CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Ok, this article (http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0002277.cfm) angered me enough to send the following letter to PluggedIn:

[quote]My name is Kimberly Graesser and I am the owner and creator of AnimeAngels.net - the Christian Anime website that you quoted in your article (http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0002277.cfm) as shown below:

"The Christian site animeangels.net cautions, “Japanese anime productions will always give us a pathway into Christianity. However, because of the other spiritual concepts in the culture, the path may be full of mud holes, snake pits, or simply twist into another spiritual pathway. To a newborn Christian or an uneducated one, the representations may seem OK or faithful to the Christian beliefs. This is the danger in anime. Discernment and loyalty to the Word of God is of utmost importance.â€

Some positive publicity would be great. It'd be nice to work with PluggedIn like the Christian brothers and sisters we are.

Ah yes, I remember seeing that same article. I emailed them myself and they gave me a copy of the magazine. I'm glad you wrote them, Keely, especially if they misquoted you!

On a modly note, let's try not to let this degrade into a "we hate FoTF" thread, 'kay?

Yeah, my purpose isn't so much to say "PluggedIn is evil, FotF is evil...etc" as much as, "If we want these publications to have positive things to say about us - then we need to speak up."

That's why I gave them options for a more positive article, hopefully they'll take my idea and run with it!

The date on that article was today, but I'm sure I've read it before.

Anyway, please keep us informed if they respond to you.

I think that's a good letter there. Go ahead and send it. I think more people need to understand it isn't a genre, rather a sub-genre/medium.

Good work there.

Edit: You should also mention the Christian-Based Reviews on anime/manga series which CAA offers.

One thing that really annoyed me about this article though, was this quote

It’s not unusual to find teens in church hallways chattering more excitedly over each other’s artwork than about what happened in youth group.

Someone please tell me how chatting in church hallways about anime is different from chatting in church hallways about sports or music? Or the latest movie? I mean... people talk about a lot of things in church hallways... not just about... youth group. I mean.... wouldn't you make friends with people of same interests? I mean it would be much more fun to me to talk about Yotsubato to my anime-loving friends then my friends who don't know anything about anime...

termyt wrote:The date on that article was today, but I'm sure I've read it before.

Anyway, please keep us informed if they respond to you.

Ditto, I have read this before or something very similiar at PluggedIn but minus the animeangels bit.

Hitokiri wrote:Ditto, I have read this before or something very similiar at PluggedIn but minus the animeangels bit.

Yeah, this article has actually been around for a while. I don't know why the recycled it though...

This is disappointing to me. I'm not trying to demonize PluggedIn by any means, but I have a good deal of respect for Focus on the Family overall and I really wish they had taken a bit more time on this article and talked to more Christians who are involved in anime about the subject. I think your letter is great, miss, and I would love to see a more balanced article come out of it. It's great to see people with some credibility respond to this because it's difficult for someone (like me) without some level of authority in a community to respond to this type of thing. I'm pretty sure that this article is based more on the writer's inexperience with anime as a whole, and that a good dialog between Christians who like anime and Christian publications like PluggedIn will help them understand anime better in the future.

I can see some of there points, but I think they over generalise on there topics

Mr. SmartyPants wrote:Someone please tell me how chatting in church hallways about anime is different from chatting in church hallways about sports or music? Or the latest movie? I mean... people talk about a lot of things in church hallways... not just about... youth group. I mean.... wouldn't you make friends with people of same interests? I mean it would be much more fun to me to talk about Yotsubato to my anime-loving friends then my friends who don't know anything about anime...

Agh, agreed. That's pretty rediculous. Anyways, glad you wrote that letter, Keely! I've read that article before, and I noticed that they only mentioned bad things. I mean, it's not like every anime has panty-shots and oversized breasts. :/ I really hope they do write an article on the positive side of anime, because as you said, it really is keeping people from being able to come to a place like this one (not to mention that, if my parents or people like my parents saw that, they would *once again* get the wrong idea about anime, and I would have to re-explain why it's not bad...yuck! The article is sending out the wrong message, and that's a problem). That would be great if they could get an interview with Vic Mignogna, too, since he would definitely put a good word out there for anime and its Christian fans. Glad you took the time to write that!

