Deifying Anime Characters: Do You Remember Love?

[Discussion Begins at Kaioshin_Sama’s post: Deux ex Anime]

Suzumiya Haruhi made religion cool, or at least moé. A brash and obnoxious know-it-all high school girl who also happens to be devastatingly attractive as a literal goddess is quite a brilliant concept (it will sell! and it did!). Religion is big and serious business. Consider how the concept of the megachurch as explored by James B. Twitchell in his book ‘Branded Nation,’ (2004)

A brand is a commecial story, a folk tale on the take. Because it’s a story, it promises an emotion. As such, it is evanescent, always in the process of being told and retold. It can be easily hijacked, subverted, destroyed, rewritten. As Walt Whitman once said, before there are good stories, before there are poetic tellers, there must be “great audiences.” That’s because a storyteller is really always dependent on his audience for direction. Like telling children bedtime stories, the teller/bard/pastor/curator/schoolteacher needs to know not just which version they want but which version they are ready for. If he’ll listen, they’ll tell him. “Tell me about Little Red Riding Hood and this time really describe the wolf,” says the maturing child. “Tell me about redemption, except this time forget the fires of Hell,” says the modern seeker.

Twitchell is talking more about the marketing of modern religion in the United States, but there are nuggets in that passage worth taking with us in the ‘creative’ reading of anime. The stunning popularity of Suzumiya Haruhi I can read to be a result of the pseudo-scientific/religious preparation of the fandom through Neon Genesis Evangelion. After all, it had complex psychology (complex for its shounen audience); weird and haphazard use of Judeo-Christian elements, subversion of anime tropes it references, and very attractive teenage girls. Speaking for myself, Eva prepared me for SHNY. I was the kind of audience who’d find Haruhi turning out to be a goddess quite brilliant indeed.

So, being part of the audience, and wanting to be an awesome kind of audience, I’m going to make a god of an anime character. God is the biggest, grandest, and best of concepts. It doesn’t get any more… anything, period. We form heirarchies using God as the ultimate tier (interestingly, shit is the lowest). This is not a sincere attempt at deification or even canonization, but rather an attempt at a reading of a character as deity within the context of contemporary anime deification out of foppery and whim.

Lin Minmei/Ling Mingmei/Lynn Minmay

She saved two races with song, uniting them (Earth humans and the Zentraedi) and creating a legacy that prevented galactic destruction. She saved everyone, she made entire races remember love, and then disappeared (in an expeditionary mission). Humanity is still waiting for her return. In Macross 7 Dr. Gadget M. Chiba (don’t ask me, I couldn’t make this up if I tried) is undoubtedly the high priest should there exist a true religious Minmei cult. The good doctor developed a weapons system based on an energy he called ‘Sound Force’ that was key in preventing the Protodevlin from destroying most life in the galaxy. This Sound Force has to be delivered through song in the midst of battle, a fitting homage to the legacy of Minmay.

Possible Believers: Suzumiya Haruhi {Minmay already interacted with aliens and saved the world WITH SONG while being Haruhi’s age (15-16)! God knows how Haruhi would eat that up}, Simon Fuller (after all, Minmay is a product of a pageant/talent show).

God knows is a great moment. I love it. I’ve seen it dozens of times (a dozen times last week alone). I mean, a 16 year old on a whim saving the Keion club’s memories of high school — allowing them to distribute their music to many students. Even if half the band can’t make it to the performance, Haruhi and Nagato made sure the cultural festival goers would LISTEN TO THEIR SONG!

But then see Minmay’s performance. She held her concert in the last pitched battle between the belligerent Zentraedi and the Earth human-Zentraedi alliance. The battle involved over 1,000,000 capital ships, and innumerable fighter craft and mecha. Her song decided the battle. It’s a simple ballad, a question that stirred the dormant hearts of an alien race genetically engineered to suppress their own culture, their emotions, and the very concept of romantic love. This song is the question that this blog answers in almost every post. DO YOU REMEMBER LOVE?

We Remember Love.

LET’S REMEMBER LOVE WITH OMAKE!

God Knows LIVE! (Hirano Aya, contemporary pop idol)

Do You Remember Love LIVE! (Iijma Mari at the dawn of the idol phenomenon)

And now she performs at Rock Masters 5 (at least over 20 years later)

So, who else do you think will work as anime gods or goddesses? Who do you think will be their worshippers?