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Forum - View topicNEWS: The Laws of the Universe: Part 1 Anime Film Debuts at #1 on Japanese Box Office Chart
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SquadmemberRitsu
 Posts: 1391 |
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What the actual shit
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Does Happy Science have the financial wherewithal to promote their films to this level, or is some of its popularity organic? I recall them managing to get billboard adverts for their previous 'work' over here, a feat usually reserved for Ghibli and its successors.
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#861208
Posts: 423 |
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There are actually intense levels of promotion for this around Tokyo, and it has a lot og popular voice actors in it (which seems to be half the reason anyone watches anything nowadays). Still, wow... but even if people saw it, that doesn’t mean they liked it... and it definitely doesn’t mean they’re going to up and join Happy Science.
And I doubt any of the seiyuu involved are members. Not like Will Smith’s scientology movie. .... well. Honestly? Famous people in Japan are so private with their personal lives compared to Americans, really, all the popular seiyuu could be in a cult together and we’d never know... |
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zeopower6
Posts: 191 |
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Seems like it was a dead weekend for movies.
It looks like compared to the last film it did about as expected but a slight uptick in tickets.
As far as promo, they push these movies in their "religious" newsletters so a lot of members probably go and see it. On top of that, they likely have a bunch of connections and people with money that are members of the group which would explain any huge promo. I think somehow they even manage to fill Tokyo Dome for lectures and stuff. |
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Blackiris_
 Posts: 536 |
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I’m living in Fukushima now, and right in front of my place in a small street there are multiple posters of the movie (the posters for the political party have been torn down, though, it seems). They sure seem to have a lot of money, considering that this is their 8th (?) anime movie and that they even have an (non-acknowledged) university in Japan. |
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belvadeer
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Why are evil invading aliens always some kind of reptilian? It's one of the most contrived and outdated alien race concepts ever. |
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SquadmemberRitsu
Posts: 1391 |
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I remember one of the movies screening in Australia at a time when anime movies almost never screened here. What's more, while the first two Madoka movies I saw that day were regulated to this dumpy little cinema on the outskirts of the city, the Happy Science movie was showing at the big cinema right in the middle of the city. I can't say for sure how kooky this religion is or whether or not it's even worth chastising the talent for signing onto a movie like this. But what I can say for sure is that these guys have way too much money |
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Compelled to Reply
 Posts: 358 |
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Followers are expected to buy all the books and spend millions of yen or equivalent on indulgence packages to secure their ascent to heaven, be spared from the upcoming apocalypse, etc. It's big money. How do you think Scientology owns all that real estate in Hollywood? |
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mewpudding101
Industry Insider
 Posts: 2209 Location: Tokyo, Japan |
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From a member of the industry who is friends with many voice actors... While they may talk about their private lives with you (whether they're married, kids, hobbies, past jobs, etc), religion is NEVER brought up. Religion in general is never brought up in daily conversation in Japan. It's just not a common topic. So, even if someone I know WAS in a cult, I would probably never know. As far as I know, the majority of popular seiyuu are not in a cult. lol |
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TheAnimeRevolutionizer
 Posts: 329 |
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It's like Aum Shinrikyo all over again. For every hundred or so series of video game and anime that Japan puts out that slams in the face of ultra fundamentalism, something born from these guys usually comes out.
I especially enjoy plots with themes of secret societies, cabals, and pockets of the elite that secretly control society in the modern day as villains, but the moment you actually believe all of the nonsense about the Neburuians and monoatomic gold, reptilians and aliens, and even the Illuminati with the whole "satanic power structure" bit and make it into a film/show and claim it as a sort of truth, well, that's where one has gone way beyond the line. Toshinden 3 had a villain organization based off of Western moral panic by Christian millenialists who claimed the youth of the world was beginning to start practicing Satanism and human sacrifice, and Street Fighter has their iteration of the Illuminati, but the differences are that those series usually hinted that the believers themselves who spread such things are their own antithesis, and they came to have fun with playing with the idea of conspiracy theories into an action filled plot. This movie however, I can say it flew into the cuckoo's nest. |
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H. Guderian
Posts: 1255 |
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Wasn't there some sorta thing in S. Korea that forced the head o' gov't to resign after her crazy cult connections came out? What you said is quite possible. |
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Compelled to Reply
Posts: 358 |
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Japan is overwhelmingly nonreligious. Sure they take part in a lot of spiritual practices, like visiting shrines and temples at the beginning of every year, but those are more because it's ingrained in their culture, the same way in Western countries a nonreligious person will say "bless you" to somebody who sneezes or "Jesus Christ" in vain. So yeah, outside of family, people won't talk about if they're religious to others. However, cults generally thrive on proselytism, and Happy Science even has its own idol group to attract members. Mainstream famous people aren't going disclose if they're in a cult because the propensity of conspiracies to emerge, stigma since Aum Shinrikyo, and not to alienate fans. One of the most prolific examples was Junko Sakurada when she disappeared after joining the Moonies.
Happy Science has been around about as early as AS, its preaching tends to be the polar opposite, hasn't done anything illegal, and has been producing media for years, so not exactly. Still, it's no wonder it's looked at the same way in suspicion by the general populace. |
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falcon.punch
 Posts: 693 |
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Remember the Li Mei Chiang Sophie controversy? |
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