Anime that are more Christian then Frieren.

Christian Anime fans are becoming more visible on Antitube and other places online, but I can't help but find it odd how many are leading with Frieren as the natural Anime to be the face of that.  

I like Frieren, it's a good show, I gave season 1 a 9 out of 10 and season 2 an 8 out of 10, and I'm expecting to like season 3 more. But when it comes to Anime I would recommend to watch for a Christian reason it's nowhere near the top of my list. 

There is a certain type of Christian who still sees the Platonic Ideal of what Christendom should be as Medieval Western Europe. It doesn't surprise me that some Catholics, Anglicans and Episcopalians are like that, but what's become more visible in online Christianity are people more denominationally Low Church who are like that somehow. So these types for purely Aesthetic reasons want their ideal Christian Anime to be a Medieval European style Fantasy story, and Frieren is even by its secular fans praised as the contemporary Fantasy Anime most true to the Tolkienesque roots of the genre and free of modern Isekai and Light Novel Gamer trends. 

But even for that appeal there are better choices then Frieren in my opinion. Maquia, Grimoire of Zero and it's spin off Dawn of the Witch, various Tales of Anime (sometimes the Fantasy Anime that feel the least Gamey are the direct adaptations of Specific Games). Or watch a real classic like Record of Lodoss War or Slayers. And for something pretty recent The Witch and The Beast., and Zenshu showing something that is technically Isekai can still have this classic vibe. 

Frieren's most actually contentious element has also garnered it Christian apologists for misguided reasons.  

Let's not be misled by what the Demons in Frieren are called.  Because Demons in Freiren are not analogous to any theory about what Demons are Biblically.  They aren't fallen angels or disembodied spirits of "Nephilim" who died in the Flood. They are a natural species who seem to be the way they are for biologically determined reasons, but regardless are capable of human levels of intelligence as well as unique personalities. They have Souls based on what that word (both the Greek Psyche and Hebrew Nephesh) objectively means, I don't care if the in-universe world building ever says they don't. 

I like some others believe Frieren is eventually going to subvert what it's been doing with the Demons and that's why I'm not letting it bother me for now. But...

Of all the Fantasy Tropes associated with Tolkien, what the Orcs wound up being is something he regrated, he was himself uncomfortable with the implication, and I can sympathize with someone writing themselves into a corner as they basically help invent a genre. But those following in Tolkien's footsteps should learn from his mistakes.  From a Christian perspective, nothing capable of Human intelligence should ever be considered ontologically irreversibly evil from birth, Christians can have different views on the theoretical possibility of an individual becoming irredeemable based on their choices (I personally don't believe even that's possible), but no one should ever be irredeemable because of what they had no choice in. 

Now when a story does call a species Demons but depicts them unlike Biblical Demons in similar ways to Frieren's Demons and then does depict them as redeemable or even good actually, that will be called by some Anti-Christian at least on the grounds that they shouldn't have labeled these beings Demons.  But it makes sense to me that an intelligent species viewed as Evil by many others would be called Demons and maybe even internalize that label over time. There is in my view something very Christian in exploring that, certainly more Christian then just having evil things you can kill without consequence.

The Title of this post promises recommendations, so that's coming up. 

Talking about why I like these shows as a Christian while trying to be as broadly appealing as possible is a bit tricky. I believe these Anime can have Christian appeal even to Christians who disagree with me on certain things I disagree with other Christians on. But they do also speak to me in ways that connect to those disagreements too.  But to be clear none of my disagreements with the majority of American Christians are on anything any major denomination considers an essential doctrine of the faith, I'm Nicene and Trinitarian with a High View of Biblical Inerrancy. 

Rather then listing these in any order that ranks them on how good they are or how Christian they are, or chronologically.  I'm going to try and list them in an order that helps me lay out my logic, almost a narrative itself. 

This should be obvious, but again I'm not suggesting any of these were intended to be intentionally Christian.

SSSS.Gridman

The reason Gridman works for this will also be applicable to some of the other shows on the list, but might be more of a spoiler for them so I'll explain it here. One thing that really helps a Gospel reading of something to me is if one of the main Villains is also the person our Heroes specifically want to Save. The Good Shepherd came specifically to find the Lost Sheep. And Gridman is one of the purest examples of that. This isn't applicable to every time villains are redeemed (though that never hurts), it's about when Saving someone in-spite of what a bad person they've become is an explicit part of the heroes' core personal motivation.  These characters do tend to be Women, but I do not consider what gender they are a requirement. 

Robotics;Notes

This show is one of the best expressions of Collectivism in Anime. A Collectivism you don't have to agree with any particular Political or Socio-Economic ideology to appreciate.  The Robot Research Club is a Body and each member could be considered a different body part, like how the NT talks about the Body of Christ.  Add to that it's strong sense of optimism and themes it shares with others on this list, and it's one of the shows I most strongly recommend in general, to Christians or Secularists.

The Magical Girl Warrior genre in general has a lot of themes I see as very Christlike.  

But some in particular that I have thought about along these lines include Prertear which would be the one I'd list here if I limited myself to only one, I consider it in general the most underrated and overlooked classic entry in the genre.  Wedding Peach for something that more often has a coincidentally Christian Aesthetic going on, and Blue Reflection Ray for something more recent then most I'll be talking about.   Also Watch Symphogear, For the first few seasons at least it's the one Anime making Biblical References you could pretend is actually in continuity with a YEC view of history.

Higurashi When They Cry

Most specifically the original 2006 Studio Deen Anime adaptation and it's 2007 sequel Kai. It's lore is ultimately built around something I think makes a good analogy for Original Sin.

Steins;Gate

This one works for it's particular approach to the theme of self sacrifice, in ways that are a Spoiler but not the potential Spoiler I was talking about with Gridman. It's probably the most uncontroversial Visual Novel adaptation to consider good, I happen to like a lot of them though.

Re:Creators

This forgotten classic of 2017 has a lot going for it. 

For an example that I don't count as Anime but others would, Nausicaa of The Valley of The Wind. It like others examples is a nice gender inversion where the Christ Figure is a Woman. 

My all time favorite Anime, Noir, I connect to my Faith in ways I don't think I can adequately explain.

I should try to mention something more contemporary, that is a major factor in why Frieren gets to be in so many thumbnails, it's the current most popular trending show. 

Shy is a show I've praised mainly in it's context as a Superhero Anime, but it also shares themes with these Anime. And it's first cour aired the same season as Freiren's. 

[Update August 8th: The Ribbon Hero. It's themes regarding Sacrifice are brilliantly executed.]

Tower of God as a lot going for it.

Here's a few that are specific episodes more so then the show as whole.

Detective Conan, The Mysterious Passenger, among the episodes currently on Netflix, mainly for one specific plot point.

Detective Conan's 12th movie The Full Score of Fear for it's use of Amazing Grace.

Sailor Moon R episode 24 Battle of The Flames of Love Mars Vs Koan, episode 70 of the show as starting from the original series, and episode 64 of the DiC Dub where it was named Enemies No More. 

Sailor Moon's first season episode 26 and 22 in the DiC Dub is also neat.

The six episode opening arc of Sailor Moon SailorStars also have some good material. 

Episode 18 of Corrector Yui. 

Below shall be examples I recommend in-spite of how they also contain content many Conservative Christians might have trouble tolerating.

Ancient World Fantasy

The most common default setting for a secondary world Fantasy is a Medieval Europe inspired setting, some Fantasy Anime might have a Medieval East Asia aesthetic. 

But settings besides the Middle Ages do exist. We have Space Fantasy or Futuristic Fantasy, the kinds of Fantasy that get confused for Sci-Fi. We have Gaslamp Fantasy which is the Fantasy counterpart to SteamPunk. And Urban Fantasy refers to stories set kind of in the modern world.  And of course settings inspired by the Ancient World also exist. 

But what I wanna talk about here is how Ancient World Fantasy so often defaults to the Bronze Age, at least in the Vibe they give off, they might be using Iron weapons but the Vibe is Bronze Age. From old Italian Sword and Sandal films, to the 90s Sam Raimi Hercules and Xena shows, the obscure 1991 OVA Majuu Senshi Luna Varga, the 2018 Isekai Anime The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar. And then the Fate/Grand Order Babylonia Anime also fits into this lineage. 

The Bronze Age is the largest age of Antiquity, it is about Two Thousand years from over 3300 to 1177 BC, Biblically that’s The Tower of Babel (or you could argue Tubal-Cain in Genesis 4) down to near the end of Judges. The thing is the sub ages that can obviously be divided into are not all that distinguished by these kinds of Fantasy Stories. Those Sword and Sandal films will mix and match the Heroic Age of Greek Mythology with Sumeria and Egypt's Old Kingdom will look the same as the New Kingdom. 

Exceptions exist, I own some of them, but none of those have made huge impacts on Pop Culture.  At most we could have Classical Antiquity references being meshed into an otherwise Bronze Age aesthetic like 300 or all the Rome stuff in Xena, Xena’s timeline will not ever make real world sense and that’s what’s fun about it. 

One of the key early Trope Codifiers of Ancient Secondary World Fantasy was Conan The Barbarian and other works of Robert E Howard.  Howard was to Ancient World Fantasy what Tolkien is to Medieval Europe Fantasy. And that includes how both were not strictly secondary worlds originally, they both technically set their stories in a prehistoric distant past of this world.  But they mark a key transition into modern Secondary World Fantasy because of how the detailed world building made their world seem distinct yet real in ways prior stories doing technically the same thing more vaguely like William Morris stories could not. 

And that's why Fantasy Stories were originally drawing inspiration from the less well documented periods of human history (that’s what the term “Dark Age” originally meant, a period we don’t know much about), and the Bronze age was once even less well documented then it is now. Only once the transition to full Secondary Worlds was complete did writers of Medieval Fantasy realize they could start moving upward into the High Middle Ages and Renaissance for inspiration. But why didn’t Ancient World fantasy do the same?  

Each type of Fantasy Setting began with writers who were to some extent romanticizing the period they are drawing inspiration from, the Fantasy stories with more cynical takes on those time periods came later in response to the stories that first popularized it. 

And in the modern world the kinds of people who romanticize Classical Antiquity do so in a way that is functionally mutually exclusive with telling stories where real Supernatural stuff happens. Classical Antiquity is romanticized by principally New Atheists/Reddit Atheists who pretend the values of rationalism and empiricism were more popular in ancient Greece and Rome then they actually were, that it was a Golden Age of Science and Reason destroyed by the rise of Abrahamic Religion. And when someone like this does want to write a Fantasy Story regardless, we see they still Romanticize the Post Enlightenment era more, like Philip Pullman. 

Now you may think “Christianity was born during Classical Antiquity so wouldn't Christians romanticize it?” but you'd be wrong. The world view of modern Right Wing especially High Church Christians is that Christianity was born into a broken world that needed fixing and the Medieval World was the product of Christianity fixing it.   Liberal Christians (especially Low Church Protestants) believe Christianity was born into a broken world and modern Liberal Democracy is the result of Christianity eventually slowly fixing it.  And a Leftist Christian believes Christianity was born into a Broken world and still hasn’t fixed it yet.  The point is that the context of The Gospel demands that Jesus wasn’t born into the best period of time to be alive Civilizationally speaking. The option I’ve been more willing to consider then most Christians is that there was value in the Hellenistic Civilization that was lost when it fell to the Romans, and the fall of the Hasmonean Kingdom was certainly lamentable, after all Jesus observed Hanukkah in John 10. Ultimately though I am a Leftist with Liberal characteristics.

Atheists however, not all Atheist but the really devout ones who build their personality on being Atheists, have a world view built on inverting the Catholic view and appropriating the Liberal view.

In The Hebrew Bible Israel at it's height as a Kingdom is an Iron Age history, perhaps the only Tribe in the world that sees the Iron Age as their Golden Age.  But Christians look at that age almost similar to how Atheists look at Classical Antiquity, Supernatural stuff happened, but rarely enough that it was always a notable Divine Intervention. And we Leftist and Liberal Christians view the Judges period as being when Israel was actually operating closer to God's true intent. 

Another reason The Bronze Age is more popular than the Iron Age is because it has the quality of being what was Ancient History already to the people of Classical Antiquity.

But another factor is the Western Bias, every time I said "Classical Antiquity" both you and I were first and foremost thinking of the Greeks and Romans more than the Persians or Carthaginians or Parthians or Late Period Egypt or Kushites or the kingdoms of East Asia and Mesoamerica and certainly not the “Barbarians” of Western and Northern Europe.  And when we do we kind of think of them as being aesthetically still in the Bronze Age (which is kinda true for Egypt, they never entered the Iron Age). 

The plot twist I've been building to is that perhaps a different style of Ancient World Fantasy has been hiding in plain sight this whole time.  That Tolkien’s legendarium was actually more Ancient than Medieval all along but pop culture perception has just run with faulty assumptions. 

When early Rings of Power images started coming out I saw one person on Twitter not at all inclined to say nice things about Rings of Power say that at least its costume design is more inline with Tolkien’s actual intent then the Peter Jackson films. Peter Jackson’s costume design went all in on the High Middle Ages when the Third Age of Middle Earth really was Early Middle Ages at the latest. Literally the Norman Conquest is when Tolkien felt everything went wrong.  Eomer shares a name with a 5th century king of the Angles for a reason, the Rohirrim and Rhovanion are meant to be hypothetical ancestors of the pre-migration Anglo-Saxons. 

Even if the Third Age is Medieval, it’s not just Western Europe, Gondor is kind of Byzantium, the rump in South Eastern Europe of the fallen Empire of the West.

The First and Second Ages however are definitely Ancient, they are basically imagining that the Celts had a “Civilization” before the Greeks and Romans. And in so doing it results in Numenor feeling very Roman and Eregion feeling a little Athenian, and I would even call Mordor kind of Sparta how Anti-Spartan Athenians saw them. The Fall of Gondolin was partly based on Troy as many have written about before. 

And capturing all of that is part of why I love Rings of Power, especially season 2. 

BookTuber reviewing classic Fantasy Novels.

The name of the YouTube Channel is The Everyman Reads.

The idea is he's going to review 500 major Fantasy Novels in the order they were written.  He's still very early in the project having just reviewed George MacDonald's Lilith.  And it's a very good video everyone should watch it. 

In this video he defines how he divides Fantasy into 6 Eras. He's probably about right in what his divisions are, but the Pedantic in me can't help but be annoyed by the labels he chose, the point of naming eras after precious Metals is to repeat the Greek Mythological format, Gold then Silver then Bronze and then Iron.  His timeline goes Bronze, Silver, Classic, Golden, Modern and the current recently started but not definitively named era.  Which is the other pedantic complaint, Modern is by definition current, if we aren't in the same era as 2005-2020 anymore then that era needs a new name. 

Now as I said when talking about Eras of Anime The Golden Age is the first full era of greatness, but there can be a proto or pre history. So I would call his Bronze Age the formative years, then his Silver Age The Golden Age, then his Classic age the Silver Age and his Golden Age the Bronze Age and his Modern Age the Iron Age.

The 500 books he's selected are naturally biased towards the English speaking canon. And that's fine actually, there is a lot to cover just there. I just want to use this framing as a jumping off point for mentioning some foreign works I feel deserve more credit and attention.  Because what foreign language country's fiction I'm interested in changes depending on the era. 

The first two eras line up well with my Froncophilic interests I hold thanks to CoolFrenchComics.com and BlackCoatPress.

Paul Feval wrote only one book I'm confident can be considered Fantasy enough to definitely count, La Ville Vampire translated into English by the late Brian Stableford as Vampire City, first serialized in the 1860s.  Stuff straddling that early transitional line would include some of the works in Anne of The Isles. Some of his books set in modern Paris I would draw inspiration from when writing Urban Fantasy though they wouldn't actually count since the Supernatural element is always left ambiguous if present at all, The Vampire Countess, Revenants, Knightshade and The Blackcoats saga whose 6th volume The Companions of The Treasure is in my view the most Tolkienesque thing written before Tolkien. 

The Angel and The Sphinx from 1889 by Eduard Schure and translated by Brian Stableford.

The Enchanted City by Eugene Hennebert from 1893 including in BlackCoatPress's upcoming French Tales of Lost Worlds anthology.

In 1908 and 1909 Gustave Le Rouge wrote two novels that directly anticipate the Barsoom series, these were Translated and published together as Vampires of Mars. 

1919's L'Atlantide is like She in some ways but not in others, the author Pierre Beniot had not read She. It has had a similar if more forgotten cultural impact, for awhile being directly adapted every decade but also in the name of it's Femme Fatale Antinea influencing even more films.

As far as arguing that 1990-2004 was the best era of Fantasy Prose Novels, this wouldn't be the only time where what I call The Bronze Age is also the age I would argue is the best, that's certainly the case with Anime and kind of is for some DC characters. And that is where my Weeb interests come in.  

I haven't read these books, I haven't even seen all the Anime based on them, but I know a lot about their cultural importance.  And these are only stories that were originally prose novels which Light Novels count as, I won't be including anything that started as a Manga, Anime, Video Games or Visual Novels though they certainly have plenty of their own contributions to making this an exciting decade and a half for the Fantasy genre.  

The Heroic Legend of Arslan series started in 1987 but continued all through this era. 

