Corrupt anime priests: a typical, though not constant, occurrence.
Christianity, the inspiration for in-story cults, is not as venerated and untouchable in Japan.
Corrupt clergymen offer more than just direct conflict to the story.
Your archetypical corrupt clergyman
Tell us if you’ve heard this one before: the protagonist visits a local church, maybe for their adulthood ceremony, maybe to be healed, or maybe to stay the night. The clergyman in charge might be a looker, might be not — but he looks kindly and smiles warmly, as he provides the help our protagonist needs. And then, just as our hero looks away, that smile drops, revealing a cold, calculated and sinister look of a villain.
Now, we don’t say that this happens every single time — but it happens more often than not. If the church itself as an organization is not evil as a whole, then more often than not, we at least get a few corrupt priests to serve as antagonists in the story. The question is — why?
Why are those priests corrupt, from the writer’s perspective?
Christianity serves as the prototype for most cults in anime and manga. It’s a minority religion in Japan, so it doesn't receive the same level of veneration and protection from scrutiny as it does in countries that are predominantly Christian. Indeed, Christian imagery has been used in anime for ages, including such influential stories as Evangelion, Hellsing and Chrono Crusade. Moreover, it’s a far more rigidly hierarchical religion than Shinto and Buddhism, which are far more commonplace among the Japanese population.
It’s this very combination of the lack of social taboo and rigid hierarchy that lends itself so well to the exploration of power and how it can corrupt.
Indeed, corrupt nobles, officials, merchants and yes, clergymen are a common occurrence in stories that don’t revolve around fighting Demon Lords and other monsters — though oftentimes, even in those. Everyone can understand the impact of having their wellbeing, livelihood, or even life itself in the hands of an unscrupulous individual, so they make for very good and usually morally uncomplicated antagonists. However, in terms of a corrupt clergyman, it comes with a few bonus points to the conflict.
The church can be depicted as a microcosm of the wider world. Depending on what kind of a message the author wants to send, the evil clergyman might be a ‘bad apple’ to be removed by the actions of the hero and/or church higher ups to restore this institution to what it’s supposed to represent (like in Seija Musou and Ascendance of a Bookworm) — or, he can indeed represent the church, and the depths of its corruption, forcing our hero into an uneven fight against the entire institution (Hellsing, especially in its portrayal of the Catholic church).
Finally, while the corrupt clergyman has power, it’s usually not an absolute power of a corrupt god, king or even a noble — in most stories, even the most unfettered Evil Pope can’t just order a public execution for no reason — not without fear of repercussions. No, the power of a corrupt clergyman is softer, allowing to call in favors from influential people, or to hire untalkative-but-expensive assassins to make the hero's life more difficult.
In other words, the churches are usually evil for the sake of adding social intrigue into the story, and we’re all for it.
We’ve all seen those evil anime priests. But why?
Summary:
Corrupt anime priests: a typical, though not constant, occurrence.
Christianity, the inspiration for in-story cults, is not as venerated and untouchable in Japan.
Corrupt clergymen offer more than just direct conflict to the story.
Your archetypical corrupt clergyman
Tell us if you’ve heard this one before: the protagonist visits a local church, maybe for their adulthood ceremony, maybe to be healed, or maybe to stay the night. The clergyman in charge might be a looker, might be not — but he looks kindly and smiles warmly, as he provides the help our protagonist needs. And then, just as our hero looks away, that smile drops, revealing a cold, calculated and sinister look of a villain.
Now, we don’t say that this happens every single time — but it happens more often than not. If the church itself as an organization is not evil as a whole, then more often than not, we at least get a few corrupt priests to serve as antagonists in the story. The question is — why?
Why are those priests corrupt, from the writer’s perspective?
Christianity serves as the prototype for most cults in anime and manga. It’s a minority religion in Japan, so it doesn't receive the same level of veneration and protection from scrutiny as it does in countries that are predominantly Christian. Indeed, Christian imagery has been used in anime for ages, including such influential stories as Evangelion, Hellsing and Chrono Crusade. Moreover, it’s a far more rigidly hierarchical religion than Shinto and Buddhism, which are far more commonplace among the Japanese population.
It’s this very combination of the lack of social taboo and rigid hierarchy that lends itself so well to the exploration of power and how it can corrupt.
Indeed, corrupt nobles, officials, merchants and yes, clergymen are a common occurrence in stories that don’t revolve around fighting Demon Lords and other monsters — though oftentimes, even in those. Everyone can understand the impact of having their wellbeing, livelihood, or even life itself in the hands of an unscrupulous individual, so they make for very good and usually morally uncomplicated antagonists. However, in terms of a corrupt clergyman, it comes with a few bonus points to the conflict.
The church can be depicted as a microcosm of the wider world. Depending on what kind of a message the author wants to send, the evil clergyman might be a ‘bad apple’ to be removed by the actions of the hero and/or church higher ups to restore this institution to what it’s supposed to represent (like in Seija Musou and Ascendance of a Bookworm) — or, he can indeed represent the church, and the depths of its corruption, forcing our hero into an uneven fight against the entire institution (Hellsing, especially in its portrayal of the Catholic church).
Finally, while the corrupt clergyman has power, it’s usually not an absolute power of a corrupt god, king or even a noble — in most stories, even the most unfettered Evil Pope can’t just order a public execution for no reason — not without fear of repercussions. No, the power of a corrupt clergyman is softer, allowing to call in favors from influential people, or to hire untalkative-but-expensive assassins to make the hero's life more difficult.
In other words, the churches are usually evil for the sake of adding social intrigue into the story, and we’re all for it.
