Forum - View topicGhost Hunt compared to Chrono Crusade and others
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riprock
Posts: 30 |
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Trying to set definitions on which anime are true to the intention of a given religion seems difficult to me. I suspect such threads would derail into religious squabbles.
When I initially saw an extremely young (apparently Catholic) priest in Ghost Hunt, doing exorcisms, I was a bit miffed. First, priests from industrialized countries are almost always educated, so they're usually in their mid-twenties or older when they're ordained (initiated into Christian priesthood). This is pretty minor, since priesthood is supposed to heal the soul, not educate the mind. Further, Catholic bishops can grant special exceptions made for almost any minor guideline, such as "Priests must be educated adults." Second, the practice of exorcism is highly restricted and subject to oversight from the Catholic hierarchy. Exorcists don't generally wander around and exorcise anything that looks demonic. This is a little more serious, since it distorts the Catholic emphasis on rules, restrictions, mortification, penance, etc. Third, Catholic exorcists do not, to my knowledge, involve themselves with ghosts or join secular paranormal investigation teams. However, exorcists *do* try to exercise due diligence to make sure that a disturbance really is demonic before they do their rituals, so that's a kind of investigation. This is perhaps the most serious distortion. Ghost Hunt had some unrealistic uses of Christian settings, such as an episode set at a church. I think that episode was mostly an excuse for the art team to draw and color a pretty Western-style church, but the doctrinal elements were correct -- Christians really do take in orphans and raise them. So, Ghost Hunt got a lot of the details of Christianity wrong -- however, it was not nearly as bad as Chrono Crusade, which depict battle nuns working with demonic partners and being routinely subjected to sexual harassment from dirty old men within their organizations. However, I think the basic message of Ghost Hunt was that supernatural threats are real and various efforts, including spiritual efforts, are necessary for the physical and spiritual survival of humanity. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the series even to very devout and strict Christians. There are a lot of anime series that deal with apotheosis, death-and-rebirth, self-sacrifice, etc. These themes are so broad that I don't think Christianity has a monopoly on them. However, some Christians of my acquaintance really enjoy these themes in anime, and they tend to read a very Christian interpretation into them. For example, I don't think Trigun is Christian except in the broadest possible stretch of the term, but I have friends who insist that it is the most Christian fiction story they have ever encountered. This isn't unique to anime -- I have read critics who claim that Groundhog Day is about spiritual growth through service to humanity. As for the really distorted series(e.g. Chrono Crusade), I don't think they're specifically contemptuous of Christianity. I think they're rooted in a fascination with shallow entertainment and an unwillingness to think deeply about anything. Nun costumes are just another novelty, and this kind of series endlessly pursues novelty. I think the real problem with the frivolous series is not that they distort Christianity -- I think the problem is that they might distort all spiritual seeking into a succession of frivolous mental images. In effect, they are like giant advertising campaigns, selling the audience on the notion that spirituality is just another kind of materialistic thrill. |
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Ramadahl
Posts: 325 Location: MK, UK |
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Neither do mikos, buddhist monks that are also in rock bands, angsty psychics or schoolgirls.
Pfft. Ghost Hunt didn't have a message. Not all things do. If I was pushed to say it did have a message, it'd probably be along the lines of "solving supernatural mysteries is fun  ".
Series that have religious elements in them aren't necessarily "trying to be true to the intention of a given religion", they're just telling a story. I don't really care that they're not accurate - if I wanted to actually find out about stuff I'd go and do some proper research on it. |
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Mirrinus
 Posts: 230 Location: La Thiene Plateau |
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You know what? I agree with pretty much everything you've said.
I agree that while Ghost Hunt does distort religion (and not just Catholicism, I'd wager), it wasn't done with nearly as much impunity or shallowness as Chrono Crusade. Not sure how Trinity Blood would compare to it, though, as I have yet to watch much of that. I think the use (and occassional misuse) of these elements stems from the fact that Christianity is still somewhat foreign to many Japanese people, and thus would appear exotic or something. I guess in entertainment, it might be akin to how American movies might depict a Buddhist monk or something. I also agree with you and think that sometimes an animation studio slips in a church scene just for an excuse to animate a pretty stained glass window or something else visually impressive. I believe Kanon 2006 did that in the last episode too. |
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d.yaro
Posts: 528 |
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A small fact about the "Silent Christmas" episodes: they were broadcast on Dec 19th and 26th, 2006. I haven't kept count of how many series have had shows with Christmas trappings in them and were broadcast in December, eg: the DiGiCarat "Winter Garden" spinoff (the beginning of the first episode took place on Christmas) was broadcast on Dec 23rd and 24th. There are likely a number of others out there. Anyways, in my books it all amounts to just a "nice touch" to have anime shows with Christmas or Christian motifs in December. Personally, I was tickled by the "Don't give a hoot about the Christian message" attitude in the soup kitchen scene in the beginning of "Tokyo Godfathers" which ran contrary to the "Blessings in life" theme that ran the length of the story. Oh yeah, that story took place over Christmas too. So there you go... Christmas in anime runs the gamut from an empty backdrop to an ironic theme. |
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jetz
 Posts: 2148 Location: Manila, Philippines |
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I don't think they meant to change people's perception of Christianity at all. I honestly believe that they had no intentions like that whatsoever - they just thought of a way to make an anime more interesting.
