Bill Ellis is Associate Professor English and American Studies at Penn State. He is well known for his contribution to folklore studies, in particular his books that include Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live (University Press of Mississippi, 2003), Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media (University Press of Kentucky, 2000), and Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture (University Press of Kentucky, 2003). I have found Bill’s work very helpful in providing a folklore perspective on new religions, satanism, and satanic panics, but I discovered that Bill has also done research and writing in the area of anime as it relates to popular culture. In this post we will talk to Bill and tap into his expertise in this interesting area of pop culture studies.

TheoFantastique: Bill, thanks for making time in a busy academic schedule to provide some thoughts on an increasingly popular aspect of popular culture. I’ve appreciated and benefited from your work in folklore studies, particularly as it relates to new religions as well as the occult and satanic panics. But how does an academic working in folklore become interested in anime?

Bill Ellis: First of all, popular culture and folklore are closely related, since both relate to topics and issues that many people choose to be involved in. Folklore picks up many themes from popular books and TV shows, and the producers of popular media are constantly monitoring contemporary folklore and finding ways to include it in their productions. So, just as I was constantly watching the popular media, like the Harry Potter phenomenon, for insights into common persons’ interest in the occult, so too I immediately saw that the dramatic growth of interest in anime had a strong folklore element.

More immediately, my daughter, who was then in high school, was introduced to anime by her classmates and soon developed an interest in some of the series that were then being shown in English adaptations on commercial TV. As an interested parent, I wanted to know what she found attractive about these shows, and we ended up watching many examples together and then discussing them. As I learned more, I followed my own interests into series where legends and beliefs were used in the plots, and we eventually became great fans of the genre, but, amusingly, follow very different kinds of shows. She is much more interested in adventure-oriented shows with strong villains and a film noir feel, while I’m drawn to the shows in which magic and the supernatural play a role in showing the spiritual development of characters.

TheoFantastique: So you approach the topic both as a fan, and with your academic background as someone interested in the deeper issues related to the topic?

Bill Ellis: Yes, and there’s nothing wrong with liking many things about the topic that you study. I’ve studied many things that I didn’t like: for instance, legends expressing hatred against women and ethnic groups like Blacks, Jews, and now Latino immigrants, or creating panics by overstating the threat of alleged Satanists. At times I felt like this task was like consuming a hot bowl of maggot soup; but there was a social need for this material to be studied, and too few of my academic colleagues were doing it. It is a relief to begin to leave this material behind and study a topic that ultimately affirms what is good in the human spirit and supports young people in the difficult tasks that face them at the door of adulthood.

TheoFantastique: How popular has anime become in the United States, and is this primarily a phenomenon among the youth?

Bill Ellis: It has developed from a very limited market in the 1990s to a very broad interest group in this decade. At one time only the most successful series like Dragonball Z and Pokemon could be found easily in video rentals or stores, and only in heavily edited English-language version, now almost the full range of anime productions is available on VCDs, where consumers can choose whether to watch them in a dubbed version or in the original Japanese with subtitles. Likewise, the mangas or graphic novels on which many anime are based are becoming far more accessible, even in small-town book stores, and often in “unflipped” versions (reading “back to front” from the Western point of view) that are much more faithful to the original Japanese-language versions. This growth in availability obviously depends on a much broader base of consumers. Primarily this base is made up of younger readers, ranging from middle school up through college age. But increasingly older people are learning to appreciate manga and anime, as they learn that, among the many series that are simply produced for entertainment, there are an increasing number of productions that are genuinely complex and interesting as art.

TheoFantastique: Anime is the product of Japan and as a result it reflects much of Japanese culture. Is it important for American viewers of anime to understand elements of Japanese culture that come through in anime, such as its religions, mythology, and folklore? And if so, why?

Bill Ellis: Much of anime can be appreciated purely as story-telling, and as the studios know that their productions will be viewed all over the world, they do make an effort to stress universally engaging plots and characters and minimize the purely esoteric details. Still, myth and religion always lie very close to the surface, and many plot twists that seem odd to the Western eye are “just right” for an Eastern audience. Likewise, many of the plot details are the sorts of folk beliefs that the Japanese accept as part of everyday life, such as the belief that the number four is unlucky (it’s pronounced “shi,” which can also mean “death.”) So if something happens three times, then the audience is set up to expect that the fourth time will involve some kind of danger or misfortune. Also, butterflies are cute in Western decorations but signal some uncanny and possibly scary twist when they appear in anime, because this creature is associated with magic and a pathway into another world.

