Christian Symbolism in Japanese Pop Culture: The Adoption of Christianity in Manga as an utilized concept of protest

In recent decades manga (Japanese comics) have increasingly utilized Christian symbolism in popular works. The usage of a foreign religious symbolism in a Japanese artform tells something about its utilization, and more importantly the drive behind the specific utilization. The Christian symbolism itself holds a non-religious or secularized form and therefore has no religious purposes. It instead became an enabled form of critique in manga in recent decades and shows an utilization of Christian symbolism as one of social protest. These protests are directed against the established conformist nature of Japan as the old conformist system fails to deliver 'rewards' in return for brutal work stress in younger generations. Equally the critique often utilizes Christian symbolism and other foreign symbolisms to target xenophobia and increase curiosity among readers to look for ways or rituals outside of their bubble. It is, therefore, no wonder that most manga in these genres of non...Show moreIn recent decades manga (Japanese comics) have increasingly utilized Christian symbolism in popular works. The usage of a foreign religious symbolism in a Japanese artform tells something about its utilization, and more importantly the drive behind the specific utilization. The Christian symbolism itself holds a non-religious or secularized form and therefore has no religious purposes. It instead became an enabled form of critique in manga in recent decades and shows an utilization of Christian symbolism as one of social protest. These protests are directed against the established conformist nature of Japan as the old conformist system fails to deliver 'rewards' in return for brutal work stress in younger generations. Equally the critique often utilizes Christian symbolism and other foreign symbolisms to target xenophobia and increase curiosity among readers to look for ways or rituals outside of their bubble. It is, therefore, no wonder that most manga in these genres of non-conformist themes are mostly read by a younger audience. In this thesis the literature review goes over several arguments on the role of manga, how Christian symbolism was established as a form of symbolism, the era which build the change in attitudes to Christian religion and why this theme of protest is being adopted into manga. The case study in addition is a popular manga title named Death Note, which shows strong Christian symbolism and has established such immense popularity for its themes and storytelling that it still sparks debates nearly 20 years after its final publication. It is in this same period that Christian symbolism made an appearance across several titles with Death note being one of the first to heavily utilize themes that show an analysis of foreign religious concepts in regard of morality and punishment. It is with this thesis I argue that Christian symbolism became a form of accepted protest in manga due to its relation to socio-economic developments in Japan and, therefore, strongly reflect the issues that younger generations endure under the broken conformist system.Show less

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Christian Symbolism in Japanese Pop Culture: The Adoption of Christianity in Manga as an utilized concept of protest