Majuu Senshi Luna Varga is referred to as being based on a Light Novel but I can't find any publication dates for it, it's probably the most randomly obscure thing I'm going to list here.  The OVAs came out in 91 so it could turn out to be too soon for this era. 

Slayers started in 1990.

The Twelve Kingdoms started in 1992 and is one of the many GRRMs of Anime source materials in that it's still unfinished. 

On the subject of Urban Fantasy I'm unsure what does and doesn't count but I feel 1998 started a peak era for Japanese Urban Fantasy with Boogiepop and Others in February and the first Kara No Kyoukai in October.  I also recall Trixie The Golden Witch mentioning an anthology book of Light Novels like these from this era called Faust. 

Maybe a short story shouldn't be considered eligible for this but Kinoko Nasu's Angel Notes from 99 is pretty important. 

Scrapped Princess was from 1999 to 2003.

Legend of The Legendary Heroes started in 2002. 

2002 is also the same year as the original Web Novel for Sword Art Online, which isn't a Fantasy novel but has become undeniably important to the history of Fantasy in Japanese media.

Baccano! started in 2003 as did The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya if you count either as Urban Fantasy.

The year 2004 was the start of at least three important Light Novel sagas. 

The Familiar of Zero was very popular and a website that started as a fan site for it would go on to be the main incubation chamber for modern Isekai.

And then two more where I'm unsure if they count as Urban Fantasy for now.  Durarara!! and A Certain Magical Index.

And in December of 2004 Hakubō no Dendōshi by Gen Urobuchi was published. 

All Art is Political, but not all art is Partisan.

All Art is Political in the sense that all Art will reflect the politics of the time and culture that created it in some way, especially if it’s actively trying not to. What is perceived as Apolitical says a lot about the politics of a given time or culture. 

The conservatives who object to that statement do so because they can only see art as political when it’s loudly taking a side on an actively contentious contemporary political issue.  Which is what I mean by “Partisan” here, might not be the best word to use but it's what I could think of. Because I'm willing to count as "Partisan" here stuff that does condemn both sides depending on how it goes about it, or refuses to fully demonize the other. 

However Conservatives are not the only ones getting the true meaning of “All art is political” wrong. Because a lot of Breadtubers are often citing the true definition only to then justify their very Partisan political reading of something as objectively undeniably the only correct reading. 

This obsession with trying to tell all the reactionaries of the Internet that whatever they are nostalgic for was "always Woke actually" is very misguided. Because even when it is somewhat true it is so usually because of how a lot of what was Woke when the original Star Trek series was airing has become the mostly uncontested Apolitical Status Quo since. 

Most mass produced highly popular Art is pretty broadly Centrist in the grand scheme of things even when taking a few actually Partisan stances. And most Art that is made by Conservatives are not like the cartoonish virtue signaling content Breadtubers dunk on to “prove” all Conservative Art is bad, most of it is actually pretty good at drawing on where in theory Leftists agree with them.

As a Death of the Author advocate, I firmly believe you can make a plausible Woke reading of just about anything. And I believe we should make those readings and keep making YT videos based on them. But those are not objectively the only correct way to read them and we shouldn't pretend they are.  

And the most almost actually Leftist stuff Hollywood has made like Andor can still be read by Conservatives as supporting their world view in ways that engage with the actual text just as much as our reading does, like Feral Historian's Andor videos.  We can’t call it denying reality when they do it but sophisticated analysis when we do it. 

I’ve even seen Breadtubers try to claim Tolkien was Woke actually, and I’m sorry but that’s absurd, being less Racist then the Nazis does not a Woke person create.  

If Ayn Rand hadn’t been so vocal about her politics in non fiction contexts I’m convinced there absolutely would be a group of Internet Leftists arguing her fictions were Woke actually.  Or at the very least if we only had The Fountainhead to go off, a Woke reading of The Fountainhead is absolutely theoretically possible. 

All the time I see people just using the fact that a given story has Nazis be the bad guys as their proof that it's Woke. And every time I feel like yelling “you know better than this”, you know that most Nazi villains in fiction are disconnected from why we Leftists consider them the ultimate Evil and are just being used as symbols of vague Authoritarianism, or purely for the aesthetic. You know full well that Conservatives are constantly calling Leftists the real Nazis. 

Sometimes just the simple fact that a Fantasy or Sci-Fi narrative is doing Rebels against an Empire is seen as an inherently Left Wing position to take  But when these same people are looking at real life history they know better, they know sometimes the Rebels are the Reactionaries, The Confederate States of America, The Beer Haul Putsch, January 6th, Bacon's Rebellion ect.  And sometimes even a person literally holding the title of King or Emperor is, on the issue that created the conflict, more in agreement with modern Leftists then those deposing him, like Pedro II of Brazil in 1889. 

We all know full well that nominally Left Wing Dictators have also worn military uniforms and done big showy military parades.  So let’s stop pretending we don’t and that those visuals are only ever about Fascism ™.

And there is also more to Anticapitalism than just “Rich People Bad”, as someone who has heard people all over the Political Spectrum talk about their perspectives I can assure you that most Conservatives and even most Libertarians firmly believe that the vast majority of Rich People are Evil.  The political disagreement is mainly about what policies serve their interests.  And if you think that is too absurd to be true in some cases, let me give you this very enlightening example.  

I have seen Climate Change Deniers claim that it is specifically the Big Oil Companies who created the Global Warming narrative and fund environmentalist groups opposed to Fracking and Offshore drilling because it helps them control the market and drive up Oil Prices to not be drilling for Oil domestically.

Low Church Fantasy

I’ve noticed a trend lately of YouTube videos analyzing how fictional religions in Fantasy settings often don’t feel authentic to how real Regions function, including one focusing specifically on the lack of Schisms. 

So I want to talk about something that perhaps only I care about.

Fantasy religions Aesthetically based on Christianity are always specifically based on High Church Christianity, usually quite specifically Roman Catholicism. More disorganized local spirituality in Fantasy stories are usually more inspired by Animist polytheism like you’d see from Indigenous Tribes of North America or the Sami or local Shintoism. 

This probably has to do with the simplified understanding of Christian History where there is no Protestantism till the Middle Ages are over so therefore it’s assumed Baptist or Quaker inspired communities would be out of place in a Medieval Europe inspired Fantasy Setting.  

However I have seen plenty of Fantasy settings that extend their real word inspirations into the Renaissance, Enlightenment or even Victorian period. Like all those Otome Villainess settings, or really any with a Magic Academy element.

But besides that Medieval Proto-Protestants of different kinds did exist, most relevant here would be the Waldenses/Waldensians. Talking about the Waldenses as Low Church Proto-Protestants is made more controversial than it should be because of how they factor into the imagined revisionist histories proposed by Landmarkists.  I do not believe in the core Doctrine that often lies behind Baptist Successionism theories (that being in the “True Church” requires an unbroken chain of Believers Baptism back to the Disciples), so whether or not there is direct continuity between the Waldenses and 15th Century Anabaptists doesn’t concern me. However I am convinced there is plenty of solid evidence that many Waldenses (they were probably not always all the same) were Credo-Baptists who practiced Congregational Polity. 

There's also the Lollards from English History, some of them were more Low Church then the others, Wycliff himself was certainly not a Credo-Baptist but I think some later Lollards did come to that conclusion.

But also Medieval Europe inspired Fantasy sometimes is unlike real Medieval Europe in more ways then just the Supernatural stuff. Just look at all those Fantasy Anime with Chattel Slavery as part of the setting. So who cares about the precedent, I want Fantasy Baptists. 

George MacDonald was a Congregationalist Minister who was a huge player in the origins of the Fantasy Genre being a cited influence on both C.S. Lewis and Tolkien.  The way Goblins tend to be depicted in Fantasy began with him and he also arguably wrote the first Isekai. Unfortunately his influence was filtered through a Catholic and an Anglican. His position on Church Polity is not the deviation from the Established Church of England MacDonald is most well known for, and indeed Universal Salvation is also something I’d like to see in the Fantasy Genre more often.

The major impact this could have on both the Mechanics and Lore of a Fantasy Setting is the question of Apostolic Succession.  

High Church denominations believe the Spiritual Authority Jesus gave the Apostles is only truly inherited by the Clergy, while Low Church Christians believe strongly in the Priesthood of All Believers.  Today most major Baptist denominations are Secessionist on the question of the Spiritual Gifts meaning they believe the more explicitly supernatural manifestations of that authority don’t really happen anymore. However most Pentecostal and Charismatic denominations are also Low Church in form, and the Quakers have their Inner Light doctrine. 