I did agree with what they said about the hentai at the conventions, though. I remember my first convention, and I had no idea the hentai was going to be so readily...

Well, anyway, they still condemned the whole scene outright. (Reminds me of the disapproval of Christian rock music back a few decades ago.) I'm disappointed.

Nice response, though.

And Vic Mignonia is a Christian? I didn't know that!

I made a thread about this article awhile back.

I'm not saying Plugged-In is a "bad" website and their opinions are bias, but I am going to say that when it comes to anime, our opinions differ.

The Breakaway Anime Article though, for the most part, was excellent.

Humm... yes they ran an older version of this article over a year ago I think, which is probably the one most of you are remembering. This one just borrows a little from it, and they added lots of good information. Actually I like this version of the article a whole lot more. They REALLY ripped on anime/manga in the last article, and they chose to mostly talk about Helsing, and Ghost in the Shell. This one is a bit more well rounded at least in that they mention other titles.

You also have to give the people at PluggedIn a bit of grace. I'm sure if they went into our Review database they wouldn't even recognize 1/4 of the titles. They aren't anime experts by any means so they are limited in the titles they can talk about. If they were experts they would spend more time talking about the series that are actually popular (Inuyasha, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach, etc.) rather then bringing up Pokemon, which I'm sure every parent has already heard of.

At least this time they mentioned the Christian alternatives that are now available. Although my college professors would totally have failed this article for plagerism. They don't give sources or have a bibliograpy, things which parents might have found userful for futher reading.

That was definately rude though to mis-quote like that. Keely I think your letter to them was beautifully written, I would have sounded waaay madder if I wrote it.

The last segment of the article strikes me... funny
[quote]Can God use anime to win young souls for Christ? The folks at Dynamic Animation say yes. The first project from this boutique Christian anime studio (visit dynamic-animation.com) is a manga-style comic book called The Great Commission: Return of the Enemy—KANE!, featuring Christian rapper KJ-52 as a gospel warrior. The musician will in turn offer a digitized version of the story on his upcoming CD. Future projects will include more titles in the Great Commission series and a high-end PC game.

Once again the church is learning to speak a foreign language just to reach a mission field on U.S. soil. This time it’s a Japanese dialect. Dynamic Animation co-founder and lead artist Brian Bennetham says, “We’re putting ourselves on the front line because there is nothing on the market now that combines our two worlds—anime and Christianity—to fight evil. We are a tiny piece of rock going up against a strong enemy.â€

Mr. SmartyPants wrote:The last segment of the article strikes me... funny

1. I dunno.... the lead singer from KJ-52 in a manga... sounds... like a really dumb idea.

First of all, KJ-52 is a lone person, not a band.

Second, I told my dad the same thing today when he said that's what anime should be like.

Mr. SmartyPants wrote:The last segment of the article strikes me... funny

1. I dunno.... the lead singer from KJ-52 in a manga... sounds... like a really dumb idea.

Hahaha, yeah, and I'm not sure they know about Serenity, either (the Christian "manga" with lineart by Min Keiiii Kwon), but yeah, I doubt that either has good dialouge (I know the Serenity manga isn't the best), but who knows (though the rapper as a "Christian Warrior" sounds really rediculous..XD).

I am quite interested to see how they respond or if they respond at all to that email.

This is more of the same except for the issue with the quotation. I had taken it for granted, but it is interesting to know that it comes from doubtful sources.

I also think mentioning Vic was a good idea. In his interactions with other people and his answers in various interviews, he has struck me as a sincere Christian. It is likely that he would do well talking to them, though I am somewhat skeptical as to if they would contact him.

termyt wrote:The date on that article was today, but I'm sure I've read it before.

That date will always read as today. It really is a bad choice of page design, because while it appears to be the date of the article it is actually just the current date. I believe this is the fourth thread that has been made about it. Also, I am fairly certain that it is exactly the same article that ran in the print edition (which I read).

i can see some of their points but they only showed one side, i felt. i mean you wouldnt decide a case in court after reviewing only one side of the story. and about the youth group thing. i have yet to see that happen at youth group.

