Forum - View topicThe Legends Behind Noragami
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SillyPerson
 Posts: 39 Location: Vatican City |
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I think InuYasha has a lot of stuff in it that is Shinto-inspired (the "demons" in it are kami as well as gods)... InuYasha also has Buddhist-inspired stuff in it too. Kagome and Kikyo are both Shinto shrine maidens, whereas Miroku is a Buddhist monk, yet Kagome and Miroku get along together as friends and there isn't any sort of religious tension like Westerners would expect between, for instance, Christianity versus Islam. Buddhism and Shintoism seem to coexist seamlessly in the Japanese context. In InuYasha it's difficult to tell which things are inspired by Shintoism, which are inspired by Buddhism, and which are original to InuYasha's manga and anime. Anyway I think InuYasha's demons are yokai, the monstrous form of Shintoism's kami.
Urusei Yatsura stars Lum Invader, an oni from outer space, and oni are a type of yokai... her entire family are from a tribe of alien oni. That is clearly based on Shintoism. Given that InuYasha and Urusei Yatsura are both clearly based on Shintoism I think there's also a lot of Shinto influence on Ranma 1/2, and perhaps even the cursed springs that are the basis of the story have some Shinto influence inspiring them. I've seen plenty of other anime that has Shinto inspiration in it. For instance Mushi-shi is clearly inspired by Shintoism although it takes it in a different direction and turns the denizens of the spirit world, the kami, into an alternative type of biology called mushi that can be scientifically classified and studied by mushi masters. Mushi, of course, are specific to this show and are just indirectly based on the idea of kami. Steins;Gate interestingly has a male shrine maiden even though shrine maidens are supposed to be female... gender switcharoos are a common trope in anime of course dating back to Ranma 1/2 or perhaps earlier... Steins;Gate is also my favorite anime ever. I'd also note that in the poorly rated show Tenchi in Tokyo (poorly rated since it's by far the weakest in the whole Tenchi franchise), Tenchi is training to be a Shinto priest, and throughout all the Tenchi franchise, Tenchi Masaki's family are the guardians of a Shinto shrine. Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, all 3 of those Studio Ghibli movies obviously are based on Shintoism very closely, and they are all excellent movies I recommend highly. Rosario + Vampire is a show based on Shintoism too, specifically the yokai or monster type of kami, in which most of the characters are yokai. A number of shows are based on the idea of shinigami a.k.a. Death Gods, Grim Reapers, Soul Reapers, or various other names. They appear in Bleach, Death Note, Soul Eater, and various other anime and manga. I am not sure whether or not shinigami have been incorporated into the Shinto religion, as apparently they are originally based on the Western notion of the Grim Reaper. Still I am quite fond of shinigami shows even if shinigami are not actually part of Shinto beliefs. Anyway all in all I'd say a large fraction of anime has obvious Shinto influences but to most Western audiences people won't notice them at all unless they know what to look for. There's also fairly often Buddhist influences in anime too... and even Judeo-Christian influences... look at how Christmas is a holiday celebrated in Japan and by characters in anime, or look at the notoriously obvious Judeo-Christian influences of Neon Genesis Evangelion (all the crosses, stuff about Adam and Lilith, Lance of Longinus, etc.), Judeo-Christian influences of Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate (Catholics versus Protestants in a holy war, what could be more obvious), Judeo-Christian influences in Fullmetal Alchemist (the 7 deadly sins all given human form as homunculi). And out of those different religions, Judeo-Christian stuff has the least influence on anime, and Shintoism has the most influence, it's just much less obvious since Western audiences don't know what to look for. For a weirder type of influence, Cowboy Bebop was influenced by the Heaven's Gate suicide cult and had an episode called Brain Scratch about their version of it. Interestingly it seems this or similar ideas influenced other shows including Serial Experiments Lain, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and The Garden of Sinners, among other anime, with all of them adopting some version of people killing themselves in their physical bodies to go on existing in some virtual or alternate realm. This has actually become a common trope, although the idea didn't originate with Heaven's Gate and independently existed in various science fiction, so it's arguable about where the origin of this idea is and how it got to be common in anime, although it certainly is NOT from Shintoism. Nevertheless, Shintoism and the various types of spirits, demons (oni), gods, monsters (yokai), and so forth that are called kami, they are quite a pervasive influence on probably half the anime I've seen. And given that one type of yokai, itself a type of kami, is a humanoid animal, for instance a girl with cat ears and a tail or "catgirl" as just one type of humanoid animal, this means that any sort of humanoid animal or part of the furry fandom from anime and manga is originally inspired by the Shinto idea about that type of kami. Yes, the furry fandom is most likely based on Shintoism and something that spread from Japan to other countries. As an example of this, the familiars in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha that are in between human and animal... those are yokai, a type of kami from Shintoism. And cosplay where a girl puts on cat ears or bunny ears... also based on yokai and Shintoism. The beastmen in Gurren Lagann... also yokai based on Shintoism. The beastmen in No Game No Life... same deal. You get the idea. Lastly, FLCL is clearly based on Shintoism, the way the girl Mamimi worships the robot Lord Canti as a god... that's actually a parody of Shintoism making fun of it through the character Mamimi who is superstitious and extremely out of touch with reality, including being out of touch with the fact that her boyfriend left for America to play baseball and isn't coming back, being a pyromaniac, and not knowing the difference between reality and a video game. So actually FLCL makes fun of Shintoism by ridiculing its most religious character, Mamimi, who is actually the only character in that show who has any signs of religiosity. |
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crosswithyou
 Posts: 2892 Location: California |
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No, binbougami is definitely a "kami," as indicated in how the word is written (binbougami/貧乏神). |
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trilaan
 Posts: 1054 Location: Texas |
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Kamichu is still my favorite Shinto-based anime.
