Anime rose to popularity in the 1960s in both Japan and America, but up until the last 10 or 15 years (give or take), that popularity was largely relegated to the freaks, geeks, and nerds. I know because I was one of those freaks, geeks, and nerds. You could spot me and my clan of odd ducks a mile away. We were the ones with the poorly styled emo bangs that covered one eye, oversized gothic boots, and polyester kimonos. The ones who randomly threw around Japanese words like arigato and sensei (just so people could ask, “what’s that mean?” and we could dazzle them with our laughably-limited Japanese vocabulary).
I chuckle a bit at this now, but that was one of the darkest times in my life. My questionable style choices were a byproduct of a deeply disturbed and chaotic mind—one that entertained dark fantasies and led me further and further into gross sin. I hated myself, I hated the world, and God was an afterthought. When I trace it back to where it all went wrong—when the joy-filled girl turned morbid and depressed—I land on the same thing every time: my love and eventual obsession with anime.
And it wasn’t just me who was affected. All of my friends, all of my fellow otakus (anime nerds), EVERY person I knew who loved anime was involved in similar sin. It was a degenerative spiral that followed a pattern, the onset being anime.
But then God. If not for Him, this spiral would have continued as it did for my friends. A few are now openly homosexual while others are trapped in a weird, sexualized adolescence, prancing around in revealing schoolgirl outfits complete with animal tails and ears.
But why anime? I asked myself this question often after God freed me from my destructive lifestyle, and I believe I’ve landed on the reason: Anime makes evil look cute (kawaii), playful, and innocent.
The oversized, glistening eyes, the lithe, child-like appearance, and the doll-baby cuteness of the hairstyles and attire of most anime characters distract you from some not-so-cute themes: Females in anime are highly sexualized. Male characters are often feminized and intentionally androgynous. Worse still, it’s not uncommon for anime to play around with themes of incest, bestiality, homosexuality, and pedophilia.
The cutefying (yep, made that word up) of evil makes it easy to gratify the desires of the flesh in a way that looks innocent on the outside. This is the dark side of anime.
But to truly understand this darkness and why anime creators are so obsessed with hiding evil behind a cute facade, we need to take a closer look at the birthplace of this popular genre: Japan.
Japan and the Two-Faced Dilemma
The first time I visited Japan was in 2011 as a missionary. It was after the major earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the coastal town of Tōhoku and caused the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdown. I spent three months sharing the gospel on college campuses in Tokyo and traveling to Tōhoku on the weekends to help clear the detritus left in the tsunami’s wake. Then, in 2014, I moved to Nagoya, Japan, and taught English at a private school for six months. Prior to visiting the country, I studied Japanese for years and briefly majored in it in college.
Needless to say, I love Japan. I love the people. I love the food. I love how safe it is. I love the architectural mashup of centuries-old temples next to 21st-century skyscrapers. There’s also a lot about the culture I wish we would emulate here. They have a high level of respect for authority, they strive for excellence in everything they do, and they are a people of immense kindness.
On the flip side, Japan is an oppressive, collectivist society that’s a melting pot for the weird, the eccentric, and the downright twisted.
I believe this strange dichotomy exists because of a deeply ingrained social practice known as honne (private face) and tatemae (public face). As the names suggest, honne is the face you wear in private or reveal to only your closest friends. This is your true face, full of all your passions, hopes, dreams, and vices. Tatemae is your false face, the one you wear in public. This false face must either be neutral (expressionless) or genki (happy) at all times.
Public failures, facing disapproval from others, and even admitting loneliness and struggle is a great source of shame, so Japanese people often go to great lengths to avoid the appearance of these things. Hence the two faces.
I think many Christians can get behind this mindset…to an extent. Thinking of how your actions will affect others is an extension of God’s command to love your neighbor (Mark 12:31).
But not addressing the sin issues causing strife and emotional turmoil is unhealthy and not at all Christ-like. Suppressing dark desires instead of correcting them is unsustainable and ungodly. Honne and tatemae will eventually come into conflict.
