Christianity in Anime

EDIT: Well, it appears that this ended up me complaining about Christianity...

Is there any anime series that accurately portrays western religions, like Catholic or Christianity? Being a (albeit not quite devoted) Christian, sometimes anime serieses using Christian symbol in a situation it doesn't make any sense just because it looks symbolic and therefore profound/ or plain cool really bugs me.

Also, this isn't exclusive anime, but many works (or me, since my knowledge in Christianity is far from reliable) don't seem to understand the concept of Jesus being crossed for all humanity. You see, Jesus was capable of dying for all humanity because he was, at least portrayed as, a complete pure man with selfless motive, and yes, that excludes Fatal Flaw, a sinless man. Because of that, the sin of others, or in his case, the whole humanity, could be overwritten (not sure that's the right word..) to him.

The problem is that so many works are trying to apply Jesus-themed sacrfice to flawed characters. It just doesn't work that way.

Again, my knowledge on this subject is limited so any correction would be appreciated.

edited 20th May '11 6:46:28 PM by dRoy

There is a long historical Christian tradition of identifying "types" of Christ.

Someone is a "Christ figure", meaning that they are the scapegoat, an innocent sacrifice for others. Or possibly they are a redeemer, a savior. Messianic Archetype is a western trope, not eastern.

The generally accepted understanding in the Christian tradition is that these "lesser Christs" point the rest of us to the true Christ. Probably the most common way of depicting this is the story about the little boy who came home from Sunday School and spent the whole evening following his mother around. Exasperated at him always being underfoot, the mother asked her son what he was doing. "Well," he said "teacher told us that we should follow Jesus, but I can't see him, so I'm following you."

It is certainly true that Jesus is the only sinless man, and thus the only person who could be a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Since we are told to be like Jesus, whenever we see a person, flawed and imperfect as we all are, achieve or behavior similar to Christ we like to hold that person up as inspiring. Even though the commandment to be perfect like Jesus is a commandment we all fail at, the sight of one of us even attempting such a feat is inspiring, and encouraging to continue on in our own attempts.

It's only natural that our fictional stories would tend to highlight these characters and make them the hero.

edited 20th May '11 7:41:08 PM by Sackett

Also, characters with no flaws comes across as Sue-ish. Objecting to the use of a flawed character as a Jesus-figure is basically objecting to any work with decent characterization that uses a Jesus-figure.

edited 20th May '11 7:48:04 PM by Gilphon

Jesus, Canon Sue

I wasn't talking about perfectly flawless characters. Take Kenzo Tenma or Tohru Honda. They are not exactly the most perfect individuals, but their flaws aren't damaging. I was talking about someone like Lelouch being the subjected to such symbolism.

EDIT: Darn, Ninja'd.

Before, you post, please, please try, yes at least try, to not to turn this into religious argument, no matter how much it (and I...} is just asking for it.

edited 20th May '11 7:55:00 PM by dRoy

Bonus points for the word 'canon' being literal.

Lelouch is a Jesus-figure? /squints. Yeah, I guess I can see where you're coming from now that you point it out, but it's pretty weak. He sacrificed himself to make the world a better place, that's where the similarities begin and end.

edited 20th May '11 7:55:47 PM by Gilphon

Lelouch is not a Jesus figure. I'd call him a Dark Messiah crossed with Byronic Hero.

The examples on the Messianic Archetype page are very much YMMV. Some of them make no sense to me at all.

The point I was making is that to qualify and work as a Jesus figure, you have to be, oh hell at least relatively, sinless figure to take all the sin to yourself. Lelouch clearly has plenty of his own vice, so he is disqualified.

Darn, Ninja'd

The thing is, the Sunrise is portraying him as one.

edited 20th May '11 7:59:58 PM by dRoy

Does Madoka from Madoka Magica qualify as one? She's a girl who LOVES EVERYONE and her only real flaws seem to be NOT DOING ANYTHING BUT ANGST FOR A LONG TIME and CONSTANT SELF SACRIFICE.

And then she gives up herself to SAVE ALL THE MAGICAL GIRLS FROM WITCHITUDE and becomes A GOD AND THE CONCEPT OF HOPE and fades away from existence only being remembered as a person by two people. Everyone else just FEELS her. When a MAGICAL GIRL dies they get picked up by MADOKAMI and taken to SPACE VALHALLA.

As for why THE ALL CAPS...I am BORED.

Though I like to think of her as a Bodhisatta in particular instead because BUDDHISM LOL.

edited 20th May '11 8:03:46 PM by Aondeug

It's more like someone is stopping her from doing things, isn't it?

Yes it is. SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO BANG HER ASS.

Never watched the series, but sounds like she qualifies enough.

Ninja'd again.

Uhm...what are you talking about?

edited 20th May '11 8:20:52 PM by dRoy

Madoka is prevented from contracting by a girl who loves her. A lot. A whole hell of a lot.

Ah....huh? Not sure I want to know the details...

There's nothing sexual really. It's part of a grand joke.

So...is it kind of like subtext exaggerated to the point of Memetic Mutation?

Back to the original topic/question. Does anyone know any anime that uses Christianity motifs accurately (enough)? Has any work Shown Their Work on that regard?

You sure she doesn't want the reverse, Aon?

...it's hard to find an anime that "accurately portrays christianity"...

But the closest I can think of that manages to accurately portray christianity yet also manage to stay interesting enough to watch would be....To Aru Majutsu No Index.

It's not realistic. And Christianity is definately not like that in Real Life*

The story knows a bunch of terminologies, though it takes artistic liberties with quite a few of them. But that's pretty good for being a story written by a guy living in a country where not many people even care about christianity. He knows a lot about christianity by japanese standards. In fact, he probably knows more about christianity than most christians who claim to be christians but never read the entire bible.

Now if you want a show that accurately portrays the religion without taking any liberties on it...........I dunno. It's anime. It's made in japan. Christianity isn't that big there. So To Aru Majutsu No Index is the best they got...and I'm fine with that....it's better than Evangelion at least.

edited 20th May '11 8:33:19 PM by Signed

-whistles-

It's just impractical to maintain. They'll need to keep them all in Antartica. And imagine all the accidents that would happen aboard.

Not to mention, the temptation to stick your tongue on the ship's...entirety will be too great.

I'm pretty sure you can't get to be more of a jesus figure than Madoka.

Hell, she ascended on Good Friday!

It was part of their plan...

She wasn't tortured and crucified on a cross though...

Hmmm..."The Passion of the Madoka"

It's a little sad, but the only portrayal of Christianity I've seen in anime where the Did Not Do The Research isn't bleeding out of walls is Hellsing.

edited 20th May '11 8:40:22 PM by Gilphon

Having seen Hellsing (the good and the crap version)...are you sure?

Quite a lot of thing I'm positive is not true are shown in that series. Like say...Alexander.