145

研究ノート

Entertaining Religious Ideas in Animation
through the Study of Religious Elements in Japanese Anime
Saeedeh Mousavi

Abstract
In recent years, animation has established itself as one of the mostimportant aspects of cultural policies in Islamic republic of Iran due tothe recognition of the dominating power of this media toward young
generations. The Iran’s approach is to produce religiously themed
animation in order to convey Islamic and national values to theaudiences, particularly since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But this kindof products has always suffered from the lack of public appeal and as aresult, the industry in Iran has come across various problems to develop
further. The goal of this study is to explore for utilizing religious ideas
in Japanese anime which can be practicable for the animation industry
of a religiously oriented country like Iran. Thus, this study tries to
explore what options the animation industry of Iran can learn from theJapanese experiences.
Keywords: Animation, Manga, Anime, Religion, Japan, IranIntroduction
In Japan, drawing illustrated stories as an artistic tradition goes backs to
the 12th century. During the past centuries this art form has been vastly popularamong different social groups. Manga and anime, which can be considered asmodern day descendants of the long-lasting culture of depicting pictorial novels
in Japan, primarily act as means for story-telling and entertainment. But, amore precise look at the content and usage of these media has said to revealthat they also comprise an extremely potential capacity which connote proselyte
and promote religious ideas.

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According to Richard Gardner (2008, 200), manga and anime in Japan has
first played a role in distributing specific religious doctrines and thus received
much attention, immediately after the 20th March 1995 poisonous gas attackon the Tokyo subway lines committed by the members of the religious group‘Aum Shinrikyo.’ 1 Real reasons behind the Aum’s act are still a matter ofinvestigation. Yet, some scholars started to discuss about a negative role thatfictional media such as manga and anime possibly played in this incident, as
the extent of the crimes committed by Aum became clear. They asserted thatthose kind of media might have led to a mental inability in distinguishingreality from illusion, fantasy, or simulation. The Sarin gas attack, aside fromkilling twelve people and causing the injury of hundreds of people, led to anationwide concern about the issue of social problem which can be caused byany religious group that originally appears to be a marginal group.
Contemporary Japan is considered as a nonreligious society. ManyJapanese people do not consider themselves as members of a specific religious
group. But, a mixture of various religious elements is considered to be embedded
in people’s mind in a homogeneous way. Major contributors of this religious
syncretism are Buddhism, Shinto, and Confucianism, which have shaped aworldview, beliefs and value systems that are currently observable among
Japanese people. These concepts and ideas, as Thomas (2012, 9) mentions “areoften described as ‘common sense’ (joshiki) or ‘Japaneseness’ rather than as
anything explicitly religious.” While Japanese people are practicing many
religious customs in their daily life, they may not be aware of the underlying
religious nature of these traditions. In such a society, manga and anime 2 can beused as a media to save and transfer the religious information to the people who
do not distinguish religious activities from other aspects of everyday life.3
Animation is a media of wide range of audiences, mostly comprising theyouth. Consequently, it may play a really pivotal role in the transferring ofspecific ideas and beliefs to society. In order to evaluate the extent to which thismedia affects on its audiences precisely, it is necessary to identify the realnature of such transferring. An excessive analysis should be made not only on
the goal and intention of the creator or director through the analysis of animation
products as well as the evaluation of the products by the viewer but also on the
dynamic role of the audience in receiving and interpreting the message of theanimation products.

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As it was propounded by Stewart Hall with respect to the transfer ofmessages in media, meaning is not simply fixed or determined by the sender ofthe message. The message is never transparent and the audience is not apassive recipient of the meaning either (Procter, 2004, 59). Consequently, themeaning of the message is interpreted through the interaction between its
producer and the reader, yet is often determined arbitrarily by the reader: “Theproducer (encoder) framed (or encoded) meaning in a certain way, while thereader (decoder) decodes it differently according to his/her personal background,the various different social situations and frames of interpretation” (McQuail,
1994, 101). The said viewpoint considered, although animation works reflect
ideas and beliefs of creators to a great extent, an excessive emphasis on the goal
and intention of the creator during the transferring process of the message maylead to an unrealistic understanding of the audience as mere recipients of themessage.
In the recent years, animation has established itself as one of the mostsignificant aspects of cultural policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The
Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution (SCRC), one of the leading agencies
being in charge of cultural policies, passed ‘Iran’s Comprehensive ScientificPlan’ in 2010. This plan stated the importance of technology and new media in
educating and cultivating the young generations, and emphasized thesignificance of the advancement of Animation and Computer Games regarding
it as a high priority program of the regime. For this purpose, Iran has tried
utmost to produce religious animations, which transfer Islamic values andnational beliefs to its audiences. However, because of such orientation in the
production system, Iranian animation industry has faced a great challenge indevelopment, due to the excessive emphasis on the transferring of religious
message through the animation products. Consequently, most of these products
do not enjoy required appeal for attracting a wide range of audiences.
Despite the fact that Japanese society is religiously deficient, based on the
recent studies of scholars in the field of manga and anime, there exists an
extremely wide variety of potential religious dispositions in Japanese manga
and anime. Since the Islamic revolution of 1979, Iran has broadcasted many
Japanese animation products and looks at Japanese animation industry as themost adaptable model of development for Iranian animation industry.
Within this context, this study attempts to answer whether Japanese148

