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.

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.

• 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