Hamilton Books
Pages: 204
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-7618-6907-8 • Paperback • July 2017 • $36.99 • (£30.00)
Born in Chicago, Patrick Drazen was taught to read before going to kindergarten. Writing took longer to master; his first book, Anime Explosion!, was published in 2002 when he was fifty; A Gathering of Spirits: Japan’s Ghost Story Tradition followed in 2011. In between he was, among other careers, a chauffeur, a legal secretary, and an announcer at Public Radio station WSIU in Carbondale, Illinois.
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction; Why this book
Chapter 2: History of Christianity in Japan: It’s Complicated
Chapter 3: Christianity in Japanese Popular Culture through the Lens of Said’s Orientalism
Chapter 4: Christian References in the Manga of Tezuka Osamu
Chapter 5: Crucifixion in Manga and Anime: The Good, The Bad and the Unreal
Chapter 6: The Exorcists
Chapter 7: Jinguru Beh! Christmas in Manga and Anime
Chapter 8: Christian Weddings in Japan: Just Like In the Movies
Chapter 9: Clergy
Chapter 10: Nuns in Anime/Manga: Sisterhood Is Not So Powerful
Chapter 11: Witch Hunter Robin: Love and Fear and a Side-Trip to Barack Obama
Chapter 12: Japan’s Most Famous Christian Martyr: Amakusa Shirō
Chapter 13: Angels and Other Metaphors
Chapter 14: The “Not Safe” Chapter
Atogaki (Afterword)
References
Given that only about one percent of Japanese are said to be Christian, the idea of an entire book on Christianity in Japan's popular culture is not only novel, but provocative. Yet in exploring pop culture perceptions of what is to Japanese a very minority and sometimes mysterious religion, Patrick Drazen sheds new light on much larger issues of cultural adoption, adaptation, and coexistence. Kudos for a fascinating book!
— Frederik Schodt, author of Manga! Manga! and The Astro Boy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution
For a writer from a nominally Christian country to evaluate the influence of religion in an alien country is fraught with complexities to the extent where oversimplifying is not simply a temptation, but for some a survival tactic. Thank goodness Patrick Drazen is immune to this temptation. Basing his method on Edward Said's 1978 text Orientalism, Drazen works with meticulous care to avoid unjustified assumptions and explain honestly and clearly how, and why, religion and religious symbology are used in anime. That he also makes the explanation so enjoyable is a bonus.
— Helen McCarthy, author of Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation and co-author of The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917