Just recently, I read two manga series one after another – both dealing with Christian themes, but vastly different from each other. The first was Little House with an Orange Roof (a.k.a. Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie), and the second was Let’s Bible. The contrast between the two serves to illustrate an important point.
There is a difference between using Christian themes as a variation of a medium’s standard tropes, and using the standard tropes of a medium to explain Christian themes. One applies the Form of Christianity, but leaves the underlying structure and content unchanged. The other leaves the forms of the medium unchanged, but applies Christianity to change the structure and content. In simpler terms, Let’s Bible just uses Christian names and symbolism as a thin layer for what is in all essence a shounen action-comedy series. On the other hand, Orange Roof starts with a typical seinen romantic comedy setting, but gradually introduces Christian themes and messages through the behaviour of its characters. You can easily tell the difference once you read them. The creator of Orange Roof is a practising Christian – he himself gives testimony in his author comments at the back of every chapter (chapter 10’s comments are translated, for an example). Let’s Bible, on the other hand, is drawn by a pair of Koreans artist, who seem like they absorbed the surface knowledge of what the Gospel means and the major characters of the New Testament (probably from cultural acquaintance), but are not actually practising Christians themselves. Or perhaps they are practising Christians, but have not found a way to integrate their faith into their works.
To really create a good Christian manga, you need to have a strong background in the techniques of the medium, an understanding of its tropes and how to use them to tell a good story. And then beyond that, you must really think about the message, and how to best encapsulate it in a way that FITS with both the properties of the message, and the properties of the medium you are using. Orange Roof did it well. Let’s Bible did it terribly, because it fit the medium, but didn’t fit the message. A third manga, created by Americans, called Serenity, also tried it… that one fit the message, but didn’t really fit the medium. It was okay, but because it was targeted at American teens, there were certain stylistic choices that moved it away from pure manga and into a different sort of comic. It fit THAT comic medium very well, and I think it thus was a success on that level (as also proven by sales), but the medium was no longer that of manga.
In order to really create good Christian media content, you need to find a common ground where both the medium and message can meet and synergise properly to create something unique. The themes of Christianity must go deeper than surface level – in fact, sometimes they can be buried under the guise of what seems to be typical fare for the medium, but become more explicit as you delve deeper or further into it.
This is the problem that I also see in the Christian games industry. The reason why so many Christian games are bad is because the creators either lack a deep enough understanding of the medium they are working with (Christian educators who are trying to make games because they think the people they want to reach out to would be interested in anything if it comes in a “game” package), or they do not have a deep understanding of the message they want to bring (gamers who want to enjoy the same sort of games they’ve always played, but slap “Christian” labels on it so that they can feel justified in front of their non-gamer Christian family).
AND IT’S NOT GOING TO WORK.
You can’t slap on a “Christian” label to a standard hardcore game and expect that it would be good. Likewise, you can’t just package a “game” around what is essentially a bunch of Sunday school material and expect that it would be appealing to the audience. What is needed is a fundamental approach to the problem of designing Christian games – you need a deep understanding of the properties of the medium and the properties of the message before you can truly design a good (and fun) Christian game. The current games out there enjoy some limited success because of the sheer hunger of people for such games. But it’s limited. I believe that when we can see the real thing, we’ll appreciate what the difference is between a slapdash approach and a fundamental design approach. Unfortunately, that time may be a long time in coming.
My best friend in Malaysia has gotten married!
I completely and thoroughly approve of this couple, and I’m very happy for both of them. During the wedding ceremony, something went “click” inside of me, and I felt myself saying internally, “Ah, this is just RIGHT. They are meant for each other.” It’s a very special and rare feeling that I’ve only experienced at one other wedding (Bee’s one), and so I’m sure that this marriage will be special.
The wedding ceremony itself I had mixed feelings about. On the one hand, it was impressive and unique – Jason sang her down the aisle during the wedding ceremony, and they had written their own wedding vows, tacking on about four or five paragraphs to the traditional script – but on the other hand, it was almost TOO showy, and I didn’t know many people there. Still. I managed to have a good time, and despite the showiness of the atmosphere, the speeches that were made were all warm and down-to-earth homey. Maybe that’s what happens when the boy-next-door marries the girl-next-door. The families have known each other for a long time now, and there’s a special bond between old friends.
In any case, I’m very very happy for them, and I hope to find something like that for my marriage as well, someday.
It’s been a couple of weeks already, but I really like Taeyang’s song “Wedding Dress”. Something about it just resonates with me. Maybe because I’m so familiar with the situation in this song. But also I’m incredibly impressed by the guy’s dancing and the choreography in this MV. So smooth… very reminiscent of Michael Jackson in his glory days. I really think Taeyang’s the best dancer in Big Bang. Anyway, here’s the music video with subtitles.
Big Bang’s MVs are always so interesting.
I finally found the book that first made me fall in love with Isaac Asimov! 
The Stars Like Dust was the first Asimov book I read, back in Garden International School, when I was about 14 years old. I remember coming across it in the secondary school library, and read it a few times throughout my school year. But ever since I left school, I’ve been unable to buy, borrow or steal a copy for 10 years… until now. I saw it being a released in a new edition at Borders bookstore and snapped it up immediately. It’s basically a simple space-adventure story, with an ending that is a little propangandic for the United States / democracy. Isaac Asimov himself had remarked that it was the book that he least liked among all 100+ stories that he had written. Maybe that’s why I haven’t been able to find a reprint of the book anywhere until now, 17 years after he died. It even says in the flyleaf that it was published with permission from the Estate of Isaac Asimov, so I’m guessing his relatives must have finally agreed to it.
But I don’t care… even if Asimov himself hated the book, I loved it, and still do, despite its’ flaws. No one can hate the first book that introduced them to an author they love. The Stars Like Dust was that for me.
