I wrote this essay around 2012 for the University of Maryland, which published the article in some local school newspaper, can't find the digital version (Maybe deleted or lost?) Dug it up from my archives after someone has randomly asked for it on Reddit. Anyways, enjoy! Feel free to cite for your own research.
The Shinto religion and Japanese animation undoubtedly share common themes, rituals, symbols, morals, and stories. Varley's textbook Japanese Culture describes the Shinto religion as “the way of the Kami (or Gods)”. Shinto is described as the worship of a polytheistic host of gods that can be manifestations of humans, birds, animals, trees, plants, mountains, oceans, and just about anything else. Anything that deserves recognition or admiration will have a Kami that represents it. Shinto is independent from other religions as practitioners observe purification of the external body (kessai, washing of the hands/mouth before entering a shrine), purification of the mind (harai, exorcism by a priest), talismans (omamori) are held for good luck, and clapping of the hands before prayer (hakushu, to frighten away spirits). (Norifumi 2006) Shinto does not display the world divided into Zen's black and white, or evil and good. Shinto divides the world into those that are promoting (purifying) community progression or regressing (polluting) community progression. Shinto sees life as an exciting and creative force in contrast to Buddhism's pessimistic view that life is suffering. The matsuri, or festival, is a prevalent aspect of communal rites to Shintoism. Many famous historic Shinto leaders claimed direct inter-mediation with Shinto Kami, such as Queen Himiko of the earliest Shinto recorded. Although most Kami are benign and harmless, some are angry and troublesome called the tatarigami. Shinto deals with the tatarigami by possessing themselves within the angry tatarigami in an act called kamigakari where they reveal the Kami's problem and seek to fix it. Shinto does not have a code of ethics, but they believe in the idea of makoto, or sincerity in all actions. The idea of makoto, encourages Shinto practitioners to have an emotional connection between nature and their community. The Shinto religion follows a strict conservation of nature and the environment. Makoto can be seen in Japanese literature and poetry expressing mono no aware, or a sensitivity of things or the ability to be moved by something. (Varley 2000)
The anime Pokemon has an increasing number of nearly six hundred monsters within the show. These monsters are familiar representations of different animals, plants, rocks, people, seasons, and inanimate objects that have taken life. Each individual Pokemon could be perceived as a Kami spirit of various aspects of their similar subjects. Pokemon's level of monster zoology, with a nearly endless amount of Pokemon, is like Shinto showing a nearly endless amount of Kami. Anything can be a Kami, and it seems anything can be a Pokemon. (Pokemon 1997) (Prophet 2005) There have been many Pokemon-like shows that have followed the tradition of Kami-like monsters or spirits, some of them include Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Beyblade, Bakugan, Duel Masters, and Monster Rancher. (Bakugan 2007) (Bayblade 2000) (Digimon 1999) (Duel Masters 2002) (Monster Rancher 1997) (Yu-Gi-Oh 1998)
In the movie Princess Mononoke, Ashitaka, an indigenous village protector, stops an uncontrollable boar Kami that was poisoned by the modern evils of a bullet. This Kami then poisons Ashitaka with a mystical disease. Ashitaka is cast away from his village and quests to purify this Kami born disease. Human protagonists attack nature to abuse the use of their power. The protagonists cuts off the great forest Kami's head and take it as a prize. The headless body of the great forest Kami goes on a rampage. Ashitaka then cures his disease by reuniting the severed head of the forest Kami back with its angry and destructive body. The great forest Kami, reunited with his head, is destroyed with a large flood of water but is returned to nature in harmony. The moral of this story is a Shinto one, which you can fix your great problems by returning nature to what it should be. Help the community before yourself and your problems will be fixed along with everyone’s problems. (Princess Mononoke 1997) (Slater 2009) This same Shinto moral is seen in Spirited away. Chihiro a young girl, ends up working in a Kami run traditional Japanese bath house. Chihiro is tasked with helping a bad smelling, oozing river Kami. This is a living representation of a sewage and refuse polluted river. Chihiro appeases the needs of this disgusting Kami because of a long chain of events that resulted from her kindness. She had already helped another disturbing Kami called No Face, a Kami of loneliness and hunger. This Kami helped her get bath tokens to use for the River Kami. Once Chihiro bathed the river Kami, she realized it had something stuck in it's side. With the help of other bath house staff they pulled a dirty bicycle from the river Kami that released the floodgates of refuse and other terrible things polluting the inside of this Kami. The river Kami dissipates much like the great forest Kami disappears in Princess Mononoke, in a great splash of water. Once the polluted river Kami is purified it shows its true form and says “It feels good”. This signified that nature has been brought back to harmony and Chihiro's problem is solved much like Ashitaka's was. (Boyd 2004) (Spirited Away 2001)