DaughterOfZion wrote: and about the youth group thing. i have yet to see that happen at youth group.

I have yet to see a youth group all talk about the message in the church hallways right after church.

^_^ Keely, I've always admired you and Ash, even more so after reading that letter. I'd be interested to see the response you get from Plugged-in! <3

yeah. my mom suscribes to these magazines (since 1997) and she asked me all these questions when she saw that issue talking about anime and manga.

Mr. SmartyPants wrote:The last segment of the article strikes me... funny

1. I dunno.... the lead singer from KJ-52 in a manga... sounds... like a really dumb idea.

KJ-52 has announced this anime won't be happening. (And yes, I said anime, and not manga).

beau99 wrote:KJ-52 has announced this anime won't be happening. (And yes, I said anime, and not manga).

Either way, the ONLY way I would watch a KJ anime is if the dude was chibi & spoke with the voice of a munchkin! Now THAT I would watch for sheer hilarity. (not that his music isn't hilarious enough )

I think the article in the magazine was a little longer than this one.

I sent them an e-mail about this article back when it was first printed in the magazine, specifically reffering to what they said about yugioh. "For instance, the original Yu-Gi-Oh! graphic novel and trading cards didn’t become popular in Japan until artists spiced them up with mild erotica." That annoyed me. Yugioh may have a few mild bits of fanservice in the manga, but they made it sound much worse, and also seem to think that uncut releases are a bad thing -_-.

The Associate Editor of Plugged In, Adam R Holtz, goes to my church ^^. He was a guest teacher in a class on parenting we had last year, he talked about video games and music. He sat at my table at our college senior graduation dinner a few weeks ago and I talked to him about anime some, although I didn;t get to bring up this article.

Blah. That article doesn't surprise me. Good response.

I noticed they didn't include many clean animes; my sister and I are the only ones whom I know in real life that discuss anime, yet we don't dwell on the panty shots or the fanservice. We like anime and manga that support good morals and we like to see a character grow stronger. And a lot of the shinto/buhddist references are there because the majority of the japanese ARE shinto/buddhist! Instead of bashing their culture and religion, we should try to reach out to them and show them Christ's love.
Sorry, just had to get that mini-rant out. I have nothing against FotF, just disagree with them on some aspects.

Thanks for the responses and the support guys!

I think it's obvious my disagreement with many of the points brought up in the article, but my main problem is the misrepresentation of AnimeAngels (and, by proxy, my personal beliefs) and the complete lack of journalistic integrity in the article.

Having not read much of PluggedIn before, I can't speak to their typical ethics in print, but this article is not only biased and inaccurate – it was consciously created that way. It saddens me that they would take this stance and personally (and very deeply) hurts and angers me that they would take my name and drag it through the mud like this. That is essentially what they have done and it damages my credibility as a witness at the conventions that I speak at.

It is entirely unacceptable for a Christian publication to create a situation like this that could - potentially – keep even ONE person from opening their heart to God. If this creates a roadblock that would otherwise have not been there for even one soul…it’s a horrible travesty and I consider it to be unforgivable by myself.

Which brings up a somewhat unrelated point that we would all do well to remember: Do everything you can in your daily walk not to cause your non-Christian friends and peers to stumble. The last thing you’d ever want to do is give them a reason to say “noâ€

Mr. SmartyPants wrote:The last segment of the article strikes me... funny

1. I dunno.... the lead singer from KJ-52 in a manga... sounds... like a really dumb idea.

2. The website has like.. a population of 3 people O.o I don't know if it's growing or if that's the small amount already there to begin with.

hey now.. I am an admin at this site...^^; I..just don't go there much...>.> <.<

DA is a site for the guy who writes a Christian Manga called The Great Commission... I haven't read it yet..but I think its out there somewhere..

let's not pic on DA though...it's not as well known as CAA

ANYWAY

awesome idea, Keely!!

Not Only Vic, but yes, Caitlin Glass, and Johnny Yong Bosh (Kiba, Vash, and I am not sure if I spelled his name right either! ^^;


I once emailed FotF, and asked thme about anime, they told me it's not all bad...but just some of it is... ^^;