Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   David Armstrong ,  Roberto J. De La Noval ,  David Armstrong ,  Meghan Bishop
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Imprint:   Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Dimensions:   Width: 15.40cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.920kg
ISBN:  

9781978714915

ISBN 10:   1978714912
Pages:   344
Publication Date:   11 December 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

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

Reviews

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 large 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. * Carole M. Cusack, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Sydney, Australia * Anime, Religion and Theology is a wonderful addition to anime studies. Starting with a truly thoughtful and thought-provoking introduction, the chapters explore many of the fascinating metaphysical elements and aims of some of the most interesting and important anime productions over the last decades, from lyrical meditations on Miyazaki in comparison to Seamus Heaney, to provocative visions of Evangelion, to a wide-ranging look at the Dragon Ball Z universe. This book takes the study of anime in fresh and fascinating directions. * Susan Napier, Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric and Japanese, Tufts University, USA *

Author Information

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.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions