Is my comic book blasphemous/sacrilegious?

[The_Otaku]

About a year ago, I started drawing a fan comic in tribute to one of my favorite video games. The manga (japanese style comic) that I am making is based off of and uses material and themes from the video game. In the business, such a work is called a doujinshi, a fan-made comic book in tribute and fandom to the original series.

Anyways, I’ve run into a problem due to my catholic conscious and wondering whether or not to continue drawing/making this comic book, due to the underlying elements from the game, which it is based on. The game takes place in a fictional fantasy-style medieval Europe. The game uses priest and nun-like characters and in the game there is a fictional church whose appearance seems modeled after the catholic church. You play a character who belongs to an elite demon hunting squad and it’s your job to rid the land of demons, monsters, evil in general and to counter the efforts of a rival church/religion which is ultimately revealed to be a front for the main antagonist of the game and that he is the one behind the evil going on.

On it’s surface the game is innocent in that it merely uses these familar religious visuals to indicate to us that these are “holy” people fighting “evil”. However, is it truely blasphemous even to render the image of a priestly or nun-like character in a manner which is unbecoming of a real life priest or nun? Does the fact these are fictional characters not matter and it is grave matter to be drawing them having adventures and doing things real priests and nuns don’t do?

Obviously in making a comic based on a video game, you pretty much have to throw reality out the window. The priest in this game is trained in martial arts, fought demons (literally) in his youth, and he’s more like a warrior than a priest, despite the fact he’s kind hearted, devote, and is the pastor of the local church. I’m upset with the fact that in this fictional reality, priests and nuns are apparently aloud to be married, since this priest (who is 50) is married to a nun, who herself is the director of the orphanage.

So, I do feel upset about that. Another thing that bothers me are the two main nun-like characters. One is 16 years old. And, as you can imagine, is rebellious, not very devote, and wants to find herself. Typical of a female comic book character who is the main character. There’s nothing wrong with that per say, although she doesn’t dress in the habit like the majority of the other nuns do. She dresses in this skimpy outfit and this seems allowed as well in this fictional church. The nuns are more akin to clerics than they are sisters (this is an RPG (role playing game), though that doesn’t excuse the fashion. If they were clerics/healers it would, but they’re referenced as “sisters” or “sisters of the church”, so there’s no excuse there. The pastor and others don’t approve of her rebellious nature, and she’s often reprimanded and scolded by her superiors.

Another thing is that this is all in anime style drawing. And on the slight chance that any of my fellow catholics here watch anime or read manga, you know as well as I do how sexy the females are. This main “sister” is, of course, busty, perfect body, attitude, etc.
And that’s the problem. Nuns aren’t supposed to be portrayed anything like that, but two of them are in this game. They don’t act promiscuously and I believe the only reason these two are different is because they’re the main characters and in any video game, the main characters always wear unique outfits so they stand out in their role.

There are also crosses in this game. Characters wearing them on their uniforms and so forth. Now, the official religion is never stated in this game, and only visually does is bare any resemblance to the catholic church in the area of religious icons. So, I’m assuming that the japanese put no meaning into the crosses and they were only a visual cue so the player understands this is a church and these are the people who support it. They see the cross as a universal image, so they most likely used it for that reason, not to disrespect or dishonor it.

As for the “god” in this game, it a goddess (female god), which is probably the most blasphemous thing, but you have to remember that this game, like most video games, are made by Japan, a country that is not predominantly Christian as we are. So in making a god character, they didn’t have a reason to create THE God of Christianity, as that most likely would have stopped the game from being released, as people would have complained that you’re teaching religion in a video game. They wanted to go with christian themes however, which is why they went the route of priests and nuns with an ambiguous church.

Most of the religious aspects of this game are very ambiguous, never stating what’s going on or what the fictional characters of this fictional world believe. If they clearly stated things about God (our God) and did a direct parody of the catholic church of medieval times that would obviously be a reason to black list this game as concerned parents would never let this game reach store shelves.

But alas, it did, (in 2004) and it had moderate success as an RPG. I don’t think anyone who has played the game or drew fan art for it (or in my case am drawing a fan comic for it) really cared about the religious stuff, but, being a catholic, this is an issue for me, as the game had themes I was familar with and that non-religious people would ignore or not understand. As a catholic who understands these themes and imagery, I feel responsible for how I interact with this material. In my case, I’m recreating it, and if the game is blasphemous and sacrilegious, then my actions in making a fan comic based on the same story are probably just as wrong.

Or are they? In understanding the difference between fantasy and reality, and not letting a comic or game influence my opinions, beliefs, or respect for my catholic faith and it’s priests and religious, will I be doing something deplorable? I should also make mention that I’m only 3 pages in, meaning, I’ve only created 3 pages so far and nothing has really happened yet. I’m only about to introduce the main character. So I thought that before I continue with this project, that I get the opinions and thoughts of my fellow catholics.

Thanks for any and all feedback! =)

 

[dmar198]

About a year ago, I started drawing a fan comic in tribute to one of my favorite video games. The manga (japanese style comic) that I am making is based off of and uses material and themes from the video game. In the business, such a work is called a doujinshi, a fan-made comic book in tribute and fandom to the original series.

Anyways, I’ve run into a problem due to my catholic conscious and wondering whether or not to continue drawing/making this comic book, due to the underlying elements from the game, which it is based on. The game takes place in a fictional fantasy-style medieval Europe. The game uses priest and nun-like characters and in the game there is a fictional church whose appearance seems modeled after the catholic church. You play a character who belongs to an elite demon hunting squad and it’s your job to rid the land of demons, monsters, evil in general and to counter the efforts of a rival church/religion which is ultimately revealed to be a front for the main antagonist of the game and that he is the one behind the evil going on.