So you could easily still have your Catholic Church like institution be the one wielding the most political power in Society, seeking to restrict the knowledge and use of Healing Magic (and other forms of what a Final Fantasy player would call White Magic) to the Clergy, even having most Adventurer Guilds refuse to give proper Healer licenses to anyone not properly ordained.  While the Low Church Schismatics are teaching that such powers can be called upon by anyone who has Faith. 

People also criticize how passively Pro Monarchy the Fantasy Genre often seems. Well I’ve written before about how Congregationists were the harbingers of modern Democracy and Socialism, so perhaps having some Low Church Schismatics is also how to bring about a Revolution in a Fantasy World?

Baptists and Quakers also have a long history of opposing Slavery, the Southern Baptist Convention were the exception not the general rule, John Brown was a Congregationalist and Nat Turner a Baptist. A Fantasy story inspired by the history of The Baptist War in Jamaica could be interesting. 

Update May 17th 2026: I've recently learned that contrary to what I'd long assumed contemporary Japan has more Protestants then Catholics. 

This completely recontextualized the matter of why most Anime  seem like they don't know non Catholic forms of Christianity exist. And the main exceptions are specifically depicting the Anglicanism of England. 

And it means that the people who write the Web novels that become Light Novels that become Manga that become modern Fantasy Anime really should broaden their horizons. Tokyo has Baptists and Presbyterians and a Non Church Movement. They do have a frame of reference for what Low Church Christianity looks like. 

Catholics get more respect because they've been there longer. But so much else in Anime is the product of post Meiji Westernization, it's time Christianity in Anime reflected that too. 

She Professed Herself Pupil of Gandalf

She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man is a Winter 2022 Isekai Anime that I gave an 8 out of 10.  I’ve watched the entire show twice and some of it more than that, all Dubbed of course.

I’ve talked before about how Tolkien’s influence on the Fantasy Genre is generally more indirect in Japan and especially Anime adjacent media.  So this show beginning with a pretty explicit LOTR reference is in fact uncommon.  The main character clearly based their Gaming character on Gandalf.  But he winds up stuck in a Cute Anime Girl form by the end of the Pilot. 

Now one could view that as a pretty surface level reference, and indeed for the most part the show and its world is clearly based on the typical Dragon Quest inspired JRPG and Record of Lodoss War references the rest of the Isekai genre is, with a brief Magic Academy subplot.  But there is something else in the early part of the show I at least think Tolkien would have appreciated.  

This also fits into the Sub Genre of Isekai where this Fantasy was once a VRMMORPG Video Game that somehow became a real tangible physical material world like Log Horizon and Land of Leadale. 

So there is a question at first as to whether now that adventuring in this world is in fact dangerous if our protagonist will take the risks entailed to help deal with the Crisises it is facing. Or consider this world that began as a mere game worth taking such risks for. It’s not all that explicitly asked but the subtext was clearly there.

There is a scene in episode two where the protagonist stops to look at some flowers, observe how pretty they are and that they smell nice and decides that this beauty is what is worth protecting. It may be just a coincidence but to me that moment is very Tolkien.

War of The Rohirrim isn't on MyAnimeList

I watched this movie on the 27th and I liked it, it was very good. 

But there was a part of me wanting to talk about how it still doesn't quite feel like Anime to me, how the way characters move feels more like the Ralph Bakshi film and how the Anime I would draw on aesthetically for a Rohan centric film is Vinland Saga given how vaguely Proto-Anglo-Saxon the Rohirrim are supposed to be.

But I feel the need to bite my Tong on that since I totally disagree with MAL not including it, I don't see how it fails to fit the technical standards that MAL uses.  And it definitely feels more like Anime to me then any of the Chinese garbage MAL does count, or that obscure CGI Superhero cartoon they count.  Or even Batman Ninja for that matter.

The fact is I am pretty self aware of how the reasons this and Castlevania and The Last Airbender and the 2003 Teen Titans Cartoons don't feel Anime to me are because of the specific tastes in Anime I personally hold.  So for me Pantheon does feel Anime enough even though most people don't include that in their Anime Inspired Western Cartoons conversations.

Regardless of how much War of the Rohirrim does or does not Look like what I wanted an Anime Lord of The Rings to look like, it is directed by Kenji Kamiyama, that makes it an Anime by Default.

I can't even dig into the weeds of who the specific Animators and Artists were because websites like MAL are how I usually begin that investigation.

Update: It has an Anime New Network page, where indeed lots of staff positions are held by Japanese names. 

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town?

Is the name of a Winter 2021 Fantasy Anime I haven’t watched.  I recall trying to but didn’t finish even the first episode.

However I can’t stop thinking about the title.  The implication of that title is that ‘Starter Town” is functionally synonymous with being a bustling Urban Metropolis and what I recall of the first episode confirms that.

So it confuses me because these LN based Fantasy Anime are operating on a very Meta level, the title implies that because its audience would expect it to be the norm.

But my general experience with the Fantasy Genre is the opposite, the Hero’s Journey usually starts in the Boonies, from The Hobbit and LOTR starting in The Shire to Luke Skywalker growing up on a farm far from the big city on an outer rim planet to Pokémon starting in Pallet Town (which in the Games and Anime seems smaller then it’s real world inspiration) to even Zelda usually starting Link off in some obscure settlement like Kokori Forest, Outset Island or Ordon Village.

But only one of those fits all the requirements for counting as a JRPG and even it is an edge case. 

In Japan the by far most popular JRPG franchise is Dragon Quest with Dragon Quest III specifically being the main blueprint for what most of these Japanese Gamers would think of as a standard RPG formula.  And indeed that adventure does start in the Castle Town where the King lives.

Even the original Final Fantasy also has the first city you visit be the Royal Capital of a Kingdom.  And VII starts in Midgar.

In the Mairo RPGs Mario’s house seems not to be in any town but located very close to Toad Town where Peach’s Castle is located.  The Thousand Year Door starts in Rogueport, a Mos Eisley style port city.

I also notice in Anime about playing MMORPGs you usually spawn in what seems like an Urban Center so that meeting up with other players can be done conveniently.  

And I think that is why RPGs so often depart from the Tolkien set precedent.  RPGs are a kind of game where the Multiplayer form is the original and the Single Player form came later.  The Quest needs to start in a place where players from diverse backgrounds can believably happen to meet up and form a party, like the opening premise of the Anime Ningen Fushin.

The association of the Last Dungeon with the Boonies I still don't get though.

Update December 22nd 2024: Well I have watched it now.

It doesn't really confirm or deny the thesis I originally made this post for. 

The central Meta Gamer Logic Joke is that this MC comes form a late game area and so is overpowered in this early game area without realizing it because in these "boonies" the the most common monsters are stronger then early game bosses.

In a typical RPG you will reach a point where even the lowest Mooks you do battle with technically now have higher states then Bosses you fought early on.  For example in Super Mario RPG the Gu Goombas of Bowser's Keep are stronger then the Hammer Bros of Mushroom Way.  But because the player has leveled up along the way they feel just as easy to one hit KO as regular Goombas.

Update October 2025: I think I do fully get what the title is going for now. 

It's taking the common cultural perception that people who grow up in rural areas are probably tougher then city folk because they grew up in a harsher environment living a more labor intensive lifestyle.   And mapping that neatly onto those RPG conventions I talked about above. 

Death is NOT Good Actually

I have in the last decade become a huge Anime fan, now most of the Entertainment media I’m particularly into is Anime or Anime related.  And in my praise of the many things I love about Anime I sometimes go a little too far in making Anime sound morally superior to Western Media.  But there are some common philosophical themes in a lot of Anime I don’t like.  

And chief among them is one I noticed being a thing when I watched Manmode’s video on Darling in The FranXX.  Now I am also a bit of an apologist for that show, the common criticisms of it I don’t agree with.  But Manmode correctly observed that one of the morals in this show’s worldbuilding was that Humanity would lose what makes us “Human” if we actually stopped dying.  He also sees this as a common theme in many Trigger/Gainax style shows with it even being awkwardly shoehorned into SSSS.Gridman in one scene in the last episode.

And even beyond those two studios it comes up a lot, though often just in making one villain's individual refusal to accept their own death a root cause of much of their villainy.  And yeah no one disagrees that Zouken Matou in Fate/Stay Night Heaven’s Feel II: Lost Butterfly saying that he would gladly kill everyone else on earth if it would prevent himself from Dying is very Evil. 

But this broader philosophical notion that Humankind needs Mortality to motivate itself isn’t limited to Japanese media of course, it's a theme in the “Christian” world building of Tolkien and Lewis as well, The Elves view Mortality as a Gift that they are envious of..  I put Christian in Quotes there not to deny that those two were Christians, they were, but this aspect of their worldview is Anti-Christian, it is the very heart of Paganism going all the way back to the Epic of Gilgamesh.

