Anime from a religious perspective

November 29, 2001 12:20 PM

Anime from a religious perspective This could never get tiresome - Jack Chick and others may think they have cornered the market in (unintentionally) hilarious Christian interpretations of popular culture, but this excoriation of Anime by (I suspect) a Baptist and definitely a fundamentalist is wonderful reading, and provides some competition. Quite apart from the fire and brimstone article itself, the pictures are a good laugh too.
posted by tiny pea (14 comments total)

First of all, that is hentai, not anime. There is a huge distinction.

Second, there is no difference between hentai and American porn beyond hentai being animated.

What did you expect from a Christian opinion other than naked == bad?
posted by eyeballkid at 12:25 PM on November 29, 2001

Sites like that scare me.
posted by ericdano at 12:30 PM on November 29, 2001

as to the pedophilia assertion-even I know the Japanese are into the "cuteness / wide eyed innocence" thing as far as what they consider attractive....that is not the same as pedophilia.

and of course the person who wrote the article KEPT WATCHING. He should have turned away from it at the slightest hint of immorality, i.e., you cant stop the birds from flying over your head but you don't have to let them make a nest in your beard.

And who says grownups can't watch cartoons?

I love Bugs Bunny!
posted by bunnyfire at 12:30 PM on November 29, 2001

First of all, the use of the Jesus/Mary pasties to block out the genitals should have raised some eyebrows. If not, Adequacy's "mission statement"...

This site is aimed at middle class white male professionals - the sort of people who have been sadly sidelined by todays victim culture, and the domination of homosexuals, geeks, amputees, racial minorities and Canadians, who have all risen up with their discrimination laws and 'equality' to sadly control the media agenda.

These people are not welcome here. This is where we make a stand. This is where we fight back.

...should have set off the Satire Alarm. It's a joke, folks.
posted by BT at 12:41 PM on November 29, 2001

Did you actually read that and not understand that it's satire? Big, broad, kinda stupid satire? Did you actually think that an article characterizing "cultural relativism" as "the foolish belief that other cultures have something to offer" was anything other than satire?

More coffee all around, please.
posted by blissbat at 12:41 PM on November 29, 2001

the site IS a joke of course, just like the Jesus and Hutch spoof, only not as funny. BUT:
bunnyfire
even I know the Japanese are into the "cuteness / wide eyed innocence" ... that is not the same as pedophilia
I dunno man, those hentai girls DO look pretty underage to me
posted by matteo at 12:44 PM on November 29, 2001

oh jeez... duped.
posted by eyeballkid at 12:45 PM on November 29, 2001

A downside of life in 1950s San Francisco was overexposure to the "art" of Walter Keane: the big-eyed waifs were ubiquitious. Now we know his wife Margaret Keane painted them. Did she inspire the Japanese big-eyed style?
posted by Carol Anne at 12:52 PM on November 29, 2001

Carol Anne: a very interesting question to me, since I'm a huge fan of Margaret Keane and her acolytes: Megan Besmirched, Mark Ryden, and Todd Schorr.

The first example of Japanese bigeyed art that I can think of is Astro Boy from 1962 which would postdate Keane's classic work by a number of years.

Trying to get back on topic now, wouldn't Betty Boop be a more likely forerunner of hentai than Margaret's sad little waifs?
posted by MrBaliHai at 1:07 PM on November 29, 2001

that chick in pic labelled "filth" has THE most bitchin tattoos ever!
posted by danOstuporStar at 2:02 PM on November 29, 2001

nope. american 'kitch' (big eyed babies) and japanese animation may appear to be similiar, but have some serious definitive cultural differences. japanimation (including anime, hentai, manga... etc...) is a derivative art from traditional ukiyo-e wood block prints... and some of the cultural norms infused into japanimation, such as the 'big eyed' and 'no pubic hair' are part cultural tradition, and part cultural morals. no pubic hair because it's considered obscene (a later development of ukiyo-e), large eyes because they are considered friendly (not just expressive, and thus attractive), and a whole perversing of the bodily form to further extenuate the drama and fantasy of the whole realm. there are actually rules layed out for a great part of japanese rendering arts, and part of that also accounts why much of it is very similar.
posted by eatdonuts at 2:05 PM on November 29, 2001

I knew it! Anime is EVIL! And all this time I just thought it was just inane.

However, that said, I have to say that most of the overt origins of anime are western, e.g. Betty Boop, but one has to expect the cultural background of the 'creators' to influence their style somewhat, so that while they were consciously trying to emulate western animation, they couldn' help but to be influenced by their own traditions.

This site is hilarious, though, I have to admit. Looks like something Terry Gilliam would have come up with. All it needs is a giant foot.
posted by Poagao at 6:39 PM on November 29, 2001

even I know the Japanese are into the "cuteness / wide eyed innocence"

actually, the grandfather o.g. of anime, Osamu Tezuka, who set the standard for future wide-eyeness in anime, was heavily influenced by the style of disney cartoons like mickey mouse and the such. also, i know in the anime and manga world, the artist uses the lighting on the eyes a lot to express emotion, so i guess it helps that they're larger than normal...

anyway, onto my hentai story: i actually went to my first con about a month ago, and i was looking for a certain CD. i wasn't able to find it anywhere so i was somewhat hopeful when i saw a stack of cds i had missed in the back of this one shop/booth. i went back there and picked one up, only to see a naked purple-haired figuire on it. shocked, i quickly put it down and reached for the next cd. a blue-haired one. quickly get that out of my hands and made the mistake of picking up another one, desperate for something normal. i look up and see the two japanese shopkeepers giggling to themselves while they stare at me... and i ran away.
posted by lotsofno at 7:50 PM on November 29, 2001

...And then of course, there's yaoi. Which is more than enough to make your average Christian faint.
posted by Jeanne at 1:35 AM on November 30, 2001