Shinto encourages creativity and self-accomplishment. Some sects of Shinto believe that the only way to truly get to heaven is to become the best at something, or to help the community as best as possible. This driving nature to achieve and create is seen in Japanese anime as the shokunin spirit, or artisan spirit. There are many examples of this devotion, almost obsession, to one's hobby, job, or skill in anime. The anime Comic Party features Kazuki, an art student that joins the doujinshi creation scene. Doujinshi is fan versions of popular published manga, or Japanese comics. Kazuki becomes engrossed in the process of creating doujinshi and strives to become the best artist in the circle. His internal struggle to become the best at this art and hone his skills at miniscule improvement levels shows the Shinto value of creativity and shokunin spirit. (Comic Party 2001) (Kuma )
Spirit possession is as common a theme in Japanese anime as it is in ancient Shinto. In Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie, Sakura is a girl that collects clow cards that are much like Shinto paper talismans, or omamori. The clow cards were made by a sorcerer named Clow Reed, who was a talented fortune teller and before his death he intrusted the clow card with Sakura. Sakura uses the clow card to summon magical beings and powers from these being much like Kami to fight various villains and monsters. In the movie she is taken to Hong Kong and is lead by a kamigakari like dream to find a magical book. The book possessed her and guides her to help an unnamed sorceress trapped within the book. The tatarigami like sorceress was a rival fortune teller to Clow Reed and hated him for besting her. She battles with Sakura until the underlying problem is solved, and Sakura forces the sorceress to accept the fact that Clow Reed is dead and that the sorceress actually loved him. This movie is a strong example of Shinto possession, with the ultimate goal to help a tatarigami like spirit. This movie also suggests the Japanese interest in ancient ancestors and the need to help them carry over to the next life. (Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie 1999) ("Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie" 2010)
The Shinto matsuri festivals were practiced for thousands of years in Japan, and they are still adhered to today in Japanese animation. There are many references to matsuri in Japanese anime, as many stories follow the lives of average Japanese people. The anime Love Hina shows very strong examples of Japanese matsuri and Shinto practices. Keitaro is a homeless ronin, or student, that has failed his college exams and is studying to gain entrance every year instead of working. He comes to live at his estranged grandmother's traditional Japanese bathhouse and finds it has been turned into a female dormitory. After gaining the girls' trust he is accepted as the dorm landlord. The story develops into a harem comedy and inspirational love story. Keitaro passes many seasons and years though the course of this show and the scenes of many episodes show common matsuri that the characters adhere to. The cast visits temples, dresses up in traditional kimonos, drinks heavily, sings karaoke, play board games, & eat feasts that sometimes include takoyaki. The show does not include matsuri sumo tournaments, but it does include comedic Judo/Ken-do matches during some of these festivals. When visiting temples during matsuri the cast takes fortunes from the Shinto shrines. Possession and purification are also common themes of many episodes. (Love Hina 2000)
