Finding God in Anime: A Devotional for Otakus: Finding God in Anime, #2

By Laura A. Grace, Matt Starr, Yakira Goldsberry and 22 more

Have you ever wanted a season two of your favorite anime but found out it is unlikely for the company to produce one?

 

Stinks, doesn't it? Well, Finding God in Anime definitely isn't like that. After all, you're looking at volume two right now!

 

Welcome to the second installment of the acclaimed devotional: Finding God in Anime! Each bite-size piece comes straight from the passionate otaku souls in our collective of Christian authors. You will find anime-inspired pieces from across tons of beloved genres within this devotional, and each one presents a unique and Biblical outlook on your favorite shows!

 

• Find God's fatherly love in Daddy's Girl, inspired by Fullmetal Alchemist
• Go down to your atoms to discover God's purpose for us in Jobs, inspired by Cells at Work
• Huddle up to hear God's game plan for living like Him in Get Your Head in the Game, inspired by Kuroko's Basketball

 

…and so many others! So grab your shuriken or computerized make-up compact and join us on the exciting adventure of finding God's teachings in anime!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laura A. Grace
• Release date: May 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201143947

Book preview

Dedication

To all the otaku who felt alone in their love for anime,

you’re not alone, friend.

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Table of Contents

Dedication

Table of Contents

Foreword

Unequal Exchange (Fullmetal Alchemist)

The Beauty of Compassion (A Silent Voice)

Working Together for the Body (Cells at Work)

Digital Monsters & Genuine Grace (Digimon Tamers)

Violet Evergarden: Burns (Violet Evergarden)

Struggling to be Perfect (One-Punch Man)

Uraraka and the Will of God (My Hero Academia)

Beautiful Cruel World (Attack on Titan)

Cells at Work: Jobs (Cells at Work)

The Meaning of Love (Violet Evergarden)

All Actions Have Consequences (Weathering With You)

Heavenly Fatherhood (Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms)

How to Do Combat with the Barry the Chopper in Your Life: Fighting Satan’s Lies with God’s Truth (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

Breathing Deeply (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba)

Cells at Work: Prepping for the Battle (Cells at Work)

Totoro and Taming the Tongue (My Neighbor Totoro)

Sanctified (Violet Evergarden)

And the Unconditional Loyalty of Ein (Cowboy Bebop)

It Starts with One (Komi Can’t Communicate)

Save the Shigarakis (My Hero Academia)

The Ultimate Sacrifice (Fairy Tail)

Who Are You? (Princess TuTu)

Perfect Harmony (Sound! Euphonium)

To Rely on Our Comrades (Naruto)

When It Rains, It Pours: Overcoming Difficulties (The Rising of the Shield Hero)

Shine Bright (Your Lie in April)

Get Your Head in the Game: Why Mindset Matters (Kuroko’s Basketball)

Reason for Our Pain (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

Daddy’s Girl (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

Kasumi Seizo: Please Forgive Me (Samurai Champloo)

Laugh Without Fear (Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba)

Let’s Save Everyone (The Promised Neverland)

Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord. (Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden)

Prince of Mercy (The Heroic Legend of Arslan)

You Don’t Have to be Scared Any Longer (Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits)

The Future (Free! Dive to the Future)

Cells at Work: Beautiful Design (Cells at Work)

Self-Worth and Sophie Hatter (Howl’s Moving Castle)

Every Life is Precious (Orange)

The Price for Saving the World (Yuki Yuna is a Hero)

Our True Form (Fruits Basket)

Never Alone (Yona of the Dawn)

Music from the Heart (Shugo Chara)

Naruto and the Beast Within (Naruto and Naruto Shippuden)

Cry of the Crimson Dragon (Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s)

Power of Friendship (Nearly all Anime)

Acknowledgements

References

About the Contributors

Be the First to Hear About Future Finding God in Anime Anthologies!

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Foreword

I’ll be honest. When I first became aware that the original Finding God in Anime was under development, I met the news with skepticism. As the founder of Beneath the Tangles, a forebear of anime analysis and devotional style articles through a Christian lens, I was surprised that such a lofty project was being compiled by editors with whom I had no familiarity. I wondered if they and their writers could create devotional entries that were both theologically sound and creatively engaging, like the ones in the broader geek devotionals I’d contributed to in the past. My assumption was that no, they could not.

I trust, dear readers, that you can predict where this story leads—after all, here I am writing the foreword for volume two of the same! God humbled me in the ensuing months leading up to the initial devotional’s publication. He taught me a message that would have been obvious if not for a prideful heart: God’s reach is deep and wide as He uses the talents He’s imbued in His people and stirs them to create faithful and innovative work as they use their passion for something as unique as anime to shine hope and share His love to a world in need.