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manga and anime connote many religious elements as the policy makers in Iranconsider. In this regard, the research tries to examine to what extent Japanesemanga and anime have displayed and/or connoted religious ideas and how suchreligious connotation reaches the audience accordingly. It is hoped that thisresearch will lead to inquiring whether the contemporary Iran can use Japanesemanga and anime as a model for its own development as an industry, which isbeyond the scope of this study yet will provide research perspectives.

1. The Imaginary World Created by Manga and Anime
Manga are a set of visual novels in which a combination of images and texts
in multiple frames are put beside each other. Usually, each part of the saidvisual novels is published in weekly or monthly journals. Then, the entire parts
are separately republished in several issues in the form of storybooks on paperof poor quality. Mass publication of relatively low cost is considered as one of
the most significant causes for the extensive prevalence of manga across thenation of Japan. On the whole, about 40% of total Japanese publications consistof manga (Napier, 2005, 20).
sales amountnumber of sales copies
22.6%

comic
10.7%
comic
magazine
11.9%
other
publication
77.4%

comic
13.5%
other
publication
61.9%

38.1%

comic
magazine
24.6%

Figure1, Comics and comic magazines rate in all publications as of 2002,
Source: Shuppan Geppou (monthly publishing), February 2003,
The Research Institute for Publications

Manga or Japanese comic books comprise a major part of Japanese popular
culture. There is a close relation between manga stories and history and cultureof the aforesaid country, especially in such areas as politics, economics, family,
religion and gender. Thus, the manga stories are not only reflections of present
society of Japan but also they reflect myths, beliefs and imaginations of Japanesepeople about themselves and the world. Although the equivalent of the wordEntertaining Religious Ideas in Animation

149‘Manga’ is ‘Comic’ in translation, actually, there are considerable differences
between manga and comic. The most distinguished difference between the twois the range of audiences and subjects, which are covered by Japanese manga.
Likewise, manga is produced for all social and age groups: from preschool kids
to workers of industrial factories. Considering which group of audience isconcerned, manga stories visualize the most subtle emotional challenges andthe most trivial social problems with concerned groups. As Susan J. Napier, oneof the most well-known theoreticians in the field of manga and anime, believes
that the extension of themes and the variety of the audience have caused current
considerable effect and influence of manga in Japanese society (Napier, 2005,
19).
When a manga series sells best or its story has much potential for the
successful marketing in the future, publishers decide to produce an animation
series based on the said manga, which is called ‘Anime’. Whilst there are a few
animation series, which are not based on manga and have been produced in theform of animated images from the beginning, as MacWilliams (2008, 6) suggests,
up to 90% of anime series are produced based on manga, which had been
published earlier.4 This fact implies that during changing process of manga toanime, the story’s complexity and the number of characters are decreased to agreat extent due to financial and time constraints in such a way as the animatedcopy is created mostly different from the original manga and the said copy canbe considered as a fresh product by itself.
Reading manga just like consuming newspapers is a regular part of daily
life of Japanese people. MacWilliams (2008, 3), a researcher in the field of
manga and anime, considers Susan Sontag’s term of ‘Image World’ as anevidence of present Japanese society where most of the mass media are involvedin creating and using images to direct people’s expectations about reality inorder to replace objective experience by stories. MacWilliams believes that thesources of these stories are in fact animated images of manga and anime. Suchentertainments as manga and anime create a great opportunity for audiences
to move away from anxieties of their daily life and simultaneously to reflect
their wishes, desires and anxieties:
Thus, of the more than 2 billion manga produced each year, the vast
majority have a dreamlike quality. They speak to people’s hopes, and fears.

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They are where stressed-out modern urbanites daily work out theirneuroses and frustrations. Viewed in their totality, the phenomenal numberof stories produced is like the constant chatter of the collective unconscious,
an articulation of a dream world (Schodt, 1996, 31).
The devoted fans of manga and anime which are recognized under the termof ‘Otaku’ estimated to be around 2.4 million in Japan and spend 2.5 billion
dollars a year on manga, anime and related products.5 Such popularity of manga
and anime is not only limited to Japan, but also, as Brown (2006, 6) suggests,
anime covers about 60% of total animations being broadcasted all over theworld. It seems an increasing trend. Combined anime and manga trade in the
USA have been calculated in 2010 to be over $400 million. Up to 35% of total
annual income of great Japanese animation producing companies such as Toei 6earn from these foreign trades.7
Justifying the huge popularity of Manga and Anime inside and outside
Japan, Jaqueline Berndt (2006, 149), a scholar in the field of Manga, propounds
that they are low-cost forms of entertainment, which are only for pleasure.
Nevertheless, these characteristics do not reduce cultural value of the said
products. In Japan, manga and anime belong to mass or popular culture andfrom this viewpoint, they have been put forth as challenging art forms inacademic and scholarly cycles in the recent years.8

