Worship on a certain deity, god, or, Supreme Being. Singing praises and hymns. Having an ultimate goal with other members of the organization. A harmonious relationship with each other.
What do you first think after reading those words? What has become one of the most influential thing that a man needs in his daily life? What drives him on how to carry out his life? Isn’t it religion?
Today, it seems to be one of the most influential factors in life. People put their faith to a god and practices the teachings taught in it to live a healthy, spiritual life. There are also religions in where they say that you must do good in order to save your soul from a certain calamity, or to some, the end of the world. Majority of the human population has one, be it Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Scientology, Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, etc.. It has also been the center of many controversies and issues, perhaps, faced many hardships, adversities, and persecutions, which makes it all the more durable in terms of faith.
(Caption, if possible: Emperor Charles and the members of the Geass Order; Code Geass)
Now the question is…how does anime handle religion? Does it play an important role? How?
In anime, religion plays a very significant role in the development of the story. Remember, people join a certain organization, especially religion, because they want to. They believe the teachings in it and applies them on their daily lives. Because of that, the characters are led to do things according to their belief. If their religion tells them to do that, they do that. When it tells them not to, then they won't.
As we all know, anime has many genres. It has been obvious that sports, school, ecchi, harem, and other genres DO NOT include religion. Some may, but majority don't. In some genres, however, like science fiction and time travel, break the traditional laws of religion for they conflict with each other. There are also genres which signifies its presence like magic, action, and supernatural.
The romance genre, even if it does not show the actual religion itself, sometimes show elements of it, especially when the main couple decides to get married, or even just by thinking of doing it. Marriage, as we all know, is a part of it and is a very important element.
(Caption: Kirino and Kyousuke at the wedding hall. Too bad they broke up moments later)
Most of the religions portrayed in anime are cults, and if that religion is a cult, it only means one thing: It is most probably an antagonistic organization. If you have much experience in anime watching, you will surely notice that many cults are the antagonists. What are cults, by the way?
Like a normal religion, a cult is a system of worship devoted to a person or a deity, but unlike it, it is regarded as unorthodox in terms of truth and essence. In other words, something truly unusual to a normal person's point-of-view. As usual in a religious organization, they have a leader, which directs them what to do. We watch in various media like movies that they often wear strange outfits, speak in unison, offer up animal, or even human sacrifices for the reason to satisfy their "God". They also perform rituals with special, hellish conditions to somehow gain access to something that humans does not have authority to, i.e. powers of a god.
The cults do it just like that. Here are some examples. Spoilers ahead!
1. Omekata-kyo or the Sacred Eye Cult (Mirai Nikki)
(Caption: Followers of the cult on worship)
From the name itself, it implies that it is a cult. It was said to be a cult that brandishes crime and convinces its members to commit crime, defiling the Sixth through rape, using the cult as an excuse just to do it. It started from the Sixth's parents who claimed that she has clairvoyant powers. That way, the cult started having more and more members until it was destroyed by the First, Amano Yukiteru and the Second, Gasai Yuno, with somehow, the useless help of the Twelfth. Its leader was a participant in the survival game so sadly, she needed to be killed for plot purposes.
2. Al-thamen (Magi)
(Members of the cult in their usual meeting place)
A cult hell bent on destroying the second world that King Solomon created. With its leader, Gyokuen Ren, they made a long plan in order to carry out their "Father's" wishes to exterminate every trace of white Rukh and convert it into Dark Rukh. After the brief war of Rem and Magnostadt, they made their move against humanity, utilizing their host, Matal Mogamett into a medium to pull Ill Illah from the sky, only finding themselves losing against the combined forces of Rem, Kou, the Seven Seas Alliance, and the Magis. Gyokuen Ren ignored the loss and somehow celebrated, saying that there's always a next time.
3. Kira's followers (Death Note)
(The scene when they stormed the building Near was in)
A cult following Kira, a serial killer who kills criminals and claims he will change the world. As expected, there was a division: people who supported him, either through approval or fear, and those who did not. The ones who supported him eventually made a cult-like organization to worship him, but the thing is, their faith in Kira was not that sturdy as they were easily bribed by money as shown in one episode. I can sympathize with the members, though. If you don't want to be killed, then just support him.
