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.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Joshua, aka “dizzcity”,I agree with everything that you said in your post. You seem very intuitive on the subject of Christianity in manga and games. I too feel the same way that you do.Mostly all Christian comic book works developed in America are now in a manga style format, without the creators understanding the true medium. They think that manga is an artistic style with noticeable visual cues that they can use to sell their undeveloped Christian works. They fail to realize that manga is so much more. The reason that manga is an increasingly popular art form in the U.S. isn’t because of the look, but because of the rich epic tales that are unmatched. These Christian artists shouldn’t try to fit their work into a medium that they can’t quite comprehend, but they should stick with what they know, regular comic books. If they are getting into the manga scene for the right reasons then they need to develope their stories way better, and incorperate the Christian themes so they seem reasonable and not forced.
I read that manga “Let’s Bible” after reading your post, and this is a work that is far from Christianity. In fact I’ll go on to say that this work is actually anti-christian because it turns the whole theology of Christianity upside down, where it is actually a ver sinful book. Having the 2nd coming of Jesus being a half dressed damsel in distress bimbo is so wrong on so many levels it would take me days to explain it all. Let alone all of the other elements in the story that are anti-christian. Even though you may see Christian elements in her does not make it a Christian themed book by no means, or that the creators are trying to send a theological message, which obviously their not. I tell you Satan loves to make Jesus look weak and pathetic every chance he gets.
Lastly, I want to comment on what you said in the last sentence of your conclusion. “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.” Well let me tell your right now my brother in Christ that day is way sooner than you think. The reason I said that is because I believe that God has granted me both the artistic talent and the creative story skills to bring about a true Christian revolution in manga. Right now I am working hard to pitch my ideas to American manga publishers, but so far it’s been a hard road. Some of these companies don’t want to have anything to do with Christianity, but I won’t let that stop me. God gave me that gift for a reason and I am determined to make his voice known in the manga publishing world.
That’s all I wanted to say. Hit me back on my e-mail,dreamscometruepictures@yahoo.com, if you feel that you want to comment on anything that I said. Peace and God bless.
Titus Pannell
May 10th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Thanks for your comments, Titus! Yes, it’s true… Let’s Bible is really more anti-Christian than Christian. What I meant to say in that case was that it used Christian names and terminology, but in a completely misguided way. It was a very bad example of using Christian “themes” in a manga, since it just slapped on Christian terms superficially without any real Christian meaning behind them.
Good luck and God bless with your manga work, brother. May you be able to produce good quality work that will glorify God and reach out to the manga-reading audience in a way that they will accept.
-Joshua-
August 10th, 2010 at 4:30 am
Hello… I am entirely new to this blog, I just found it looking for other Christian Manga. I have a question: Is Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie written by a Christian, and is it family friendly? Because I researched Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie, and several sites stated it is an ecchi manga, ecchi being one of the more mature content mangas.
However, I have found other manga written by Japanes Christians for non-Christians(Evangelical Manga).
GOSH I’m really bad at conclusions! lol Please forgive my inconvenience!
August 10th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Hi Darren,
Thank you for stopping by!
Orange Yane no Chiisana Ie is written by a Christian… the author gives his testimony numerous times in the author comments at the end of the volumes. (I think Volume 3’s comments are translated into English, so you can read those). However, whether it is family-friendly or not is open to debate. The manga is about building a family together, and often gives Christian messages about love and forgiveness, and turning the other cheek. However, there is also a definite ecchi component (female nudity, pre-marital sex), which unfortunately is the standard norm for seinen manga like these, which are targeted at young adult men. I think this could be a reflection of Japanese culture as a whole, and so this manga tries to be relevant to the society from which it emerges, but also tries to get the gospel message (or at least some Christian perspectives) across to the people who would otherwise not be exposed to it at all. It’s a compromise.
When I said “Good”, I was referring to the technical skill / quality at being able to communicate Christianity in a relevant way, rather than the values it espouses. i.e. “good” here means “skillful”, “effective”, “works well”… it’s not used in the sense of “righteous”, “moral” or “family-friendly”. (A screwdriver is good because it gets the screws into the holes, not because it is morally righteous). Personally, I think the best approach to it is: If you are a young adult male who is already reading seinen romantic manga that have ecchi content, then this could be a breath of fresh air, leading you towards Christianity. If you’re a young man who is NOT already reading ecchi manga, then it’s probably better not to start with this, as temptation can strike from any angle. This manga is also not meant for Christian parents looking for “safe” or “good” manga for their children to read (then again, with all the junk that’s on TV right now, this might actually be a relatively-decent alternative).
More family-friendly Christian manga series could be things like “Serenity” or “PowerMark”, or the whole Manga Bible series.
August 11th, 2010 at 11:30 am
I’ve thought the same thing throughout the years. At least in regard to Christian video games. You have to understand the message (be saved yourself) and the “media”.
Thanks for the post!
-Saul
August 14th, 2010 at 2:28 am
Thanks! Okay, I was just making sure. It was just a little confusing for a second but your explanation makes sense. Yes, I’ve been exposed to that kind of manga accidentally before(So I’m not suprised by that in Japanese culture, hence the family baths and fundoshi)However, I don’t read Ecchi/Hentai/Lolicon/Shotacon/Yaoi so I guess I can’t read that as well… SO it isn’t neccessarily a Christian manga it’s a Christian Themed manga… Darn.
I’ve been looking for really good manga recently, the only one I’ve found is Yotsuba&!. I started reading Tsubasa by CLAMP, but I stopped reading it by Volume 9; there was too much occult symbolism. I study occult symbolism for fun, and Tsubasa was just chock full of it. I want to read Kobato by CLAMP, but I have to find a site that gives me a detailed description… Because from what I’ve read, CLAMP is just mesmerized by Esotericism and the Occult. Nearly all of their books either touch the subject or dive head first into it(Many of the characters are involved in Sorcery, Excorcism, Mediumship, and the related. Even though that’s a normal part of Japanese Culture, I’m really sensetive to things like that since I had a really frightening encounter after reading too much about mediumship.
PowerMark? I’ve never heard of that one… I’ll check it out. I’ve already read most of the manga found in Christian stores.(I haven’t read Serenity though…)
Thanks for taking the time out of your day to reply to me!
August 17th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
@ Saul: Thanks! Glad you agree too.
@ Darren: Yes, CLAMP manga tends to be highly-occultish, that’s why I get turned off by them most of the time. If you’re looking for other good, clean manga which is family-friendly but not explicitly Christian, you can try some of the following: “Azumanga Daioh” (school life comedy, similar in tone to Yotsuba&!), “AQUA” & “ARIA” (slice-of-life series, set on a futuristic Venice-like city on Mars), “Slamdunk” (basketball series), and “Eyeshield 21″ (American football series). If you want a shounen action series, “Rurouni Kenshin” is about the only one I can think of which doesn’t have any ecchi component. If you want romances, you might want to try shoujo (young girls’) series. Those are unlikely to have the same sort of hooks that can tempt a male reader, but do occasionally feature male characters in suggestive poses instead, for female readers. Notable ones are “Boys over Flowers” (Hana Yori Dango), “Imadoki!” (Nowadays), and “Skip Beat!” (though Skip Beat does have some occultic elements, it’s relatively minor and usually played for laughs).
August 26th, 2010 at 4:25 am
I’ve heard of Azumanga Daioh, that’s also by the creator of Yotsuba&!.
I’ll check those out too!
Thanks!