On it’s surface the game is innocent in that it merely uses these familar religious visuals to indicate to us that these are “holy” people fighting “evil”. However, is it truely blasphemous even to render the image of a priestly or nun-like character in a manner which is unbecoming of a real life priest or nun? Does the fact these are fictional characters not matter and it is grave matter to be drawing them having adventures and doing things real priests and nuns don’t do?

Obviously in making a comic based on a video game, you pretty much have to throw reality out the window. The priest in this game is trained in martial arts, fought demons (literally) in his youth, and he’s more like a warrior than a priest, despite the fact he’s kind hearted, devote, and is the pastor of the local church. I’m upset with the fact that in this fictional reality, priests and nuns are apparently aloud to be married, since this priest (who is 50) is married to a nun, who herself is the director of the orphanage.

So, I do feel upset about that. Another thing that bothers me are the two main nun-like characters. One is 16 years old. And, as you can imagine, is rebellious, not very devote, and wants to find herself. Typical of a female comic book character who is the main character. There’s nothing wrong with that per say, although she doesn’t dress in the habit like the majority of the other nuns do. She dresses in this skimpy outfit and this seems allowed as well in this fictional church. The nuns are more akin to clerics than they are sisters (this is an RPG (role playing game), though that doesn’t excuse the fashion. If they were clerics/healers it would, but they’re referenced as “sisters” or “sisters of the church”, so there’s no excuse there. The pastor and others don’t approve of her rebellious nature, and she’s often reprimanded and scolded by her superiors.

Another thing is that this is all in anime style drawing. And on the slight chance that any of my fellow catholics here watch anime or read manga, you know as well as I do how sexy the females are. This main “sister” is, of course, busty, perfect body, attitude, etc.
And that’s the problem. Nuns aren’t supposed to be portrayed anything like that, but two of them are in this game. They don’t act promiscuously and I believe the only reason these two are different is because they’re the main characters and in any video game, the main characters always wear unique outfits so they stand out in their role.

There are also crosses in this game. Characters wearing them on their uniforms and so forth. Now, the official religion is never stated in this game, and only visually does is bare any resemblance to the catholic church in the area of religious icons. So, I’m assuming that the japanese put no meaning into the crosses and they were only a visual cue so the player understands this is a church and these are the people who support it. They see the cross as a universal image, so they most likely used it for that reason, not to disrespect or dishonor it.

As for the “god” in this game, it a goddess (female god), which is probably the most blasphemous thing, but you have to remember that this game, like most video games, are made by Japan, a country that is not predominantly Christian as we are. So in making a god character, they didn’t have a reason to create THE God of Christianity, as that most likely would have stopped the game from being released, as people would have complained that you’re teaching religion in a video game. They wanted to go with christian themes however, which is why they went the route of priests and nuns with an ambiguous church.

Most of the religious aspects of this game are very ambiguous, never stating what’s going on or what the fictional characters of this fictional world believe. If they clearly stated things about God (our God) and did a direct parody of the catholic church of medieval times that would obviously be a reason to black list this game as concerned parents would never let this game reach store shelves.

But alas, it did, (in 2004) and it had moderate success as an RPG. I don’t think anyone who has played the game or drew fan art for it (or in my case am drawing a fan comic for it) really cared about the religious stuff, but, being a catholic, this is an issue for me, as the game had themes I was familar with and that non-religious people would ignore or not understand. As a catholic who understands these themes and imagery, I feel responsible for how I interact with this material. In my case, I’m recreating it, and if the game is blasphemous and sacrilegious, then my actions in making a fan comic based on the same story are probably just as wrong.

Or are they? In understanding the difference between fantasy and reality, and not letting a comic or game influence my opinions, beliefs, or respect for my catholic faith and it’s priests and religious, will I be doing something deplorable? I should also make mention that I’m only 3 pages in, meaning, I’ve only created 3 pages so far and nothing has really happened yet. I’m only about to introduce the main character. So I thought that before I continue with this project, that I get the opinions and thoughts of my fellow catholics.

Thanks for any and all feedback! =)

Good question. This probably isn’t helpful, but…here goes: I dunno. First post! Ha!
…sorry, dude.

 

[The_Otaku]

Good question. This probably isn’t helpful, but…here goes: I dunno. First post! Ha!
…sorry, dude.

Well, at the very least, you bumped this thread so that perhaps the people who can answer it seriously will see it. So thank you for that. =3

 

[Starwynd]

Yes, it promotes rebelliousness against God. We must all adore God above all, and those things you talk about detract from that.

 

[The_Otaku]

Yes, it promotes rebelliousness against God. We must all adore God above all, and those things you talk about detract from that.

I realize the importance of a yes and no answer, but could you or anyone else please explain why it is so (other than the obvious ‘if they’re meant to be portrayed as priestly characters and they’re doing that, then it’s innappriate’)? I mean, I’m not ignorant, and I’m not a liberal catholic by any means, and because of that, I’d like to get into the morals behind it and how those spur us towards our stances against a fringe issue such as this. Can anyone quote Scripture for me, or maybe even direct me towards catholic approved reading material that may deal, however indirectly, with questions/concerns such as this?

Is it simply because the game takes holy-like figures and put them in violent situations or is it only because they appear to be but are not catholic themes?In other words, if the themes of this game and my comic were buddhist, for example, would that concern us as catholics and make it ok to draw since it doesn’t slight our ideals., our imagery, and our beliefs?