2. Power of Manga and Anime in Deploying Religious Ideas
After the incident of attacking Tokyo underground using Sarin Gas,
observers were searching for probable agents causing the attack, investigating
all aspects of present Japanese society. Many of them considered Manga andanime as one of the main agents in formation of ‘strange’ beliefs and performanceof Aum group. Among Japanese religious researchers, Nobutaka Inoueelaborated the concept of ‘Virtual Reality’ in connection with the effect of visual
images 9 resulted from manga and anime media on the youth. He stated thatthese media may cause disturbance in individual perception in such a way as it
will be difficult to differentiate reality from imagination:

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Youth seem to feel that everything is like a computer game. Asahara
seemed to have said in his childhood that «I want to create a robot kingdom
someday». While we may think it ludicrous that they did such things asimport a military helicopter from Russia and store up immense supplies ofdrugs and chemicals in order to survive Armageddon, it might be that they
tried to make real their fantasies derived from manga and anime. (Inoue,
1995d, 29 and Gardner, 2008, 214).
Asahara and his group were not only impressed by cataclysmic andcatastrophic manga and animes such as The Space Battleship Yamato (1973),
Conan, The Boy of the Future (1978), Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984),
but also they themselves were involved in producing such media in order toattract new followers and to strengthen belief and faith of group members insuperhuman abilities and Armageddon predictions of the group leader. The
artists, who were residing in Aum, have created certain manga and anime toemphasize the Asahara’s claim of possessing of supernatural powers. As Thomas(2012, 125) mentions, they used to decrease adventure aspects of stories asmuch as possible in order to deal with parts, which were allotted to conversionof religion of new followers, achieving metaphysical powers by them, andadmiring and praising the religious intellectual leadership of Asahara Shoko as
Savior.
Use of manga and anime media in order to attract and convert newadherents by religious groups is a common trend in Japan (Inoue, 1995 andThomas, 2012). Traditionally, Japanese illustrated stories have been serving
religious ideas and beliefs. Through a look at history of illustrated storytelling,
it is revealed that different kinds of this art such as Emaki 10, Etoki 11, Kibyoshi 12
and Kamishibai,13 which can be regarded as antecedents and primary forms ofmodern manga, in some way have all been at the service of religious propagation.
This may be rooted in the value, which is attached to images by Buddhism andit considers the same as powerful means in educating and achieving final
salvation and prosperity.
Since receiving and perceiving messages of images do require familiarity
with visual grammar and its specific codes, religious illustration in Japan does
not rely on images only. Furthermore, it has used marginal text for elaborationof the story of work and also benefited from monks and trained individuals in152

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order to narrate depicted religious teachings and stories. The art of these monks
was to narrate illustrated stories in such a way as the stories could entertain
the audience and teach religious and ethical concepts to the audiencesimultaneously. Lastly, it was the imagination of the audiences, which has
played a pivotal role in adapting the story to images, animating the story intheir minds.
In modern manga and anime, which have been formed by introducing
western comics and film technology to the Japanese society, cinematic
techniques and dynamic image processing methods played the role of narratingmonks. Precise arrangement and intelligent mingling of still images all together,creates the illusion of movement in the mind of the audience. In fact, suchillusions have changed manga and anime to an appropriate media for display ofimaginary qualities of religion such as miracle, ascension, spiritual manifestationand intuition. In this regard, Thomas (2012, 56) explains that intentional
suspension of disbelief, which forms an inseparable part of imaginative
participation on the process of reading manga and watching anime, is the same
as voluntary assumption of belief in essence of religion. Preparation for taking
part in narrating a story through belief is common both in imagination andreligion as such preparation exists for interpretation of painted images asreality.
Religion in Japan encompasses a mixed history consisting of nature-based
religion of Shinto and primary forms of Chinese Buddhism together withethical-social teachings of Confucianism. Contrary to most countries where
different religions are completely separated from each other, in Japan, all of thementioned traditions are mingled as an amalgam of customs, ideals and social
behaviors. On the other hand, cultural and religious history of Japan are mergedin such a way as even in today’s Japanese society, there is no sensible difference
between religion and other cultural areas of daily life of Japanese people. Thus,
religious traditions are involved in all aspects of Japanese people life as in mostof the times, an individual is not aware about religious roots of many of his
activities and it may be said that most of the public prefer to note these activities
as tradition not religion. Although statistics reveal low percentage of belief in
religion by Japanese people,14 such deep interlinked religious and culturalvalues within Japanese society reinforces this thought that actually Japanesepeople must have an extremely religious nature.15

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In such society, as much as the proselytizers are interested in manga andanime to represent the authenticity of their religious beliefs and to promotereligious and moral values, authors, artists, and directors too, may utilize thecapabilities and capacities of religious concepts and imagery to enhance thevisual attractiveness and to make sense of the narrative of their works.
Meanwhile, manga and anime enable their creators to preserve the fading
religious traditions in their artworks and to convey them to the audiences.
However, this does not mean downplaying the role of the audience as a passive
consumer of imposed thoughts by creators of manga and directors of anime
either. In fact, illustrating religious ideas in Japanese manga and anime
embraces dynamic and various arenas, providing the possibility of different
readings for their audience as well.

