Basic Trope: A Christian nun follows the conventions expected from a Japanese Miko instead of the much stricter conventions expected from her.
- Straight: Mary is a nun but goes to a secular mixed school and plans to marry after graduation.
- Exaggerated:
- Mary claims to be a Christian nun, but dresses in miko uniform and looks after what looks like a Shinto shrine with a cross on top.
- When the priest dies or decides to retire, Mary takes over as priestess.
- Downplayed: Mary is an accurately-depicted nun but her portrayal is tilted in a miko-like direction. She's often depicted sweeping the church and abbey, she's a student at a Catholic women's college, and she eventually breaks her vows to get married.
- Justified:
- A new Christian church is founded in Japan that seeks to blend Roman Catholic and Shinto customs.
- Kimiko was inspired by her former nun mother Mary, but also wants to honor her father Akira's culture- Thus, a Nun-styled Miko.
- Inverted: Kimiko is a miko but, for some reason, sticks to strict prayer rules, permanent chastity, etc. May be a case of Western Author not doing their research, a personal choice, or some form of plot twist.
- Subverted: Akira meets Mary and falls in love with her but gets some unexpected bad news regarding the nature of her vows...
- Double Subverted: ...and a wink. And Mary elopes with him to Japan.
- Parodied: Kimiko is in Europe and is disguised as a nun but has never seen one before. Hilarity Ensues.
- Zig Zagged:
- The hero tries to find out how this strange obscure order of nuns works but none of the known ways, European or Japanese, seem to fit.
- Kimiko's order is a fictional unique anomaly as a result of the order spending a good deal of time as Crypto-Christian order pretending outwardly to be Shinto. Some syncretism crept in the centuries as well and it is a contentious matter of discussion as if it should become part of the Catholic Church hierarchy again and what of its old customs it should keep if it does so.
- Averted:
- A Japanese author does the research and his Mary is as authentic a nun as they come.
- Mary is a tertiary, not an actual nun. Therefore, she is not bound by celibacy or life in an abbey.
- Enforced:
- A Japanese author does the research but the publisher rejects the draft because it's not fanservice-y enough.
- Mariki the Miko was Woolseyed into Mary the Nun.
- Lampshaded: "Hey Jake, when we decided to stop by for the night, I thought this was a convent, but it seems somewhat strange..."
- Invoked: "We need to keep this Christian order running under that Shogun's ban, so let's make it as if we're Shinto." Truth in Television, the Japanese Christians survived several centuries with somewhat similar arrangements.
- Exploited: Lucy Starr, having never liked Mary, points out her blasphemous activities to get Mary expelled from the church.
- Defied: Kimiko converts to Roman Catholicism, is very zealous, looks for the strictest convent out there and forcefully dismisses any suggestion that she might be able to get on with her "normal" life even with the new faith, just because Japanese religions would allow it.
- Discussed: "Kimiko, welcome to our convent. Here are the rules, and no, I'm afraid they're not what you expected..."
- Conversed: "You've been watching anime again, my son? I have tried that before but they managed to get everything wrong about the things I do know - can't trust them for a moment now. Here, take this Mel Gibson DVD instead".
- Implied: Mary certainly seems like a normal Nun, but she also regularly perform purification chants & rituals, as well as conspicuously avoiding Akira whenever he comes to the church despite him being a good & very religious Christian.
- Deconstructed: Because of the association of Nuns and Miko, Kimiko can't figure a difference between the two which offends the former and possibly cause doctrinal trouble.
- Reconstructed: Kimiko is a Christian missionary in Japan and acts like shrine maiden to better relate to her new flock.
- Played For Laughs: Kimiko is flirty, smokes and drinks heavily, and frequently commits heresies and blasphemies even aside from the miko like nun thing. Everyone familiar with the Catholic Church calls her the worst nun they have ever met.
- Played For Drama: Kimiko agrees to enter a Christian convent to save her family from something, then realizes she's in for more than she expected.
OK girl. It might be on the Vatican List of Prohibited Books, but never mind. Return to Nuns Are Mikos.
