RWBY

[Hajllen]

I've been watching RWBY a lot lately. It's a great anime, and I like how everything based around it is based off of old fairy tales, but there's the use of magic in some of it. For instance some fairy tales have magic in them so its used in the anime. Now I've heard that RWBY is a christian anime and that it represents the fight of good and evil, For example the hunters and huntresses (Light) and the Grimm. (Dark) So I'm kind of stumped. Because it has magic would it still be a christian anime like its been said it is?

[skreyola]

My response is pretty much that magic isn't necessarily magic. That is, I think that a lot of what we'd today call magic has nothing to do with what the Bible prohibits in the verses regarding witchcraft. Consider the difference between the fairies in Sleeping Beauty and Lucy from Fairy Tail. The fairies have their own power, which they use to affect the world around them, while Lucy uses the power of spirits to affect the world around her. If you woke up tomorrow with telekinetic powers, I wouldn't consider that witchcraft unless you had to pray to or contract with a spirit in order to use the ability.

My opinion was heavily informed by M. Joseph Young's excellent Faith and Gaming series. You can read the article specifically dealing with magic here: http://www.christian-gamers-guild.org/c ... ga007.html

As for a Christian anime, I'd say an anime is only Christian if it was written by Christians or with a deliberately Christian storyline and message. Now, that doesn't mean that a non-Christian anime can't be a good watch or have Christian themes or principles in it by accident. Compare and contrast Chronicles of Narnia (a Christian series) with Star Wars (a series in which many people see a Christian or at least good-vs-evil principles). I don't think there is much gain in attempting to consume only "Christian" media. Watch what you like, as long as it doesn't draw you away from Christ or tempt you into disobedience. What did Jesus say about the cup and the heart? "What goes into a man is not what makes him unclean but what comes out of him." In other words, it's okay for the rowboat to be in the lake, as long as the lake isn't getting into the rowboat.

At least, that's my opinion.

[Rusty Claymore]

Sounds like you could benefit a lot from reading what C.S. Lewis has to say about myths. He touches on it in "Surprised by Joy" and I believe the essay he wrote has "Myth" in the title. (Sorry, that wasn't particularly helpful, was it?)

Anyways, my personal take is there is no such thing as a christian anything, besides people and the Bible. A story is a story, a myth a myth. Now they can most definitely hold legitimate God-ordained truths in them, Lewis argued that the early Norse, Celtic, and other Ancient myths did. In the sense we are talking in, the battle between Light and Darkness could be said to have originated before the Christian Myth (aka, the only True Myth. Please read more Lewis. >_<) since recorded and oral tradition place these myths long before the recorded Bible. The take away is that truth is truth. Just because Balder* did something God would command, or King Arthur said something Jesus would too, does not make them Christian, but doesn't mean the act wasn't righteous or the statement false.
To conclude, I would not say that RWBY is a Christian anime, but it most certainly heralds qualities and concepts lauded by christian ethic and displayed throughout history as noble. And I think God honors what honors His truth, according to the capacity to which it honored it.

...yeah, skreyola said it better. >_<

oops, I left an asterisk hanging... So: *I haven't actually read the myth about Balder. CS Lewis mentions it by name, and then there's some Balder Knights in Dark Souls. SO if the example doesn't hold up... sorry. >_<

[skreyola]

Funny, I'd have said you articulated it better, Rusty Claymore.

[SetsunaWanatabe2334]

Actually Rusty Claymore your example about Balder was perfect. Balder was the Norse god of purity, beauty, joy, innocence, light, etc. so he is part of norse mythology, and he did represent ideals that Christ had that were around before he came to Earth. So, your ideas were spot on, you just gotta know what your talking about. Also personally, I didn't really think of that whole Christian ideals being around before Christ thing like that, I'll be sure to meditate on that.

[josh_manga]

Setsuna, there's a good deal of parallels between Judeo-Christian and the Norse mythos that i've noticed. My favorite is Odin (the all-Father) willfully hanging from the world's tree (the cross) so that he could learn the knowledge of the runes (the Word) and give it to mankind (the Word became flesh and dwelt among us). It's a bit of a stretch, but i think there's a resemblance nonetheless.

As for magic in RWBY, i've not thought of it as magic as such. They use "Dust" to fuel their special techniques, something unique to the way their world works. In a way, it's science. There is the auras, which does smack of new ageism. Then again we know that the human body does generate electricity, and many of their special powers remind me of things i've seen in series like the X-Men (Athena and Magneto both have power over polarity).

As for RWBY being secretly Christian... I've not heard that, but then i haven't done research on the show. For now, i'd error on the side of it being like that Norse mythos. Parallels exist, but not necessarily intended to be allegory. I think it could be used in modern parable form, perhaps. Jesus took natural things with no spiritual content and wove them into stories to convey hidden spiritual truths about the world. Perhaps the same could be done with RWBY, just don't overstep the limits of the media.

Anyhoo, that's my three cents.