Ask John: Should Anime Propagate Cultish Religious Principles?

Question:
I accidently stumbled upon three anime movies by Toei Animation: The Rebirth of Buddha, The Laws of The Sun, and The Laws of Eternity, apparently sponsored by a Japanese sect analog to Scientology known as Kyoufuku no Kagaku (The Institute for Research in Human Happiness). Now since when an American dub company is doing an English translation for an alleged cult sect spreading their New Age propaganda through anime stories unless it was extremely popular overseas in the U.S and played in all anime conventions to our anime otakus! Have you ever seen these feature films? What is your opinion?

Answer:
I’ve watched most of the “Happy Science” feature films, and a few of the OVAs based on the children’s books by Happy Science founder Ryuho Okawa. None of the dozen or so Happy Science OVAs have any official English translations, as far as I’m aware. None of the feature films have English language dubs produced by American distributors. All of the existing English language dubs for the Happy Science feature films were commissioned by Kyoufuku no Kagaku and produced simultaneously with the films themselves. Kyoufuku no Kagaku officially distributes and screens its anime films itself, although the movies are also widely available via commercial home video distribution. Image Entertainment released the 1997 Ai wa Kaze no Gotoku movie on domestic DVD, but Image did not produce the English translations itself.

Having seen roughly a half-dozen of the Happy Science movies, I do find their unusual hybrid of science, history, Christianity, Buddhism, and science-fiction rather difficult to take seriously, but I don’t presume to have a right to lambast a genuine religious doctrine. The Japanese Kyoufuku no Kagaku religion proselytizes its message in a variety of media. Considering the popularity of anime in Japan, utilizing OVA and theatrical format anime is a sensible means of conveying a message to a potentially receptive audience.

The Aum Shinrikyo cult has produced an anime OVA to express its beliefs. Similarly, the Soka Gakkai Buddhist sect has produced a handful of promotional anime shorts. The Vatican personally requested that Osamu Tezuka create a Biblical anime. The result was the 26-episode Tezuka Osamu no Kyuyaku Seisho Monogatari television series from 1997. America’s Christian Broadcasting Network sponsored the production of Tatsunoko’s Anime Oyako Gekijo franchise and 52-episode Time Kyoshitsu: Tondera House no Daibouken television series. So religious propaganda anime is nothing new, and Happy Science is not the only religious organization to have used anime to spread its message.

While I certainly have disagreements with the principles proposed by the Happy Science anime, I respect the organization’s right to use anime to spread its beliefs, and I’m actually happy that anime is used by so many diverse organizations for purposes beyond just mainstream commercial entertainment. The existence of religious propaganda anime is a testament to the variety, diversity, universality, and complexity of the anime art form.