"Aum Shinrikyo and a Panic About Manga and Anime", Gardner 2008; excerpts:
The recent success abroad of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away has introduced this aspect of Japan's visual culture to an even wider audience and led some to predict a new "golden age" for Japanese film (Napier 2003, 22). In the midst of the accolades, it is important to recall that there have been moments in recent history when manga and anime have been regarded as potentially dangerous or as emblems of what is wrong with Japan.
Such was the case in the months following the release of sarin gas in several Tokyo subway lines by members of the religious group Aum Shinrikyo on the morning of March 20, 1995. As the extent of the Aum's crimes gradually became clear, Japanese journalists, scholars, intellectuals, and commentators of every sort attempted to explain the origin and rise of Aum, the reasons for the group's turn to violence, and what the appearance of such a group might mean about Japan. In the various theories and explanations presented, nearly every aspect of Japanese society, culture, and religion has been held to be at least partially accountable for the rise of Aum and the turn to violence by some of its members (see Gardner 1999, 221-222; 2002a, 36-42). In the efforts to explain Aum, considerable attention was given to the roles that manga and anime might have played. This resulted in what might be described as a panic about their possible negative influence on Japanese culture and society.
...Some have suggested a link, for instance, between Aum's increasingly pessimistic vision of a coming war and cataclysm and the suspicions surrounding the group after the disappearance of lawyer and anti-Aum activist Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family in November 1989 (Aum members later confessed to the killing of the Sakamotos). Other possible sources of this shift in vision include the defeat of Aum candidates in the 1990 Diet elections, the arrest of Aum members for land fraud in 1990, an increasingly vocal anti-Aum movement, and the group's increasing financial difficulties as its expansion slowed (Reader 2000, 126-161).
While Asahara's prophecies concerning "Harumagedon" were relatively optimistic throughout the 1980s, they became increasingly pessimistic in the 1990s. Because Aum's teachings were being ignored, Asahara pronounced that the world was inevitably moving toward a cataclysmic war that only a small fraction of the world population would survive
...While there is no longer hope of preventing Harumagedon, Aum adepts will be able to survive to establish a new one-thousand-year kingdom on earth. This is the same one-thousand-year kingdom foreseen by St. John in Revelations, by Nostradamus, and by Adolf Hitler, whom Asahara considers another great seer. In Asahara Shoko, senritsu no yogen (The Shocking Prophecies of Asahara Shoko), the date for Harumagedon is moved up to 1997. Freemasons and Jews are identified as agents involved in a conspiracy leading the world to disaster. Those who develop supernatural powers in time will be able to survive (Asahara 1993).
The apocalyptic or cataclysmic themes in manga and anime throughout the 1970s and 1980s must be understood, of course, within a larger context. Apocalyptic, millennial, or cataclysmic themes are not unknown in modern Japanese religious traditions and are particularly notable in many of the movements labeled as New New Religions (Shimazono 1986, 55-86; 1992, 46-50). Related themes have also been dealt with extensively in modern Japanese literature as well as film (Napier 1996, 181-219; 1993, 327-351). Also relevant are phenomena such as the "Nostradamus boom" in Japan, sparked by the publication of The Great Prophecies of Nostradamus in 1973 (Goshima 1973). There is not yet any compelling, definitive account of how all these apocalyptic or cataclysmic scenarios are related either to each other or to changes in Japanese culture and society. We must thus content ourselves with some preliminary, exploratory observations.
Among the manga and anime frequently mentioned in connection with Aum are Reiji Matsumoto's Uchu senkan Yamato (The Space Battleship Yamato, known in the United States as Star Blazers), which first appeared as an animated television series in 1973; Hayao Miyazaki's Mirai shonen Konan (Conan, The Boy of the Future), an animated television series broadcast by NHK beginning in 1978; Miyazaki's Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) which appeared in manga form from 1982 to 1994 and as a feature film in 1984; Kazumasa Hirai and Shotaro Ishimori's Harumagedon: Genma taisen (The Great Battle with Genma), which appeared as a feature-length anime in 1983 and did much to popularize the term "Harumagedon"; and Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, which appeared in manga form beginning in 1984 and then as an animated film in 1989.
