Three Questions: On Anime

How can we better understand the role of religion in modern-day Japan, a place where few people describe themselves as religious despite traces of such practices everywhere, from roadside statues and large temples to rituals and ceremonies? Associate Professor of Religious Studies Jolyon Thomas thinks one avenue is through anime, a type of animation that originated there. He teaches a course on the subject, The Religion of Anime, one that he hopes broadens what his students know about Japan and, at the same time, sharpens their media literacy skills.

Why is anime a valuable tool for understanding religion?

There’s a misconception that anime is juvenile content, but a lot of anime are made for adult audiences. They contain deep meditations on selfhood or responsibility, which naturally lends itself to religious plot points. People also assume that anime draws on old, static traditions of religion and reproduces those. But anime is often in active dialogue with religion. Throughout Japan’s long history, there’s been a close connection between religion, art, and literature. So much Japanese media produced between the 8th and 20th centuries had allusions to Buddhist themes about impermanence, for example. So really, I’m just situating this contemporary media form in light of a very long tradition.

How does anime dynamically influence religion in the real world?

Outside of Tokyo, there’s a small city that’s the setting for a popular anime from the 2000s called Lucky Star. Fans started to travel there to visit the real-world shrine that inspired the one in the show. But they didn’t only visit; they started participating in the city’s annual shrine festival. Eventually, they collaborated with the shrine, and they started carrying their own portable shrine, called a “mikoshi,” during the parades. Fans visited this city so much that it totally changed the local economy. So, we not only see anime borrowing from a real religious setting, but also transforming what that religious place looks like in practice, even transforming the whole economic structure of a local community.

In what ways are anime and religious services similar?

They’re trying to elicit an emotional and intellectual reaction in an audience, and they do so by using certain strategies to get the audience invested. Media producers might compose a shot in a way that makes you feel like you’re involved in the scene. But that’s not a passive process—it involves the audience’s active imagination. Similarly, religious rituals require the participants’ active involvement to feel like they’re in dialogue with an entity they can’t physically see.

One example of this is how people at Shinto shrines (traditional Japanese places of worship) will perform a series of prescribed movements when visiting: bow twice, clap hands twice, put hands together in prayer position, bow once. The venues are different, but the techniques have striking similarities in terms of eliciting certain reactions from people—whether they are audience members or members of congregations—who then also see themselves in solidarity with others who have had the same experience.