3. Representation of Religious Ideas in Manga and Anime
As Stewart M. Hoover (2002, 147) has propounded regarding representationof religion in television programs, religious approach in visual media is of two
types: One is respective programs, specifically addressing religious subjects andconcepts. These programs usually have only a particular group of audience. The
other is presence of religious concepts and thoughts which exists in experienceof watching a visual medium, which is exposed to all groups of the audiences.
When it is generally spoken about representation of religion in film andanimation, the former approach is usually concerned at first. Religious program
development is often considered in the direction of ethical beliefs and values
while religion may cover more extensive and entertaining areas simultaneously.
3-1. What Is Religion?
According to a minimal definition of religion, presented by Edward Burnett
Tylor, Religion is associated with “belief in supernatural beings.” Elaborating
the said subject, David Chidester propounds that religion deals with metaphysics,
which can’t be traced or proved by using natural senses or scientific experiments(Chidester, 2005,16). In Islam also belief in ‘Unseen’ is considered as one of thefirst characteristics of faith. Explaining about the phrase: “(Muslims are) Those
who believe in the unseen” (Verse Three of Koran Al-Baqare Surah), Ostad
Motahari stated that “the unseen means that a human admits to the fact that

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there are certain realities in this universe, which he is not able to perceive
through his body and his senses, even if they exist in this universe”. He further
added that “all in which humans should believe, has been expressed by the Holy
Koran by ‘the unseen’; belief in the fact that there are realities, which arebeyond human’s senses” (Motahari, 1991, 146-147).
Considering this viewpoint, the glossary of religious concepts and symbols
are one of the richest references for storytelling and attracting various audiences.
Biography of the most religious leaders and saints, superhuman characters,
miracles, metaphysical phenomena, astonishing or divine events, mysterious
allegories and experiences, invisible worlds and ghosts, evils and angels, jinn,
and horror stories, which are told in connection with each item mentioned
above, all lie within the area of religious beliefs, which comics and animation
imagery is noticeably able to visualize them.
The dilemma that faces this area is concerned about the border existing
between religion and superstitions. As it has been put forth by the well-known
linguist, Emil Benevist, the application of religion has been strongly adifferentiating indicator, especially against ‘Superstition.’ On this subject
Chidester (2005, 39) explains that in ancient Roman discourse, the word ‘religio’
was used mostly referred to noble human activities, against ‘superstitio’ thatmeant “non-original,” strange or something contrary to human activities, whichhave apparently been based on asininity, fear or deception. In fact, applicationof the word “religion” was in such a way as people used this word in connection
with their day-to-day actual and tangible experiences, giving meaning to their
daily activities (cause and effect relation). Consequently, religion is consideredsomething which acts for integrating the three factors of experience, identity
and meaning in daily life (Hoover, 2002, 147).
3-2. Visualizing Religion in Manga and Anime
In order to solve the abovementioned dilemma, Thomas (2012, 13-14)
analyzes the religious aspects of Japanese manga and anime by hiring the word
“Vernacular Religion”, indicating daily function of religion. Vernacular religionis the improved form of the words “Popular Religion” and “folk religion,” whichis exclusively referred to interpretation and translation of a specific religious
practice or concept into local languages and worldviews (which may be educatedor illiterate). Moreover, vernacular religion means inserting official religious

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ideas in daily activities. Thomas believes that both religious leaders and artists
are involved in creating a certain type of language, which may easily beunderstood by the audience of any type or group. Consequently, the result ofefforts taken by both groups is familiarization of public with religious words,
concepts and images. Over the centuries this process has occurred in different
cultures. The result of the process is to form a storehouse of religious concepts,
which has helped different artists to create attractive and conceiving stories.
Thus, producers and creators of manga and anime may utilize thisstorehouse of religious beliefs and concepts in two different ways:●

Religious organizations or missioners may use animation as a powerful
media to present the religious ideas. In this case, artists who are hired
for creating the intended product may use the storehouse of religious
concepts to create the product within the frameworks imposed by themessage, which has been determined by the contractors.

●

Authors and producers of an animation product may use the religious
concepts and ideas as a way to create an entertaining story. In this case,the primary goal of the creator of a work, which may be an artistic
creativity, earning money, entertaining a group of audience or educating,shall impress selected religious concepts and thoughts.