Despite their many differences, these works share a few general features. All present a situation in which an existing civilization has undergone a traumatic transformation (Conan, Nausicaä, and Akira) or is confronting imminent destruction (Yamato and Genma). The destruction originates from either human evil or stupidity (Conan, Nausicaä, and Akira) or an external evil civilization or force (Yamato and Genma). In all cases, a small band of heroes must save themselves as well as whatever part of the world they are still capable of saving. In all but Yamato, the heroes are set aside from most people by virtue of the supernatural powers they have developed or mysteriously acquired. In the cases of Genma and Akira, salvation seems possible only for those who have developed extraordinary powers.
This brief account of apocalyptic scenarios in Aum's teachings and in manga and anime should make clear that there are some intriguing parallels between the two.
...important is Aum's development and use of various forms of media. Publications of books by its founder, Shoko Asahara, and other Aum leaders began in 1986. The monthly magazine Mahayana began appearing in 1987. In addition, Aum soon began producing manga, anime, promotional videos, music recordings, and tapes of Asahara's preaching. Some of the audio and videotapes were meant not only for proselytizing but also for use in Aum's religious practices. In the early 1990s, Aum began weekly radio broadcasts from Russia and also established its own homepage on the Internet.
Aum's understanding of the mass media is conveniently summed up in the February 1995 issue of the group's monthly journal Vajrayana Sacca. Contained here is a special section of over one hundred pages entitled "The Devil's Mind Control: Exposing the Plot to Brainwash Humanity" (Aum Editorial Board 1995, 6-112; see also Aoyama 1991, 82-88). The opening essay, "Subliminal Seduction," details how subliminal images are being used to influence people: "Foolish Japanese Pigs! Devote Yourselves to Sex! First Public Report in Japan! Subliminal Japan up until the present, the Japanese mass media has kept silent and refused to discuss the use of subliminal techniques in Japanese advertising. That is because they have been using such techniques themselves. Vajrayana Sacca will expose for the first time in history the use of subliminal techniques in Japan!" (1995, 8-9). A number of images from advertisements are also presented here in "computer-enhanced" form to reveal that messages, such as the word "sex," are often included not only in ads but even on the potato chips we eat. ...It should also be added, however, that one Japanese television station did make use of subliminal images in its coverage of Aum and had to issue extensive apologies once this came to light (Gardner 1999, 223).
The dangers of manga and anime are explained by linking the ideas of information and data to Aum's notions of an astral world (a realm of data) and causal world (a realm of images), both of which greatly influence the phenomenal world and the beings residing in it. Thus, images from the mass media, including manga and anime, not only influence people on first exposure but continue to exert influence through their presence in the astral and causal worlds. Particular emphasis, it might be noted, is placed on the powers of visual images.
Despite this critical evaluation, later Aum publications portray manga and anime more positively. They do so by noting the parallels between Aum's vision of Harumagedon and depictions of the cataclysmic or apocalyptic scenarios found in many manga and anime. For example, Vajrayana Sacca no. 5, which appeared in the spring of 1992, contains a five-part approximately 100-page "special report" devoted to the theme of "Terrifying Prophecies of the End of the World." Its first section, entitled "Images of Harumagedon: The World is Awaiting Ruin," shows pictures, accompanied by brief explanations, from manga, anime, and films dealing with the theme of worldwide cataclysm and destruction (Aum Editorial Board 1992, 8-14).
On the first page of this section, the creators of such works are described as prophets: "We cannot make light of novelists, scriptwriters, and manga and anime artists. No one shows more interest in the future nor does more to express in vivid form images of the future. As a matter of fact, much of what they have envisioned in recent decades is becoming a reality in the 1990s. They are, in other words, contemporary prophets, and their works are the books of prophecy nearest to us in the modern age. So let us begin by taking a look at how the fate of people in the near future is portrayed in these modern prophecies" (1992, 8). Manga and anime here are seen not as symptoms of the evil mind control being carried out by the mass media but as potentially valuable prophetic works.
