Catholic Anime Song

all music credit goes to its owners. no copyright intended.

So you are watching an anime and here comes a little kid in some interesting, religious-looking robes and...wait, this pre-teen is supposed to be a Catholic priest? But, little kids can't be priests! That isn't typical Catholic priestly attire, either, that thing looks like it's made of 100% pure Rule of Cool, and... oh look, he's pulling out guns and shooting up a bar. And there's a nun sidekick casting magic spells. What's she doing out of her cloister, anyway?

Well, there really is no explanation other than you've just seen a case of Anime Catholicism.

If you know anything remotely about Catholicism, or western religions in general, then when this trope shows up, you'll know it. Suddenly every priest will be a vampire hunter, the clergy will be completely populated by hot, young bishounen and everything about the structure, hierarchy, history or religious beliefs will obviously be completely wrong to even people who aren't Catholic and are only peripherally aware of what the Catholic Church is about.

Japan (and other manga producing countries, such as Korea and China), not having a large population of Christians (well, not counting Korea), neither especially know, or care about the accuracy of depiction of The Church or Church-based organizations in their writing. When it shows up, the Church is predominantly there to provide a sense of foreignness and implying a fantastical setting or backdrop to the story, with the importance of correctness being secondary at best, and more likely not even to factor into their priorities. The same is true of Crystal Dragon Jesus Fantasy versions that are meant to be highly reminiscent of Catholicism, and while it's true that Fantasy Counterpart Culture versions have more leeway in terms of accuracy, it doesn't really excuse a lot of the other common elements in their depictions.

The religion is extremely Catholic-esque to the point that actual Bible verses may be quoted, but is referred to as 'The Church', and not expressly stated to be Catholic. It may be implied that it is the only church in this world, and there aren't denominations such as the myriad that split from the Church and followed different trends of the Protestant Reformation (the "Mainline Protestant" groups: not to mention the 29,984 that have formed since then and continue to schism at an exponential rate to the present day).

Basically the bottom line is if the Rule of Cool or the Rule of Sexy seems to be in effect, then there's a good bet it's this trope. Keep in mind most of this is also applicable to Crystal Dragon Jesus versions in Anime and Manga. This Trope has nothing directly to do with Kirisuto-kyō sects but may intersect it.

Compare Christianity Is Catholic, Crystal Dragon Jesus and Nuns Are Mikos. Also compare Fantastic Catholicism, which is the western version of this trope. See also Japanese Christian.