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ladybastet
Posts: 21 |
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I have been reading Noragami since it began and have developed a lot of sympathy for Yato so was happy to see an anime. I'm very fond of Shinto based anime and manga and have watched or read many of them. Natsume's Book of Friends is my favorite but of the lesser known anime I have always liked Tactics.
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GlassesMan
Posts: 217 |
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Lol good point 
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Spleen
Posts: 56 |
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That is however essentially the plot of Captain Planet but with Mother Earth in place of God. But yes, it is basically impossible to have this kind of story with a monotheistic religion. Protagonist: In nomine patri, filii, et spiritus sancti, I summon... JESUS! [lens flares, coloured explosions etc] Jesus: I will now kill all the demons, instantly, because I am God and all-powerful. Also, that chant was superfluous, because I am omniscient and I already knew you needed my help and killed all the demons before you started talking. Protagonist: Well, OK. Cheers Jesus. [everyone sits around and twiddles their thumbs for the remaining 12 episodes] It's not a coincidence that the Greek myths are still told and retold to this day, even though the religion has completely died out. The Bible and the Koran are, with occasional exceptions, tedious from start to finish by comparison. When Christianity is a memory will anyone still be telling all those stories of how the Canaanites smote the Gileadites because God was with them and then the Canaanites were smote by the Assyrians because God was not with them and so on? And will there be films and BBC serials about those endless lists of which kinds of insects the Israelites were allowed to eat? No there won't. Monotheistic religions are, by their nature, boring. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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So, it would be like One Punch Man? 
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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Hmm... I don't know about that. There are enough fascinating stories in the Bible to keep things going for a while more. And a lot of them already have movies, books and even TV series based around them. Noah being one of the more recent ones. Then there is Moses, Joseph, and the infamous Passion of the Christ. Most of the post-rapture stuff in Revelations, a good bit of David's story, and Solomon's, Samson and Delilah, Jericho, and my personal favorite, Job, are all pretty interesting stories too. They are pretty much at the same level as anything that I've seen from Greek mythology. And depending on where you hang out, Biblical stories are still being told pretty often. Probably a lot more so than Greek Mythology world-wide, to be honest. |
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diadumenian
 Posts: 26 |
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Noragami has been one of my favorite series over the past few years, so it was nice to get an in-depth look behind its main characters, and explanations of some key terms such as "far shore" and ayakashi. Good tie-in with Greek mythology as well, some gods have their act together more than others!
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11352 |
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Kofuku may not be a specific, known kami, but her name doesn't seem to be conjured up on a whim. Apparently binbougami can become fukunokami (福の神 good luck gods) if their hosts treat them hospitably before sending them away. Her name (小福) uses the same 福 character. And since she can come to the colloquies, she must have a shrine of her own. There's a small shrine to a binbougami next to the Ushi Tenjin Kitano shrine in Tokyo. Maybe that's hers.
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Although as she told actual onis when they went back in time in S1, "You're mythology, we're science fiction, it's not the same thing at all!" 
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SillyPerson
Posts: 39 Location: Vatican City |
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Yes I remember that, it was very funny! Lum Invader was such a great character although my favorite character from that show was Lum's childhood best friend Ran, you know, the succubus who can drain the life out of men... also science fiction instead of mythology since she is from outer space too. And their friend Oyuki is a yuki-onna or snow-woman, a type of yokai from Japanese mythology that appears in countless different anime (women who have ice magic and freeze people to death). There are also succubus and yuki-onna characters among the main cast in Rosario+Vampire too, a show where you find out a lot more about yuki-onna/snow-women. And of course, in Disney's movie Frozen one of the 2 princess sisters is a rare Americanized version of a yuki-onna.
Oh and I forgot to mention the kappa!!! The kappa is one of the funniest types of yokai, there is some very funny stuff involving kappas in Crayon Shin-chan. Plenty of anime has kappas in it. Kappas are the most popular type of yokai from Japanese folklore and most of the legends about them are hilarious. They look like turtles except with bird-like beaks and they have plates of water balanced on their heads that they have to be careful not to spill. They really like cucumbers for some reason and will befriend anyone who gives them a cucumber. Also they are very polite and if you bow to them they will bow back, spilling the water off the plate on their head and making them much weaker. And they really love sumo wrestling, and they live underwater and are thought to be the leading cause of drowning. In many villages throughout Japan in places where people have drowned there are signs warning about kappas in the water. |
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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No, it really wouldn't be. Back in the 70s a church in my town (middle America) was handing out comics just like that because they wanted kids to picture Jesus and God as superheroes to help get them into church. There would be issues only if a show took Jesus and made him NON-heroic. Btw, God does appear in Supernatural as a writer of books about Sam and Dean. His name is Chuck, IIRC. |
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