Hidetoshi Takahashi, a member of Aum's science team who managed somehow to correctly predict the Kobe earthquake of January 17, 1995, and subsequently left the group following its sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system, wrote the following in an account of his time in Aum: "Though there may be some who do not believe in Harumagedon, it is not a matter of belief in the usual sense. The notion of the 'end' was inputted into our generation as a general sense of things. . . . Our favorite anime such as The Space Battleship Yamato, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and Akira all dealt with the theme of the state of the world after cataclysmic destruction" (Takahashi 1996, 160). Making use of the metaphor "input," Takahashi sees apocalyptic manga and anime of the 1970s and 1980s as having created an atmosphere of expectation among those coming of age in those decades that helped render Asahara's vision of Harumagedon plausible and compelling.
There is also evidence that The Space Battleship Yamato may have held some significance for Aum members. A former member who once served as Asahara's chauffeur, for example, noted in an interview that "[w]hen we were traveling by car once, I sang the theme song of The Space Battleship Yamato with the Master. The Master said, '_Yamato_ was a ship carrying the last hope for the earth. It's just like us, isn't it?'" (Kiridoshi 1995a, 51). This connection is also made in an Aum-produced anime in which Asahara is depicted as captain of the "_Spaceship Mahayana_" in a way that clearly refers to The Space Battleship Yamato (Oumu Shinrikyo no sekai, n.d.). Moreover, by the time of the sarin attack in March 1995, at least some Aum facilities were equipped with Cosmos Cleaners, air purification systems named after the "cosmos cleaner" that the Yamato brought back to save the earth.
In the weeks and months following the Tokyo sarin attack, commentators saw nearly every aspect of contemporary Japanese society as a possible cause for Aum's violent behavior. More than a few identified manga and anime as a major factor behind Aum members' "bizarre" beliefs and actions (Oizumi 1995, 42-43).3 In addition, they often described Aum members as unable to distinguish between reality and the fictional worlds of manga or anime.
...an article appearing as part of a series on violence in Japan in the Asahi shimbun, a major national newspaper, in January 1995 noted that some of the fourteen junior high school students involved in a school bullying incident confessed that they had wanted to try out techniques they had seen in a computer game. The article went on to quote an expert, Akira Sakamoto of Ochanomizu Women's University, who concluded that computer games were dangerous because youth seemed to lose their ability to distinguish reality from illusion, fantasy, or simulation. Though not explicitly mentioned in the text of the article, a term for virtual reality (kyozo riaru) appears in a caption beneath a picture of a child playing a computer game. The dangers of virtual reality remained a recurrent theme in newspapers throughout 1995 and 1996. One series of articles entitled "The Creator God Virtual Reality," which appeared in Nihon keizai shimbun, the Japanese equivalent of the Wall Street Journal, from January 22 until January 26, 1996, even seemed to attribute divine creative power to virtual reality.
The term "virtual reality" was used early on to describe Aum after the sarin attack. For example, Sadao Asami, who, as a professor at Tohoku Gakuin University and an anti-cult activist, was a major commentator on Aum, used this terminology in his description of the group: "As a result of isolation from society, it is easy for persecution complexes and antisocial behavior to develop. If a cult is composed mostly of young people, such behavior can intensify and cult paranoia becomes 'virtual reality'" (Asami 1995). In this and other cases, "virtual reality" seems to have lost any connection with its original meaning and simply becomes a way of saying that Aum members have lost touch with reality.
One of the first articles to link Aum directly with manga and anime, Keiko Ihara's "Their Shared Language is SF Anime," appeared in the weekly magazine AERA. The article opens with a description of an imaginary village that draws on features of Aum's commune near Kamikuishiki and themes from The Space Battleship Yamato. Japanese readers are expected to grasp the connections immediately. Reports of Aum's use of Cosmos Cleaners had already alerted the public that Aum saw a parallel between their own situation and that faced by earth in Yamato.
> In a village someplace on earth in the 1990s, there are repeated mysterious poison gas attacks. The villagers' health is deteriorating and the village is on the verge of destruction. But another country offers to help by providing both weapons and a cosmos cleaner, a device to clean the air of poison gas. The villagers attempt to make their way to the other country but they are obstructed by a mysterious power until finally the final battle of Harumagedon breaks out with laser weapons, plasma weapons, and an earthquake machine being deployed. Attacked with new-style weapons by a mysterious power, the villagers respond with cutting edge science and supernatural powers. A heroic life-and-death struggle ensues. (Ihara 1995, 19).
