A Christian anime

[Watermaster2]

I've been thinking lately of what would make a good Christian anime and I came up with a story something like this.

It takes place towards the end times (Perhaps the title could be called Revelation?). And there are three Christian girls that get some kind of message (maybe in the form of a dream?) from God telling them to fight off demons to protect people. Sense towards Tribulation times the level of evil in the world is really increasing. So he gives them some spiritual powers.

(Sense I'm a big magical girl anime fan) They're transformed names could be like...
Bride Faith
Bride Hope
and Bride Truth!
(Bride, sense we're called the Bride of Christ.)


What do you all think?

[Crossfire]

I've always thought a serious anime about angelic warfare could be pretty sweet. Chronicling all the stuff that we never see and all.

[Watermaster2]

I've always thought a serious anime about angelic warfare could be pretty sweet. Chronicling all the stuff that we never see and all.

I'm glad I'm not alone on that! ^^

[Jingo Jaden]

I'd fundamentally stand against combining magical girl animes and Christianity. Reducing prayer to some kind of spell kind of muddles a lot of the concept itself. Whereas it would be equally folly to stereotype demons and evil, who present very real and dangerous threats to the soul whereas your average magical girl demon at best presents a physical menace.

Shortly put, once you make Christianity become a fuel for a fairly light heated movie/series that centers around only abusing the wast doctrines that it Christianity has to offer, only to muddle it down into such a basic format as magical girl anime. Then it fails in spreading the word, and succeeds in turning the house of the lord into a market.

Not that you got bad intentions with all this. And I am happy you want to center your interests around God, but this would simply not work. Portraying Christianity in such a format is, for the most part, most effectively done with great subtly. Or occasional great purity as there have been good portrayals of it in some anime. Mixing two things together, just because one likes it, is not always wise.

[Watermaster2]

I'd fundamentally stand against combining magical girl animes and Christianity. Reducing prayer to some kind of spell kind of muddles a lot of the concept itself. Whereas it would be equally folly to stereotype demons and evil, who present very real and dangerous threats to the soul whereas your average magical girl demon at best presents a physical menace.

Shortly put, once you make Christianity become a fuel for a fairly light heated movie/series that centers around only abusing the wast doctrines that it Christianity has to offer, only to muddle it down into such a basic format as magical girl anime. Then it fails in spreading the word, and succeeds in turning the house of the lord into a market.

Not that you got bad intentions with all this. And I am happy you want to center your interests around God, but this would simply not work. Portraying Christianity in such a format is, for the most part, most effectively done with great subtly. Or occasional great purity as there have been good portrayals of it in some anime. Mixing two things together, just because one likes it, is not always wise.

Hmm...I guess you do have a good point. I didn't really think things through really deeply, hehe! Probably should do a little altering. I appreciate the feedback.

[rocklobster]

I've always thought you could just go with something that presents the faith in a positive, unforcing light. Let the viewer make up his own mind. The key to conversion is to let God do all the work. Don't force it. An anime won't do the job.

[Watermaster2]

I've always thought you could just go with something that presents the faith in a positive, unforcing light. Let the viewer make up his own mind. The key to conversion is to let God do all the work. Don't force it. An anime won't do the job.

Well said, Rock! Forcing it to much could very well push people away even more.

[aliveinHim]

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has a great underlying Christian theme (it sucks to have fanservice).

[rocklobster]

I'd recommend Trigun and Haibane Renmei (good luck finding Haibane Renmei though. The license is gone and FUNimation is sitting on it. They won't revive it no matter how much we'd like them to. )

[Watermaster2]

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has a great underlying Christian theme (it sucks to have fanservice).

Oh really? I must check it out! ^^

[mechana2015]

Moved to anime section.

[TWWK]

I second Rock's recommendation - HaiRei is chock full of Christian themed goodness.

But anyway, I think your idea sounds terrific, Watermaster - of course, it would become something more like what Jingo said in his post if an anime studio produced it. But who knows - there are quite a few young people who believe God wants them to enter the anime industry and/or create Christian anime, so in the hands of these individuals, the story could become something full of spiritual truth.

[Neane]

I third Rock's recommendation of Haibane Renmei.

[Atria35]

I don't really care for *overtly* Christian themes because 99% of the time it feels forced and pushes me away (I feel I am more intelligent than most Christian mediums tend to treat their readers/viewers/whatever and to make them blatant is like someone telling me that I'm to stupid to understand them otherwise)- and making overt themes are going to push away certain viewers.

If you're looking to reach out to non-Christians, well, they aren't going to voluntarily pick up a Christian show, which would make overt Christian themes pointless and redundant.

I'm with Rocky. You can't force conversion. If you're Christian, then your beliefs are going to come out in your story anyway, and quite frankly, I don't watch a show for it's themes, I watch it because it's a good story. That's how it is with most people.

Haibane Renmei is a good show with Christian themes. And for one that has strong Christian themes that is a Magical Girl, check out Madoka Magica.

[GrubbTheFragger]

Going to echo the thread with heirei being great. And also I completely agree with atria post

[Juliannesan]

I don't really care for *overtly* Christian themes because 99% of the time it feels forced and pushes me away (I feel I am more intelligent than most Christian mediums tend to treat their readers/viewers/whatever and to make them blatant is like someone telling me that I'm to stupid to understand them otherwise)- and making overt themes are going to push away certain viewers.