This classification indicates that the type of art work noticeably determines
the area of action and freedom of an artist in using religious notions, whether
the artist is hired for producing a religious work or the artist himself, based on
the requirements of the project liberally picks the religious concepts. Meanwhile,
this implicitly reveals the fact that during the creation of an art work, deploying
religious images and concepts by the artist does not necessarily reveal the belief
and commitment of the artist in presented religious notions on the art work.
Artists may use evils, angels and/or holy places in their products with noreligious motivation, only aiming at making their work become more entertaining
while this may lead to religious interpretation by the audience.

4. The Utilization of Religious Elements in Manga and Anime‘Religious manga and anime’ are not commonly classified as one genre, andoften discussed separately. But, earlier studies made by scholars such as
Yamanaka Hiroshi (1996), Yumiyama Tatsuya (2005) and the detailed work of

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Jolyon Thomas (2010) have already maintained the idea that the ‘religious
manga and anime’ is regarded as a genre which itself is divided into various
subgenres. In fact, using religious ideas and concepts in manga and anime
comprise various patterns. They may lie in a range of ‘pedagogical-instructional’
types to certain models, which are only used for ‘ornamental-aesthetic’ purposes.
In order to introduce religious-ethical concepts to their audience, creators ofeducational products use educational or advising method and style. Although
the primary goal of this group of producers is to educate, however, during thisprocess they may also provide suitable grounds for entertaining the audience
too. Instead, producers of esoteric or cosmetically religious manga and anime
use religious illustrations and concepts to make their products appealing. The
primary goal of this group is to hire religious concepts, characters and images
for entertaining the audience although during the said process they may
stimulate religious emotions or at least create sense of religious curiosity among
their audiences. Adventure stories associated with saints and angels, stories ofghosts, and mysterious and horror stories are classified in this group as well.
4-1. Pedagogical Manga and Anime
This group of works by telling an imaginary or realistic story, actually acts
as a text or preliminary booklet about religious or historical principles of acertain sect. These works are mostly produced through financial sponsorship ofa religious group or sect, which has propagated for the ideas of the said work.
When pedagogical manga or anime are directly produced by religious sects,
they become ‘Didactic’. The aim of leaders of religious sects of producing didactic
manga and anime is to educate certain customs to their followers and to
stimulate emotions of their fans, promoting their beliefs and gravitating them
toward their own ideas and norms. Meanwhile, they try utmost to propagate
their ideas in a conceiving and attractive form by the help of manga and anime
media so that they will be able to attract new followers. However, as Thomas(2012, 81) mentions, since these works have concentrated on a specific religious
doctrine, they mostly enjoy predictable and prejudiced structure. At the sametime, the artists who are commissioned to produce the work may not be
particularly inspired by the material, resulting in weak products in aspects ofthe story and artistic quality. Consequently, these groups of works may not beable to attract a wide range of audiences.

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Among these types of works, one may point out the anime named Laws ofEternity (2006). This anime is one of several kinds of manga and anime, whichhave been produced by the Buddhist sect of ‘Kofuku no Kagaku’ (Happy Science)in order to elaborate and to propagate the religious doctrine of the group. This
animation narrates the story of spiritual journey of a young boy and his friends,
who travel to paradise and hell and eventually they achieve true reality of theworld of ghosts and reincarnation. This Anime was produced in 2006 by
benefiting from the highest standards of production and using the most popular
Japanese voice actors. However, despite the fact that this work has benefited
from extensive advertising in the media, it could not attract a great number ofaudiences inside or outside Japan: “Like other didactic films, the laws of eternity
waxes pedantic, and it may therefore invite boredom or apathy easily as
curiosity or belief. The usage of anime medium alone does not guarantee
narrative success, nor attracts new adherents to a religion. Nevertheless, thesuperb technical execution of this film reflects the group’s investment in thefilm and its message” (Thomas, 2012, page 83).
However, the above mentioned problems have not led to the fact that
religious groups give up producing manga and anime in order to achieve wider
range of audiences, especially the youth. In pedagogical manga and anime, it istried utmost to transfer religious concepts to the youth while in most cases, notenough attention is paid to entertaining aspects of the products either.
4-2. Moralistic Manga and Anime
Instead, there is a group of manga and anime, which have createdequilibrium between both religious and entertaining aspects. These types of
products are mostly concerned about moralistic issues as their main theme.
Instead of encouraging audience to strengthen faith and religiosity, they try to
make the audience think and contemplate. Moralistic manga and anime aremostly reflections of thoughts of their authors and reveal his thoughts about
nature of human, main goal of living, and after-life world. The creators of suchworks may be concerned about national, environmental, social or politicalissues, which have been reviewed by the author in the view of his ethical value
system and presented to public in a simple and understandable language.
Whereas these types of works, do not project too much prejudice compared to
involved thoughts and ideas, they usually enjoy the ability to create a dynamic

