Okay, I've just always been curious. Short of the English dub of Nadesico mentioning rabbis, the only instances of Judaism I've seen in anime were the usage of Stars of David in various equations of magic and the Kabbalistic influences in Evangelion.
Is there anything Jewish in any anime anyone's ever seen?
Akiha in Tsukuyomi is a rich cunt, does that count?
More like actually Jewish or referring to Judaism thereof, not a stereotype, otherwise half the cast of Giant Robo would be Jewish simply for the huge noses. :-P
> Akiha in Tsukuyomi
i lol'd
Now you've given me this urge to start referring to the big-nosed guy on Fantastic Children as "the jew".
Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito does have a Lilith character (and even though she isn't necessarily "The Lilith", she is some kind of equivalent). This is not that close, but in general I'm guessing you're interested in anything since there isn't a lot of material.
Mahoromatic had the mysterious "Matthew" entity, which was pretty much the most Abrahamic-feeling nude hot woman I've ever encountered. Whether this could in any way be connected to Judaism is particular is unclear to me.
Escaflowne, Last Exile, PlanetES and Sakura Taisen strike me as anime that could have Jewish stuff/people, but I don't remember anything myself.
I get a strong feeling that Fumoffu and/or Cowboy Bebop had some references/characters, but can't remember anything more. In general, I'm pretty sure I've seen some stuff in anime, but memory doesn't serve today.
> Lilith
Isn't Lilith apocryphical or pseudepigraphical material, though?
Brain Powerd lol
>Isn't Lilith apocryphical or pseudepigraphical material, though?
I believe so, but she definitely is connected to the Abrahamic religions and Judaism in particular.
If my sources are to be trusted, the word 'lullaby' comes from a Jewish traditional verse/similar that was spoken to keep Lilith from stealing the souls of children when they sleep.
And even if Lilith isn't part of the "official" stuff, she is definitely now more closely connected to religion than to anything else.
It seems to me that most Judaic symbolism in anime is used as generic "occult"- and for that matter, a lot of the Christian symbolism is used in the same way. Mostly, western religions appear to be added for spice.
I kinda figured that much... I did some research, and according to most studies, there are usually no more than one thousand (On a liberal estimate) Jews (Either practictioners of the Jewish faith or those who identify themselves as ethnic, nonreligious Jews) in Japan at any given time. Most of those are Western businesspeople, but there are some Japanese who converted. I don't have the details (Link's at my office) but it was pretty interesting to read the stories of how the Japanese converted. There were also some tabloid-quality books published about how the Japanese should aspire to be "Jewish" in a stereotypical sense. They played upon (I'm not kidding) the desire for larger noses, frugality, and filial respect, if not piety. Of course, these are all exaggerated stereotypes of Jews.
Basically, >>10 got it right... it's just for spice. But I'd love to see Super Fighting Rabbi Love-Love Shlomo-chan one of these days...
When I'm a professionaly manga-ka, we will see Isaac Goldstein, the mild-mannered Rabbi given supernatural abilities to fight evil by a benevolent spirit. Now, he transforms into the Shalom Warrior, defeating the evil shmucks of the world with such trademark moves as the "yar mulke blast"!
...Aaand then I get sued. But you get the picture. ;-)
There were some Jewish comics that they threw at us in Hebrew School... ShaloMan was one of 'em, summoned by the magic words "Oy vey!" But it was just random hero crap.
The question is, what genre would Super Fighting Rabbi Love-Love Shlomo-chan be? I could totally see it as a harem story, but maybe it could be changed around to an ABe-esque story of gritty urban realism, or maybe a mecha/magical girl crossover.
Soooo, anyone wanna use this idea for the next Tokyopop Rising Stars of Manga competition? ;-)
X/1999 is full of jewish mysticism
> ABe-esque story of gritty urban realism
I, uh, don't think those really go together...
There's something that looks like a rabbi on the screen for a split second in Gad Guard. I don't know which episode...one of the early ones. Just watch the first DVD and keep "rabbi" in mind, and you'll see him.
I'm surprised nobody's tried any references to "Rabbi~en~rose" yet. >_>
>>17
lol
FMA had some jewish references. Scar's people seemed very jewish ...
Now look what you did - we've got Google ads for "The #1 Website for Messianic Jewish Singles" in here now!