Just as the earth in Yamato found itself under attack by an unknown alien power, Aum claimed that their commune was being attacked with poison gas by an unknown assailant (although Aum suggested at various times that it was the Japanese state, the U.S. military, or the Japanese new religion Soka Gakkai who were responsible for the attacks). Ihara adds that many Aum women, including high officials, had long straight hair resembling that of Stasha, the queen of the planet offering to help earth in Yamato. Ihara suggests that Aum members, many of whom grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, were greatly influenced by popular manga and anime like Yamato that had plots about evil forces threatening the world with cataclysms and catastrophes. She also notes that Asahara, older than most Aum members, had grown up when robot anime were popular and was influenced by them, as indicated in his wish that he desired "to create a robot empire someday" (Ihara 1995, 20).
At least one other writer of science fiction works, Shin'ichi Ichikawa, also expressed a sense of responsibility concerning the influence of such works on Aum members (Shin'ichi Ichikawa, "Seigi no kamen o tsuketa wakamonotachi," Asahi shimbun (July 19, 1995))...In a brief column appearing in the weekly magazine AERA, Inoue clearly identifies manga and anime as a major influence on, if not a cause of, Aum (Inoue 1995a, 3).
Some producers of manga and anime, such as Yoshiyuki Tomino, even accepted some responsibility for the appearance of Aum.4 Best known for the animated television series Kido senshi Gandamu (Mobile Suit Gundam), which aired from 1979 through 2002, Tomino was involved in the production of a number of robot anime in the 1970s. He acknowledges a connection between the content of these anime and Aum's vision of Harumagedon. In Kido senshi Gandamu, for instance, earth is fighting a desperate battle against an evil empire in which even teenagers are pressed into service and, in the course of their training, gradually develop what might be termed supernatural powers. Members of Aum, he argues, took as real the fictional evil empire that was originally envisioned simply to create a scenario in which anime heroes could emerge (Tomino 1995b, 52; see also Kiridoshi 1995b, 58-61). Tomino notes here that the works of two other well-known makers of anime have been cited in relation to Aum, Hayao Miyazaki and Reiji Matsumoto, but they have avoided discussing the issue of whether they and their works bear some responsibility for Aum...Beginning in the 1970s, however, partly in response to the number of anime Tomino had helped produce, fan clubs began to form, indicating a rising interest among teenagers and adults. Tomino sees the anime of the 1970s as responsible for the loss of "aesthetic sensibility" among a whole generation (Tomino 1995b, 53). He suggests, in other words, a regrettable move from the visual experience of reading written words to watching manga and anime.
None of the discussions of the topic provides anything close to approaching a compelling argument concerning how manga and anime, in relation to other factors, "caused" Aum either to develop the view of the world it did or to resort to violence.10 Perhaps the most percipient observation on the whole question has been provided by Frederik L. Schodt, a translator and writer who has done much to introduce manga and anime to English-language readers: "Ultimately, any attempt to directly link manga, anime, otaku, religion, and crimes against humanity requires a considerable stretch of logic" (Schodt 1996, 48).
Discussions of the topic, however, do tell us much about the reaction to Aum in Japan and efforts to understand it. Perhaps the most common understanding of Aum members was that they were mad or crazy; they believed the unbelievable and were incapable of distinguishing between reality and fantasy. Though some introduced the notions of cult and mind control to explain this madness, such efforts tended to simply rename rather than explain the phenomenon of "madness" (Gardner 1999, 220-221). Efforts to link Aum with the influence of manga and anime showed a similar pattern. Discussions of the topic moved from exploring how the content of manga and anime might have influenced Aum members to simply arguing, usually implicitly, that the similarities between Aum's views and some manga and anime showed that the group's members were incapable of distinguishing reality from manga and anime. As recently as February 2004, when Asahara was sentenced to death, describing Aum members as "manga-like" (manga-teki) or "anime-like" (anime-teki) became an alternative way of saying they were crazy.