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dialogue with the audience.
Moralistic manga and anime may express their viewpoints in considerationof criticism and satire. Although such works as described above do not directly
deal with religious subjects, the critical approach of this group of works
inevitably relates these works to religious and ethical subjects. This critical
approach concerns the nature of religious sects, opportunistic and deceitful
identity of their leaders, brainwashing of their followers, and the resulting
social violence. Some of these manga and anime have proceeded to the extent
that instead of addressing given and imaginary religious sects, they directly
deal with illustrating greed of some of Buddhist monks which has been narrated
in public literature.16 In these types of works, good forces, to the same extent as
leaders of deceiver religious sects, enjoy metaphysical and superhuman powers,
which help them overcome devil forces and finally save people from a apocalyptic
disaster.
Many scholars 17 have discussed the existence of strong religious motifs in
the works of famous and Oscar-winner Japanese director, Hayao Miyazaki.
Almost all of the anime of Miyazaki designate moralistic values, especially inconnection with praising traditions and environmental protection through acritical approach toward human’s mistakes. “Despite his professed antipathy toreligion, many of Miyazaki’s movies are moralistic, and he has made some ofthem with the explicit intention of inculcating certain values that can bereasonably described as religion” (Thomas, 2012, 104). In order to prove theaforesaid claim, Thomas refers to the anime, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
(1984). This animation is the story of saving the world and human by a girlnamed ‘Nausicaa’, who enjoys messianic characteristics of a ‘Savior’. She diesfor saving the people, who have destroyed their environment, however, sherevives at the end. Although Miyazaki, as the author of manga and then, theproducer of the anime of Nausicaa, rejects his religious influence and motivationin producing this work, religious elements such as final resurrection of theprotagonist are clearly prove the otherwise. That is why Yamanaka Hiroshi, in
his classification of religious Manga, classifies Nausicaa as “Manga, that acts asa religious text.” On the whole, “this Manga provides the same structure as areligious text like Bible” (Yamanaka, 2009- 144 and Thomas, 2012, 112).
Nausicaa is among the best animation works in Japan. Immediately after
this anime has screened, it was highly appreciated by both ordinary audiences

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Entertaining Religious Ideas in Animationand critics. The box office of this anime was about 740 million Yen. This amountprovided the required capital for the establishment of Ghibli Studio by Miyazaki(Osmond, 1998). Justifying the brilliant success of Nausicaa and other works ofMiyazaki, Thomas identifies that Miyazaki’s works present religious thoughts
but Miyazaki does not impose. Although religious thoughts are thus foundobviousely in his works, his film making style focouses on the entertainment
aspect. Thomas stated as follows:
Miyazaki’s moviemaking, therefore, simultaneously reflects his personaltake on religion and his audience’s evident desire for certain types ofcontents. Simultaneously, it reflects his basic desire to entertain and theaudiences desire to be entertained. (Thomas 2012, 110).
By attaching a great emphasis on the concept of entertaining the audience,educational messages and teachings of the author generally become hidden andseem free from moralistic preaching. Consequently, although moralistic manga
and anime undoubtedly comprise an intellectual worldview and philosophy of
the artist, who is creator of the work simultaneously, the audience does not feelthat the author’s values are imposed on him.
4-3. Occult and Horror Manga and Anime
From a perspective that manga and anime dealing with unseen themes, ofwhich wisdom and science are not able to justify, disguise their dominant
atmosphere,

mysterious

andfrightening

characteristics

constituteaclassification of ‘occult and horror manga and anime’. Occult and horror manga
and anime, which are about issues such as metaphysical powers, ghosts, Jinn,
and other fearful creatures and events, usually illustrate, in an entertaining
manner, inability of human beings to encounter such phenomena. In this typeof works, fictional and entraining aspects proceed educational one. Artists, who
create such works freely use religious ideas and concepts and create entertaining
adventures, which may include no educational or ethical message. However,such use of religious themes, may lead to the rise of sense of curiosity andinclination for asking more questions among the audiences or at least,
unconsciously provides suitable grounds for the familiarity of the audience withreligious concepts and ideas.