TheoFantastique: Let’s explore some of these elements, particularly the spirituality in anime. How does Buddhism and Shinto inform the allusions, metaphors, and symbolism in anime?

Bill Ellis: Japanese culture is influenced almost evenly by Buddhism, an organized religion imported from India through China, and by Shinto, which is based on Japan’s indigenous religions, which includes many private customs and beliefs. The two are not antagonistic, though they are rivals, and many series include implicit or explicit criticism of one religion from another’s point of view. From a Shinto point of view, Buddhists tend to be fussy and puritanical (and often hypocritically so, as in the Western jocular tradition of priests who are secretly gluttonous or lecherous). From a Buddhist point of view, Shinto worshipers are prone to rush in to situations where angels fear to tread, and ultimately get themselves into spiritual dangers where they need to be rescued by specialists with a keener sense of the psychological or supernatural forces involved. Buddhism is male-specific and informed by Scriptures (the sutras dating back to the Buddha’s circle of disciples); Shinto is more inclusive and experience-focused. The distinction parallels, in many ways, the rivalry in this country between traditional Scripture- and dogma-driven denominations like Catholicism and Lutheranism, and the less formal “Bible” churches that place more emphasis on religious experience and the direct involvement of spiritual forces in everyday life.

However, both Japanese religions agree on some fundamental levels. Both would agree that, ultimately, the individual must listen to his or her inner voice, and generate a personal code of behavior (or “dharma”) based on it. Personal integrity and sincerity count for more than moral behavior as defined through some external code of ethics, and an act that might normally be considered unethical for one character might be the only valid act for a person of a different background and situation. And many Japanese join with one religion or the other based on aesthetic rather than moral grounds: often one is born Shinto but buried Buddhist, simply because one religions has a more expressive service to mark these milestones.

TheoFantastique: Christianity surfaces in anime as well, but often in a negative way. Can you discuss some of the ways Christianity is depicted and why, and how this often negative portrayal might serve as a counterpart to negative depictions of eastern religions in American pop culture?

Bill Ellis: The Christian influence in Japan is a fringe one, tied up with the culture’s problematic relationship with the West. So Christianity is seen as a recent exotic import rather than a genuinely indigenous religion. The basic outline of the Christian scriptures are familiar, perhaps more so to Japanese than we are to the tenets of Eastern religions, but they are more often used for dramatic effect. The Western media would introduce an Asian character, often wearing a robe and a yin/yang symbol (or some other “Asian” symbol) and burning incense before a Buddha statue, to suggest someone who is uncanny and perhaps sinister in an “oriental” way. Think of Fu Manchu, Oddjob in Goldfinger, The General in the 2004 remake of The Ladykillers. So it is hardly a surprise to find that when a character enters an anime wearing a cross or an outfit that suggests clerical robes, we are to assume that this person is probably untrustworthy and prone to violence.

In the popular series Trigun, for example, one character is a priest traveling to raise money for an orphanage, and as he goes, he carries over his shoulder a huge and heavy replica of The Cross. However, he’s a good person to have along for a dangerous adventure, for we later find that his Cross actually contains six handguns, a machine gun, and a rocket launcher. On the other hand, the series St. Tail and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne involve young girls who use Christian symbols to transform themselves “master thieves” (or kaitous), beings with super powers who steal valuable objects that are, in fact, stolen or spiritually bad for their owners. Their motives are good, but it is clear that as master thieves they operate outside the law, just as Christians seem to operate outside the normal spiritual landscape of Japan.

TheoFantastique: How is religious imagery used in creative ways in anime?

Bill Ellis: There are too many examples to discuss, but one that is especially pervasive is the belief, shared by both Shinto and Buddhism, of the pervasive spirituality of the natural world. As a creation of the Godhead, this world is felt to be permeated with spiritual power, which is everywhere but especially concentrated in certainly “power places.” The landscape is always an important player in anime series, with people continually gravitating to these power spots, whether they are in an wilderness region (as often in traditionally based stories) or even in urban landscapes (as in more contemporary plots), where the influence of the past is still felt in the middle of the apparently impersonal urban atmosphere. The manga/anime series xxxHolic [which isn’t pornographic, but simply explores the many ways in which we become dependent on habits or possessions that make us feel comfortable] is an excellent example. The main character is nominally a witch with the name Yuko Ichihara (the last name is also the name of a grimy industrial town near Tokyo, so she’s a “Natalie Newark” or “Susie Scranton”) who takes on a disciple and trains him in how to see and deal with the spiritual powers that continue to control our lives, even in a post-technological, computer-mediated world. Yuko won’t teach readers anything about practical magic, but they will come away looking at their daily god-given lives in a vastly different way.