What separates the New Testament 1 Corinthians 15 Gospel of The Resurrection from the many “dying and rising gods” that Mythiscists obsess over is that for Paul the Resurrection is NOT mere Symbolism, it is other things that are made mere symbols of The Resurrection.  The Gospel is the promise that Death is Temporary, that one day it will not exist any longer.

And the reason I’m still a Young Earth Creationist even though I have no interest in telling anyone they are required to be one to be a “True Christian” is because tied into that is a Belief that Death was not originally a natural part of Life, it’s existence is a consequence of Adam’s Sin, it is a Curse that the Last Adam is liberating us from.

Returning to Anime this is why I am glad there is a counter example.  The Black Moon saga of Sailor Moon (as it was in the Manga and second cour of Sailor Moon Crystal but not the 90s Anime which removed this element of the plot) involves a future where Death has ceased and everyone is now immortal, and the people who think that is a bad thing for exactly the reason Trigger thinks it would be are the villains, and the narrative has no sympathy for their perspective at all, not even the slightest nominal consideration that maybe they have a point.  Part of the reason this is one of the awkwardly worst Arcs of the 90s Anime is that it tried to make these villains more sympathetic while dropping their motivation.  But in Crystal I love it, I love finally seeing an Anime say FU to this popular Pagan idea.

Update: I've now seen Baccano! and it's also proven an interesting sort of subversion to this.

Baby Yoda and Elves

I love Baby Yoda as much as everyone, but I can’t help but find the concept of being a Baby who can’t even speak yet for over 50 years kind of horrifying, and I’ve seen similar tropes done with the aging process of some Anime Elves.  I remember thinking a more serious world builder would just explain how their very long lived race matures to adulthood at about the same timespan humans do and then their aging slows down dramatically.  

But then I learned that in some of Tolkien's more obscure writings it’s clarified his Elves were also envisioned as taking like 100 years to become adults.  

The growing that we humans experience for the first 25ish years of our lives and the decaying that defines the rest of it are very different biological phenomena, that both can be described as “aging” doesn’t make them the same thing.  So the later being massively slowed or even frozen for a fantasy race doesn’t inherently mean the former has to be slowed as well.

So any Elves in a story written by me would grow up perfectly normally.

Anime Recommendations for Inklings.

Anime is such a vast and diverse medium that I truly believe it has something for everyone even though a lot of it will struggle to appeal outside the specific subculture that created it.  So one recurring theme of this Blog is me as a person who was once a more normal western Nerd with a wide range of interests for a long time before Anime took over my brain appointing myself as an expert recommender.  And of course one of my top Western Nerdy interests is J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

Now if any long time followers of this blog exist you may think I’ve already covered Tolkien and Lewis like Anime in various ways, but the truth is the prior examples of one or both of them and Anime coming up in the same post were more the other way around if anything.  In this post I want to focus on Anime that I think could have appealed to Tolkien and Lewis themselves if they were still around, not merely fans who like their work but also a lot of stuff very unlike them.

So for example while I’ve made a few posts on why Fantasy Anime even at its most Generic and Gamerfied would appeal to someone whose tastes in the Genre were shaped by them more then the slew of GOT wannabes that western “Prestige” television spewed out in the 2010s.  I am still not insane enough to think either of them would like a show that’s basically literally about being in a Video Game.

Maquia and Frieren are the top two Fantasy Anime I would truly call Tolkienesque.  Maybe Grimoire of Zero and Dawn of The Witch could fit in.  Something that actually qualifies as Isekai would have a better shot with Lewis then Tolkien but not most modern Isekai.  Lewis and Tolkien’s different views on Allegory would have me recommending something like Princess Tutu or an Ikuhara show to Lewis way before Tolkien.  The third Pokémon movie Spell of The Unown might be able to appeal to both.

Also Tolkien's anxieties about Technology and Nature make him a bit of a kindred spirit with Miyazaki but that's not something people needed me to learn about, there's already a YouTube Video Essay on it.  I have also already stated that the ending of Nausicaa counts as a Eucatastrophe, also an observation I didn't make on my own.

However I want to remind people that Tolkien was capable of enjoying more kinds of fiction than just the genre he's most well known for writing.  

For example I was intrigued when I learned that Tolkien was a fan of Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End.  Now the first Anime that I would recommend to any Clarke fan is the Gundam franchise, the Childhood’s End influence is there right form the original Mobile Suit Gundam, I often feel like I’m the only western fan who notices that the term Newtype itself is basically a Childhood’s End reference.  However I feel the best Gundam in many ways including as a Clarke homage is Gundam 00, now 00 like a lot of non UC Gundam Anime in my opinion struggles in its early episodes. I was lucky I caught Gundam 00 randomly in the middle of season 1 on the SciFi channel.  (The Witch From Mercury finally avoided this problem by just making its Pilot a remake of Utena’s pilot).

Heck I’m gonna leave Anime for a second to mention how I see a lot of thematic similarities between Tolkien and the works of 19th Century French Novelist Paul Feval.  They are most apparent in The Companions of The Treasure the 6th and in my headcanon last Volume of The Blackcoats saga, a Tolkien fan reading it will be reminded of a number of things.  Part of it might be how Feval was also a Roman Catholic seemingly specifically to be contrarian (it wasn’t rare in his nation like it was Tolkien but was among those writing serialized novels for newspapers).

Anime that reminds me of Paul Feval are also something I’ve already talked about on this blog.  But which ones do so in specifically a way that speaks to why I compare Feval to Tolkien?  Well I suspect Princess Principal may exist at exactly the right crossroads for that.

Since Tolkien was a Linguist first and foremost he might have been amused by some of those Detective Conan episodes that play on language for a key clue.  Like episode 651 which used differences between the Kansai and Kanto dialects of Japanese.  Or that subplot from the latter part of the Clash and Red and Black where Conan used a sort of reverse Shiboleth.  

Thing is I have no idea if Tolkien ever had any interest in Detective Fiction as a genre.  Lewis did make a Sherlock Holmes reference once and I will definitely recommend Detective Conan aka Case Closed to any Holmes fan, it’s a way better modern reimagining then what the BBC and Hollywood have given us in the last 20 years.

Given the interest Tolkien seemed to have in the idea of Cursed objects that kind of Doom their possessor I’m almost inclined to wonder if even Death Note would have an appeal.

Update February 10th: I recently learned about both Tolkien and Lewis being fans of Voyage to Arcturus thanks to the Media Death Cult youtube channel.  I'm sure there are a number of Anime you could compare to Arcturus but they aren't on the tip of my tong right now.

Update November 18th 2025: Narnia is the obvious C.W. Lewis reference for discussing Isekai, but  when I watch one of the rare Isekai that actually at first tries to have the protagonist communicate with the residents of the new world through a language barrier instead of immediately ignoring or handwaving that issue, I immediately think of Out of The Silent Planet when Ransom first meets Hyoi and begins learning the Hross language.   I wish I could remember which Isekai those were off the top of my head, it kinda happen in YU-NO which doesn't become an Isekai till episode 18.

I remember reading once about how the climax of Peralandra is compared to The Lord of The Rings because they both involved a confrontation in a subterranean cavern where the villain winds up falling into lava.  And today as I rewatched my favorite Anime Noir I realized how it's final confrontation can also be described the same way.

Update March 2024: And ya know what that also applies to the ending of Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel too.

Update August 9th 2026: I feel like adding that The Ribbon Hero has scenes that feel like what an Anime adaptation of The Fall of Gondolin could look like.

Valarin could be based on Hebrew

Valarin is arguably the most mysterious of the languages that help define the world of Tolkien’s Legendarium. We don’t know nearly as much about it as we do the main Elvish Languages.  And the first question often is was some real world Language the inspiration? Quenya’s starting point was Finnish, Sindarin’s was Welsh and the Language of the Rohirrim is meant to be imaginable as an ancestor of Old English.  With Valarin however no one is certain which, if any, real world language we should look to.

Valarin is the native tongue of the Ainur, a group further subdivided between Valar and Maiar, beings that are essentially what Abrahamic religions call Angels.  Angel comes from the Greek Angelos used to translate the Hebrew Malak both words mean Messenger because serving as God’s messengers to humans is the function they are usually serving when they show up in The Bible but it's perhaps not what these beings would call themselves, nor is it the only term they’re ever called in The Bible.  Likewise Vala and Maia are Quenya names given to these beings by the Elves.

The assumption has long existed among many theologians that the Language of the Angels would have to be Hebrew or something very similar, after all the only two named Angels in Scripture have Hebrew names even when mentioned in the Greek New Testament books.  Today it may mainly be certain fringe sects of American Evangelical Fundamentalism most likely to make a big deal out of if that is the case or not, but it is historically not unique to them.  John Dee devised Enochian as a hypothetical Angelic Language basing it on Hebrew.  And I’m sure there have been Catholics (Tolkien’s denomination) who have agreed.

