Any recommendations for a drama with religious themes?

[besixdouze]

Someone recommended "Black Butler" to me earlier today and I'm loving it. Its London setting, its dark mood (balanced out with an appropriate amount of humor--*cue captioned shot of Sebastian's latest dish*), its Faustian theme, its soundtrack (there were Gregorian monks chanting menacingly in the background in the last episode).

Anyone have any more shows or movies with religious, philosophical or existential themes I might try out?

Many thanks!

[Finfan]

You might like Trinity Blood.

[Ixioran]

Gunslinger Girl. Gogogoggogo.

[Chaoz]

Religious themed anime? Some I can think of are.

- Evangelion
- Trinity Blood (Yes its already been said I'm just reinforcing as this one actually has a lot of religious undertones.)
- D-Grayman
- Chrono Crusade
- Aquarion
- XXXHolic
- Gurren Lagann

Some may seem questionable in terms of how they could be related to a religious theme. Think of them as a bit of a challenge .

Cheerio!

[Masakisu]

Neon Genesis Evangelion followed immediately by The End of Evangelion.

Watch those then get back to us.

[Denver]

Religious themed anime? Some I can think of are.
Gurren Lagann

That's religious?

Also, uh, I guess Clannad (dunno if that whole other world thing counts or not)?

[Ixioran]

Evangelion isn't Religious themed... It has Religious symbolism, but not a Religious theme. There is a major difference there.

EDIT* and neither is Gunslinger Girl. I didn't read that far into the topic title, sorry. :/

[Shadow Fox]

Kieli is a manga you should pick up. Its only 2 volumes long but its good.

[KT Samurai]

If you're truly interested in religious themes avoid Neon Genesis Evangelion at all costs. All of their religious symbolism is there because the creators thought it "looked cool", it has no value other than visual appeal. If you're actually interested in religious philosophy this will only piss you off to no end.

Truth be told, I don't know if a lot of anime has done religious symbolism any justice. Most of it only topical and referential and has little to do with the show itself (things like the fixation on apples in Death Note come to mind).

Anime's had a lot of success in philosophy, though. Here's some particularly tasty ones:

• Ghost in the Shell (all of it). The primary theme concerns the idea of the theory of the singularity though it branches out a lot, especially in areas that make you wonder just what makes us human. In a universe where you can easily transfer your ghost (i.e. your soul or whatever makes you you) into another body (shell) then at point do you become a machine? Great action and a high budget also make it very easy to watch.
• Mushi-shi. Invisible beings influence us more than we know and by their very nature tinker with what we think makes us human. Some of them can take our vision, some our sense of hearing, some can even take our memories. How could we live with something like that? What sort of things might we consider before we make our final decisions? Not everyone in this show makes the right one and they suffer for it. This show is brilliant in a lot of ways and can really make you think while it's at it.
• Trigun. How can we possibly deal with criminals? When is it okay to take the life of another? Is it ever okay? Why? Deception is the name of the game with Trigun's story and moral ambiguity regarding human life is it's main focus. Great not just because the hero make the right choices eventually but because it explores why he makes those choices, especially when he makes the wrong ones.

Another neat example is Full Metal Alchemist, though philosophy isn't the central drive of the show (it's action/adventure). But it does deal with some really heavy stuff that might make you think about human sacrifice and whether or not it's okay to make use of it. The concept of equivalent exchange is a central theme but isn't explored too much in very obvious ways until toward the end. Still, if you walk into it (or even re-watch it) with some philosophy in mind you'll get rewarded throughout.

That's all I've got for now.

[besixdouze]

Great suggestions, everyone. I will check into some of those. And yes, I imagine anime is not really a genre where theologies get developed, but I'm about equally interested in philosophy (I majored in both in undergrad) so I'll definitely take up KT Samurai's offerings. Y'all rock.