#anime #aumshinrikyo
The recent success abroad of Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away has introduced this aspect of Japan's visual culture to an even wider audience and led some to predict a new "golden age" for Japanese film (Napier 2003, 22). In the midst of the accolades, it is important to recall that there have been moments in recent history when manga and anime have been regarded as potentially dangerous or as emblems of what is wrong with Japan.
Such was the case in the months following the release of sarin gas in several Tokyo subway lines by members of the religious group Aum Shinrikyo on the morning of March 20, 1995. As the extent of the Aum's crimes gradually became clear, Japanese journalists, scholars, intellectuals, and commentators of every sort attempted to explain the origin and rise of Aum, the reasons for the group's turn to violence, and what the appearance of such a group might mean about Japan. In the various theories and explanations presented, nearly every aspect of Japanese society, culture, and religion has been held to be at least partially accountable for the rise of Aum and the turn to violence by some of its members (see Gardner 1999, 221-222; 2002a, 36-42). In the efforts to explain Aum, considerable attention was given to the roles that manga and anime might have played. This resulted in what might be described as a panic about their possible negative influence on Japanese culture and society.
...Some have suggested a link, for instance, between Aum's increasingly pessimistic vision of a coming war and cataclysm and the suspicions surrounding the group after the disappearance of lawyer and anti-Aum activist Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family in November 1989 (Aum members later confessed to the killing of the Sakamotos). Other possible sources of this shift in vision include the defeat of Aum candidates in the 1990 Diet elections, the arrest of Aum members for land fraud in 1990, an increasingly vocal anti-Aum movement, and the group's increasing financial difficulties as its expansion slowed (Reader 2000, 126-161).
While Asahara's prophecies concerning "Harumagedon" were relatively optimistic throughout the 1980s, they became increasingly pessimistic in the 1990s. Because Aum's teachings were being ignored, Asahara pronounced that the world was inevitably moving toward a cataclysmic war that only a small fraction of the world population would survive
...While there is no longer hope of preventing Harumagedon, Aum adepts will be able to survive to establish a new one-thousand-year kingdom on earth. This is the same one-thousand-year kingdom foreseen by St. John in Revelations, by Nostradamus, and by Adolf Hitler, whom Asahara considers another great seer. In Asahara Shoko, senritsu no yogen (The Shocking Prophecies of Asahara Shoko), the date for Harumagedon is moved up to 1997. Freemasons and Jews are identified as agents involved in a conspiracy leading the world to disaster. Those who develop supernatural powers in time will be able to survive (Asahara 1993).
The apocalyptic or cataclysmic themes in manga and anime throughout the 1970s and 1980s must be understood, of course, within a larger context. Apocalyptic, millennial, or cataclysmic themes are not unknown in modern Japanese religious traditions and are particularly notable in many of the movements labeled as New New Religions (Shimazono 1986, 55-86; 1992, 46-50). Related themes have also been dealt with extensively in modern Japanese literature as well as film (Napier 1996, 181-219; 1993, 327-351). Also relevant are phenomena such as the "Nostradamus boom" in Japan, sparked by the publication of The Great Prophecies of Nostradamus in 1973 (Goshima 1973). There is not yet any compelling, definitive account of how all these apocalyptic or cataclysmic scenarios are related either to each other or to changes in Japanese culture and society. We must thus content ourselves with some preliminary, exploratory observations.
Among the manga and anime frequently mentioned in connection with Aum are Reiji Matsumoto's Uchu senkan Yamato (The Space Battleship Yamato, known in the United States as Star Blazers), which first appeared as an animated television series in 1973; Hayao Miyazaki's Mirai shonen Konan (Conan, The Boy of the Future), an animated television series broadcast by NHK beginning in 1978; Miyazaki's Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) which appeared in manga form from 1982 to 1994 and as a feature film in 1984; Kazumasa Hirai and Shotaro Ishimori's Harumagedon: Genma taisen (The Great Battle with Genma), which appeared as a feature-length anime in 1983 and did much to popularize the term "Harumagedon"; and Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, which appeared in manga form beginning in 1984 and then as an animated film in 1989.