Besides you have to be either really young or really stupid to think that nuns use guns and hang out with demons.. |
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selenta
 Subscriber Posts: 1774 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Agreed. Anyone out there who looks for a serious, thoughtful, and 100% true depiction of Christianity (or any other religion for that matter... but somehow it doesn't surprise me that Christians seem to be the only ones to get their panties in a bunch about it) in an anime designed for the entertainment of Japanese youth is incredibly naive. The designers of these shows have no intention of showing the local religions, much less a foreign pop-culture one, accurately. It's entertainment, and it should be looked at as such; nothing more, nothing less. It's not "shallow entertainment", and if you look down on it only because it doesn't do what you personally wanted it to do (represent a religion accurately), you're completely misconstruing the situation. Portraying an accurate Christianity may appeal to you, but the writer and producers of the show decided they would rather go for a broader audience, who they though would not be entertained by such non-fiction. What I'm more interested in, is why do you think that each and every TV show has some sort of obvious and all-important obligation to portray your view about spirituality over the original purpose of the show: to entertain its audience. |
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Skylark
 Posts: 827 Location: ORE NO TSHIRT |
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I found this series to be sort of *trying to think of a non-offensive way of saying it* a joke, and I thought your post was the same. You can't seriously think that Ghost Hunt was trying to accurately portray excorcism..
I'm pretty sure that the anime has nothing to do with the realness of supernatural threats at all. In fact I'm almost certain that it was simply telling the story of Mai, who accidentally became part of a team of ghost hunters, only to later discover and build up spoiler[her own]. I'd be very surprised if the authors thought of this anime as anything other than fictional. On the subject of the anime, I found it pretty boring. Some of the scenes were done well (like when spoiler[the dead guys attacked Mai, Bou-san and the others that were their in the last set of episodes]) but overall I found the character development to be very weak, and the anime finished just after it started to get interesting (spoiler[Neru's (or whatever his name is, I finished this series a while ago ><) powers]). I wasn't particularly disappointed in the end of it because it never really arced. It wasn't _bad_, just .. empty. Well that's just my opinion I guess. |
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riprock
Posts: 30 |
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Here the ambiguity of language becomes an obstacle to logic. If by "message" you mean "an intentional message," I can agree. Plenty of things are unintentional. However, the nature of the human animal is such that information, whether intended to be a message or not, tends to get interpreted as a message by the subconscious mind. If this were not true, advertising would not work. The problem with shows that are "just" entertainment is that they are willing to effectively "advertise," without any idea of what the effects of the "advertising" will be. Many people opine a priori that such "advertising" cannot possibly have any effects. In that event, I would point to the problem of anorexia in Western women. No one intended for them to become anorexic ... they just watched some TV... and the "advertising" did more work than anyone had intended. |
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LeoKnight25
 Posts: 319 Location: Puyallup, WA |
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I'm not sure if you were offended by the supposed "Christian" sensibilities in the aforementioned shows, Riprock, but I do agree with the others that not everything has a "deeper" or more "profound" meaning and again, the producers of the shows weren't TRYING to portray things accurately. Now, it you're worried about the effects of the supposed "advertising' of these shows conveying the wrong message, that's really all open to interpretation. I think most people would generally get the idea that it's "fantasy" and not "reality" so obviously some liberties are going to be taken with the subject matter or elements of the show. I think you should have more faith in people. Just because someone saw something in a TV show doesn't automatically mean they're going to try and ape it. Sure, there are stupid people out there who do this but, in a general sense most people can tell that it's fake and doesn't accurately represent the real religion. If you are taking offense to this (which is kinda how I'm interpreting your post) there's really no need. It's not meant to be offensive and shouldn't really be taken as such. Just take it for what it is: entertainment. Stop worrying about the ramifications of the supposed "messages" that TV or anime or what have you is sending to people.
I had a friend once who asked me about the culture of videogames while we played the Initial D aracde game. He asked me if people wondered about the origins of the game, if they knew and understood what the game was based on, the culture of anime and manga (since the game is based on a popular anime and manga) and all sorts of mindless worryings of such a simple thing. I told him it was just a video game, shut up and play. lol |
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