dub these terms are changed to The Sovereign, The Purity Chalice, and The Sovereign of Silence. However, there were times that the dub threw out its production bible out the window and went with whatever term it felt like.
- Fate/stay night is about a battle royale between mages to acquire the Holy Grail. Which is in Japan for some reason.
- The author goes out of his way to point out that this has absolutely nothing to do with "the cup that received the blood of god" and is being used as a generic term for "powerful artifact capable of granting wishes." Also, it's in Japan because in the Nasuverse Japan is a little island country that's mostly ignored by the Holy Church and the Magic Association and is thus perfect for doing secret and dangerous rituals (the first time anyway). This fact itself is probably a Lampshade Hanging on Japan Is The Center Of The Universe.
- D Gray Man makes an early reference to the biblical flood of Noah as an early attempt to destroy the world caused by the Forces of Evil getting their hands on one Plot Coupon too many. Additionally, the villains are all gray-skinned, powerful humans that are part of Noah's family. It would appear that the creators of the show are under the impression that Noah caused the flood.
- Despite all of the main characters being angels and demon (or evils, whatever those are), and generally bastardizing Christian mythology, the closest Angel Sanctuary ever comes to mentioning Jesus is a few shots of the crucifix in a flashback.
- Let us not forget the hopefully apocryphal tale of a Japanese department store that decided to put a Christmas display in its window... which consisted of a figure of Santa Claus nailed to a cross.
- Trinity Blood is chock full of Christians, with most of the protagonists being Catholic priests or "nuns", and there are three characters named Abel, Cain and Seth (originally the three sons of Adam and Eve). Despite this, there are almost no references to Christian beliefs or mythology. The name "God" is mentioned a few times, but never Jesus. (In the anime, at least.)
- Parodied in Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Gee Whiz", where Standards And Practices prohibits the cast from using Jesus' name, leading to the nickname which doubles as the episode's title. He's also described as looking like Ted Nugent, who actually appears in the episode as a guest star.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, despite the occasional subtle Christianity parallel, the religion itself is briefly mentioned only once, with Edward remarking that it is a dead religion. Christ himself, however, is never mentioned.
Exceptions:
- Always My Santa's lead character makes an offhand reference to Christmas being Christ's birthday when asked what Christmas is about. Incidentally, Christmas happens to be his birthday, causing his parents to playfully name him Santa (and giving his Christmas cake double meaning as a birthday cake.). Needless to say, he has a few issues with this.
- Stellvia: one person (the woman who always quoted Shakespeare) gives a more or less proper prayer during the Christmas episode.
- Amidst all the biblical paintings shown in the match between Akagi and Washizu, Akagi is linked several times to the crucifixion of Jesus. Not only that, but in the manga, which continues from where the anime ended, there is even an entire death and resurrection scene parallel.
- The name isn't said outright, but at the end of the "Heaven's Day" episode of The Big O, Alexander Rosewater turns to his aide and asks if he knows why they celebrate on the day in question. When he receives a negative, Alexander notes, "It's the day God's son was born." Since nobody in the world can remember anything from 40 years ago back, this also counts as Foreshadowing. More subtle examples abound, such as hero Roger Smith being imprisoned in a cross-shaped vise, ancient robots named after Biblical monsters, Scwarzwald handing out Gnostic engravings, references to fallen angels, description of pilots as "instruments of God", basement floor 666 containing " forbidden knowledge " and spawning a robot named after Lucifer, ancient robots depicted similarly to the Holy Trinity, angelic names (Michael, Gabriel, Angel), etc. etc.
- An episode of Samurai Champloo explicitly depicts the persecution of the "hidden Christians" of real-world 17th-century Japan while simultaneously skewering modern American megachurches, and doesn't shy away from mentioning Jesus by name. In fact, the events surrounding the cryptic Christians turned out to be a focal point within the series' Myth Arc.
- In the Japanese and subtitled versions of the hentai anime Bible Black, the 'Black Magic Club' used Jesus as the subject of their sinister sacrificial chant. For obvious reasons, this was replaced with 'Satan' in the dub version.
- In Hellsing, Alexander Anderson gains superpowers by stabbing himself in the heart with one of the nails from Jesus' cross.
- Hellsing never being one to shy away from religion, being one of the only Japanese shows to feature a Protestant church and featuring such things as "Jesus Christ is in Heaven" stenciled across Hermetic gloves, not to mention Anderson's constant praying.
- In the Suzumiya Haruhi novels, during a Christmas party, Haruhi and Kyon discuss how it's "unfair" that they celebrate Jesus's birthday, but not Buddha, Zarathushtra, Moses, Mohammed, and a number of other founders of religions. Kyon just figures (accurately) that Haruhi wants an excuse for more parties.
- Similar to the above Bible Black entry, in the JP dialogue for the Lower World campaign in Generation of Chaos: Aedis Eclipse, the trait of descent from the legendary hero is called the "Jesus Memory"... and was changed to the "Lilian Memory" for the English. To be fair, as far as this editor can tell, it doesn't have anything to do with Jesus, just God and a legendary hero named Lilian - hence the English name.
- In the Excel Saga manga, Ilpalazzo comments at length about his (universally negative) feelings towards Jesus. In the anime version of the scene, Excel bangs up against the fourth wall to remind Ilpalazzo that that subject matter might be considered a tad controversial and that it might be better for all involved if he just drops it.
- In the omake of the Death Note manga, Ryuk asks Light for a Nintendo DS for Christmas. Light brushes him off by asking "Since when do shinigami celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ?"
- In One Piece, Blackbeard's helmsman is named Jesus Burgess in the Japanese version. Not surprisingly, it's changed in the dub to "G. Zass Burgess". However, considering that the character's design looks like a masked wrestler, many fans speculate that his name is pronounced in the Hispanic dialect, that is, as "HEY-Soos".
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