If I were to make a comic book based on St. Michael, for example and how his armies fought the Red Dragon, and so forth in the war in heaven, and I took the Bible literally, and had blood and gore and Michael slaying devils with his sword and so forth, would that be wrong and would that tarnish the visage of St. Michael (despite the fact that in most statues and icons, he’s wearing armor, has a lance or sword, and is crushing Satan beneath him?)

Are we, as catholics who are comic artists by hobby, trade or profession, basically to completely refrain from sensationalizing or exaggerating the fight between good and evil by not displaying it in humans terms- fighting, violence, etc?

There are already plenty of comics and movies that do this already. The movies Van Hellsing and Constantine are prime examples of holy warriors or people in the service of God who do the shady things that need to get done to physically suppress evil, whether or not they are also in charge of spiritual elimination/warfare as well.

I’m not condoning these movies, just using them as examples of what I’m trying to relate. I understand the reality of spiritual warfare versus fictitious spiritual life/warfare, of course.

 

[dmar198]

I realize the importance of a yes and no answer, but could you or anyone else please explain why it is so (other than the obvious ‘if they’re meant to be portrayed as priestly characters and they’re doing that, then it’s innappriate’)?

Well, that’s very important to the discussion, I don’t think we can just ignore it because we agree. Shouldn’t it be elaborated? For example: if you portrayed a comic reminiscent of Islam complete with jihad, extremism, and with it intolerance, you’d probably get death-threats from their camp. And that’s mild stuff, right there.
Here’s another point to consider: Jesus was a carpenter. Would he ever have made an idol, knowing it would be worshiped? Certainly not! So if you are going to support anti-pseudoCatholicism, it just may be wrong. But as I said before, I dunno. It could be just a matter of conscience.

I mean, I’m not ignorant, and I’m not a liberal catholic by any means, and because of that, I’d like to get into the morals behind it and how those spur us towards our stances against a fringe issue such as this.

Understandable. I hope I’ve been just a little helpful, anyway.

Can anyone quote Scripture for me, or maybe even direct me towards catholic approved reading material that may deal, however indirectly, with questions/concerns such as this?

Let’s see… a Scripture reference dealing with something like… (it’s hard to describe your situation without getting into the specifics, bear with me) presenting something which is analogous to the Truth, as evil. Um… Jesus used lots of parables which are analogies to the Truth. None of them presented it as false… That’s all I got for ya right now…

Is it simply because the game takes holy-like figures and put them in violent situations or is it only because they appear to be but are not catholic themes?

I don’t think it’s either of those things: Scripture puts lots of holy figures in violent situations. There’s nothing wrong with violence per se, only meaningless violence. And it’s the presentation of the pseudoCatholicism as an evil institution that’s questionable. Because people are pretty gullible: they’ll see similarities and dissimilarities with the true Church, and if one presents this institution as evil, it’ll bolster in their minds the idea that both the similarities and the dissimilarities are evil, whereas you would want them only to frown upon the dissimilarities. So then you’ve got them swallowing the idea that organized religion, inasmuch as it seems Catholic, is evil. And that’s the problem.

In other words, if the themes of this game and my comic were buddhist, for example, would that concern us as catholics and make it ok to draw since it doesn’t slight our ideals., our imagery, and our beliefs?

I don’t think so. But that’s another issue…

If I were to make a comic book based on St. Michael, for example and how his armies fought the Red Dragon, and so forth in the war in heaven, and I took the Bible literally, and had blood and gore and Michael slaying devils with his sword and so forth, would that be wrong and would that tarnish the visage of St. Michael (despite the fact that in most statues and icons, he’s wearing armor, has a lance or sword, and is crushing Satan beneath him?)

Ugh uh. In fact, it sounds pretty sweet. I might get that book!

Are we, as catholics who are comic artists by hobby, trade or profession, basically to completely refrain from sensationalizing or exaggerating the fight between good and evil by not displaying it in humans terms- fighting, violence, etc?

Nope. You can do that all right. That’s what the Bible is, in many places: presenting spiritual realities – both good and bad, and violent too – in human terms.

There are already plenty of comics and movies that do this already. The movies Van Hellsing and Constantine are prime examples of holy warriors or people in the service of God who do the shady things that need to get done to physically suppress evil, whether or not they are also in charge of spiritual elimination/warfare as well.

Good guys doing shady things that turn out right? Nothing morally good comes from something morally bad, unless God does it. There’s something about that in the Bible, about good trees w/o bad fruit or vice versa.

I’m not condoning these movies, just using them as examples of what I’m trying to relate. I understand the reality of spiritual warfare versus fictitious spiritual life/warfare, of course.

Right. I hope I’ve been just a little fair…

 

[The_Otaku]

So if you are going to support anti-pseudoCatholicism, it just may be wrong. But as I said before, I dunno. It could be just a matter of conscience.

I don’t feel I’m supporting anything that’s anti catholic, though, or that the game is anti-catholic. If the game was clearly anti-catholic or it was my intent to recreate the story in a manner which mimicked the anti-catholic sentiments of the game, then I wouldn’t have gotten involved or even played or bought the game. I feel it’s very important to state that most of the imagery is just that, imagery. Theres never in an attempt in the game to preach, teach a moral lesson which are contrary or against any actual, real churches, beliefs, or faith systems, or to provide an ‘alternative’, and so on. In fact, religion isn’t really a part of the game and is only mentioned superficially and in passing. Because the main theme of the game is that these are crusaders fighting evil to help the world and the church they belong to, it becomes necessary to at least establish, visually, that that is the case.