So, how do Japanese people attempt to avoid this conflict? Sadly, many choose to take their own life rather than deal with the tension, hence the high suicide rate in the country. For others, they find a way to cater to those desires in a way that looks cute and innocent on the outside. That’s where the weird, eccentric, and twisted come into play.
The Cultural Escape through Anime
In Japan, there is a venue for just about any vice you can imagine. There’s a café where half-naked robots sing and dance while you eat. If you’re into gore, try a horror-themed bar where, to summon the waitress, you have to strike a Buddhist prayer bowl and hold up a realistic, severed, bloody hand.
But it gets even weirder. In Japan, you can rent a family for a few hours. Actors will walk around with you, pretending to know you so you don’t appear lonely. There’s also a cuddle café, where lonely men (and women) can pay to sleep next to a cute girl. You can pay extra to spoon and even to have the girl change into another outfit.
At the top of this list of seemingly cute and innocent things is anime. Anime is so ingrained in Japanese culture, that it’s not uncommon to see everyone—from serious-looking businessmen to little kids—reading manga in public and watching anime on their devices. Even popular brands incorporate anime characters into their commercials. While living there, I’d often pass by pachinko parlors (pachinko is a massively popular gambling game in Japan) that used busty female anime characters in their signage.
It’s a socially acceptable escape from reality that no one questions. A teenager on the train might be watching hentai (anime porn), and because it’s animated and not real people, it’s seen as harmless. Similarly, an older gentleman might read manga where all the characters look like 12-year-olds, but since they aren’t real children, it’s justified as just a preference.
But these justifications only serve to blur the line between what is real and what is fantasy. In indulging these fantasies, the heart is slowly desensitized to the true nature of sin and merely entertaining these fantasies will no longer be enough. The teen who watches anime porn won’t be satisfied forever with a virtual experience. The older man who likes reading manga with prepubescent-looking characters will eventually want to get his hands on something real. Sadly, this is exactly what’s happening in Japan.
Japan, renowned for its safe social environment, has been dealing with a pedophilia phenomenon since at least before the first Christian missionaries came to this land and found monks in various Buddhist temples using young students for their sexual gratification. […] The country has a long history of using youthful and often sexualized depictions in manga, anime, and video games. […] Although actual child pornography is illegal, the availability and acceptance of simulated child-like sexual content contribute to a permissive environment for such materials.
Sexual harassment of women is another huge problem in Japan. It’s so bad that female only passenger cars were created to prevent women from being groped while riding public transit.
This is how anime and other forms of entertainment can lead people further away from Christ. What starts as a seemingly innocent indulgence can turn into a dangerous spiral of lust, fantasy, and ultimately a disconnection from God’s design for purity and righteousness.
The Idol of Innocence
This cultural obsession with “innocence” and cuteness is not exclusive to Japan. We have the same issue here in America. While the outside world sees the polished face of anime characters, with their innocent appearances and playful energy, the underlying messages feed twisted desires and normalize what is shameful. The Bible is clear in calling us to discern the spirits behind what we indulge in, for “Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Anime is often that angel of light, its outward beauty hiding an inner darkness that whispers, “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1).
There is nothing neutral about the media we consume, and anime is no exception. Its pervasive themes of hyper-sexualization, distorted relationships, and the worship of youth and beauty pull hearts away from the holiness of God. These are the very idols the Bible warns us against. Consider Romans 1:24-25, where Paul warns how people exchanged “the truth of God for a lie” and “worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.” Anime characters become objects of affection and fantasy, leading to a disconnect between reality and God’s order of creation.
The Call to Guard the Heart
The Bible repeatedly emphasizes the importance of guarding our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 tells us, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” What anime often promotes are distorted affections that entrap the heart, making what is evil appear acceptable or even desirable, and it does a better job of it than most genres. The problem with anime,, and much of the entertainment industry, is that it normalizes sin while making it appear harmless. It’s the same strategy Satan used.
So, fellow Christian, we must remain alert, guarding our hearts and minds from the subtle deception that so easily entangles. The Word of God is our guide, and in Christ, we find the true joy and freedom that anime and other worldly entertainment can never offer.
Until next time, salutations and selah.
Bone of Bones 