What little we know about Valarin in Tolkien’s Legendarium is in-universe filtered through the perspective of the Elves.  I imagine that even in Valinor communication between the Elves and Ainur usually involved the Ainur speaking Elvish rather than the other way around.  Nonetheless the Elves were exposed to some Valarin words and some Quenya words are said to be Valarin loan words.  However I really think we should not rule out that the Elves may have often misheard, mispronounced and misunderstood the meanings of the Valarin words that entered their vocabulary.  Plus some of it comes in-universe from people no longer in Valinor speculating ages later.

Consider how the known real world history of Hebrew names being transliterated into European languages by Christians includes such end results as Moshe becoming Moses, Slomoh becoming Solomon, Yeshua became Jesus and the four letter name YHWH having such varied interpretations as Yahweh and Jehovah (I personally view Yahuah as the correct form).

The first Valarin word I want to discuss is the name of Orome’s horse Nahar, now the Roman spelling of the Valarin original form is presented as Næχærra (the apparent X there is actually Chi a symbol for the -ch sound) but presenting the casual form as Nahar makes a possible Hebrew basis obvious.  Nahar resembles two Hebrew words due to there being two Hebrew letters that can become an H in English.  One is the Hebrew word for River but the other the KJV translated "Nostrils": or "Snorting" and in it the letter used for H is the letter that is also the Hebrew letter for -ch, and in both Job 39:19-20 and Jeremiah 8:16 it is associated with the sound a Horse makes.

The next Valarin word I want to discuss is machanaz (machanumaz being the plural) which is said to mean Authorities and is the root of a term for the Aratar the Eight highest ranked of the Valar.  The Hebrew word I think this could come from is machaneh which means company or camp or host and is used in Genesis 32:2 to refer to “God’s host”.  Also look at the -um being added to make it plural, that could come from Elves mishearing -im which is the most common Hebrew suffix to convey plurality.

Aman the Blessed Land the name of the Continent on which Valinor resides is a name Tolkien originally presented as coming from a Quenya name meaning Good but he later decided it was Valarin in origin.  Aman is also a Hebrew word that in the KJV is translated things like Assurance, Believed, Faithful, Nursed, Steadfast, Trusted and Trusty.

Ainu comes from the Valarin word Ayanuz. As a Quenya word Ainu means Holy One but that could be a meaning the Elves gave the name because they viewed the Aniur as Holy, or they named the concept of Holiness after these semi divine beings they interacted with.  Ayanuz could come from the Hebrew word Ayin meaning Eye (and it’s the name of the Hebrew letter this word begins with) or ayam which means Mighty and began with the same letter.   There is a good real world Proto Indo-European etymology for Aina the Quenya word for Holy, it might be the Elves connected this name to a phonetically similar word.

Honeyed Wine is the meaning of mirubhoze.  One Hebrew word for Wine is tiryowsh and the Hebrew word for Honey is dbash. Now this is more of a stretch then my prior examples but I still consider it plausible, perhaps as a Mondogreen form listening to a Valarin song.

Even the name of Arda is said to be Valarin in origin.  That name is related to many Germanic words for Earth including Earth itself but the Afrikaans Aarde is the closest.  But plenty of Semitic words for Earth happen to seem phonetically similar like the Hebrew Erets and the Arabic ‘ard.  However the stated Valarin name for Arda is Aþāraphelūn which is supposed to mean “appointed dwelling”.  Palon/Pelon is a Hebrew word from the root Palah meaning separate.  The Athara part could come from atar/atarah which means compass or crown conveying the idea of a circle.

Before I discuss any more confirmed Valarin words or names, I want to speculate on a few names designated Quenya but that could have involved Valarin loanwords that Tolkien never explicitly told us were.

Melkor is the name that is often referred to as the original name of the Legendarium’s Satan figure before he was given the obviously derogatory name Morgoth.  But Melkor is presented as a Quenya name that even it may not have been his original name, Melkor is said to mean “he who rises in might”.  In some Tolkien YouTube videos I’ve noticed when people quote older abandoned versions of the tales Melkor is often more simply Melko.  On Tolkien Gateway other early forms of the name are listed as Belcha, Melegor and Meleko and the meaning is simply “The Mighty One”. 

I can’t help but see a connection to the Hebrew word for King which is Melek and how the first King in The Bible is Nimrod the Mighty Hunter.  Examples in real world history of named derived in whole or in part from this word include Melchi and Melchior. 

The word Melek is associated with Satan first and foremost in Ezekiel 29 starting in verse 11 where the Melek of Tyre is a Cherub in contrast to the mere human Nagyim of Tyre in the prior verses.  I believe this passage is in part identifying Satan with Melqart/Melkart the Patron deity of Tyre who’s name is interpreted as meaning “King of the City”.  He’s also the “King of Babylon” in Isaiah 14 who desires to place his throne above the Most High, to “Rise in Might”. 

However the deity name Moloch is also just Melek with different vowel indicators and some scholars think those different vowel indicators came later and originally every reference to Moloch/Milcom was just the Hebrew word for King/Kings.  Moloch references include most of the Human Sacrifices documented in the Hebrew Bible which is why he’s sometimes viewed as the most Evil pagan god The Scripture references even more so than Baal.  But it’s also possible if Moloch was a distinct deity name at all it was just the Ammonite name for Hadad who the Canaanites called Baal and the Moabites called Chemosh.

The conception of Satan that Morgoth is based on isn’t actually Biblical, it’s founded upon layers of Extra-Biblical Fan Fiction culminating in John Milton’s Paradise Lost.  Now many today don’t know this but John Milton was actually a political radical of his time who argued in his nonfiction writings that the very concept of having a King other than God Himself is Idolatry.  Satan in Paradise Lost is a manifestation of that idea, the first and ultimate False King.  So a post Milton depiction of Satan being basically named King kind of fits.

The characterization of Melkor/Morgoth in the various First Age stories is that he begins mostly motivated by a desire to Dominate to Control to Rule.  In other words to be the God-King of Arda.

Of the two main names used for The Monotheistic God of Tolkien’s Legendarium, Iluvatar is the most straightforward having its real world etymology firmly in Quenya’s Finnish roots.  Eru however is very mysterious and I was indeed shocked to learn it’s NOT one of the names officially confirmed to be Valarin, it sure doesn’t seem even close to Finnish, Yksi is the Finnish word for One.  Speaking of Eru meaning The One, I personally want that to actually be an Elvish mistake.  In my opinion it is bad form for a Trinitarian to give God a name that mean The One and flat out heretical to name Him “He that is Alone”, calling your theological First Principal by such titles is an influence of Pythagoreanism and Platonism calling it The Monad.  The New Testament and Early Christians preferred Eis Theos and Mia Theos to Mono Theos.  Eis and Mias like the Hebrew Eched means one as in United or Unified not an Absolute Only One.

The phenomena of the sound represented by the letter L being mispronounced as an R is NOT in fact unique to Japanese or other East Asian Languages.  Back in my youth long before I got into any of the Weeb stuff I’m into now I always misheard the L in the middle of the word Colonel as an R, consistently no matter who said it, at first I was unable to recognize it in print because I’d heard it that way so consistently. [Update: Name Explain now has a video on Colonel.]

I’m bringing this up because coincidentally El the Hebrew word for God is one of a few Gaijin words that the Japanese tend to pronounce Eru, others include the Spanish definite article and the English name of the letter L.  Most times I’ve seen or heard Eru in Japanese media it’s been the Spanish reference like the title of the Anime El Cazador de la Bruja (The Hunter of The Witch) the first part of which gets pronounced Eru Kazado.  However there is a Visual Novel called You and Me and Her: A Love Story where a Cat is named Eru and the credits say Eru has the same voice actor as God.

So what I’m getting at is maybe Eru came from some Elf mishearing or mispronouncing El under the right circumstances.  Or a shortening of a mishearing or mispronouncing of Elah or Eloah or Elohim.

Yavanna seems to be the first of the Valar (going through them in Valaquenta order) whose name isn’t said to be Valarin in origin.  Yet I can’t help but notice how much it looks like a feminine form of Yavan, the Hebrew name for Greece.  The Strongs says the name is related to Yayin, another Hebrew word for Wine which fits the Fruit connection of Yavanna’s name.  I’m trying to think of reasons that it would culturally or religiously make sense to fan theorize that Primitive Greece descended from particular followers of Yavanna, I suppose the standard practices of Interpretatio graeca would identify Yavanna with Gaia, Cybele or Magna Mater, but even that feels like a bit of a stretch. [Update February 9th: I've looked into some theories about Dione and Dodona and now think she may work.]