TheoFantastique: Might anime as an expression of Japanese culture and spirituality with an increasing popularity in American pop culture represent an important area of academic study for those specializing in various disciplines like religious studies, media studies, and theology and popular culture?

Bill Ellis: Certainly, and I’ve seen an increasing desire on the part of adults, particularly educated ones, to explore this area. It is a vast subject, though, and many people are not impressed by the examples they first encounter, and say, “I don’t like anime.” But that just means they don’t like that anime: someone who reads a difficult book like Ulysses or The Sound and the Fury might equally say “I don’t like novels.” But like the Western novel, anime is a matured art form that includes many different kinds of plots and storytelling strategies. A really comprehensive collection of examples will fill a good-sized library room and take years to watch through once. One simply needs to be aware of the options out there and explore until you find something that catches you where you are in life.

TheoFantastique: What are some of the more interesting anime films that you would recommend for exploration?

Bill Ellis: A good beginning would be the films of Hayao Miyazaki, which are easily available and well produced by the Disney Studios. My Neighbor Totoro is a simple and affecting Shinto-influenced story about a family coming to terms with the spiritual influences of the countryside where they have moved, and Spirited Away is the adventure of a young girl whose parents are abducted by spirits in a power spot where they have strayed. She learns to play by the rules of the spirits, and gains the confidence and skills necessary to rescue them and return, matured and empowered, to her “real world.” Both these would make good watching and conversation for young children and parents.

For older audiences, I’d recommend a wonderful series called Haibane Renmei (High-Bonny Wren-May), roughly translating to “The Ash Wing Protectorate.” It makes abundant use of Christian imagery, but in a way that is more perceptive and sympathetic than those mentioned before. It concerns a group of young people who find themselves transported in some mysterious way to another world and given small gray wings and a not-entirely-functional halo. They have no memories of how they got there, and the Renmei, or association that oversees and protects them, is also reticent about why they were summoned or where they will go next. From a gentle start, the story becomes more and more intense as it becomes clear that at least two of the main characters were suicide victims, and that they are in a kind of limbo to recuperate and, if possible, gain the strength to move on to the next level up. While amusing and slow-paced at first, the issues and emotions build to a series of powerful self-discoveries that will affect both teens and their parents.

There are many more well done series and movies to look up: Saiyuki (based on a famous Chinese folk novel about the entry of Buddhism into that country) will educate the viewer into many of the tenets of that religion, even if it is influenced far more by American film noir than by the scriptures it refers to. Cowboy Bebop is another noir series that deals with the quest for practical ethics in a world where traditional values have been put into question by science and technology. For just plain fun, Christians should have a look at Hellsing, a totally over-the-top and thankfully tongue-in-cheek vampire fantasy that claims to present the conflict between Protestants and Catholics in a zombie-infested underground world beneath mysterious, exotic London. The heroic Protestant vampire, Alucard (“Dracula” spelled backward), whose ethics in fact come straight from the Shinto call for personal integrity, defies easy description: you just have to experience him, ideally in Japanese with subtitles, as the renowned Japanese voice actor George Nakata growls and snarls his lines unforgettably. (Caution! this series features absurdly unrealistic amounts of hyper-violence.)

But in general a good start would be to do what I did: pay attention to what friends and children are watching avidly, and to sit in, enjoy, and ask questions. Then follow up what interests you.

TheoFanastique: What books or other resources would you recommend for those who would like to explore this subject further?

Bill Ellis: For up-to-date news and easily accessed information on any series you hear about, you can’t beat Anime News Network. But for those wanting more of a historical understanding of the genre, two good introductions are Antonia Levi’s Samurai from Outer Space (Open Court, 1998) and Frederick L. Schodt’s Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics (Kodansha America, 1997). For those wanting to move to the next level, Schodt’s Dreamland Japan (Stone Bridge Press, 1996) give some important insights from his direct contact with the manga/anime industry (but caution: some of the examples he uses would be considered pornographic in this country). Also, Susan J Napier’s Anime: from Akira to Princess Mononoke (updated ed., Palgrave MacMillan, 2005) has some excellent insights, but is intended for an academic audience and might be slow going for others.

TheoFantastique: Bill, thanks again for sharing your thoughts. I look forward to my own continuing exploration of anime and popular culture and I think you for providing some further items for reflection.