CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I enjoy listening to score composers sampling Christian music as part of movie or television scores. ('course I like to listen to film scores anyway, but this is a nice bonus. {g} One of my favorite 'discoveries' along this line was the soundtrack to a fantasy strategy game years ago, _Fantasy General_: practically all of it involves variant arrangements of several Christian hymns.) In fact a moment ago, my Mac randomly brought up the main theme from the Batman: Animated Series; which, while not strictly anime (I suppose?) reminded me the topic might be interesting here, too.


So, to use BTAS as my example (okay look just pretend it's anime, okay?!--it's an illustration of principle), when Shirley Walker wrote the soundtrack for the first BTAS movie (Mask of the Phantasm), she revealed she was basing the main theme of the series (apart from occasional use early in the first season of Elfman's score from the Burton films) on what is fairly clearly an old Russian or Greek (or maybe Latin) hymn to Christ. I can't quite make out all the words, but Jesu is frequently obvious. (Further fun trivia note: Hans Zimmer was her assistant on the MotP score!! Dude moved up in the world subsequently, didn't he? {ggg!})

Sometimes of course the borrowing is more obvious ("Dies Irae" is prominently featured in which anime, for instance? No, I'm not thinking of non-discussion titles... {wry g}) But it might be less obvious, too.

Hymns, especially sung solemnly by a choir, are common fodder for violent moments in movies and TV... It's just cliché, not really anything meaningful.

True--even in my BTAS example (or "Dies Irae"--which itself, iirc, wasn't originally written by a professing Christian, though it was originally written _for_ a professing Christian.)

However, some of us enjoy collecting soundtracks, and might find the information interesting from that standpoint alone. And besides, it has to be judged on a case-by-case point. Crosses on cufflinks and guns in Hellsing are contextually only bling (I gather?--anyone come up with anything better?); Wolfwood's cross-punisher was obviously meant by the author to have _some_ relevant connection that we might appreciate; Kenshin's cross-shaped scar could be somewhere in between (originally just cool bling, _but_ when the contexts are added up it ends up looking like Someone was working along with Watsuki-sensei, the author, in what the Fathers used to call 'preperatio evangelica': preparatory witnessing by the Holy Spirit into a non-Christian setting.)


So I'm asking the question on two fronts: can people come up with instances of Christian _music_ they appreciate the use of in anime? and in those cases, is the appreciation limited to outside-the-anime use (I never bother to notice the Orthodox hymnody base when watching MatP, but I do enjoy paying attention when listening apart from the animation), or does the appreciation extend to how the music is used within the anime?

An opening or ending them for Eureka 7 called Sakura has Amazing Grace in it...

Check it out it's really pretty!!

Heh out of all the shows, Elfen Lied's opening contains Bible verses (and other stuff) in it. Also on Noir, a song called "Salva Nos" is quite Christiany. Moreso like having older catholic lyrics, but with the technoyness and Kajiura Yuki, sounds great^^

JasonPratt wrote:True--even in my BTAS example (or "Dies Irae"--which itself, iirc, wasn't originally written by a professing Christian, though it was originally written _for_ a professing Christian.)

Not true, the musical versions of the Requiem mass draw from a poem by one of St. Francis' pupils which is generally refered to as the Sequentia altogether. Dies Irae has been for many centuries been chanted at funerals. I do not know the origins of the first setting of the Requiem to orchestral music, but it has a lengthy history indeed with many different renditions. The most famous, and often used version is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's version of Dies Irae who weaves a tapestry of frantic swirling chaos and calamity. Mozart himself was concerned that he would soon die, leaving the music concerning heaven and later the resurrection of the dead as a final work and his own Requiem, a prediction which came true as the final touches were left to another artist. I personally see no reason to not consider Mozart to be a man of faith which came forth in his music, indeed, I consider the classical era the high point of Christian music to a degree rarely rivaled today.

Actually, I was thinking of Vivaldi, not Mozart. (Yes, of course the original _lyrics_ are Christian in any case. And no, I wouldn't call Mozart a non-professing Christian.)

That being said, it's entirely possible the particular rendition of "Dies Irae" I'm thinking of in an anime (which I'm not saying, since I suspect there isn't much of this kind of music in anime and I don't want to burn up a reply option for someone {s!}), is borrowed from Mozart and not from Vivaldi. (At least, I recall being confused at the not-quite-similarity when I managed to listen to Viv's version, and couldn't tell if the anime composer--who also did the Super Atragon OVA soundtrack, as a hint {g}--had actually made a better arrangement or whether I had found the original at all.)

Anyway, thanks muchly for the extra info! (And heck, now I'm wondering if I've even gotten Vivaldi's name right... {mental note to go dig up the tape at the house, if I can find it})


Tenchi: ooh! Thanks--I was considering getting the Noir soundtrack anyway (figuring it was rather like the various Cowboy Bebop compilations); and it's been on my list of anime series to get as well for a while, too.

ChristianRonin wrote:An opening or ending them for Eureka 7 called Sakura has Amazing Grace in it...

Check it out it's really pretty!!

The song you're thinking of is "Sakura" and it's the 4th OP for the series.... and yes, it is really good.

ChristianRonin wrote:An opening or ending them for Eureka 7 called Sakura has Amazing Grace in it...

Check it out it's really pretty!!

Really?! This makes me like Eureka Seven even more! Is it sung with the original tune and all? Or does it just contain lyrics of it?

skyblue wrote:Really?! This makes me like Eureka Seven even more! Is it sung with the original tune and all? Or does it just contain lyrics of it?

the version I have has it...^^; It's sort of more opera-ish but still very pretty!

[quote="ChristianRonin"]the version I have has it...^^]

Ooo. I heard it. It sounds really good, especially with the chorus. I have it stuck in my head now. ><