Despite their many differences, these works share a few general features. All present a situation in which an existing civilization has undergone a traumatic transformation (Conan, Nausicaä, and Akira) or is confronting imminent destruction (Yamato and Genma). The destruction originates from either human evil or stupidity (Conan, Nausicaä, and Akira) or an external evil civilization or force (Yamato and Genma). In all cases, a small band of heroes must save themselves as well as whatever part of the world they are still capable of saving. In all but Yamato, the heroes are set aside from most people by virtue of the supernatural powers they have developed or mysteriously acquired. In the cases of Genma and Akira, salvation seems possible only for those who have developed extraordinary powers.
This brief account of apocalyptic scenarios in Aum's teachings and in manga and anime should make clear that there are some intriguing parallels between the two.
...important is Aum's development and use of various forms of media. Publications of books by its founder, Shoko Asahara, and other Aum leaders began in 1986. The monthly magazine Mahayana began appearing in 1987. In addition, Aum soon began producing manga, anime, promotional videos, music recordings, and tapes of Asahara's preaching. Some of the audio and videotapes were meant not only for proselytizing but also for use in Aum's religious practices. In the early 1990s, Aum began weekly radio broadcasts from Russia and also established its own homepage on the Internet.
Aum's understanding of the mass media is conveniently summed up in the February 1995 issue of the group's monthly journal Vajrayana Sacca. Contained here is a special section of over one hundred pages entitled "The Devil's Mind Control: Exposing the Plot to Brainwash Humanity" (Aum Editorial Board 1995, 6-112; see also Aoyama 1991, 82-88). The opening essay, "Subliminal Seduction," details how subliminal images are being used to influence people: "Foolish Japanese Pigs! Devote Yourselves to Sex! First Public Report in Japan! Subliminal Japan up until the present, the Japanese mass media has kept silent and refused to discuss the use of subliminal techniques in Japanese advertising. That is because they have been using such techniques themselves. Vajrayana Sacca will expose for the first time in history the use of subliminal techniques in Japan!" (1995, 8-9). A number of images from advertisements are also presented here in "computer-enhanced" form to reveal that messages, such as the word "sex," are often included not only in ads but even on the potato chips we eat. ...It should also be added, however, that one Japanese television station did make use of subliminal images in its coverage of Aum and had to issue extensive apologies once this came to light (Gardner 1999, 223).
The dangers of manga and anime are explained by linking the ideas of information and data to Aum's notions of an astral world (a realm of data) and causal world (a realm of images), both of which greatly influence the phenomenal world and the beings residing in it. Thus, images from the mass media, including manga and anime, not only influence people on first exposure but continue to exert influence through their presence in the astral and causal worlds. Particular emphasis, it might be noted, is placed on the powers of visual images.
Despite this critical evaluation, later Aum publications portray manga and anime more positively. They do so by noting the parallels between Aum's vision of Harumagedon and depictions of the cataclysmic or apocalyptic scenarios found in many manga and anime. For example, Vajrayana Sacca no. 5, which appeared in the spring of 1992, contains a five-part approximately 100-page "special report" devoted to the theme of "Terrifying Prophecies of the End of the World." Its first section, entitled "Images of Harumagedon: The World is Awaiting Ruin," shows pictures, accompanied by brief explanations, from manga, anime, and films dealing with the theme of worldwide cataclysm and destruction (Aum Editorial Board 1992, 8-14).
On the first page of this section, the creators of such works are described as prophets: "We cannot make light of novelists, scriptwriters, and manga and anime artists. No one shows more interest in the future nor does more to express in vivid form images of the future. As a matter of fact, much of what they have envisioned in recent decades is becoming a reality in the 1990s. They are, in other words, contemporary prophets, and their works are the books of prophecy nearest to us in the modern age. So let us begin by taking a look at how the fate of people in the near future is portrayed in these modern prophecies" (1992, 8). Manga and anime here are seen not as symptoms of the evil mind control being carried out by the mass media but as potentially valuable prophetic works.
