Ryan Reeves has a series of lectures on Tolkien and Lewis, one of the things he talks about is how Narnia is mostly a one for one allegory, Aslan is Jesus and so on, while Tolkien prefers to avoid that and focus on how all people can be Christ-Like. In my opinion the Lewis approach has a far greater risk of leading to unwitting idolatry while Tolkien's better fits my understanding of how Christians should think.
For Steins;Gate in that prior post I refereed only to how Kirisu can be viewed as Christ-Like but really many characters get to be Christ-Like in that story. For example Okabe himself when he replaced Kirisu's Blood with his own.
I was reminded of this in my most recent re-watch of the Devotional Criticism video on Man of Steel particularly when comparing it to the Donner and Reeve films and how they apply Messianic imagery to Superman. Donner takes a much more Lewis approach where Superman is basically Aslan, at the moment I can't even recall those two films having anything to establish Christianity existing in their universe, in the world of the Donner films Superman explicitly replaces Christ.
[Update: That video I referred to is now on the Archive. https://archive.org/details/devotional_criticism_04]
The video is seeking to show the absurdity of critics like MaggieMaeFish claiming Man of Steel actually doubled down on the Jesus allegory in a way no prior installment did, when in fact Man of Steel distinguished Clark from Christ making him a Disciple of Christ striving to be Christ-Like in the way we all do. Donner made Superman Jesus while Snyder made Superman a Christian.
But you didn't come here to talk about Superman, you came here to talk about a trippy 2011 show from the David Lynch of Anime.
This post will have Spoilers for Penguindrum, especially since the episode I will most focus on is one from the latter half which is itself the second part of a two parter. So if you haven't seen the show already you should maybe watch it before reading on, it's a very good show.
Spoiler Warning!!!
There are a number of angles I could stress when it comes to watching Penguindrum as a Christian, like how it's pretty hard to listen to the opening monologue as a Christian without thinking of it as some kind of middle finger to Calvinism.
Other Ikuhara shows have more explicitly Christian imagery, it was he who had Haruka wear a Cross, and the Bears are very aesthetically Catholic in YuriKuma Arashi. But only Penguindrum simply refers to God without qualification (at least in the Dub it does), in other Ikuhara shows the Godfigure has an Eru Iluvatar esque name to go by, but here it's simply God.
However today I primarily want to focus on episode 18, since it can be a good case study in the difference between a one to one allegory and a more Tolkienesque approach. I am still not however claiming any of these readings was Ikuhara's intent, it's just a natural way for a Christian to read it.
The first character who is Christ-Like in the episode is Momoka. Momoka rarely gets actual screen-time in the show, but it's interesting how she has the personality of who in a more conventional Anime would be the protagonist, she has traits of Usagi Tsukino a character Ikuhara has written before. In the episode's flashback story she saves Tabuki with little prompting to do so, she clutches onto his hand refusing to let go even as her hand is being burned by a blowtorch.
In the present Tabuki has become the villain for the current mini-arc, I wish I could explain the apparent contradiction in him saying he has no interest in revenge prior to enacting this plan. Maybe he was just lying and I've gotten too used to villains who don't directly lie.
When Kanba is holding onto the cord containing the.... I don't know what it's called, his sister Himari is in and we see his hand bleeding and he says he won't let go, Tabuki recognizes it as being just like Momoka, his seeing the traits he admired about Momoka in this son of her killers is what starts to shatter his conviction. Then Himari declares her willingness to die, to take the punishment for their parents sins to spare Kanba and Shou. Three characters get to be like Christ in this episode, you can also add Ringo at the end in a different way.
What happens if you instead try to make it a more one to one allegory like Lewis would do? Well you're probably gonna conclude Momoka is the Jesus figure, and then building off that the Takagura family would probably become "The Jews" and Tabuki now represents those Christians who ignore what Jesus actually stood for in the name of hating those they view as His Killers. And Ringo at the end is more what Christians are supposed to be like.
And that works well for this episode in isolation, but if you expand it beyond this episode it becomes problematic. Since some of the Takagura family are tied to a secretive shadowy organization responsible in this universe for Japan's 9/11. And I imagine a certain type of Christian would then gain amusement from seeing the Natsume family as being Ephraim.
So yeah, it's definitely better to just see everyone as Jesus when they're at their best and Adam when at their worst.
The video is seeking to show the absurdity of critics like MaggieMaeFish claiming Man of Steel actually doubled down on the Jesus allegory in a way no prior installment did, when in fact Man of Steel distinguished Clark from Christ making him a Disciple of Christ striving to be Christ-Like in the way we all do. Donner made Superman Jesus while Snyder made Superman a Christian.
But you didn't come here to talk about Superman, you came here to talk about a trippy 2011 show from the David Lynch of Anime.
This post will have Spoilers for Penguindrum, especially since the episode I will most focus on is one from the latter half which is itself the second part of a two parter. So if you haven't seen the show already you should maybe watch it before reading on, it's a very good show.
Spoiler Warning!!!
There are a number of angles I could stress when it comes to watching Penguindrum as a Christian, like how it's pretty hard to listen to the opening monologue as a Christian without thinking of it as some kind of middle finger to Calvinism.
Other Ikuhara shows have more explicitly Christian imagery, it was he who had Haruka wear a Cross, and the Bears are very aesthetically Catholic in YuriKuma Arashi. But only Penguindrum simply refers to God without qualification (at least in the Dub it does), in other Ikuhara shows the Godfigure has an Eru Iluvatar esque name to go by, but here it's simply God.
However today I primarily want to focus on episode 18, since it can be a good case study in the difference between a one to one allegory and a more Tolkienesque approach. I am still not however claiming any of these readings was Ikuhara's intent, it's just a natural way for a Christian to read it.
The first character who is Christ-Like in the episode is Momoka. Momoka rarely gets actual screen-time in the show, but it's interesting how she has the personality of who in a more conventional Anime would be the protagonist, she has traits of Usagi Tsukino a character Ikuhara has written before. In the episode's flashback story she saves Tabuki with little prompting to do so, she clutches onto his hand refusing to let go even as her hand is being burned by a blowtorch.
In the present Tabuki has become the villain for the current mini-arc, I wish I could explain the apparent contradiction in him saying he has no interest in revenge prior to enacting this plan. Maybe he was just lying and I've gotten too used to villains who don't directly lie.
When Kanba is holding onto the cord containing the.... I don't know what it's called, his sister Himari is in and we see his hand bleeding and he says he won't let go, Tabuki recognizes it as being just like Momoka, his seeing the traits he admired about Momoka in this son of her killers is what starts to shatter his conviction. Then Himari declares her willingness to die, to take the punishment for their parents sins to spare Kanba and Shou. Three characters get to be like Christ in this episode, you can also add Ringo at the end in a different way.
What happens if you instead try to make it a more one to one allegory like Lewis would do? Well you're probably gonna conclude Momoka is the Jesus figure, and then building off that the Takagura family would probably become "The Jews" and Tabuki now represents those Christians who ignore what Jesus actually stood for in the name of hating those they view as His Killers. And Ringo at the end is more what Christians are supposed to be like.
And that works well for this episode in isolation, but if you expand it beyond this episode it becomes problematic. Since some of the Takagura family are tied to a secretive shadowy organization responsible in this universe for Japan's 9/11. And I imagine a certain type of Christian would then gain amusement from seeing the Natsume family as being Ephraim.
So yeah, it's definitely better to just see everyone as Jesus when they're at their best and Adam when at their worst.
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