7 Quick Takes for Christmastide

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In/Spectre’s Problem of Atonement

The last episode of In/Spectre S2 unveiled a fascinating moral problem. The episode stands outside of the other story arcs, so all the spoilers below only relate to the last episode. Should this article lead you to start watching In/Spectre, you might even forget the plot of this story by the time you get around to it. Wishful thinking–but perhaps the dear reader is like me in caring more about the execution of the plot than in being surprised by it. At any rate, I am eager to discuss what this episode reveals about human nature and what it highlights: the need for a divine Savior.

Two friends meet at an unagi restaurant. Their conversation covers the mysterious and doll-like Kotoko, the unfortunate death of Kajio’s wife, a certain buddha, and points on the preparation of eel. The discussion of Kajio’s wife takes the surprising turn of Jujoji accusing Kajio of being the murder. Jujoji claims that his friend staged a serious of muggings in a certain area prior to the murder in order to throw the police off the scent. When Kajio finally kills his wife, the police assume it to be a mugging gone bad. His wife had been looking to divorce Kajio, and Jujoji deduces that Kajio could not bear the thought of another man having her. Kajio shrugs off the accusation, making Jujoji think that his theory is off-base after all. (He figures that Kajio would have reacted differently if he were trying to avoid detection.) They then finish their meal, and Kajio pays the bill.

The Virtue of Vengeance: Clare’s Vendetta Against Priscilla

I just finished watching Claymore again–this time in the English dub. The voice actors and actresses did a great job. The way they translated “Yowasa ga tsumi” (Weakness is a sin) to “Helplessness is a sin” struck me as an interesting interpretation. Neither one counts as a sin, save to the extent that the yowasa comes about through one’s deliberate neglect. In context, the King of the North, Isley, uses this line to encourage Raki to become a better swordsman.

Weakness in itself is not culpable: our weaknesses and insufficiency ought to bring out others to supply what we lack. Society in the MIddle Ages was divided into those who work, those who fight, and those who pray. The knight’s boast is “I protect all.” The peasant says, “I feed all.” Clerics claim, “I pray for all.” The kind of strength referred to by Isley refers to the warrior class, but human society cannot flourish without work and prayer. Without the farmer, there’s precious little to eat. Without priests and religious, one fears lest the just punishment due to our sins should come upon society all to soon. As Padre Pio said, “The Earth can more easily exist without the sun than the Holy Mass.” Materially speaking, this line is hyperbolic; however, the world is much better for the grace shed upon it by the sacrifice of the Mass.

*Spoilers incoming*

Custody of the Eyes and of the Mind

The misfortune of spending one’s money unwisely always leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth, which can only be alleviated by not having spent much. Buying four volumes of Lady Snowblood by Kazuo Koike recently gave this experience to me. I might have known better if I had payed more attention to the author’s name: Kazuo Koike is also famous for the samurai manga Lone Wolf and Cub. While Koike creates great stories which immerse one into the setting, he also depicts scenes of an inaccrochable nature. If you’re unfamiliar with this French word, let me just say that I don’t want someone reading over my shoulder when something inaccrochable pops up.

I first came across Lady Snowblood in Barnes and Noble. The volume intrigued me with its action, art style, and setting in the Meiji Era. The first show which hooked me into anime was Rurouni Kenshin, which was set during the same time period. Later, when I saw that the volumes of Lady Snowblood were on sale for $5 each on Kindle, the decision for me to snap up these four volumes was easy.

The True Message in Isekai de Cheat Skill

The premise of I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World seems completely fantastical and worthy of its genre, where each series tries a new gimmick to grab viewers’ attention. (The anime has a longer title, but I refuse to write the whole thing out.) But, there is a certain truth in the idea of striving for good things eventually leading to the attainment of good things. This need not even be in the gradual and reasonable manner everyone expects: God makes poor and makes rich. He can accomplish this in an instant: bringing fabulous riches on the poor or cruel poverty on the rich. While everyone wants riches, they are not necessarily good for us. We can always trust God to provide for all of our daily necessities.

Isekai de Cheat Skill begins with our hero being dealt a cruel fate: an unattractive physical appearance leads to his rejection by his family and his peers. Only his grandfather has a soft spot for him. Much to Yuuya’s good fortune, his grandfather leaves Yuuya his house and effects when he passes away. Despite his new wealth, Yuuya’s existence is still barren of friends, and his family, vexed over receiving none of the inheritance, cuts themselves off from him completely. Yuuya reaches a new low after saving a young woman from some thugs. The immediate results of his good deed are him getting beaten and bruised before getting fired from his job for tardiness.

Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster: A Sign of Hope

To my reckoning, this story is a little more than a week old. After being dead and buried for four years, the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster was found incorrupt. That is to say, the normal process of decomposition had not set in yet. The coffin had broken, allowing water and mud to enter the casket in the meantime. Though the lining of the coffin had rotted away, neither Sister Wilhelmina’s body nor her habit, which was made of natural fibers, had decomposed. For a woman of her size, the body ought to have been reduced to about twenty pounds. Instead the sisters estimated that it weighed between eighty and ninety pounds. If that’s not miraculous, I don’t know what is!

Divine Mercy Chaplet in Japanese

The idea for this post comes from looking for a Japanese translation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, which our Lord revealed to St. Faustina Kowalska for the conversion of the world. An internet search has turned up empty, so yours truly is left to his own devices. The chaplet requires six different prayers: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Apostles’ Creed, the Trisagion, and two prayers unique to the chaplet. Fortunately for us, the first four prayers already have official translations, and we can simply rely on those. On the other hand, the two prayers unique to the chaplet will require some work on my part.

My hope is that this little effort will be picked up by other people interested in spreading the message of Divine Mercy revealed to St. Faustina and that yet better translations will result from this. The Divine Mercy Chaplet only takes ten minutes to say, and is an excellent way to meditate on the Passion and Death of Our Lord while beseeching his mercy on the whole world.

Babylon and the Suicide of Moral Argumentation

An anime came out in 2019 called Babylon. I don’t remember Babylon receiving too much discussion at the time. I attempted to watch the first episode, and it did not grab me them for some reason. Am I glad that I decided to give it another shot recently! The plot offers a really philosophical discussion of good and evil but in terms people who lack B.A.’s in philosophy can grasp. I myself felt frustrated for a while that the characters were not able to form good arguments against suicide for most of the anime. That, I’ve come to realize, is actually part of the anime’s charm. It would not be so well done if our hero, the prosecutor Zen, were a Japanese St. Thomas Aquinas.

The root of the problems with the debate on suicide in Babylon lie in no one understanding what man is. They don’t understand what man is, because they do not know what man is for. In order to understand anything, one needs to know the purpose of that thing. No character in the anime appears to realize that man is for God. As the Baltimore Catechism explains it: “God made me to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next.” The fact that God is the Lord of Creation and that Man was created for His Glory means that human beings cannot destroy themselves at will. The time of their demise rests in God’s hands–not theirs. The exceptions to this rule only come in the forms of self-sacrifice: sacrificing oneself to save another person or to avoid sin, e.g. accepting martyrdom rather than renounce God.

An Early Merry Christmas

Before being swept up into the Christmas work week, I want to wish all of my dear readers a Merry Christmas. (May all of you have had a more fruitful Advent than mine. I felt more prepared for Christ’s coming on the first week. Errare est humanum. Whatever readiness I now feel, I credit to the grace and mercy of God.) Since months have passed since my last post, I also wish to confirm the fact that I am still alive. The plague has not taken me down! My reasons for writing so little come down to a lack of inspiration, less free time, more distraction, and plain and simple sloth–or perhaps rather acedia. (Here’s yet another article I wrote on that capital sin.) Speaking of a lack of inspiration, is anyone enjoying the current anime season (Or enjoy the last one for that matter?) all that much? Iwakakeru, Yashahime, Jujustu Kaisen, and Golden Kamuy form my watch list, but I find myself often preferring to read a book or an old manga.

All the images in this post are from the Christmas episode of Gunparade March!

My interests pertinent to this blog are still alive. Deo iuvante, you shall see one more post before Christmas. Anno Domini 2020 has been a crazy year. If the things happening this year occurred in 2000, I might have believed the apocalyptic prophecies abounding at that time. We want pain, difficulty, and complexity to be quickly solved and out of our lives–even problems of which we are only cognizant of because of the news and social media.

8th Anniversary Quick Takes

This blog’s eighth anniversary came and went on April 5^th without comment. Oops! Hopefully, I blog a little more regularly next month. May these quick takes in some way make up for my lack of posting!

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Finally, Joe says what’s all been on our minds.

I have finally made progress in Ashita no Joe II. Joe Yabuki is almost in position to fight his greatest rival to date: Bantamweight World Champion Jose Mendoza. (It’s funny to consider that most of the strong and tough boxers in this anime weigh 118 pounds or less!) The buildup to this fight has been even more intense than the one between Rikiishi Touru and our hero.

