[ SECRET POST #2751 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2751 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 043 secrets from Secret Submission Post #393.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - tar fields, I assume. No more linking after this. If you want to play a character, do it in the Games thread or a roleplay community, please ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[mekkio]

I wouldn't call it exactly terrible because it's clear they have no idea what they are talking about. And are just making it all up and slapping titles like "Nun/Sister," "Priest/Father," and "Saint" because, darn it, it sounds cool. They always go with Catholicism rather than Islam or Judaism because Catholicism has a extremely well known pop culture connections with Demons, Angels and monsters. Though in reality, all the Abrahamic religions have those same connections. But Hollywood has barely tackled that. The one demon possession movie involving an exorcism that didn't involve Catholics but rather a different Abrahamic religion that I can think of was The Possession. Outside of that, I am at a loss.

I guess as a Catholic, I should be offended. And sometimes, I am. (Seriously, the some of the nun outfits in Trinity Blood are just an insult.) But for the most part, it's interesting to see what someone who has no clue about how the belief system works, make up a story around said belief system.

[ketita]

I agree, basically, just used different wording.

Though actual Judaism (or at least Kabbalah) appears often in Kaori Yuki's works - see Angel Sanctuary for instance - and while it is kind of interesting to see wtf she did there, it's kind of offensive in that it basically twists everything... Like you say, on one hand I'm not offended because the connection to reality is so tenuous. On the other hand... there's something kind of offensive that they don't even bother researching a little, you know? Because they don't give a shit. Then again, Japan can be incredibly insular and insensitive.

[mekkio]

Because they don't give a shit. Then again, Japan can be incredibly insular and insensitive.

I think that's so because no one really calls them out on their bigotry and ignorance. It's very different from America where it is vastly more diverse and the people there are not afraid to be vocal when they find something wrong. In Japan, you don't complain and if someone (usually someone non-Japanese) calls you out on it, you play dumb. You play dumb until it hurts and they go away. Because to admit that you made a mistake in Japan will bring shame. Where as in America, to not admit you made a mistake and play dumb will bring you shame.

So, they never have to think, "Hey, this may offend someone. Maybe I should think of another way of doing or saying this."

[ketita]

Actually, there was the recent incident with the male members of the Cabinet heckling a female member while she was presenting, where basically the world reaction shamed them into making the men apologize to her publicly. So it can happen sometimes.

In a sense, though, Japan can afford to be that way. They have no land borders, their population is mostly homogenous (and they kind of try to keep it that way... half-and-half children can have a terrible time).

[mekkio]

That most have been a shock to them. Because you know that wasn't first time heckling female members went on.

[(Anonymous)]

I've read some stuff suggesting that Japan is not as homogenous as they claim - it's basically all a cover for Japanese imperialism. They like to claim that Okinawans and Ainu are Japanese, when really they've gone through quite a bit of forced naturalization (Okinawa used to be its own country while Hokkaido was populated by the indigenous Ainu. Neither of these people spoke Japanese). The Ainu language is basically dead and Okinawan is on its last legs (only old people speak it).

And let's not even get into Zainichi Koreans (who often change their names and pretend to be ethnically Japanese to avoid discrimination), or the amount of illegal Chinese immigrants in Japan. Walk into any fast food restaurant in Tokyo and half the staff are Chinese. What percent of Japanese people are really completely "Japanese"?

It's so hard to count minorities in Japan because they've been totally erased by over a hundred years of Japanese imperialism.

On the other hand, I remember talking to a Japanese dude about First Nations, and he asked why they're in such dire straits in Canada (poverty, etc.) when the Ainu in Hokkaido aren't suffering that way. Of course the reasons are complex, but basically it's because they haven't been assimilated the way Ainu were in Japan. I mean, there aren't any Ainu speaking their own languages and living on traditional land anymore. Not to say that most Natives in Canada are, but the culture isn't dead as a horse like it is in Japan. Ainu don't even have any land. So is it better to be 100% assimilated but comfortably middle class, or is it better to be poor/targets of discrimination but completely lose your cultural and ethnic identity? It's something interesting to think about, anyway...

[silvereriena]

I feel like I should be as well, but anime's portrayals of Catholicism are so wildly outlandish that I'm just really more amused than anything. Nothing in the secret's picture would've tipped me off that this was about catholics apart from the hidden nuns in the top right.

[mekkio]

True. Most of their Catholic portrayals always involve knife wielding and machine gun toting "God Warriors" of some sort. It reminds me of Monty Python's Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

[silvereriena]

I'm curious as to whether there are any anime portrayals of Orthodox Christianity. The priests would all be beardless bishies and there could be pseudo-Cyrillic writing everywheeeeere.

[mekkio]

Not that I've seen. That would entail research and, yeah, research isn't manga's strong point.

[(Anonymous)]

My favorite anime/manga is Trigun.

I read somewhere that the creator of Trigun said in an interview that he *actually converted to Catholic* while researching the story, which is interesting. I actually found some of the underlying symbolism to be fairly spot-on (never been Catholic, per se, but various flavors of other kinds of Christian). At the same time, loads of artistic license is TAKEN ANYWAY. The priest major character (which was probably the reason for the research) takes a lot of liberties (then again, he's explicitly a badly-behaved priest). The manga takes even more liberties - yet I think it's justified because of the nature of the world-setting (a scavenger world where people cling to "lost technology") - so it kind of makes sense that at least one sect of Christianity *would* turn to the worship of the living technology that enables energy, crops and water in the desert. In that case, it actually strike me as purposeful artistic liberties by a guy who wanted to show how religious sentiment might evolve on a different / future world.

So, I don't know. Even when manga/anime people do the bloody research, they seem to be prone to taking their own direction with it.