Anime, Religion, and Theology

David Armstrong teaches Latin and Greek in St. Louis, MO and writes the Substack newsletter A Perennial Digression. Roberto J. De La Noval is assistant professor of the Practice in the Theology department at Boston College.

• IntroductionDavid Armstrong and Roberto J. De La NovalPart I: Magical Girls, Liberation, TheodicyChapter 1: Demonic Compassion: The Suffering of Innocents in Puella Magi Madoka MagicaRoberto J. De La NovalChapter 2: The Rose in the Castle: The Marian Feminism of Revolutionary Girl UtenaRyan Andrew HaeckerPart II: Becoming God(s)Chapter 3: Gods, Kami, and Apotheosis: Akira Toriyama’s Concepts of Deity and DivinizationKegan A. ChandlerChapter 4: “God of This New World”: A Semiotic Analysis of Death Note’s “Creation of Light”Casey L. CovelChapter 5: Godmen and Gunmen: Deification in Gurren Lagann and Mecha Anime David ArmstrongChapter 6: The Gothic Nightmare of Technological Deification in Serial Experiments LainAndrew KuiperPart III: Body PoliticsChapter 7: Fully Metal and Fully Human: Transhumanism, Moral Bioenhancement, and Fullmetal AlchemistBenjamin N. ParksChapter 8: A Girardian Approach to Sacrifice in Fullmetal Alchemist: BrotherhoodMeghan BishopChapter 9: Disability, Eschatology, and Sword Art Online Aaron Brian DavisPart IV: Omnipotence, Nature, Permanence, and TimeChapter 10: Enchanted Worlds: Seamus Heaney and Hayao Miyazaki’s Transformative TranscendentElizabeth FredericksChapter 11: Shaman King: Shamanism, Ecology, and Death according to Hiroyuki TakeiGiorgio ScaliciChapter 12: “The Bond is the Curse”: Buddhism within the “Cultural Logic” of Fruits BasketChristiania MullisChapter 13: The Weaponization of Time: Zen Buddhism, Dogen’s Uji, and Popular Anime SeriesNathan GarciaChapter 14: YHWH the Tyrant?! The Depiction and Role of YHWH in Bleach and Other Japanese AnimeKaz HayashiChapter 15: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”: Sovereignty, Imperialism, and Neon Genesis EvangelionJack DudleyIndexAbout the Editors and Contributors

David Armstrong and Roberto J. De La Noval’s edited book Anime, Religion, and Theology is a valuable contribution to the study of both Japanese pop cultural forms and the global fandoms that consume them. The focus is largely Western philosophical and theological concepts and frameworks, which – while potentially culturally incongruous – are deftly applied to tease novel and intriguing meanings from anime series and films, focusing on theodicy, deification, ecology, transhumanism, and meaning-making in the twenty-first century. Recommended.