You are obviously a student of Anime - I hope you’ve given these thoughts to the folks at the Anime Jesus site. You really know your genre. Good for you!

What do you think are some other things to be done with Anime within the context of faith-based stories?

Therefore, if anime is labelled “bad” because of the philosophy behind some creations, then making an Anime Jesus would prove that when the philosophy is God-founded, then anime doesn’t become “bad” in general.

If there was an anime version of Jesus, it would be easier to talk about Jesus to my non-Christian friends who love anime. I was hoping to see something new and inspiring in this, only to be disappointed. Anime is not limited to “Japanese animation” and shouldn’t be literally translated as such. Sadly, the test animation doesn’t have an anime feel at all. It felt like traditional American animation. If this production was to be labelled as “anime”, it has to become anime.

How does it become anime? Most anime comes from the manga version. Why not just make an anime version of the Manga Messiah that was already published? That is common practice in Japan - transforming manga into anime.
See: http://www.mangabible.com/ and http://vialogue.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/manga-messiah-japanese-anime-jesus/

Also, perhaps watching anime for the age group 15-30 years old would be a good start. Read between the lines and see the concept behind what makes anime anime.

Basics:
Characters
1. Expression: The eyes, especially, needs to be drawn like anime is drawn. Anime eyes are usually bigger. The feelings of our characters doesn’t come out well. The drawing and the voice acting should complement each other. (See Sailor Moon saga from Sailor Moon, R, S, SuperS, and Eternal)
2. Motion: There appears to be too much motion and less emotion, and the details on the motions were not emphasized.
3. Background: Needs to vary lighting and explore on perspective. (See Rurouni Kenshin / Samurai X, Dragon Ball saga from Dragon Ball, DBZ, and DBGT, Naruto)
4. Other effects: Mixing 2D and CG would help (See Initial D, Vandread, Gundam Seed).
5. Theme song: You’ll need an opening and an ending theme song. Anime has excellent music and excellent songs, often performed by bands or famous singers.
6. Character design: Don’t be afraid to explore hairstyles that are not seen in real life. Also, be sure that the color of the hair matches the personality of the character involved. There is a meaning behind each hair color. Pink, for example, means that the character is friendly; Red is usually for hot-tempered characters.
7. Suggested Run time per episdoe: 19-21 minutes; Episodes: 13 episodes or 26 episodes per season.

It also boils down to what the filmmaker has available to them as far as resources, too. Just because a filmmaker lacks resources doesn’t mean he or she can’t find creative ways to make things work. We just must do our best and use the best tools available within our budgets. Even with no budget we can still produce an excellent product. We do our best then God does the rest.

I would submit to everyone also that the Christian film community is improving by leaps and bounds. The stigma of Christian movie =lousy film is really only a stereotype today that needs to be proven wrong.

Christian filmmakers are improving technically and truly learning the language of film. To make a good film is about speaking in film language. If I wanted to become a missionary and reach the Chinese people, I would not get very far if I spoke Spanish to them. Filmmaking, I have found is a language that we need to learn…a nd when we master the language we can get our points across beautifully and impact our audience in a beautiful way.

There’s a post on the CBA Blog that asks “why can’t Christian filmmaking be excellent?” I don’t think it’s limited to filmmaking - it’s throughout Christian media.

I think it’s important we find the best in the field and work with them if our intent is to improve our craft.

The closest to an actual anime feel I have ever seen an American cartoon ever come is a show called Avatar: The Last Airbender.

People (especially secular people) these days have a very sensitive nose when it comes to detecting half-hearted Christian media attempts. I really would love to have something that not even the secularists can bash for production quality. And while anime is known for its very cheap production costs, there is still a feeling of authenticity that is required, I think.

I guess I should say that I really WANT this to happen, but I want it to happen in an excellent fashion, not in a sub-par manner. This attempt, I think, happens to fall into the category of “sub-par…”

The story of the gospel HAS, however, been represented very well on several occasions via Japanese-style anime and manga. First that comes to mind is Superbook; a cartoon akin to Speed Racer which was produced in conjunction with CBN and aired first in 1981. The cartoon is still wildly popular in parts of the world; most notably Russia.

And more impressively is Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s epic manga biography entitled Jesus. The manga is only available in English via e-book, but Yasuhiko is one of the founding fathers of the modern anime movement. He’s contributed to many huge anime franchises, not the least of which being Mobile Suit Gundam.

So I say again, if Anime Jesus has any chance at all of sticking, it’ll need some actual Asian talent behind it. Americanime just hasn’t developed the chops yet to be taken seriously…

I realize that the clip is just a concept, but judging from the character designs and the sequencing, it just doesn’t seem that solid.

If they REALLY want to translate the gospel into anime, then they should go through the right channels, the correct steps and avoid cutting corners just because it will save a few bucks. As with most Christian-bubble attempts at snagging the tailcoats of pop-culture, this version of “Anime Jesus” seems to fall uncomfortably short of even the most basic and simplistic animes. This, I think, is something most secular anime-fans will instantly notice. We don’t need another half-baked tool to teach Christian homeschoolers.

I am assuming that the Christian choir is not where these people are aiming, seeing as though the Jesus film was so useful as an evangelistic tool for so long. I fear though, that anime Jesus won’t be able to continue on the legacy..