The anime movie Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might strongly displays the Shinto feeling of makoto, or the deep connection of people to nature and the community. Goku and his friends are earths protecting superhuman martial artists. An alien named Turtles, who looks very similar to Goku, comes to earth to take over and destroy the human race by planting the Tree of Might, which robs the planet of its resources to produce fruit that Turtles will eat to gain great power. Goku can be seen as the Shinto promoting force of community, while Turtles can be seen as the Shinto polluting force of community. After a long fight between Goku and his friend against Turtles, Goku appears to be losing. Only with the help of his spirit bomb does he win in the end. The spirit bomb is a collection of energy from all living things that lend their energy for the blast. Goku's makoto, deep connection with all things, is used to create this weapon. The entire planet is connected together for the greater good. Turtles and the tree of might are destroyed and the world is brought back to its natural order. Goku and his friends bring the world back to harmony through communal connection in typical Shinto fashion. ( Dragon Ball Z : The Tree of Might 1997)
The Shinto belief in makota, or the connection between all beings and nature is expressed in the movie Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. In this movie Nausicaa, a girl warrior, lives in a post-apocalyptic world that has been poisoned and desecrated. The world is full of poison spores and large caterpillar like creatures called the Ohmu. The humans of the world battle the Ohmu and each other. A military empire seeks to take over all of the independent tribes and eradicate the Ohmu that are blamed for the poison spores that plague the humans. This empire takes over Nausicaa's home and revives an ancient God soldier as a weapon to destroy the Ohmu in a nuclear explosion like attack. The Ohmu hoards survive the attack and they rush to attack the humans. Nausicaa is caught in the attack and thrown into the air to her supposed death. The Ohmu are halted by the supposedly dead body of Nausicaa and examine her with their feelers. They then realize that she does not seek to kill the Ohmu and wants harmony between the Ohmu and the humans. The Ohmu turn their eyes from red to blue and become passive. The humans realize that the Ohmu were never their enemy, but that they were protectors of the world. The true enemy was the humans that polluted the world with their wars, the spores were a natural defense of the earth against the humans. This theme of environmentalism and connection between humans and nature is a purely Shinto story structure. ( Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind 1984)
The Japanese idea of Mono no aware has mixed with time to be a Buddhist/Shinto idea. It mixes the Buddhist idea of impermanence and sadness with the Shinto emotional idea of awe and connection to things. Many Japanese anime movies and shows develop characters that watchers become extremely attached to. Many anime stories touch on the topic of death, poverty, and other struggles of life. There have even been reports of anime watchers committing suicide after the death of their favorite anime characters. (Webb 2012) Mono no aware is very predominantly felt in the movie Grave of the Fireflies. This movie follows the life of two World War II orphans in Japan named Seita and Setsuko. Seita, the elder brother, tries to support his younger sister Setsuko to survive in the streets stricken with poverty in Japan during World War II. Watching this movie you become attached to both characters as they deal with their mother's death and their Navy enlistee father's disappearance. Grave of the Fireflies takes the watcher on a roller coaster of emotions as the two children struggle to live through many trials and tribulations, that include stealing to survive. Eventually Setsuko dies from exposure, lice, and malnutrition. Seita cremates her body and puts her favorite things with her ashes in a tin. The movie ends somberly with the spirit of Setsuko on a hill that dissipates. The emotion that this film produces is intense, and pours with feeling of mono no aware. (Grave of Fireflies 1988) (Graydon )
In conclusion, there are many examples of the correlation between Japanese animation and the Shinto religion. Many anime shows mirror the Shinto belief in pantheistic gods of the animate and inanimate. Japanese animation shows the Shinto struggle of the polluters verses the promoters of society. The Shinto creative artisan spirit, or shokunin, is expressed in characters of anime. There are scenes in anime of kamigakari, or spirit possession, to solve Kami problems within an internal dreamlike universe. Shinto rites, traditions, and matsuri festivals are represented within anime. Themes of environmentalism, harmony, and makoto are hosted in many anime stories. Mono no aware, a deep sensitivity to things, is expressed as intense emotions of sadness and the anime watcher's connections to characters created in anime. After understanding all of these similar features the Shinto religion and anime share, it is difficult to not continue seeing similarities with each new anime one watches.
Bibliography
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