There are other names that look instantly Hebrew when I look at them even though I can’t imagine how the name could in universe be Valarin in origin, like how Gilgalad reminds me of Gilgal and Beor is the name of the father of the first King of the Edomites in Genesis 36.  Any other writer of European style Fantasy I’d just chalk it up to how Biblical Names entered our vocabulary and this writer didn’t think about where they came from.  But Tolkien was specifically a Linguist first and foremost.  If he knowingly put Hebrew names in there he did so for a reason.

I’m going to cover some more confirmed Valarin in origin words now, but I’m growing less certain how to make them fit my Valarin=Hebrew hypothesis, everything above is the foundation of it.

The name of Varda comes from the Quenya root Barada which means Subline, Exalted or Lofty and is said to be a Valarin loan word.  Baalath is a Hebrew name derived from Baalah meaning Mistress or Lady.

Manawenuz is the Valarin name of Manwe and I can’t help but jump to connecting it to Manehem a Hebrew name that means Comforter and thus possibly the Hebrew concept behind the Paraclete of John and 1 John and is also a name a number of Jewish traditions have given to Messiah Ben David.  Now fully identifying Manwe with either Jesus or The Holy Spirit would be a type of Arianism which I don’t believe Tolkien was going for, the Finrod ap Andreth established that Eru himself will incarnate as a Human to bring about the final healing of Arda.  But you can still argue Manwe is typologically stewarding the Seat of Authority destined for the future Incarnate Eru.

Ulluboz as the proposed root of Ulmo I speculate could come from Alluwph a Hebrew word that is sometimes translated Captain.

Aule’s name is said to come from Valarin Aȝūlēz.  Ayal is a Hebrew word meaning strength.  

Nessa’s name is suggested to be Valarin according to Pengolodh.  There are two Hebrew words I considered since Hebrew has two letters for S.  The shin one would be Nasa which means to carry or bear something, and the Samek one would be Nacah which means Adventure, Prove or Try.

Aromez as the origin of Orome could be related to Arumah a Hebrew name derived from the root rumah which means height.  Or from ‘orem which means craftiness.

Atharaigas as a name for The Sun could have its roots first in again atar/atarah meaning compass/crown/circle and Ygiya meaning Labor or Work. 

Osse’s name could be related to Hosea, a Hebrew name that means deliverer.

Ezellochar could come from Ezel meaning departure and achar meaning next.  How that’s a fitting name for the location of the two trees I’m unsure.

Machananaskad likely begins with machaneh again since it is a name for the meeting place of the Aratar. The next part could be nashaq which means armed. 

Fandom Wiki Network sucks

I'm definitely a supporter of the growing Anti-Fandom movement in the Fan Wiki Community. 

mossbag and Connorsseur both have YouTube videos on the subject I highly recommend.

Some of the franchises I often need to use wikis for don't have their Fandom alternative even as the second option to come up on a search, partly because of their not so straight forward names.  So I want to share some here real quick.

DetectiveConanWorld.Com has a Wiki that is a great resource for Case Closed.

TolkienGateway.Net is great for Arda Lore.

WikiMoon.Org is a non Fandom Sailor Moon Wiki.

FinalFantasyWiki.Com, Dragon-Quest.Org and SaGaWiki.Org don't seem to be as comprehensive as they need to be to compete with Fandom yet, but they can be made better simply with the help of new contributors.

I was also already a user of some of the more well known ones mentioned in those YT videos like Bulbapedia and the Mario Wiki.

However there are some I'm still frustrated to see have no Fanodm alternative, at least not one I've found searching.  Wookipedia is still the only option for Star Wars, DC Database is still the best option for DC and the others are also on Fandom.  PDSH is also a Wiki I like to use and wish would migrate.

And getting back to my Weeb stuff, ToAru, and the Nasuverse and Code Geass and Overflow still only have their Fandom options.  For Overflow there's a lot of information on the broader School Days Universe only available in English on that wiki, I wish that would change.

I also have occasional interest in the DereTypes Wiki so wish it would migrate, as well as the Dubbing Wiki and Audio Drama Wiki.

Update February 1st: I felt like mentioning this Megaman Wiki I stumbled upon.

https://megaman.miraheze.org/wiki/Mega_Man_Knowledge_Base

Here's a page where Miraheze attempts to comprehensively list their Wikis.

https://meta.miraheze.org/wiki/Gazetteer_of_wikis

Update February 19th: There is a non Fandom Song of Ice and Fire Wiki.

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Main_Page

Update July 2024: A non Fandom Star Wars Wiki now exists.  

https://starwars.archivum.wiki/

Update September 5th 2024: Now I've found a non Fandom Madoka Wiki.

https://wiki.puella-magi.net/Main_Page

Update April 30th 2025: I recently learned on BSKY that for Wikis without an alternative you can add "anti" before "fandom" in the URL to create a more useable alternative.  A truly independent Wiki is the ideal, but this will prove helpful especially for my continued dependence on the Overflow Wiki.

Update June 1st 2025: I've learned there is a Non Fandom Touhou Wiki.

https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Touhou_Wiki

Update August 2026: I just learned about this interesting Wiki.

https://evilbabes.miraheze.org/wiki/EvilBabes_Wiki

Dark Elves in Anime are nothing like The Drow

I find it interesting how whenever the Moriquendi come up in something I'm reading or watching about Arda Lore the author needs to stop and explain how “Dark Elves” in Tolkien have nothing to do with the almost Demonic qualities Dark Elves have in modern Fantasy.  Because it’s really mainly DnD Dark Elves they have in mind, perhaps also the second Thor movie.

I watch a lot of Anime, and while on the one hand the influence of Tolkien is way less direct on Fantasy Anime that feature Elves and Dwarves and Goblins then he is in The West, so is DnD, in Japan other Tabletop Role Playing Games were always more popular than DnD.  And I can’t help but wonder if almost by sheer coincidence the Dark Elves you see in Anime are not too dissimilar to the Avari?

These Anime definitely still use the term differently.  Moriquendi in Tolkien’s writings refers neither to a moral assessment or anything about how they looked, it simply meant neither they or their ancestors ever saw the Light of the Trees.  I think most casual film only Tolkien fans would be most shocked to learn that Legolas and the other Mirkwood Elves are Moriquendi not Calaquendi.  So I feel like mentioning here that the standard Elves you see in Anime and JRPGs even if they are called “Light Elves” or their home is called Alfheim are if I compared them to any of Tolkien’s Elves really Wood Elves, perhaps even more specifically the Sylvan Elves before the Sindar royal families took them over.  The thing that might most disappoint a Tolkien fan watching Fantasy Anime is that there are no High Elves, no one who seems at all like the Vanyar, Noldor or even the Teleri of Beleriand.  The Anime or JRPG races that do give off Calaquendi vibes to me are not actually called Elves at all but rather are the Cetra of Final Fantasy VII and the Iorph of Maquia.

Tolkien devotes surprisingly little time to describing what any of his Elves looked like, especially in terms of Skin, Eye or Hair color.  The Sylvan Elves are often assumed to all be Golden haired because only one of them ever had their hair color described at all.  It is possible those Avari tribes who stayed in the East or South even into the Third Age may have developed darker skin tones just like the humans living in those parts of the world, but either way that’s not why they’re called Dark Elves.

There is a lot of talk about how Dragon Quest is the key Ur Text of a lot of aspects of modern “Generic” Fantasy Anime (like how Orcs in Isekai are usually Humanoid Pig creatures rather than another word for Goblin as it is in Tolkien).  However it seems the Anime Dark Elf trend is an exception to this, I have never played any Dragon Quest game but from skimming the Wiki they seem to have no Dark Elves.

So the archetypal basis for the Anime Dark Elves I’m talking about seems to come from Record of Lodoss War, principally the character of Pirotess who’s also important in the spin off Legend of Crystania.  Likewise the Blond Haired Green Clad Archer Elf Maidens of modern Anime largely descend from Deedlit.  Record of Lodoss began literally as a Tabletop Roleplaying Game campaign, but again whenever someone talking about it says it simply was DnD they are assuming, it seems they mostly made up their own rules that drew more on Tunnels & Trolls and RuneQuest.  And I’d say the greatest evidence of that is how Pirotess is nothing like the Drow of DnD.  Modern Anime Dark Elves clearly based on her in part include Aura Shurifon in War On Geminar and Yao Ha Ducy in Gate.

The look of these Dark Elves tends to be Silver Hair and a fairly Dark Skin tone but not like you see in Africa.  The Japanese have a fairly decent variety of Skin Complexions among themselves, there are a number of darker skinned Anime characters in shows set in Japan who the western audience tends to at first assume must be some type of Gaijin but usually no it really just represents coming from certain regions of Japan.  And I think that may be largely what they are going for with these Dark Elves, because they are at the end of the day not all that fundamentally different from the Vanilla Elves.