If you're looking to reach out to non-Christians, well, they aren't going to voluntarily pick up a Christian show, which would make overt Christian themes pointless and redundant.

I'm with Rocky. You can't force conversion. If you're Christian, then your beliefs are going to come out in your story anyway, and quite frankly, I don't watch a show for it's themes, I watch it because it's a good story. That's how it is with most people.

Haibane Renmei is a good show with Christian themes. And for one that has strong Christian themes that is a Magical Girl, check out Madoka Magica.

I think a show could have a Christian theme and make it well out there, but it really would have to be tactful and interesting. The problem with a lot of "Christian" literature (at least fiction-wise) is that it comes off very fake and unrealistic and unrelated to real life.

So I think it's possible to draw in a lot of Non-believers to a strong Christian themed manga/show if the story itself is interesting and relates to real life things or feelings.

No matter what type or genre of show or manga, there's always going to be someone that doesn't like it, but at least if it's interesting and well-thought out it could potentially a good arouse of interest.

Like Trigun or Rurouni Kenshin, there are some strong-felt themes in those shows and they are still super popular, despite some labeling them as being "too preachy."

[sandalwood]

I really love the Bride thing! Sounds like a cool plan to me

[Atria35]

I think a show could have a Christian theme and make it well out there, but it really would have to be tactful and interesting. The problem with a lot of "Christian" literature (at least fiction-wise) is that it comes off very fake and unrealistic and unrelated to real life.

So I think it's possible to draw in a lot of Non-believers to a strong Christian themed manga/show if the story itself is interesting and relates to real life things or feelings.

No matter what type or genre of show or manga, there's always going to be someone that doesn't like it, but at least if it's interesting and well-thought out it could potentially a good arouse of interest.

Like Trigun or Rurouni Kenshin, there are some strong-felt themes in those shows and they are still super popular, despite some labeling them as being "too preachy."

The thing is, neither of those shows are overtly Christian. None of the characters are Christian, there are no overt Christian references (meaning them saying "I'm Christian, I believe in the Bible"), and the stories can be taken to just have strong moral themes without being related outright to be Christianity because the focus on telling a good story is so strong.

This is very different from what Watermaster2 is suggesting, and why I feel it will ultimately fail with non-Christian viewers. The difference between Madoka and Watermaster's anime suggestion is the difference between LoTR and Narnia- LoTR hides it's Christian themes within a well-crafted story in such a way that it has millions of fans, Christian and non-Christian, where the fanbase of non-Christians matches and is perhaps greater than Christian. Narnia's direct Christian parallels and themes means the popularity is pretty much contained to Christians.

[eightluvver888]

The whole Christian anime thing would be cool for Christians, but I think you'd have to be careful with non-Christians. The danger is that nowadays people take demons very lightly and angels are a joke. Most animes with any kind of magical religious themes make the religion come off as okay, cool concept, but not even close to real. We wouldn't want to do that to the only real faith! I've found that most people don't understand the gravity of the situation, and I know that I can't grasp it either. I think the best way to go is promoting Christian values without directly saying its Christian. So yeah, my opinion, but whatever! ...Come to think of it, I have a Christian story that I'm writing that would make the best anime ever. It's very serious though, without any kind of magic or weird stuff. Like, I don't know, the Christian theme is kind of obscure at first, but in the story I intend to make a great case for Christianity! I just love fighting for our cause! Anyway, getting off topic, so I'll shut up now. ;p

[Maokun]

I dunno, I believe that we cripple a bit our effectiveness to communicate good news, by regarding the good news as some untouchable, ultra-holy subject which we expect the non-believers to treat with the same utmost respect that we do... and they won't. Remember that for them, the things we talk about are nonsense, so I don't see a problem with easing the message by means of more accessible and culturally-relevant ways.

Take for example Paul in Athens: He didn't arrive there yelling at them and mocking or judging their polytheism. He used their polytheism to suggest the idea that the yet-unknown god (which the atheneans in superstitious paranoia actually worshiped) was God and played on the strengths of a system of belief in which gods becoming human was a normal thing.

Having said that, I believe that a successful fictional narrative with a Christian message MUST avoid being preachy and make liberal use of symbols and metaphors (i.e. The Chronicles of Narnia.) Not to mention that it must be well written. Most of the Christian comics suffer of horrible writing in which a forced moralistic message is only thinly disguised by absurd plot devices and McGuffins. You get an heroic Mary-sue character, confused teens to which the reader must relate to, and ridiculously caricatured antagonists and villains that suffer a righteous comeuppance.

I've been planning for years a story similar to OP's but more related to Saint Seiya than Sailor Moon, extrapolating from Ephesian's description of God's armor and I'm placing most of my effort into creating realistic and relateable characters, ridden with flaws, doubts and fear; faith represented not as a magical inherent attribute of the righteous but as something that must be worked for and suffered for, and Love being the greatest attribute of all.

[Watermaster2]

I thank you all for your wonderful critics of my idea! I now know of better ways to have a good anime that won't be frowned upon by certain people, but can also still have Christian undertones.

[Gigavine]

This anime plan is just what I was looking for. I think a great idea for these girls is if they are some of the 144,000 sealed of Israel. Or perhaps you might consider including them in Michael's army in the battle in Revelation 12.