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Rajyashree Pandy (2008, 221), a manga researcher, considers belief andaesthetic aspects of Japanese Buddhism as root and base of horror manga. He
puts forth that intellectual and ethical fundamentals of manga is identified intheir attitude toward such subjects as human’s life and death, the relationshipbetween human and inhuman and the relationship between an individual andhis own body. The Buddhism thoughts provide suitable intellectual and belief
ground for expansion of the thoughts, apparently superstitious, in the textureof modern Japanese life Pandy believes that horror Manga is the product of akind of “modern” sensitiveness and it enjoys a great closeness to western horror
movies as well. He claims that there is a fundamental difference between thisgenre and horror illustrations during medieval, which had more warning aims
and completely intertwined with religious subjects and concepts. Japanese
medieval hell scroll paintings (jigoku zoshi) were allotted to illustrating tortures
waiting for sinners. In this type of works, fear of hell was hired in order to makelife and pleasures of this world be useless and to guide the audience toward
intuition and salvation. While in modern manga, fear is transferred throughsuch subjects as being captured by the ghosts and evils, metamorphosis of man
into the beasts and destructive creatures, which are generated by corrupted
technology.
In Buddhism school, the world is divided into six universes of gods, humans,
asura, animals, hungry ghosts and the creatures of hell, which have located ina hierarchical system. Based on their acts, humans may be born repeatedly ineach of these universes until they reach perfectness and achieve enlightenment.
Moving among different worlds is the result of Buddhist worldview, which hasprovided suitable grounds for acceptance of evil and mesmerized creatures
beside humans in Japanese thought. Pandy (2008, 224) believes that Japanesemanner of thinking suggests that there is a fluid relation between human andother creatures. This reduces the intensity of aggressive positions against evil
creatures as “other”.
In fact, extensive presence of robots, cyborgs and android creatures inJapanese imaginary stories may conform to religious philosophy of this country:“Buddhist and Shinto appreciation for being human makes humanoid robots
more appealing than the often negative response to the human condition inWestern traditions. The Japanese enjoy the presence of robots in their midst
thanks in part to the Shinto perspective that the world is full of kami, sacred

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entities” (Geraci, 2006, 2). This means that sacred nature of the world include
all creatures and eventually robots. This innate holiness makes them to natural
partners of human beings.
Relying on the above statements, one may perceive that the pivot of creating
fear in horror manga and anime lies in the uncertainty of where human beings
actually stand in the universe. That is, the world view in which human is not in
the center of the universe. The authors of these works hire such techniques assuspension and surprise to create exciting and unpredictable stories, which
their main motive is to create sense of horror and anxiety among the audience.
However, horror manga and anime are like rich encyclopedia references, which
do preserve and keep the religious vocabulary and elements, which are being
forgotten.
4-4. Ornamental Religious Manga and Anime
In these works, religious contents and images are used merely forbeautification and space decoration. The contents of these works may include
social, emotional and epic subjects in which religious elements are used without
any clear relation with theological themes and only for the purpose ofenvironmental design or character development. Manga and anime that
illustrate temples, religious statues and ceremonies in the backgrounds or use
saints and religious characters with new and abnormal characteristics as theirprotagonists are put in this category.
Artists who use religious ideas only for ornamental-aesthetic purposes may
use combinations of different traditions based on the necessities of stories insuch a manner that the used religious elements and images get a meaning quite
different from their common meaning. For example, common use of crucifixion
in manga and anime may be referred to as one of the methods of complete defeatof the competitor. In most of these cases, crucifixion has no direct relation with
the Christ story or death and by illustrating the Christian content of crucifixion,
Japanese artists only intend to show a catastrophic and unexpected death. As
Brenner (2007, 102) has propounded by depicting crucifixion in their works theartists neither intend to show that a character has characteristics like Christ
nor to refer to the crucifixion of Christ. However, despite such manipulations in
the main meaning of religious contents, mere use of religious elements in manga
and anime provides a suitable ground for the audience to become familiar with

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religious traditions. In this way, such media create a spiritual environmentthat impedes disconnection of the audience from religious illustrations andideas in the routine life.

Conclusion
Various methods for the representation of religious concepts in Japanesemanga and anime have provided the ground for familiarity of Japanese people
from different age groups and social communities with a wide range of religious
concepts and terms and have avoided forgetting several belief and ethicaltraditions in a secular community. Use of media such as manga and anime as
representatives of pop culture in Japan in order to transfer and keep religious
thoughts have resulted in the shaping and the growth of an effective connection
with the representation of religious views and storytelling and entertainment.
The field of religious concepts and imagery is a vast treasury that includes
different subjects from belief and ethical issues to the stories of ghosts andmetaphysics. As shown by the models used in manga and anime, such subject
variation has provided both religious missionaries and leaders, and producers
of entertainment industry with several resources and capabilities for storytelling
and attracting audiences.
Although these works can be divided in a general classification into certain
groups such as pedagogical, moralistic, horror and ornamental groups based on
the level of loyalty to the principle of religious contents, these ideas and concepts
can be interpreted much differently by different audiences. Such variety ofinterpretations often produces different allocations to these works in thecharacterization mentioned above. Politicians, clergymen, artists, producers
and the audiences may each have a different impression and understanding ofa single work. As a result, a work may simultaneously be described asentertaining by one group and as religious by another.
In the process of producing their products, artists and producers ofanimation progress toward statement of their ideas and beliefs. These ideas
and beliefs naturally encompass the author’s beliefs and worldview. Thus, anartist’s viewpoint is inevitably reflected in his/her work as the work is the
product of the artist’s manipulation and dictation of specific values he or she
attaches. However, the author’s intention does not always match with theEntertaining Religious Ideas in Animation