They don’t do anything blasphemous or unsavory nor do they conduct themselves in a manner which is anti-God or anti-christian, or anti-catholic. There’s no sly attempt, that I can see, on the part of the creators to mock the catholic church or christianity in general, to parody it, or to take it’s belief systems and twist them for the same of entertainment.

This is what I think happened:

The game takes familiar, universal concepts, like love, peace, brotherhood, fighting evil, following a calling to serve a higher power, etc. (which just so happen to be inherently christian virtues as well), and the creators figured, “well, we went so far as to create something that just so happens to tie in to christian themes rather nicely, and since a majority of our customers in the West (America) will identify more if we make the figureheads of this game seem christian (without actually being) as opposed to something more ambiguous or pagan, they will enjoy the game more on that level since it’s something they can identify with.”

In all honesty, I don’t feel there was any malice or attempt to parody priests or nuns so much as it was convenient to call them that in this game, whether or not they were. For instance, they have “the holy book” but that doesn’t mean it’s a parody of the Holy Bible, only that these fictional characters have a fictional religion with a fictional belief system, much like we have a Bible to guide us.

They use familiar imagery or themes in this game, without really making the game about that. I know I’m carrying on and post is getting long, but surely you can see how this isn’t so black and white for me?

I think the creators were generously concerned here. They didn’t want to call it “the Bible” because then that would offend christians. So they left it up to the player to decide for themselves what significance, if any, this “holy book” had, as it plays a very minor role in the game. It’s not used for propaganda, and I’m sure that’s what the makers of this game wanted to avoid since they had to of known that in making a game with themes like this, it would be edited once it reached the States.

And it WAS edited, actually. In the american version, the crosses were taken out, the word “exorcism” was replaced with “destruction”, the character who smokes had his cigarettes edited out, and other changes were made, that, the american distributor/dubbing company must have felt they could get in trouble for with parents for allowing anything that seemed particular to any religion to remain.

Funny that the demons, blood, and violence get to stay, but the crosses and smoking don’t.

Anyways, I probably should have said all of this in my first post, so people can have a more clear idea of what’s going on in this game and whether or not it is material I should use to make a comic with.

Let me put it to you another way:

I don’t plan on drawing anything in the comic that the video game didn’t do as far as morality is concerned. The video game didn’t do anything abhorrent or anti-catholic that I can see. So as long as I stick to that mentality and I myself don’t draw anything innappropriate, shouldn’t it be ok? It doesn’t affect who I am as a catholic at all. I know reality from fiction. I wear a scapular, a St. Benedict cross, I go to mass regularly, confession when I’ve sinned (I’m pretty scrupulous about that), I receive Holy Communion only when in a state of grace, I pray rosaries, divine mercy chaplets, and I even do perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament sometimes twice a week.

If I’m doing right by God as a person, but this comic book is wrong because the game is wrong morally, then where does that leave me in making it? That’s why I bother to make the topic. I could be sinning and not knowing it. Worse yet, this could be mortal sin material. I’d want to know that too. I’d ask a priest, but I’d be too embarrassed to explain to him what I just explained to you all (given that he’s a real priest and I’m talking to him about fictional ones), and being old-school and out of touch and ignorant to things like video games and anime and manga, I doubt he’d understand enough to be able to help me and I feel I’d have to give him a history lesson, which is why I bring this important issue to me up to you guys- fellow lay people, who would have a better chance, as lay people exposed to the entertainment that priests are most likely not, at giving me sound advice. Sure, he can tell me right away whether it’s right or wrong, but the discussion and clarity I seek probably couldn’t be found with him.

I’d like to get back to work soon on this comic, but not before I’ve gotten more opinions on this. Even if everyone who responds says basically the same thing, they may have slightly different insights that might be helpful, and I look forward to that. Thanks.

 

[dmar198]

So… let me get this straight… you “don’t feel…that the game is anti-catholic.” You are, in fact, that “religion isn’t really a part of the game and is only mentioned superficially and in passing.” You are certain that they “don’t do anything blasphemous or unsavory nor do they conduct themselves in a manner which is anti-God or anti-christian, or anti-catholic. There’s no sly attempt, that I can see, on the part of the creators to mock the catholic church or christianity in general, to parody it, or to take it’s belief systems and twist them for the same of entertainment.” Yet you wonder whether you “could be sinning and not knowing it. Worse yet, this could be mortal sin material.”

In short: you’ve got a video game that is in no way blasphemous/sacrilegious. Yet you wonder whether it is blasphemous/sacrilegious to make a comic based on it? How could it possibly be blasphemous to support the work of people who “don’t do anything blasphemous”?

 

[The_Otaku]

In short: you’ve got a video game that is in no way blasphemous/sacrilegious. Yet you wonder whether it is blasphemous/sacrilegious to make a comic based on it? How could it possibly be blasphemous to support the work of people who “don’t do anything blasphemous”?

Because, like many, young catholics (I’m 25 by the way) who want to do the right thing, I’m conflicted, doubting myself, and, as I said, I’m scrupulous when it comes to sin. I have a habit of over-analyzing things. I used to think it was a good thing, as it meant I would make confident choices in life, but sometimes it’s really just a burden of conscience rather than a reassurance of conscience.

Where does that leave me with this? I don’t know. I could be trying to make excuses for the game so that I can make the comic, but I don’t want to seem like I’m doing that. I’m just telling you all like it actually is.

I won’t lie to you, I am hoping theres some sort of moral loophole that will allow me to continue with this comic and not feel bad about it. I’m hoping someone can give me some confidence and either tell me this isn’t wrong to do, or that if it is, it’s not grave matter and something I should be confessing. I have to admit, I didn’t always feel this way. Only recently did I really start thinking about this game, and being an artist, it’s stifling my creativity, since now I’ll second guess anything I draw that has controversial or holy/godly themes, and in anime and manga, theres lots of it. And this is a problem for me, because manga style/inspired artwork is what I’m interested in and it’s what I primarily draw.