However, not all anime feature cults. Some have religions that have a large following population, have organized teachings and practices, making it unfit to be called a cult, which is usually a small gathering with unusual traditions.
Here are some examples of religions that I think does not count as cults in anime:
1. Church of the Walls (Shingeki no Kyojin)
(The worship service before the building got destroyed by the Female Titan)
The followers of the religion believe that the Walls of Maria, Rose, and Sina are deities and should be worshipped. They believe that they must not defile it with human activities and let it do its job as a protector. Some even offer their lives. After all, it is not impossible that one person will believe that someone or something that successfully protected them against more powerful enemies is a supreme being, or even a supreme thing. But I sometimes wonder, why worship something that doesn't even have life? It is kind of blasphemous.
2. Zentopia (Fairy Tail)
(The time where Rapowant was watching the Infinity Clock chain down)
In the first installation of this anime, (sometimes even called as the fifth season) features a filler arc with centered on an artifact known as the Infinity Clock, which gains access to a more horrible magic called the Real Nightmare. The sides on battle are the Fairy Tail guild versus the main members of the organization known as Zentopia, a religion which many people in Fiore believe in. At the start, they encountered many conflicts, but gradually joined forces to fight with the reborn dark guild, Oracion Seis.
This makes me think something very relatable. Is there, by any chance, an anime that represents religions in the real world like Islam or Christianity? I think there is not. But wait, there is one.
Christianity (Toaru Majutsu no Index)
(Nuns of the Roman Catholic Church)
What are two of the things that usually conflict with each other? Religion and Science. Why? The Bible states that Adam and Eve were the first humans. Science states that humans evolved from apes. Which do you believe?
This anime series personalizes…well…represents that very conflict. Kamijou Touma, a Level 0 esper has the Imagine Breaker, a power that neither science nor religion can explain. There, he meets a runaway nun from the English Orthodox Church (Necessarius), Index Prohibitorum Librorum, or Index for short. From that point on, the story develops interestingly, and in the second season, the main antagonist was the Roman Catholic Church, one of the biggest Christian sects in the whole world in the anime, as well as in the real life today.
How about Gods from Japan, where anime came from, like Sugawara no Michizane, Bishamon, and the Seven Gods of Fortune? Is there an anime that features them as characters? Fortunately, there is.
Shinto (Noragami)
(Sugawara-no-Michizane, the god of learning, also known as Tenjin)
This anime is about Yato, a god who dreams that one day, he will have many followers. In his journey, he meets Hiyori, a girl who seemed to become a semi-part of the phantom realm. There, he maintains some relationships with the other Japanese gods, especially Tenjin, Bishamon, and Kofuku. I sometimes wonder, will Amaterasu, the sun goddess, be also a part of this?
Now those are just some of the many religions found in anime. There are more examples: Catholicism in One-pound Gospel, the Jyashin in Naruto, the Ishvalan in Fullmetal Alchemist, the Vodarac in Eureka Seven, Hellsing Organization from Hellsing, and many more.
Now, to return from my questions above. Is religion significant in anime? Is it a part so important to it?
The answer is a complete yes. It is a meaningful part of anime that have them.
How so?
Once again, religion directly influences the way of life of its members. It may have various roles, depending on the anime. It may be antagonistic, or the antagonist is a member, and sometimes, also the protagonist who stopped believing the faith and seeks to destroy it. There are many situations in which a religion can blend into.
Whatever the role may be, religion is very crucial to the development of the story. It may be the reason for the conflict, or the reason how the story reached its conclusion. And not only that, it can also affect the flow of the story by just existing. Those are just some reasons why religion is important.
In conclusion, anime somehow portrays religions akin to the real world, and at the same time, in a different way than it does. Why? Religions in reality and religions from anime share many similarities comparable to each other. Some feature cults, while some feature fictional religions. Nevertheless, it doesn't stop us from appreciating the excitement it has to offer in our daily life. You. Do you have a religion?
*the editor WILL decide if he wants to add the captions, and edit them FREELY, but if my captions are too erroneous, just ignore them.