Hidetoshi Takahashi, a member of Aum's science team who managed somehow to correctly predict the Kobe earthquake of January 17, 1995, and subsequently left the group following its sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system, wrote the following in an account of his time in Aum: "Though there may be some who do not believe in Harumagedon, it is not a matter of belief in the usual sense. The notion of the 'end' was inputted into our generation as a general sense of things. . . . Our favorite anime such as The Space Battleship Yamato, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and Akira all dealt with the theme of the state of the world after cataclysmic destruction" (Takahashi 1996, 160). Making use of the metaphor "input," Takahashi sees apocalyptic manga and anime of the 1970s and 1980s as having created an atmosphere of expectation among those coming of age in those decades that helped render Asahara's vision of Harumagedon plausible and compelling.
There is also evidence that The Space Battleship Yamato may have held some significance for Aum members. A former member who once served as Asahara's chauffeur, for example, noted in an interview that "[w]hen we were traveling by car once, I sang the theme song of The Space Battleship Yamato with the Master. The Master said, '_Yamato_ was a ship carrying the last hope for the earth. It's just like us, isn't it?'" (Kiridoshi 1995a, 51). This connection is also made in an Aum-produced anime in which Asahara is depicted as captain of the "_Spaceship Mahayana_" in a way that clearly refers to The Space Battleship Yamato (Oumu Shinrikyo no sekai, n.d.). Moreover, by the time of the sarin attack in March 1995, at least some Aum facilities were equipped with Cosmos Cleaners, air purification systems named after the "cosmos cleaner" that the Yamato brought back to save the earth.
In the weeks and months following the Tokyo sarin attack, commentators saw nearly every aspect of contemporary Japanese society as a possible cause for Aum's violent behavior. More than a few identified manga and anime as a major factor behind Aum members' "bizarre" beliefs and actions (Oizumi 1995, 42-43).3 In addition, they often described Aum members as unable to distinguish between reality and the fictional worlds of manga or anime.
...an article appearing as part of a series on violence in Japan in the Asahi shimbun, a major national newspaper, in January 1995 noted that some of the fourteen junior high school students involved in a school bullying incident confessed that they had wanted to try out techniques they had seen in a computer game. The article went on to quote an expert, Akira Sakamoto of Ochanomizu Women's University, who concluded that computer games were dangerous because youth seemed to lose their ability to distinguish reality from illusion, fantasy, or simulation. Though not explicitly mentioned in the text of the article, a term for virtual reality (kyozo riaru) appears in a caption beneath a picture of a child playing a computer game. The dangers of virtual reality remained a recurrent theme in newspapers throughout 1995 and 1996. One series of articles entitled "The Creator God Virtual Reality," which appeared in Nihon keizai shimbun, the Japanese equivalent of the Wall Street Journal, from January 22 until January 26, 1996, even seemed to attribute divine creative power to virtual reality.
The term "virtual reality" was used early on to describe Aum after the sarin attack. For example, Sadao Asami, who, as a professor at Tohoku Gakuin University and an anti-cult activist, was a major commentator on Aum, used this terminology in his description of the group: "As a result of isolation from society, it is easy for persecution complexes and antisocial behavior to develop. If a cult is composed mostly of young people, such behavior can intensify and cult paranoia becomes 'virtual reality'" (Asami 1995). In this and other cases, "virtual reality" seems to have lost any connection with its original meaning and simply becomes a way of saying that Aum members have lost touch with reality.
One of the first articles to link Aum directly with manga and anime, Keiko Ihara's "Their Shared Language is SF Anime," appeared in the weekly magazine AERA. The article opens with a description of an imaginary village that draws on features of Aum's commune near Kamikuishiki and themes from The Space Battleship Yamato. Japanese readers are expected to grasp the connections immediately. Reports of Aum's use of Cosmos Cleaners had already alerted the public that Aum saw a parallel between their own situation and that faced by earth in Yamato.
> In a village someplace on earth in the 1990s, there are repeated mysterious poison gas attacks. The villagers' health is deteriorating and the village is on the verge of destruction. But another country offers to help by providing both weapons and a cosmos cleaner, a device to clean the air of poison gas. The villagers attempt to make their way to the other country but they are obstructed by a mysterious power until finally the final battle of Harumagedon breaks out with laser weapons, plasma weapons, and an earthquake machine being deployed. Attacked with new-style weapons by a mysterious power, the villagers respond with cutting edge science and supernatural powers. A heroic life-and-death struggle ensues. (Ihara 1995, 19).
