The Church and anime

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Not sure how many anime fans we have, but it’s interesting to see how the Church is treated in some of the series.

In Black Lagoon, the Church is presented as the “Rip Off Church” complete with a convent. The mother superior packs a gold plated Magnum Research DE-50, at least one of the other “nuns” packs a Glock G17L.

In Ghost in the Shell S.A.C., the Church sort of exists as a backdrop for at least one episode. Guess it is some sort of psuedo-redemptive setting for the episode’s bad guy before he gets taken down.

In Cowboy Bebop, the Church makes one definite appearance, where a cathedral is used as a backdrop for a fight between the main protagonist and main antagonist. It is one of the most detailed scenes I’ve watched in anime.

In The Big-O, the Church kind of makes various appearances. It’s presented as being something that people just “do” without any knowledge behind why they do it. It’s also a target of a bombing campaign in one episode. Pretty strong elements of personality cult/worship of persons as god. Ultimately, the setting’s world comes to a reset by a character named “Venus,” with symbolism highly linked to Venus’ old name “Lucifer.”

Anybody else notice any peculiar treatment of the Church in anime?
 
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Lol, nice. Never seen that series. Now, you have given me something to track down 🙂 I am a bit disappointed in the quality of the stained glass windows though. There are some nice high-res views of the cathedral in Cowboy Bebop “Ballad of the Fallen Angels” that are impressive.

I still think I like my “nuns with guns” from Black Lagoon.

There’s always Hellsing, but that’s the Anglican Church.
 
The Rip Off Church isn’t supposed to be a real parish; it’s a CIA front.
 
I wonder if their fascination with Catholicism is similar to back in the 70s when the US was fascinated with that “Kung Fu” TV show and with Eastern religious stuff in general without having much of a deep understanding of it, beyond monks in robes meditating, kick boxing, and occasionally setting themselves on fire to protest Vietnam.

Just the fact that people from a culture with almost no Catholics would sit around watching “Vatican Miracle Examiner” when a show like that in the USA would go absolutely nowhere despite us having large numbers of Catholics.
 
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Anime is alright depending on the series. It’s anime fandoms that are degenerate.
 
Yeah. Fandoms are a good way to turn people off perfectly good media.
 
If you’re in the USA you can watch it on Amazon Prime. That’s about the only place it’s available right now here without buying DVDs.
 
It’s an anime trope for the “church”, Roman Catholic or fictional, to be a source of corruption sometimes escalated to being bent on world domination, though I wouldn’t say it’s universal.

As a comment, I remember Tales of Symphomia, an anime video game, from some years ago. In this game one world had been divided into two parallel worlds a long time ago that were being manipulated by one organization. The worlds had a back and forth cycle where while one prospered the other decayed, and this would be reversed every so often through plot reasons. They mostly weren’t aware of each other. ANYWAY, in the rich world the fictional church was corrupt and in bed with the also corrupt political leaders. In the decaying world the church (same religion) was good, charitable, humble, helpful, etc…

I found that interesting as far as anime tropes go.
 
As mentioned, the Rip-Off Church in Black Lagoon really isn’t a Church.
Wesrock said:
It’s an anime trope for the “church”, Roman Catholic or fictional, to be a source of corruption sometimes escalated to being bent on world domination, though I wouldn’t say it’s universal.
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Off the top of my head, the Legend of Heroes franchise of games subverts this trope heavily. The fictional, obvious Roman Catholicism stand-in is a genuinely benevolent organization and while it does have a secret branch skilled in subterfuge and assassination, it isn’t used for personal power but to secure ancient artifacts of immense power, not for personal use, but to seal them away so no one abuses them.
 
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