Forum - View topicINTEREST: Japanese Publisher Plans 'World's 1st Christian Light Novel'
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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Yeah, because what can go wrong? *looks at Vatican Miracle Examiner*
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jutsuri
Posts: 49 |
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Not necessarily, a story about the Hussite crusades could be fascinating and since they were waged against Bohemian Christians protesting corruption in the Catholic Church it avoids any tension regarding Islam neatly. |
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Artesox
 Posts: 90 |
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Defenestrations in Prague vs Cannibalism in Ma‘arra gotta be one of the hardest choices one has to make when picking fun family friendly themes for a novel. |
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reanimator
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We have movies based from Bible and Japan has released anime and manga about major religious figures before, so I see Kirishin publishing their own LN as following whatever media trend to be relevant with current generation.
Even if Kirishin doesn't use Biblical figures as character, I see it as another alternative to LN genre full of usual sci-fi and fantasy catered to young people. Besides, I'm curious about how are they going use Christian themes in LN. and fantasy stories like Chronicle Narnia and Lord of the Rings have Christian themes. |
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SWAnimefan
Posts: 634 |
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Not true! If they can make Christian books for children, they can make a Light Novel without the 18+ violence, which has become the norm of society. Personally, I think a good light novel idea for this company would be set in the days Japanese Christian persecution, which went from the 1500s up to after World War 2. There is quite a bit of similarity to the struggle set in Barefoot Gen, set in the horror of death and destruction. People ignore the plights that Christians, like the current Genocide by ISIS in the Middle East, whom their mothers, daughters, and sisters are raped and the men beheaded. Or the Japanese Christians who had to go underground or have their family wiped out by the Shoguns. That kind of story is what needs to be told. |
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HuuskerDu
 Posts: 93 Location: USA |
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Writing Christian-based fics in a Japanese setting can be tricky because you need to deal with several issues regarding Christianity in Japan: Less than 1% of the population is Christian (so you can't have a lot of Christian characters running around), there are a lot of misconceptions about it, you need to do a lot of exposition (you have to assume the reader has never picked up a Bible), you need to stay on track Biblically, you need to be respectful of Japanese sensibilities, and you need to do all that while making it an entertaining read.
I've been writing Christian anime fanfics for years, and the formula I use is to pick a story/MC where a conversion experience is plausible for that person, then introduce an authentic Christian in the middle of the story as an original character and have that person mentor the seeker from the original story. As the plot progresses the seeker asks the mentor for advice (e.g., 'I got pregnant! What do I do?'), leading to an unexpected emotional/traumatic climax that sends the seeker over the line. It is really tricky to write these things so I am not surprised if no one has published a Christian-based LN before. It will be interesting to see what comes out of Kirishin's writing contest. |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1242 |
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As a practicing believer, this is very interesting to me, and I really hope they can pull it off.
It'll be tricky, though, because the temptation to lecture is very strong, and produces a problem I've often seen in religious fiction and faith-based films: message being given faaaar greater priority than characters and story. If the message is all you're there for...that's fine, I guess, but who besides the faithful is ever going to read or watch it? I'd rather see "fiction by Christians" out there in the mainstream, as opposed to "Christian fiction" as a ghetto genre that can only reach like-minded believers. I don't mean that authors should hide who they are in order to sneak into the mainstream; I just think that who a person is is the soil that stories spring out of. So there's no need for authors to get preachy; each author's perspective will naturally be part of his or her works' DNA. Back to the subject at hand, this is a religious press doing this, so it'll be interesting to see if they choose something genuinely engaging that can compete in the overall marketplace, or something saccharine that will never be found outside religious bookstores. I expect the latter, but am rooting for the former. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13558 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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A thing for this publisher to consider first Christian light novel. With all those self-publishing sites (especially the ones made for Kindle), perhaps someone else has them beat.[/quote]
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ZODDGUTS
Posts: 600 |
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Well, it's not like it hasn't been done before. The Chronicles of Narnia is already an Isekai fantasy with Christian themes. They could easily do something similar to that. |
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vanfanel
Posts: 1242 |
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Very true. And while the "Vatican Miracle Examiner" series is from a label associated more with horror than LNs, the books definitely look LN-ish going by their covers. That said, I don't know if the author is actually Catholic or not. |
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dark13
Posts: 562 |
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So why are we forcing Jesus in japan ? I get the impression this gonna end up as dumpster truck on fire, then again I'm not Christian.
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championferret
 Posts: 765 |
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No one's mentioned it yet but there's text on that announcement that basically says ''I'm a Chuunibyou So I Wanna Read Religious Stuff?" (its phrased in a light novel parody way).
Which makes it sound like this isn't even going to be aimed at christians, just edgey japanese middle-schoolers who think they're cool and mysterious for reading about weird, foreign religions 
(Of course, the goal is probably to convert that demographic) |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14763 |
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Somebody else suggested
"At First I Was Going to Be a Carpenter Like My Mom’s Boyfriend, but Lately I’ve Been Thinking of Dying for Humanity’s Sins Instead" Or maybe just settle for Bible Black
These are Christian Japanese who've been there since the Sengoku period, more than 4 centuries ago (separate from Kakure Kirishitan, "Hidden Christians" that's portrayed in Japanese supernatural stories). Last edited by enurtsol on Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:34 am; edited 2 times in total |
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encrypted12345
Posts: 718 |
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It's not hard inserting Christian themes into fantasy and scifi stories. Chronicles of Narnia is a little too blatant with its allegory, but it's largely enjoyable. Even Harry Potter has Christian themes, though some Christians reject it because they don't understand why magic is considered bad in the first place (Harry Potter magic doesn't seem to borrow power from demons at least). I've seen Christians interpret Christian themes from Fullmetal Alchemist and Fate Stay Night too, even if whether or not those themes were intentional is up for debate. Here though, they seem to want to make sure the theme unsubtle enough to for the work to be obviously Christian. That is fine, but it's hard to do that while making sure the themes of the work don't overpower the entertainment value, at least not by too much. I think it's easier to do this by taking inspiration from the Bible than by making your own completely original work because no matter how subtle the themes are, something with Biblical characters is obviously Christian. Or Jewish I guess, but I digress. Personally, I would like them to avoid heresy and make sure their theology is accurate as possible, though it's fine since it's fiction anyways. |
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Ouran High School Dropout
 Posts: 440 Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA |
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Since you had the nerve to go there  , I'll just say that so long that this project doesn't end up like some Japanese Chick Tract, then all's right with the world. 
But seriously, here's a pretty concise overview of Christianity in Japan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Japan |
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