 

[Tic_Toc]

Otaku,

Art itself is amoral. The intent put into the art is moral or immoral, depending on the intent. Likewise, the interpretation of the artist and the viewers of the art is moral or immoral depending on the interpretation. Interpretation can change, depending on the setting or attitude of the art. For example, you claim the video game is rather unrealistic in its portrayal of priests and nuns. Therefore, can we take for granted that these are indeed Catholic priests and nuns, or that the setting is even in a contemporary country or planet?

My take is that you shouldn’t worry about it and to continue making your manga. While some of the subject matter is something you may deem inappropriate, maybe you could look at the overall message. What are you trying to convey, as a whole? Is the message wholesome, uplifting, good? Are these images or themes you are uncomfortable with shown in a good light or one to be condemned?

An artist uses lies to reveal the truth. Think about what your message is, ask what means you’d like to use to get to that end, and then continue from there.

 

[Isambard]

Why are you asking here? Why not ask a local priest and show him the artwork itself?

 

[kage_ar]

Sounds like a question for your regular Confessor.

 

[The_Otaku]

Otaku,

Art itself is amoral. The intent put into the art is moral or immoral, depending on the intent. Likewise, the interpretation of the artist and the viewers of the art is moral or immoral depending on the interpretation. Interpretation can change, depending on the setting or attitude of the art. For example, you claim the video game is rather unrealistic in its portrayal of priests and nuns. Therefore, can we take for granted that these are indeed Catholic priests and nuns, or that the setting is even in a contemporary country or planet?

My take is that you shouldn’t worry about it and to continue making your manga. While some of the subject matter is something you may deem inappropriate, maybe you could look at the overall message. What are you trying to convey, as a whole? Is the message wholesome, uplifting, good? Are these images or themes you are uncomfortable with shown in a good light or one to be condemned?

An artist uses lies to reveal the truth. Think about what your message is, ask what means you’d like to use to get to that end, and then continue from there.

Thank you for your post. You seem concerned about me. Thank you. =)

I feel alot more better about this then, because, I can look at your questions, and, in retrospect, answer them and realize that the game does convey a good message and both the interpretation of the people who made it, as well as my interpretation is innocent as well as coming from the desire to entertain and tell an adventurous story. I don’t see why we can’t have both and it be pleasant. Even people who don’t realize the subtle religious undertones of the game can appreciate it on the base level that it promotes good over evil, the struggle to be good in a dark world, and following the Light. Granted, it does it in a fanciful way and taking inspiration from other sources other than just christianity (which is only fair and un-bias), but it’s a comic book, and it’s expected to be like that by default anyways.

I guess for a while I was getting too caught up in whether these themes were “catholic” enough fare, and whether they did appropriate honor to catholicism despite the fact they’re not stated to be as such, and that, in not being catholic, though ambiguously christian, it was wrong to portray it in any other way than it is in reality, despite it being a work of fiction. I guess I was also allowing the bias I might have or other people might have, namely as catholics, from allowing me to experiment.

I don’t blame myself for having these thoughts and going so far as to make this thread and get opinions. I think the fact that it would bother me enough to ask means I have a conscience over this matter and that my heart is in the right place. And if that is the case, I have a newfound confidence that what I’m doing isn’t inherently wrong. I just want to tell the story from my point of view, expand upon it, and have fun. I’m not trying to demoralize anyone or anything.

 

[The_Otaku]

Why are you asking here? Why not ask a local priest and show him the artwork itself?

I answered this in an above post, though I don’t expect you to read through my long-winded posts. Basically, to answer your question in brief, I have considered asking my parish priest about this. But as I told another poster, I don’t think he would understand any of it (being from an older generation, probably ignorant to things like comic books, etc.), even if I tried to explain it to him, and give the subject matter of priestly like characters it would be extremely uncomfortable to talk about with an actual priest and as I love my pastor and respect him, I would not want to unintentionally possibly offend him.

If I simply showed him the artwork, he’d probably enjoy it at face value, but I doubt whatever advice he would give would help after seeing it. He might like it though, who knows. Being a priest doesn’t mean he cannot have good taste.

 

[The_Otaku]

Sounds like a question for your regular Confessor.

If I do end up doing that, I don’t think it will be with my regular parish priest, since I wouldn’t want to create an uncomfortable relationship with him. You know what I mean. It’s sort of like when your priest hears your confession and he recognizes your voice, and when he greets you outside after mass, you know he knows it was you in the confessional. It’s embarrassing, and better left to a priest who isn’t at your parish. LOL!

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

About a year ago, I started drawing a fan comic in tribute to one of my favorite video games. The manga (japanese style comic) that I am making is based off of and uses material and themes from the video game. In the business, such a work is called a doujinshi, a fan-made comic book in tribute and fandom to the original series.

Anyways, I’ve run into a problem due to my catholic conscious and wondering whether or not to continue drawing/making this comic book, due to the underlying elements from the game, which it is based on. The game takes place in a fictional fantasy-style medieval Europe. The game uses priest and nun-like characters and in the game there is a fictional church whose appearance seems modeled after the catholic church. You play a character who belongs to an elite demon hunting squad and it’s your job to rid the land of demons, monsters, evil in general and to counter the efforts of a rival church/religion which is ultimately revealed to be a front for the main antagonist of the game and that he is the one behind the evil going on.

