Abstract

 White wings, long hair, 'pure' faces: the appearance of angels frequently follows similar aesthetics connected to Christian imagery. Angels and Christian religion also are popular themes in manga, Japanese comics, often intermingled with Buddhist or Shinto notions. Since imagery in popular culture resonates and shapes vernacular and cultural perspectives, manga like Kamikaze Kaitō Jeanne (KKJ) provide an important insight into the conceptualization of angels in Japan. This article therefore analyzes the contrary role of angels in KKJ as the Other, the mysterious, serene one, while simultaneously angels are depicted as part of the circle of life every creature undergoes in Buddhist cosmology. Based on a visual hermeneutic approach, this article demonstrates how the intermix of both visual and religious traditions in Japan shape the depiction of angels in Japanese popcultural media.
Highlights
White wings, long hair, ‘pure’ faces: the appearance of angels frequently follows similar aesthetics connected to Christian imagery
In the process of the analysis, [75] which proceeded by uncovering parts of the images in a specific order and the complete pages, the group of scholars developed different modes of viewing that over time were singled out and finalized by the author of this article in accordance with further research, while taking into consideration the whole story of Kamikaze Kaitō Jeanne (KKJ), which is a crucial part in this methodological approach
The imagery used by Tanemura gives hints as to how angels are conceptualized in Japan [76] and what role they may play in the religious worldview
Summary
Long hair, ‘pure’ faces: the appearance of angels frequently follows similar aesthetics connected to Christian imagery. Since imagery in popular culture resonates and shapes vernacular and cultural perspectives, manga like Kamikaze Kaitō Jeanne (KKJ) provide an important insight into the conceptualization of angels in Japan. The images of angels in Kamikaze Kaitō Jeanne follow a particular aesthetic and transport a specific idea of what angels look like. By being both an image of something and an image for something, the angels are more than images. This article aims at showing how angels are portrayed in the manga Kamikaze [4] Kaitō Jeanne and what this depiction may reveal about the conception of angelic beings in Japan. Buddhist iconography heavily shaped Japanese religious art, and later intermingled with Christian art to form a new artistic tradition after Christian missionaries first entered Japan in the sixteenth century
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