If you brought back the old Norse terminology you could have both types of Dark Elves in the same story, with Drow style Elves as the Svartalfar and these RoLW style Anime Dark Elves as the Dokkalfar.

Willow, finally a good Live Action Western Fantasy show

First I should explain that I'm new to this franchise as a whole, I watched both the original 88 movie and the first three episodes of the new Disney+ show today.

The original Willow is a satisfying charming 80s Fantasy film.  What's neat about it is while a lot of the influence Tolkien has had on the Fantasy Genre has been through LOTR and later the Silmarilion, Willow feels like George Lucas's take on The Hobbit with a little Narnia inspiration as well.

The new show however has proven to endear me personally even more.  After the late summer and early fall of 2022 being largely HOTD and ROP discourse, this show came along and frankly blew both out of the water.  It also easily beats all the SW shows Disney gave us this year.

HOTD is fine, it's what I'd expect from a GOT prequel, but GOT type shows are of limited appeal to me.  ROP I enjoyed plenty of, but I also hate how much it basically felt like a post GOT fantasy show wearing LOTR cosplay.

I made two posts in the last two years about why Fantasy Anime has generally been more appealing to me then any Western Fantasy shows of the last decade, one on how they look and one on the kinds of stories they tell.  Willow is finally a Fantasy Show taking the right approach to both those issues.

And comparison to Fantasy Anime isn't the only reason to recommend the show to Anime fans, Kit has a very Bifauxnen appeal, and her being canonically Gay seems to be where they're going, so it's something Yuri fans may like as well.

I'll be following the show every Wednesday till it's done.

Tolkien's Middle-Earth Theology was Platonist and even a little Gnostic

I was wishing I could discover that Tolkien's Metaphysical Philosophy was unintentionally Stoic like I have for Star Wars and Final Fantasy VII and maybe even Zelda.  But no, both Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are firm examples of Platonist Christianity.

It starts right with what the name Eru is said to mean in the opening lines of the Ainulindale and Valaquenta and the Index of the Silmarilion, "The One" and "He that is Alone".  That comes from the Pythagorean concept of The Monad which became core to the Monotheism of Neopythagoreanism, Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism.  Lewis does the same thing in the Space Trilogy by calling the first person of the Trinity the "Old One".  The New Testament never uses any form of Mono to define God, the verses people often cite as saying "God is One" or "The Lord is One" have a different word being translated One which I argue is a misleading Translation, Unity or United is the idea being conveyed by that word.

Another part is the very concept of having the Valar do much of the heavy lifting in actually physically creating Arda, this echoes the Demiurge concept of Numenius of Apamea or Plutarch's Daimon subcreators and is firmly Unbiblical.

The most truly in-depth discussion of Theology in anything Tolkien wrote for his Middle Earth mythology is the Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth or The Debate of Finrod and Andreth, published in The History of Middle-Earth Volume X: Morgoth's Ring.  It's in the style of a Platonic Dialogue but more importantly then that are three key things it reveals about Eru Iluvatar and Arda and Men.  

In my copy of Morgoth's Ring (a Hardcover edition with a Red Sleeve) on page 311 near the bottom Finrod says that Arda "was made by Eru, but He is not in it" and goes on to basically say the same of Ea the equivalent term for the Universe/Cosmos.  This God being outside the Universe concept is another idea that has been taken as a given by most modern Christian Theologians because of the influence of Platonism, but that I have come to view as actually contrary to Scripture, Stephen says in Acts 7 quoting Isaiah 66 that the Heavens are His Throne and The Earth His Footstool, and remember in Hebrew and Greek the Heavens means the Sky and Outer Space. making it fundamentally part of the Universe.  The Ancient Platonists referred to the World of Forms where their transcendent God lived not as Heaven but as "A Place Beyond Heaven".  The Biblical God is Imminent within the Universe not outside of it.  

Next on page 314 Finrod explains that the Spirit/Souls of Men unlike those of Elves are not confined to Arda nor is Arda their Home.  Thinking things like this about the nature of the Human Soul is a gateway drug to de-physicalizing the Resurrection, now Tolkien doesn't do that, Finrod's ultimate conclusion regarding the destiny of Men and the remaking of Arda involves their Bodies becoming as immortal as their Souls.  But still I tend to be uncomfortable with even introducing a concept of the Soul being somehow less tied to The World then The Body is.  But when interpreting The Bible this idea naturally comes from the previous one since Adam became a Living Soul when God Breathed the Breath of Life into him.

Then on page 318 they basically adapt the Platonic World of Forms concept to be in the Mind of Eru.  Related to that is how the openings of both the Ainulindale and Valaquenta state that Eru made the Ainu of his thoughts.  That comes from the 2nd Century Middle Platonsit Alcinous who defined the lesser god subcreators as Ideas made of the thoughts of the First God.

Now when I discussed Gnostic Interpretations of certain Anime and Video Games I mentioned how a lot of ideas we associate with Gnosticism are irrelevant to the point.  Not all Gnostics believe the Demiurge and/or Old Testament God was Evil, nor was making good guys out of certain Biblical villains a requirement.  The core is that Gnosticism believes The Physical World is in some way tainted by Evil, but the degrees can very. 

The World Soul is a metaphysical concept I've mentioned on this Blog before mostly in relation to Stoicism, but versions of it existed in various forms of Platonism and Gnosticism as well.  Tolkien's Cosmology winds up kind of incorporating two conflicting World Soul ideas.

The one thing in Tolkien's Middle Earth Theology that seems close to my Christian Stoicism is the Flame Imperishable, which Tolkien in one letter identified with The Holy Spirit, it's also placed in the Center of the World and is the source of all Sapient Life.  So easily comparable to the Stoic concept of the World Soul and Pneuma, if it weren't in the context of all this Platonism I'd be much more excited about it.

However the Middle Platonist Plutarch introduced the idea of an Evil World Soul, a World Soul that is responsible for corrupting all physical matter, which Numenius of Apamea also agreed with.  And this leads us to the entirety of what Morgoth's Ring is about, Morgoth emptied his essence into all of Arda corrupting and marring it, this taint is called the Morgoth Element.

Now The New Testament does agree that the current world is imperfect, it is still far from God's final design for it.  But the blame for that is chiefly Man's Sin not something an evil god did, however mainstream Christianity loves to overstate the significance of Satan.

None of this changes my enjoyment of Middle Earth set Fiction, in fact I'm glad to have a popular Fantasy Universe that is rather Gnostic to contrast with the ones I feel get called Gnostic unfairly.

And it's hard to tell how much any of this actually reflects Tolkien's real Religious beliefs.  On the one hand he seems to have clearly said to his Priest friend not to take it that seriously.  But on the other every core idea I've objected to here has been genuinely believed by many Christian Theologians.

Rings of Power thoughts so far

It's not what I would have written, but I'm enjoying it so far.

Mainly I would have avoided Numenor for all of season 1.

The main argument being repeated by everyone who's upset about Black Dwarves and Elves and probably I'm sure also a Black Queen of Numenor is the whole "Tolkien was writing a mythology for England" thing.  However there is another revealing quote from Tolkien.

When asked by an interviewer²⁴  whether his Middle-earth was ”in a sense … the world we live in, but at a different era?”, Tolkien, puffing at his pipe, replied simply ”No… at a different stage of imagination, yes.” 

Meaning we're not supposed to care about the logic of how these civilizations eventually become Wales and Wessex.  Saying that everyone can only be White because "It's a mythology for England" ignores the fact that England today and even by the time Tolkien was writing was made up of more then just White people.

Tolkien did care about his world having internal logic, he did base on much of it on his love of studying languages and how they developed.  Which is why one difference if it was me writing this is there'd be even more PoC, I'd have entire groups of non White people but also in time have all the groups intermingle.  I've have these Souhtlanders who we know will eventually lose to their lands to Mordor and Nuemorian Colonizers be at least Brown.  

There actually is basis in what Tolkien wrote for younger Galadriel having been a warrior.

Tolkien is not a writer one can apply Auteur theory too, in the LOTR preface he basically laid out Death of The Author before any pretentious French philosophers coined it.  And in one letter he talks about intending his mythology to be expanded on by other hands.

And it is also a natural part of being mythology that there are conflicting versions and accounts and timelines.  So I don't care about any of those kinds of changes, if the Stranger is Gandalf it'll be weird but I'll accept it.  I would actually consider it more of a betrayal of the Spirit of Tolkien if he turns out to be Evil after how he's been set up.  But that could just be my particular bias as one who likes comparing Tolkien to Sailor Moon.