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Anime, Religion, and Theology
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Pre-order. Available Oct 02 2025
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Description
This book brings together scholars to unpack the religious ideas, themes, motifs, texts, traditions, and practices that suffuse anime. Immensely popular with Western audiences since the 1980s, anime continues to be a prominent medium through which contemporary people, especially younger generations, are engaging ideas about God or ultimate reality, the world, and the self. This volume brings an academic lens to anime and shows the central role that religion plays in the intellectual and visual architecture of many popular shows, including Dragon Ball, Madoka Magica, Gurren Lagann, Sword Art Online, and more.
Table of Contents
Introduction
David Armstrong and Roberto J. De La Noval
Part I: Magical Girls, Liberation, Theodicy
Chapter 1: Demonic Compassion: The Suffering of Innocents in Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Roberto J. De La Noval
Chapter 2: The Rose in the Castle: The Marian Feminism of Revolutionary Girl Utena
Ryan Andrew Haecker
Part II: Becoming God(s)
Chapter 3: Gods, Kami, and Apotheosis: Akira Toriyama's Concepts of Deity and Divinization
Kegan A. Chandler
Chapter 4: “God of This New World”: A Semiotic Analysis of Death Note's “Creation of Light”
Casey L. Covel
Chapter 5: Godmen and Gunmen: Deification in Gurren Lagann and Mecha Anime
David Armstrong
Chapter 6: The Gothic Nightmare of Technological Deification in Serial Experiments Lain
Andrew Kuiper
Part III: Body Politics
Chapter 7: Fully Metal and Fully Human: Transhumanism, Moral Bioenhancement, and Fullmetal Alchemist
Benjamin N. Parks
Chapter 8: A Girardian Approach to Sacrifice in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Meghan Bishop
Chapter 9: Disability, Eschatology, and Sword Art Online
Aaron Brian Davis
Part IV: Omnipotence, Nature, Permanence, and Time
Chapter 10: Enchanted Worlds: Seamus Heaney and Hayao Miyazaki's Transformative Transcendent
Elizabeth Fredericks
Chapter 11: Shaman King: Shamanism, Ecology, and Death according to Hiroyuki Takei
Giorgio Scalici
Chapter 12: “The Bond is the Curse”: Buddhism within the “Cultural Logic” of Fruits Basket
Christiania Mullis
Chapter 13: The Weaponization of Time: Zen Buddhism, Dogen's Uji, and Popular Anime Series
Nathan Garcia
Chapter 14: YHWH the Tyrant?! The Depiction and Role of YHWH in Bleach and Other Japanese Anime
Kaz Hayashi
Chapter 15: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”: Sovereignty, Imperialism, and Neon Genesis Evangelion
Jack Dudley
Index
About the Editors and Contributors
David Armstrong and Roberto J. De La Noval
Part I: Magical Girls, Liberation, Theodicy
Chapter 1: Demonic Compassion: The Suffering of Innocents in Puella Magi Madoka Magica
Roberto J. De La Noval
Chapter 2: The Rose in the Castle: The Marian Feminism of Revolutionary Girl Utena
Ryan Andrew Haecker
Part II: Becoming God(s)
Chapter 3: Gods, Kami, and Apotheosis: Akira Toriyama's Concepts of Deity and Divinization
Kegan A. Chandler
Chapter 4: “God of This New World”: A Semiotic Analysis of Death Note's “Creation of Light”
Casey L. Covel
Chapter 5: Godmen and Gunmen: Deification in Gurren Lagann and Mecha Anime
David Armstrong
Chapter 6: The Gothic Nightmare of Technological Deification in Serial Experiments Lain
Andrew Kuiper
Part III: Body Politics
Chapter 7: Fully Metal and Fully Human: Transhumanism, Moral Bioenhancement, and Fullmetal Alchemist
Benjamin N. Parks
Chapter 8: A Girardian Approach to Sacrifice in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Meghan Bishop
Chapter 9: Disability, Eschatology, and Sword Art Online
Aaron Brian Davis
Part IV: Omnipotence, Nature, Permanence, and Time
Chapter 10: Enchanted Worlds: Seamus Heaney and Hayao Miyazaki's Transformative Transcendent
Elizabeth Fredericks
Chapter 11: Shaman King: Shamanism, Ecology, and Death according to Hiroyuki Takei
Giorgio Scalici
Chapter 12: “The Bond is the Curse”: Buddhism within the “Cultural Logic” of Fruits Basket
Christiania Mullis
Chapter 13: The Weaponization of Time: Zen Buddhism, Dogen's Uji, and Popular Anime Series
Nathan Garcia
Chapter 14: YHWH the Tyrant?! The Depiction and Role of YHWH in Bleach and Other Japanese Anime
Kaz Hayashi
Chapter 15: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds”: Sovereignty, Imperialism, and Neon Genesis Evangelion
Jack Dudley
Index
About the Editors and Contributors
Product details
| Published | Oct 02 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 344 |
| ISBN | 9781978714915 |
| Imprint | Fortress Academic |
| Dimensions | 9 x 6 inches |
| Series | Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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