As I befriended the contributors, read and cherished volume one, and discussed that book with readers who likewise treasure it, my attitude toward the project changed. I felt rather like a character in a shounen series, who at the end of an arc would come away transformed. Indeed, as I experience this new set of writings about God’s grand plans for me through the thrilling stories of anime heroes and heroines, I feel it to be analogous to the joining of a party on a journey.

Now, with volume two published and in your hands, I no longer have reservations about this adventurous work. I am, in fact, pleased and delighted to write the foreword for the second collection of devotional readings made for Christian otaku.

Some two-dozen writers contributed to Finding God in Anime, Vol. 2, coming from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. The anime and topics they cover are diverse, too. You’ll encounter readings about The Rising of the Shield Hero and reliance on God; Naruto and Christian community; Yona of the Dawn and the presence of God; Violet Evergarden and sanctification; and Cells at Work and the depths of God’s love, a piece by Jessica Bertard that especially spoke to me. Popular anime like Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, and Fairy Tail receive attention, but so, too, do underappreciated gems like Maquia, Orange, and Sound Euphonium.

But even with a cacophony of voices writing about a spectrum of series, this collection keeps a cohesive voice—the tone hopeful, the energy undeniable, the love for Christ palpable. And each piece is grounded in Scripture, pointing you, dear readers, back to God’s gift of His word for us through creative devotionals that explain it through the most unexpected of ways—by an endearing passion for God’s truth as expressed through Japanese animation.

This exceptional accomplishment begins with the editors. Moriah Jane is a prolific talent whose interests and creative work cross a variety of landscapes. She connects particularly well with young adult and adolescent audiences, employing a style that seems to speak directly to youth but without a hint of condescension and, as you’ll note in her piece about mercy in this volume, accompanied by quite a lot of wisdom as well.

Laura A. Grace, Finding God’s other editor, has become a close friend over the past two years. I don’t know if I’ve met another person who expresses as much honesty and authenticity as she does, and it pours forth in her writing and vlogging. She has been a personal encouragement to me very many times by her expressions of faith, service, and humility and once again through her piece in this devotional about Komi Shouko and evangelism. I know she’ll be the same to you.

Moriah Jane and Laura are the right duo for God to do a great work through. Their passion for God, for writing, for teaching, for people, and for anime and manga put them in a unique space as faithful women who can pull together this significant work. And it is undeniably significant. In these pages lie an opportunity, dear readers, to join the party, to partake in the greatest adventure, for you to remember Jesus’s wondrous and unrelenting love for you through how His story is woven everywhere around us—in our relationships, in church, at school; during times of great joy and seasons of loss; as we walk eagerly along God’s path of obedience and when we’ve gone astray, following our own ways into the woods of self-glory and fear; and through animated stories that hold onto us with intensity, intimacy, feeling, humor, charm, and audacity, and though created by a culture that is 98% non-Christian, still reflect God’s love, for His light cannot be contained.

The next flip of the page is a step into the world of anime and manga and how Christ can and does have something—a great many things in fact—to teach us through it.

Welcome, beloved. Your own great adventure is about to begin.

Your brother in Christ,

Twwk

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Unequal Exchange

By Matt Starr

The magic works in Fullmetal Alchemist as an equation, an equivalent exchange. To receive the benefits of manipulating the world around them, the Elric brothers, Edward and Alphonse, the main characters of the show, along with the other alchemists, must give something either of the world itself, like manipulating sidewalks into walls or, if necessary, of themselves. The giving of oneself is the starting point of the Elric brother’s story, though unintentionally. After losing their mother, the brothers measure the precise material ingredients of a human body and perform an alchemical ritual, but there is one ingredient the brothers neglect—life itself.

As their mother coalesces before them, the forces that regulate the power of alchemy magic within the universe of Fullmetal Alchemist open a portal between the physical world and the spiritual world and literally reach out of the afterlife and drag Alphonse away. In a panic, Edward saves his brother by sacrificing his left arm and leg, allowing Alphonse’s consciousness to remain alive but in a suit of armor. In doing so, they lose their mother again, and the brothers are maimed beyond repair. Despite the fact the brothers did not know the cost, they had to pay anyway.

In contrast to the rigid equality of the universe of the alchemists, the gift of salvation given to us by God is far from equivalent, either for the giver or the receiver. Are we, as humans, worthy of God’s mercy?