On it’s surface the game is innocent in that it merely uses these familar religious visuals to indicate to us that these are “holy” people fighting “evil”. However, is it truely blasphemous even to render the image of a priestly or nun-like character in a manner which is unbecoming of a real life priest or nun? Does the fact these are fictional characters not matter and it is grave matter to be drawing them having adventures and doing things real priests and nuns don’t do?

Obviously in making a comic based on a video game, you pretty much have to throw reality out the window. The priest in this game is trained in martial arts, fought demons (literally) in his youth, and he’s more like a warrior than a priest, despite the fact he’s kind hearted, devote, and is the pastor of the local church. I’m upset with the fact that in this fictional reality, priests and nuns are apparently aloud to be married, since this priest (who is 50) is married to a nun, who herself is the director of the orphanage.

So, I do feel upset about that. Another thing that bothers me are the two main nun-like characters. One is 16 years old. And, as you can imagine, is rebellious, not very devote, and wants to find herself. Typical of a female comic book character who is the main character. There’s nothing wrong with that per say, although she doesn’t dress in the habit like the majority of the other nuns do. She dresses in this skimpy outfit and this seems allowed as well in this fictional church. The nuns are more akin to clerics than they are sisters (this is an RPG (role playing game), though that doesn’t excuse the fashion. If they were clerics/healers it would, but they’re referenced as “sisters” or “sisters of the church”, so there’s no excuse there. The pastor and others don’t approve of her rebellious nature, and she’s often reprimanded and scolded by her superiors.

Another thing is that this is all in anime style drawing. And on the slight chance that any of my fellow catholics here watch anime or read manga, you know as well as I do how sexy the females are. This main “sister” is, of course, busty, perfect body, attitude, etc.
And that’s the problem. Nuns aren’t supposed to be portrayed anything like that, but two of them are in this game. They don’t act promiscuously and I believe the only reason these two are different is because they’re the main characters and in any video game, the main characters always wear unique outfits so they stand out in their role.

There are also crosses in this game. Characters wearing them on their uniforms and so forth. Now, the official religion is never stated in this game, and only visually does is bare any resemblance to the catholic church in the area of religious icons. So, I’m assuming that the japanese put no meaning into the crosses and they were only a visual cue so the player understands this is a church and these are the people who support it. They see the cross as a universal image, so they most likely used it for that reason, not to disrespect or dishonor it.

As for the “god” in this game, it a goddess (female god), which is probably the most blasphemous thing, but you have to remember that this game, like most video games, are made by Japan, a country that is not predominantly Christian as we are. So in making a god character, they didn’t have a reason to create THE God of Christianity, as that most likely would have stopped the game from being released, as people would have complained that you’re teaching religion in a video game. They wanted to go with christian themes however, which is why they went the route of priests and nuns with an ambiguous church.

Most of the religious aspects of this game are very ambiguous, never stating what’s going on or what the fictional characters of this fictional world believe. If they clearly stated things about God (our God) and did a direct parody of the catholic church of medieval times that would obviously be a reason to black list this game as concerned parents would never let this game reach store shelves.

But alas, it did, (in 2004) and it had moderate success as an RPG. I don’t think anyone who has played the game or drew fan art for it (or in my case am drawing a fan comic for it) really cared about the religious stuff, but, being a catholic, this is an issue for me, as the game had themes I was familar with and that non-religious people would ignore or not understand. As a catholic who understands these themes and imagery, I feel responsible for how I interact with this material. In my case, I’m recreating it, and if the game is blasphemous and sacrilegious, then my actions in making a fan comic based on the same story are probably just as wrong.

Or are they? In understanding the difference between fantasy and reality, and not letting a comic or game influence my opinions, beliefs, or respect for my catholic faith and it’s priests and religious, will I be doing something deplorable? I should also make mention that I’m only 3 pages in, meaning, I’ve only created 3 pages so far and nothing has really happened yet. I’m only about to introduce the main character. So I thought that before I continue with this project, that I get the opinions and thoughts of my fellow catholics.

Thanks for any and all feedback! =)

adjusts his glasses like a cool bishounen

I read all that but first I must say… grabs you by your shirt

WHERE CAN I FIND THIS GAME!? IT SOUNDS FRIGGIN’ AWESOME!!!

lets you go and coughs

Setting that aside, I don’t think you really need to restrict yourself on the laws of the Church with regards to priests and nuns. Like you said, when creating stuff like this, the laws of reality are free to be chucked out the window. For me that not only includes the laws of science but also certain political and traditional laws. And believe me, as a person who writes anime fiction himself, I tend to do that a lot.

I think you should be more concerned with the moral message that you wanna portray with your manga. I mean for me, the whole thing about portraying priests and nuns in anime is really more of an issue with tradition than morality. The morality of your characters and their actions should be far more important to you than compliance to traditional laws that only apply in the real world imo.

 

[The_Otaku]

adjusts his glasses like a cool bishounen

I read all that but first I must say… grabs you by your shirt

WHERE CAN I FIND THIS GAME!? IT SOUNDS FRIGGIN’ AWESOME!!!

lets you go and coughs

Setting that aside, I don’t think you really need to restrict yourself on the laws of the Church with regards to priests and nuns. Like you said, when creating stuff like this, the laws of reality are free to be chucked out the window. For me that not only includes the laws of science but also certain political and traditional laws. And believe me, as a person who writes anime fiction himself, I tend to do that a lot.

I think you should be more concerned with the moral message that you wanna portray with your manga. I mean for me, the whole thing about portraying priests and nuns in anime is really more of an issue with tradition than morality. The morality of your characters and their actions should be far more important to you than compliance to traditional laws that only apply in the real world imo.

