Saint young men

Saint Onisan is a very funny popular manga in Japan, though I am not sure it will be in published in western countries (especially in the U.S). It's a story about Jesus Christ and Buddha. Wiki has only a Japanese page, here is the web translation.  Some English blogs wrote about it, here and here are good.

I translated wiki some.

Jesus and Buddha came to the earth from heaven for their vacation. They live at a cheap apartment in Tachikawa, Tokyo and speak Japanese like natives.　Jesus wears a crown of thorns (angels put a GPS inside the crown to know where he is always). When he feels stress, he bleeds from stigmata on his forehead and when he is so happy, also when he is super sad, he can makes miracles. But he can't control it by himself, it causes some troubles. 　He likes to wear underwear after keeping it in the refrigerator. He can't swim at all, he can't even open his eyes in the water. It was a very tough time when he was baptized by John in the Jordan river. Since he has a beard and long hair, he looks like Johnny Depp, and when he picks up chicks, he speaks English. He has the habit of wasting money, he sometimes buys uniforms of SHINSENGUMI (he is a fan of SHINSENGUMI) and gets scorched by Buddha.　He writes a blog and finally got number one in a blog ranking. His symbol is not a cross anymore and he thinks it will be a note PC. When he went to Akiba for the first time, he prayed with tears. He likes virtua fighter very much, though he is too bad and has never won before.  When he went to a public sauna, he saw a Yakuza who had a tattoo of some god of Buddhism. He misunderstand the Yakuza was a devotional Buddhist and talked to him, but accidentally they could be good friends. Now he earns some respect from lower Yakuza. He really likes Japanese style stand up comedy 'Manzai'(Takeshi Kitano did it), and he made a duo with Buddha. The name of the duo is 'Punch and long hair'.

The Buddha came to Japan because Jesus asked him to go. He can speak Japanese as a native too. Like we say 'Even Buddha may be upset if his face is hit three times', when someone makes him angry three times, he will get a terrible thing. In such cases, he becomes luminous.　He has long long ear lobes and short rolled hair (this type of perm is called 'punch' in Japan, Yankee or Yakuza love that hair style). His cell phone is Docomo and his Nintendo DS is a gross silver color, it was a present from Jesus. He washes his hair in Asience and he likes cleaning, washing and cooking. He is a vegetarian but he cooks some meat for Jesus's lunch box.  When he takes a shower a long time, he almost reaches to the truth of the cosmos. He is very good at swimming and he is called 'the rumble fish of the Ganges'. He is a specialist at fasting, he can fast until he becomes bone and skin only. He is a very economical person and cautions Jesus about wasting money. But when he read 'Buddha' of Osamu Tezuka in a manga cafe, he was blown away with tears and got serious for once. After that, Buddha respects Tezuka like a religion and he started to draw manga too. Jesus read his manga and made a miracle because he laughed so much. But the manga is a joke of heaven, nobody can't understand it usually. He can get microwaves from Terrestrial Digital Broadcasting, and they watch TV with his power. His hobby is making silk screens, 30% of their T-shorts are his handmade, they are simple but sometime so bad joke.

Do you think 'Saint Young Men' can be published? I guess some will say the manga is disrespectful. :-)

Comments

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[Milli]

I'm italian girl. this manga it' s fantastic, but i don't buy it becouse as not yet arrived, I read the original in original language.
(sorry if I write badly, do not speak good English) milli ^^

[RMilner]

I don't know about Buddha.

Jesus Christ has appeared as a character in some American webcomics, such as Penny Arcade and Alien Loves Predator so it's not impossible.

These are not mainstream comics.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/08/04/
http://alienlovespredator.com/?id=116

[Heidi]

Trondd:

That's a fair statement, but there are soooo many manga (and anime) series that incorporate aspects of some sort of spirituality into their story lines that I do wonder what most Japanese believe. I think manga is such a big part of Japanese popular culture that it must reflect at least some aspects of Japanese spiritual beliefs.

I agree that this one particular manga by itself is not a definitive profile of Japanese spiritual beliefs (it's just a comedy manga for entertainment as you put it), but then why are so many manga and anime stories focused on spirituality or include very obvious aspects of spirituality?

Most American comics/cartoons (children's or adult) rarely focus on any sort of spirituality, while many Americans claim to attend church regularly; I don't know if Japanese attend religions serivces of any kind as regularly as Americans claim to, but it's interesting (to me) that one culture seems to seek spirituality in organized religion (American) while the Japanese seem to seek it in their popular culture (manga). I just wonder why this is...

[trondd]

"This manga is a very interesting insight into how Japanese interpret religion, Christianity" - Heidi

Oh, I hope you don't really believe that. That's like saying the movie Dogma is insight into how Americans interpret religion and Christianity. I hope you can see the error in making such a generalization. It's just a comedy manga for entertainment, I wouldn't read that much into it.

It does seem interesting, I'd read it if I could.

[Cam]

I really want to read this, but I'm afraid the chances of this manga being translated into English and published are pretty small, due to the easy perception of the content being sacrilegious or disrespectful.

It's obvious that the characters are amusing and that the manga is not mean-spirited, but many of the people in the center of the United States, for example, aren't generally known for being very broad-minded.

[Anonymous]

Jesus looking like Johnny Depp and hanging out with Yakuza. This is awesome!

Im going to have to import this.

[bshock]

I agree with Marco's comment -- I think this sounds like a very interesting manga. I will definitely look for it.

Although there are certainly people in the US who would find the subject offensive, even more disrespectful stories are routinely published here.

The biggest problem with publishing this manga in the US would probably be the Japanese cultural references, I think. Most Americans wouldn't understand the jokes.

[Heidi]

I am a born again Christian, and I think many Christians would be very offended by this story. I have many friends from Tibet who are very devout Buddhists who would be horrified at such a depiction of Buddha.

I guess I am not personally offended because I don't think the author is intentionally disrespecting either Christ of Buddha. I see this as most likely the author's lack of genuine familiarity with the Bible and who Christ really is (and Buddha and Buddhism? - I don't know the particulars of Buddhism, but I do know that the Dali Lama and Buddha are as revered as "holy" as Jesus Christ is to Christians, by Buddhists (Tibetan Buddhists anyway).

This manga is a very interesting insight into how Japanese interpret religion, Christianity and Buddhism specifcially, because both religions have a long, complex and fascinating history in Japan.

It's very interesting to me how many manga writers seem to combine aspects of sprituality with Christianity, Buddhism and Shinto. I hope if people who read this manga are genuinely interested in discovering who Christ and Buddha really are, they will put down the manga and pick up the Bible or Buddhist scriptures to get the real story.

[Marco Bresciani (マルコ·ブレシャ−二)]

おもしろそうです。あのまんがを読みたいですけどまだ下手です。がんばります。日本にまんがを買うでしょう。
マリさん、会いましょう。まんがをおしえてください。