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audience’s interpretation. Facing the work, the audience actively generates
meanings from the contents based on his or her cultural background and social
experiences in life and finally, and thus the meanings can be produced as theresult of the audience interaction with the text. Analyzing the methods for the
representation of religious concepts in Japanese manga and anime indicatesthat the anticipation of the events of the story and the message of the work
become easier, as the statement of religious views in these works takes a morepedagogical and didactic approach. As a result, the entertainment aspect of thestory can be considerably reduced. The purpose of comprehensive use of media
such as comic books and animation considered, the mass production system inparticular is merely designed to entertain the audience and to provide themwith peace of mind. Thus, lack of such properties would naturally lead to thework that cannot attract the audience much.
Therefore, as the analysis of the moralistic manga and anime showed,
works that have been produced with the goal of entertainment and haveprovided a suitable ground in this way for transfer of religious and moralistic
values, have been successful to make a balance between the author’s intention
for education and the audience’s demand for entertainment. Yet, a question
remains how the author can strike a balance between the fulfillment of theaudience’s expectation and what messages the author needs to transmit byusing manga and anime as a tool for a sort of pedagogical discourse. A further
study is necessary to examine this aspect, which will be done in the context of
the analysis of the contemporary Iran’s animation industry.
Although Japan and Iran both can be considered as traditional societies,
extensive cultural differences between them impedes an exact modeling fromJapanese methods of representation of religious concepts in animation by the
Iranian animation industry. Paying attention to the entertainment dimensionof products by the use of storehouse of religious ideas can provide several ways
to attracting the audience. This is because this storehouse of religious ideas canpave the foundation for animation directors inside a religious-oriented production
system like Iran, to make use of the native and daily religious customs insteadof official religion, and also enjoy the mysterious and metaphysical dimensionsof religion and religious-ornamental illustrations in non-religious works.

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Endnotes
1. Aum Shinrikyo is a Japanese cult terrorist group, which was founded by Shoko Asahara in
1984. Aum Shinrikyo is a syncretic belief system that incorporates Asahara’s view of Christianitywith idiosyncratic interpretations of Yoga, and the writings of Nostradamus. In 1992 Asahara
declared himself ‘Christ’ and announced that his mission is to take upon himself the sins of theworld. He claimed that he could transfer to his followers spiritual power and ultimately takeaway their sins and bad works. He was convicted of planning the 1995 sarin gas attack on theTokyo subway.
2. The word ‘anime’ is based on the Japanese pronunciation of the word ‘animation.’ In this article
the word ‘animation’ refers to the general category of hand drawn or computer-generated motion
pictures, while whenever the word ‘anime’ has mentioned it deals with the concept of japan
made animation.
3. Various scholars such as Napier (2005) and MacWilliams (2008) have suggested that anime
often evolves from manga and anime is usually, the animated version of popular manga. In thisregard, there is a common trend in Japanese animation studies to analyze manga and anime
products side by side.
4. Sometimes the case is otherwise for example, the popular anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion,
was turned into a manga series after its serialization on television.
5. MacWilliams, 2008, page. 4.
6. Toei Animation Company, is one of the most established Japanese animation studios. The
company is known for producing popular series such as Dragon Ball, One Piece and Digimon.
7. According to the report of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO): http://www.jetro.go.jp/
usa/japanus/animemanga/
8. Susan Napier (2005, 36), Thomas Lamarre (2009), and Jolyon Thomas(2012, 6) and many othermanga and anime researchers, by referring to numerous resources, believe that increasing bodyof researches approach these media from various sociocultural angles and critical viewpoints,
which indicates the growing importance of manga and anime as a subject of academic studies.
9. Visual Image is a a mental image that is similar to a visual perception.
10. Emaki, 絵巻物（えまきもの）, also called Emakimono, are Japanese illustrated narrative picture
scrolls. Emaki were often used to advertise religious contents and proselyte in temples. The
earliest extant example of emaki was painted in 735. Emakimono were common illustrated
narrative forms during the 11th to 16th centuries.
11. Etoki, 絵解・絵解き（えとき）, was a Japanese Buddhist practice in temples which stories of
emakis’s pictures or picture halls were described and narrated by Buddhist monks in order toexplain the principles of Buddhism religion.
12. Kibyoshi, 黄表紙（きびょうし）, was the popular illustrated fiction of the Edo period.
13. Kamishibai, 紙芝居（かみしばい）, are oral performances of stories that are accompanied by
pictures. Regarding this subject, the studies done by Ishiyama Yukihiro (2008), and Kang Jun(2007) provide a thorough overview of the linkages between manga and Kamishibai.
14. According to the study conducted by Cambridge University (Zuckerman, 2007), on contemporary
rate of atheism across the world, 65% of Japanese people do not believe in God.
15. Asserted by Japanese manga artist, Yoshinori Kobayashi (Thomas, 2012, 85).
16. Among this type of works one may point out 20th Century Boys (1999-2007).
17. James W. Boyd (2004), Tetsuya Nishimura (2004) and Yamanaka Hiroshi (2008).

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