Just as the earth in Yamato found itself under attack by an unknown alien power, Aum claimed that their commune was being attacked with poison gas by an unknown assailant (although Aum suggested at various times that it was the Japanese state, the U.S. military, or the Japanese new religion Soka Gakkai who were responsible for the attacks). Ihara adds that many Aum women, including high officials, had long straight hair resembling that of Stasha, the queen of the planet offering to help earth in Yamato. Ihara suggests that Aum members, many of whom grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, were greatly influenced by popular manga and anime like Yamato that had plots about evil forces threatening the world with cataclysms and catastrophes. She also notes that Asahara, older than most Aum members, had grown up when robot anime were popular and was influenced by them, as indicated in his wish that he desired "to create a robot empire someday" (Ihara 1995, 20).
At least one other writer of science fiction works, Shin'ichi Ichikawa, also expressed a sense of responsibility concerning the influence of such works on Aum members (Shin'ichi Ichikawa, "Seigi no kamen o tsuketa wakamonotachi," Asahi shimbun (July 19, 1995))...In a brief column appearing in the weekly magazine AERA, Inoue clearly identifies manga and anime as a major influence on, if not a cause of, Aum (Inoue 1995a, 3).
Some producers of manga and anime, such as Yoshiyuki Tomino, even accepted some responsibility for the appearance of Aum.4 Best known for the animated television series Kido senshi Gandamu (Mobile Suit Gundam), which aired from 1979 through 2002, Tomino was involved in the production of a number of robot anime in the 1970s. He acknowledges a connection between the content of these anime and Aum's vision of Harumagedon. In Kido senshi Gandamu, for instance, earth is fighting a desperate battle against an evil empire in which even teenagers are pressed into service and, in the course of their training, gradually develop what might be termed supernatural powers. Members of Aum, he argues, took as real the fictional evil empire that was originally envisioned simply to create a scenario in which anime heroes could emerge (Tomino 1995b, 52; see also Kiridoshi 1995b, 58-61). Tomino notes here that the works of two other well-known makers of anime have been cited in relation to Aum, Hayao Miyazaki and Reiji Matsumoto, but they have avoided discussing the issue of whether they and their works bear some responsibility for Aum...Beginning in the 1970s, however, partly in response to the number of anime Tomino had helped produce, fan clubs began to form, indicating a rising interest among teenagers and adults. Tomino sees the anime of the 1970s as responsible for the loss of "aesthetic sensibility" among a whole generation (Tomino 1995b, 53). He suggests, in other words, a regrettable move from the visual experience of reading written words to watching manga and anime.
None of the discussions of the topic provides anything close to approaching a compelling argument concerning how manga and anime, in relation to other factors, "caused" Aum either to develop the view of the world it did or to resort to violence.10 Perhaps the most percipient observation on the whole question has been provided by Frederik L. Schodt, a translator and writer who has done much to introduce manga and anime to English-language readers: "Ultimately, any attempt to directly link manga, anime, otaku, religion, and crimes against humanity requires a considerable stretch of logic" (Schodt 1996, 48).
Discussions of the topic, however, do tell us much about the reaction to Aum in Japan and efforts to understand it. Perhaps the most common understanding of Aum members was that they were mad or crazy; they believed the unbelievable and were incapable of distinguishing between reality and fantasy. Though some introduced the notions of cult and mind control to explain this madness, such efforts tended to simply rename rather than explain the phenomenon of "madness" (Gardner 1999, 220-221). Efforts to link Aum with the influence of manga and anime showed a similar pattern. Discussions of the topic moved from exploring how the content of manga and anime might have influenced Aum members to simply arguing, usually implicitly, that the similarities between Aum's views and some manga and anime showed that the group's members were incapable of distinguishing reality from manga and anime. As recently as February 2004, when Asahara was sentenced to death, describing Aum members as "manga-like" (manga-teki) or "anime-like" (anime-teki) became an alternative way of saying they were crazy.
#anime #aumshinrikyo
Outstanding article.8w