To answer your question, the game’s name is La Pucelle: Tactics. You cannot find this game anymore in stores, as it was released in 2004, and is discontinued. I was fortunate enough to find a brand new copy unopened as well as able to order the strategy guide, also brand new, sometime in 2006, long after the game ran it’s course. I got lucky, but you can definitely find it on e-bay as well as the guide, if you definitely want to buy it. If you check your local video store, they might have it for rent.

Here is the U.S trailer for the game when it was released. Note that the in-game samples are in japanese, but in the american version, it was english dubbed (pretty well I must say) and you have the option of switching it to english or playing it in the original japanese format. You can search around youtube for more videos that show you more of the actual gameplay.

youtube.com/watch?v=W8M1Ql8BsQk&feature=related

La Pucelle wasn’t as popular as some of the other games made by the same company (Nippon Ichi), but I still think it has the most endearing characters. But, that’s me, though. Play at your own risk, you may not like it at all.

Now, as for your response to the moral portion, I agree. I also do think, though, that when you’re going to portray characters (especially those of a religious nature) in this manner, you have some responsibilities in making sure they’re moral characters since they’re there to set an example for everyone else, even in the fantasy world they live. As another has said here, it is the moral message that is important, and neither is the game nor my rendition of it in comic format, immoral. I’m really beginning to think I was too hard on myself. I’m open to the idea that I could be wrong, however.

I’d like to believe I’m not just hearing what I want to hear.

At any rate, I never thought I’d meet someone into anime on a catholic website. Nice to meet you. =3

 

[Reynardus]

Sigh…I’ve encountered so much of these “Catholic” manga and video games that utilizes Catholic elements but actually promote Japanese pop culture at its core. (Which translates generally to Atheism or leans towards Shinto/Buddhist beliefs)

If the original content of the comics are bothering you, remember: you are the one writing your fan comic. Why not change the story to reflect a more Catholic outlook rather than Japanese? Maybe in the end, your changes will transform your fan comic enough into a true unique creation of your own, preferably more in tune to the Catholic Faith. I’ve written a few short stories that oddly were originally fan fiction of a sort but after changing the universe, character names and other pertinent material, I managed to cobble something that I found pretty decent and more importantly, my own since the end product turned out so much different from the original.

I still remember this old comic, Warrior Nun Areala written by Ben Dunn, the father of American manga. The nuns all wore scantly clothing with oversized breasts. They wielded magic swords, rosaries that exploded, a sequence where the protagonist transformed by saying the Hail Mary etc. etc. On the other hand, Areala was portrayed well as a devout nun inspite of the many problematic errors the comic had regarding Catholic theology. Perhaps it’s because the comic was written by a Westener who had a more accurate vision of Catholicism as opposed from a Japanese point of view.

Our Lord said you can not serve two masters. You will either love one or despise the other. Methinks this could be what’s happening to you. You love Japanese manga, anime and video games but find difficulty clinging to the objectionable elements due to your Catholic training. This tension will only grow stronger as you grow older, one or the other will be booted out eventually.

My suggestion above is to retain the acceptable elements (art style) but following what is good and true. (True Catholicity).

God Bless.

 

[Isambard]

I answered this in an above post, though I don’t expect you to read through my long-winded posts.

Ah…feels dumb

Basically, to answer your question in brief, I have considered asking my parish priest about this. But as I told another poster, I don’t think he would understand any of it (being from an older generation, probably ignorant to things like comic books, etc.), even if I tried to explain it to him, and give the subject matter of priestly like characters it would be extremely uncomfortable to talk about with an actual priest and as I love my pastor and respect him, I would not want to unintentionally possibly offend him.

I dunno, a priest spends quite alot of his time listening to confessions. I somehow doubt a comic is going to greatly effect him negatively

If I simply showed him the artwork, he’d probably enjoy it at face value, but I doubt whatever advice he would give would help after seeing it. He might like it though, who knows. Being a priest doesn’t mean he cannot have good taste.

Indeed, I remember I used to be friends with a priest who liked Nietzsche lol.

 

[The_Otaku]

Sigh…I’ve encountered so much of these “Catholic” manga and video games that utilizes Catholic elements but actually promote Japanese pop culture at its core. (Which translates generally to Atheism or leans towards Shinto/Buddhist beliefs)

If the original content of the comics are bothering you, remember: you are the one writing your fan comic. Why not change the story to reflect a more Catholic outlook rather than Japanese? Maybe in the end, your changes will transform your fan comic enough into a true unique creation of your own, preferably more in tune to the Catholic Faith. I’ve written a few short stories that oddly were originally fan fiction of a sort but after changing the universe, character names and other pertinent material, I managed to cobble something that I found pretty decent and more importantly, my own since the end product turned out so much different from the original.

That’s a good point, and actually, now that you mention it, I have considered, even before I started drawing the comic, that I could try and transform some of the more non-catholic (not to be confused with anti-catholic, which it is not) things and try to replace them with something more catholic. There’s just several problems in doing that, though, and here are the two main ones:

1- In editing the characters, or anything already well established, the characters are no longer the characters I enjoyed. They’re different, and I don’t really want that, as theres a difference between doing it my style and plain just changing the characters for my religious reasons. The reason I was able to enjoy the game so much was because of the way the characters were. To make them more “catholic” when they aren’t catholic to begin with, changes the characters too much and severely limits what I can and cannot do with them. How they speak, how they act, how they can think, how they can interact with others would have to be so closely monitored it wouldn’t allow the characters to be who they are and I’d get no enjoyment out of it.

