Description: This book presents essays that investigate religious themes in anime and use anime as thinking partners for constructive theological exploration, highlighting the many religious traditions in the medium.
Brief description: David Armstrong is the writer, producer, and host of Broadway Nation - the popular podcast that tells the remarkable story of how Immigrants, Jews, Queers, African Americans, Women, and other outcasts invented the Broadway Musical and how they changed America in the process. With more than 100 episodes to date, Broadway Nation has reached an audience of more than 135,000 listeners. This podcast was inspired by the popular large lecture course (100 students each quarter) that Armstrong teaches at the University of Washington School of Drama which is titled 'The Broadway Musical'. During his 40-year career Armstrong has worked as a director, producer, playwright, and choreographer at leading theatre companies across America as well as off and on Broadway. He is best known for his work at The 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle where from 2000 to 2018 he served as Artistic Director & Executive Producer. During his tenure The 5th produced 19 new musicals, nine of which subsequently moved to Broadway including Disney's Aladdin, A Christmas Story - The Musical, and the Tony Award winning "Best Musicals" Hairspray and Memphis.
Review Quotes:
"David Armstrong and Roberto J. De La Noval's edited book Anime, Religion, and Theology is a valuable contribution to the study of both Japanese pop cultural forms and the global fandoms that consume them. The focus is largely Western philosophical and theological concepts and frameworks, which - while potentially culturally incongruous - are deftly applied to tease novel and intriguing meanings from anime series and films, focusing on theodicy, deification, ecology, transhumanism, and meaning-making in the twenty-first century. Recommended." --Carole M. Cusack, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Sydney, Australia
"Anime, Religion and Theology is a wonderful addition to anime studies. Starting with a truly thoughtful and thought-provoking introduction, the chapters explore many of the fascinating metaphysical elements and aims of some of the most interesting and important anime productions over the last decades, from lyrical meditations on Miyazaki in comparison to Seamus Heaney, to provocative visions of Evangelion, to a wide-ranging look at the Dragon Ball Z universe. This book takes the study of anime in fresh and fascinating directions." --Susan Napier, Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric and Japanese, Tufts University, USA