On Catechisms

In this post, I want to discuss what I think are the three Catholic catechisms most easily accessible to Americans. A catechism is a summary of principles or doctrines often in a question and answer format. Catechisms usually concern Christian doctrine, but books like A Confederate Catechism and The New Conservative Catechism also exist.  Of the three catechisms covered in this post, only The Baltimore Catechism has a question and answer format.  This format is handy for memorization, but being able to answer in one’s own words, as The Roman Catechism or Pope St. John Paul II’s The Catechism of the Catholic Church would require, is also useful and more in line with modern notions of education.

Reblog: Dororo and Child Sacrifice–Ancient and Modern

Hello, my dear readers!  Here is my latest post on Beneath the Tangles.  It deals with child sacrifice and Dororo‘s presentation of it.  The link is below.  Enjoy!

Dororo and Child Sacrifice–Ancient and Modern

Commentary on a Shield Hero and Slavery Post

Recently, Beneath the Tangles featured a very long and well-written post on the topic of slavery in The Rising of the Shield Hero.  It is worth your time to read when you have a good chunk of free time:

Guest Post: When a Shield Hero Becomes a Slave Owner

Slavery is a very interesting topic in regards to Christianity, because the Bible never condemns it in explicit terms.  This has led to epochs where rulers and nobility saw slavery as permissible, especially in the Age of Exploration and when the wars between Christendom and Islam became more advanced.  Thus, the papacy had to condemn the practice several times in encyclicals and statements in the years 1462, 1537, 1639, 1741, 1815, and 1839.  (See Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life by Stanley M. Elkins.)  I might also add the 1435 encyclical commanding that Canary Islanders be freed from the condition of slavery.  That slavery could be countenanced is rather odd when one considers that Medieval society had made great strides in eliminating slavery with its borders so that it was virtually non-existent by the 11th century, which coincides with the end of the Viking Age.

Pro Deo et Patria & What is Your Country?

Recently, I had the pleasure of reading TWWK’s post “For God or Country? Violet Evergarden and Divided Allegiance.”  It was a very good post meditating on Violet Evergarden’s relationship to her country and also about the relationship between piety and patriotism.  However, “For God or Country?” is a question which one should never have to ask.  In that regard, it’s like the question “Liberty or Equality?”  In these times of egalitarian extremism, we might be tempted to say “Liberty!”  But, the fact of the matter is one cannot throw out either liberty or equality without the end result being tyranny.  A society needs the proper balance of these two things to thrive: let’s say 70% liberty and 30% equality–if one can so quantify the two ideas!

In regard to God and country, the problem is not one of balance but of order, as TWWK avers: “…I understood the idea that my allegiance to God trumps all other allegiances, meaning I could still be loyal to my country, still treasure it, but not above all, not above God.”  This is a very satisfactory answer and recalls the fact that some people reverse the order.  America is such a great country that one does find Americans who seem to worship–worship in the archaic sense of to praise and to serve–their country more than God.  This kind of patriotism exists as a vice rather than a virtue: love of God ought to come before love of country.

Quick Takes for Old Anime

It’s been a little while, my dear readers.  It looks like the regular anime season is past the mid-point, so I should write something up about what I’m up to.  If you recall, most of my current watch list consists of old anime on my backlog.  I did make an exception for Cells At Work, which was recommended by MIB of MIB’s Instant Headache–an excellent recommendation.

Most of you are familiar with the idea and the format of Quick Takes, so I’m just going to jump right in.

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Vampire Princess Miyu TV (1997-98) comes pretty close to being a masterpiece at ★★★★ 1/2.  The closest anime to compare with this show has to be Hell Girl.  Both share a female protagonist bound by fate whose closest companions are otherworldly beings–called Shinma in Vampire Princess Miyu.  (The English translation simply used the Japanese word.  “God-demon” is the most literal translation and the most confusing one.  Often, one will see creatures like this just called demons despite the Japanese equivalent for what is usually meant by the word demon is akuma.  Subbers should just borrow the term longaevi from the Latin, as this is the most accurate term for a host of beings in Japanese mythology.)  While Ai Enma is summoned to send usually wicked people to hell, Miyu works by keeping her territory clear of stray Shinma.  She’s often willing to ignore the presence of stray Shinma as long as they behave, but she’ll send them into the demon realm within a fiery inferno should they choose to prey on humans.