2- Ironically, in making the themes more catholic, I make the story and the characters blasphemous or even MORE blasphemous than they already are. If I make the “sister” characters more like actual nuns (either of the current day variety or in the medieval times) I may as well cut off my hand and stop drawing, since I won’t be able to portray a nun or priest in a fictious, adventurous way and use my imagination. I’d be bound by catholic dogma and protocol to present a true-to-life version of these characters, and that is simply not comic book material because theres nothing to work with, in addition to the fact, it would completely transform the characters into something unrecognizable, and if I’m going to do that, I might as well just make an original series with real catholics, real nuns, and real priests (something I have considered and may do later, but for now this doujinshi is my focus).

This game (and my manga) aren’t about that. When I made my first post, I perhaps put too much emphasis on how catholic the game seemed when it really wasn’t the case. If I could go back and edit it I probably would, but this board is set to only allow posts to be edited 20 minutes after they were initially posted.

Anyways, given these two major reasons, you can see where this is a problem. If I make it more catholic, it’s more blasphemous because it won’t go hand in hand with the other elements, and the contrasts will be even greater and opposed to each other that they already were. I’d actually be making the situation worse, not better. The way it is now, they (the characters) seem ambiguously christian-like, which gives me leverage in what I can do and influence for the better without being forced to retcon or heavily edit everything.

They already do charitable acts of mercy, like saving people, bringing feuding couples back together, saving a sick young boy from his illness, in addition to getting rid of the demons, the monsters, and countering the bad guy.

I think when you weigh the good things the characters do with the fact they’re young, sexy, and dressed skimpy and have a female god, you can meet the story more than half way and come to terms with it. Is it really so important how they’re dressed as it is how they act and behave and where the moral line is drawn? There’s no direct blasphemy to the catholic church, since the game doesn’t use any particular inspiration in a way that is exclusive to the Church or implies it directly or that this is a fictional version of the Church and that these characters are catholic nuns and catholic priests and parodies of the real thing.

If that was the case, I wouldn’t be making the comic or this thread, since I’d already know the answer- definitely blasphemous, a mortal sin, and shame on me.

What do you think about this? It’s all fiction to begin with, so how seriously do you think I should be taking this? To me, it’s just a comic book with a story and characters I enjoy. I’m primarily doing this for myself, because I felt the game was too short and didn’t really delve into the character development, which I was hoping, being an RPG, that it would do. It doesn’t influence me any, and anyone who would read it online wouldn’t care or be influenced by it either. Any fans or readers I would have, would see it for what it superficially is- skimpy girls doing good, religious, rightious, holy things, while, at the same time, having adventures and doing battle, summoning their powers, doing their special moves or attacks, etc. At face value, I don’t see an adverse moral impression being placed on anyone.

I still remember this old comic, Warrior Nun Areala written by Ben Dunn, the father of American manga. The nuns all wore scantly clothing with oversized breasts. They wielded magic swords, rosaries that exploded, a sequence where the protagonist transformed by saying the Hail Mary etc. etc. On the other hand, Areala was portrayed well as a devout nun inspite of the many problematic errors the comic had regarding Catholic theology. Perhaps it’s because the comic was written by a Westener who had a more accurate vision of Catholicism as opposed from a Japanese point of view.

Wow, really? Never heard of it. Now, see, that’s what I can agree on is blasphemous. Unlike this story, that one has exploding rosaries and hail marys and uses actual catholic themes or subject matter? That’s a bit much even if the character is otherwise devote.

I’m not sure what you’re trying to relate to me by mentioning that comic, though. Are you saying that because a westerner made it and it had more catholic-like themes it was somehow more understandable or permissable, or are you demonstrating how out of hand it was, regardless of where it was made and by whom? Or, are you trying to show me how even an artist with good intentions and a good story and who puts forth ideas they think are good but lets his mind run a little wild in the process, ultimately corrupts them when he trys to have it both ways?

I’d like to know whether you enjoyed that comic. I’m assuming you read it, given that you know specific facts. If you were to look back on it now, being the catholic that you are, would you see that comic as a great disservice to public and spiritual morality?

Our Lord said you can not serve two masters. You will either love one or despise the other. Methinks this could be what’s happening to you. You love Japanese manga, anime and video games but find difficulty clinging to the objectionable elements due to your Catholic training. This tension will only grow stronger as you grow older, one or the other will be booted out eventually.

My suggestion above is to retain the acceptable elements (art style) but following what is good and true. (True Catholicity).

God Bless.

Now this is definitely true. You cannot have two masters, and I don’t. As I stated to another person earlier, I’m a devote catholic (at least I try to be). I go to mass regularly, I go to confession often and never receive our Lord if I’m not in a state of grace, I pray rosaries, divine mercy chaplets, etc., and I do perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament twice a week. I’m trying to know our Lord better. I don’t say these things to imply I’m holy or pious, because I’m not with the weaknesses and sins I commit, but I relate this to you to demonstrate that I’m faithful to our Lord and that at the end of the day, this is just a work of fiction and doesn’t influence or change my reality.

This doujinshi will only have about 3 story arcs to it and then it will be done. I don’t plan on making this a regular series that I do indefinitely. My comic was designed to pick up where the game’s story left off, and in making it that way, I can control the duration of the story, and if I need to stop or want to stop, I would have measures in place to provide a conclusion. Thankfully, there aren’t any other fan works I would want to make, that I can think of, that have religious themes to them, so this shouldn’t be an issue again.

Thank you for considerate and insightful post, and for putting up with my long winded posts. When I’m nervous I tend to trail on.

God bless you as well. =)