So to recap, we’ve seen that post-war Japanese artists were faced with the unenviable task of resuscitating a nation that was spiritually dead. I contend that, where literature and even the great films of Kurosawa and Ozu failed, anime and manga artists, well, succeeded. And their approach I see as three-fold: 1) replacing an aesthetics of death with an aesthetics of life, 2) redefining Japanese masculinity and finally (a tall order) 3) replacing the symbolic image of God Himself which died with the Emperor. Yes: I believe that men like this did all that, and more.

When it comes to “serious” animanga, the first and most obvious to discuss is Neon Genesis Evangelion, still probably the most important anime series of all time. My Japanese host father once asked me, shyly, if I understood the ending of Eva; I had to admit I didn’t, either. Everyone who sees it knows there’s something going on here; but people searching for some deep psychological or religious meaning (including its director, who is turning in a Lucas-esque embarrassment with his attempts to make up for its quack ending) are on a wild sheep chase. The story of Eva is simple: a boy who can’t find his unmentionables with both hands.

Above: I know I haven’t seen you in years, but pilot this giant robot for good old dad?

He can’t live up to the stature of his scary militarist father, who is quite obviously Hideki Tojo with a beard. Gendo Ikari is the false ideal of manhood and of godhood incarnated in the Emperor and the military clique; he fought the Angels and lost; Shinji is emasculated by that defeat. Rei is the submissive, “Japanese” woman he can’t have because she doesn’t exist; she’s a clone of his mother. Asuka, the foreign chick, is manlier than he is himself.

But this is not to imply that Eva is a failure. It lays out the crisis of Japanese masculinity plainly, and suggests that the old masculine ideal can’t simply be brought back, some other solution has to be found. Now watch closely, because I am about to blow your mind. Look at the creepy picture of Gendo above (the old, dead Japanese God), then look below, and you’ll see the face of the living Japanese God(ess).

Above: “Eat of this pocky, for it is my flesh, given up willingly for you. Drink of this Ramune, for it is my blood, poured out as a sacrifice for many.”

Yes, Haruhi is God. We know that much if we watched the series; but more importantly, instead of the stern, loveless, patriarchal God Gendo (who, like the Emperor, betrays his child into suffering and death), Haruhi is full of life and flows over. At this point Japan has finally set down its baggage. Haruhi’s invitation: follow me, and let’s have fun. We can go anywhere, do anything. And my comparison with Jesus isn’t just flip: like Christ, Haruhi is the godhead incarnate in a human being. She’s a perfectly ordinary girl; all that sets her apart–and makes her potentially a savior–is her limitless energy.

Obviously it took some time to reach this point, and there were many issues that had to be ironed out along the way. My favorite series, Kanon, I see as a symbolic miniature of this whole process: Yuiichi, like modern Japan, has amnesia, he returns to a town and can’t remember what happened. Only by coming to terms with his own failings (although equating the rape of Korea with making Nayuki cry may seem questionable) can he achieve, not just happiness, but the miraculous resurrection of the loved one.

But a word must be said about a whole genre of animanga that seems to resist any kind of analysis. I’m talking about those slice-of-life series, of which Azumanga Daioh is the crown jewel. Surely these have nothing to do with the war and the bomb? And they do, precisely because they don’t.

Kiyohiko Azuma I think is a peerless artist. Azumanga was a great series, but with Yotsuba& (now being serialized) he’s achieved transcendence. Every panel of Yotsuba& overflows with a sense of real, lived life. And this is what gets beyond the death-infested world of the great postwar authors: it’s a process like the transformation of the dance of death in The Seventh Seal to the dance of life in 8 1/2 (Jeremy will know what I’m talking about). I don’t think that artists like Azuma, and the geniuses responsible for sunny, carefree series like School Rumble and Lucky Star, have forgotten the war; they know exactly what it took to get from there to here, where a world without conflict is perfectly realized.

Above: Yostuba Koiwai

It’s worth saying a word in passing, too, that animanga is more than up to the challenge of criticizing a bloated and complacent Japan that takes a shortcut through prosperity to genuine peace: just look at Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei and Excel Saga. Excel Saga is first-rate social criticism: the character of the immigrant worker Pedro, to take just one example, isn’t as random as he might seem; Japan imports scores of workers from the Philippines and elsewhere and treats them like garbage.

That’s why it grinds my gears when people *cough* present otaku culture as if it were still the ugly, pathological product of war-consciousness. Just look. Everyone’s singing! Everyone’s dancing! It’s a party! This is real beauty, not the deceptive prettiness of Kawabata’s chilling novels or the anguish of Kurosawa’s social cinema. Japan is alive and kicking; and while ex-PM Taro Aso’s comment about Japan taking over the world through otaku culture was unfortunate, it may be true in a different sense. In every age the world needs someone to remind it of our deepest shared values.

As Sadako Sasaki lay dying of radiation poisoning, she prayed for world peace; but presented with her last meal, a bowl of rice, she said simply that it was “good.” I find the last more poignant. According to the Bible, this is what God said when he created the world. Life is good, even when it must be purchased at great psychological cost. In this season, when many wish for world peace, I too hope the words of the prophet will be realized: “And they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks / Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they study war anymore.”

Now let’s join illegal immigrant girl Maria in reflecting on what a nice country Japan is.

Happy New Year, everybody.