On Pope Francis’s Apparent Reversal of Catholic Teaching

Pope Francis seems to want to reverse the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church on capital punishment.  I’m sure that plenty of my dear readers have heard about how he intends to change the current passage in the Catholic catechism.  It is important to discuss this change, because it has the chance to undermine all Catholic dogma.  If the Church was wrong about whether capital punishment is an intrinsic evil, can we ever trust the Church about anything?  Moreover, God Himself seems to strongly encourage capital punishments at certain times during the Old Testament.  Is Pope Francis then saying that God commands people to do moral wrongs or that God is completely arbitrary?  These are very troubling notions which really can completely undermine the authority of the Catholic Church.

Elijah slays a Prophet of Baal

 

Before I comment on the new one, let’s take a look at the old passage:

2266 The State’s effort to contain the spread of behaviors injurious to human rights and the fundamental rules of civil coexistence corresponds to the requirement of watching over the common good.  Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime.  The primary scope of the penalty is to redress the disorder caused by the offense.  When his punishment is voluntarily accepted by the offender, it takes on the value of expiation.  Moreover, punishment, in addition to preserving public order and the safety of persons, has a medicinal scope: as far as possible it should contribute to the correction of the offender.

2267 The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.

If, instead, bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, given the means at the State’s disposal to effectively repress crime by rendering inoffensive the one who has committed it, without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself, cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender ‘today … are very rare, if not practically non-existent.’

So, the old statement says that the State has the right to use capital punishment in defense of society.  At the same time, it offers the opinion that First World systems of penal correction are sophisticated enough to protect society from even very violent people; hence, there is no need for Canada, the United States, Europe, and certain other countries to have recourse to the death penalty.  There are many developing countries where the prison systems are not so perfect, so that line of argument does not fit there.

Day 6 of 10 Days to 500 Anime: Grave of the Fireflies

Here’s a classic everyone has heard of, but I only watched it a few days ago.  It’s a very emotional film.  Knowing that, I steeled myself against the tragedy I knew was coming, which was probably the wrong way to watch the film.  Instead of riding the emotional rollercoaster, you might say I watched the ride sitting on a bench somewhere with a soft drink.  The result was that I examined the tragic flaws of our hero rather than grieved over the tragedy of the orphans’ plight.  My focus was on why they suffered instead of the how they suffered.

In the case of firebombing the Germans and the Japanese in WWII, I can never reconcile myself to the legitimacy of this form of warfare.  With the nuclear bombs, one can legitimately claim destroying industrial parks and dockyards as the main objective, while terrorizing the enemy into surrender as the secondary objective.  Incendiary bombs, especially of the sort used in WWII, have no effect on factories built with steel and cement.  Firebombs work much better against wooden houses–especially houses of Japanese design.  When it comes to firebombing, terrorizing the enemy is still the secondary objective, but destroying civilian homes and killing non-combatants becomes the primary objective.

Reblog: 12 Days of Anime Christmas, Day 6: The Irresponsible Captain Taylor and Reverence for the Sacred

Here’s my last post on Beneath the Tangles.  I might very well be the only writer to inveigh against something which annoyed them in an anime Christmas episode, but here it is:

12 Days of Anime Christmas, Day 6: The Irresponsible Captain Taylor and Reverence for the Sacred

Some nice fellow did me the honor of translating this post into Spanish.  I think this counts as the first time my work has been translated, for which I am very grateful.  Muchas gracias!

12 días de Navidad Anime, día 6: El ‘Irresponsable capitán Tylor’ y la reverencia por lo sagrado

On my Devotion to Padre Pio

Recently, I received a couple of questions from Luminas, a great follower of this blog, through the “Ask Medieval” page.  The first will be answered in this post and the second in a later one.  After that, I have high hopes of answering my next dear reader and hope for many more questions to follow!

This question concerns why I am so devoted to Padre Pio over other saints who are similar in many ways.  First, let me start by describing Catholic worship and devotion for those who might not be so familiar with it.  It consists of three levels denoted by their Greek names: latria, hyperdulia, and dulia.  Latria refers to worship giving to God alone as Author of the Universe, Savior of the Human Race, and Source of All Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.  Hyperdulia refers specifically to the reverence paid to the Blessed Virgin Mary for being the Mother of God, the human being whose cooperation was most essential for humanity’s salvation, and the most graced human being in all of history.  Dulia refers to the reverence paid to the saints and angels for being devout servants of God and dear friends of God deserving of imitation.  Latria is absolutely necessary for salvation, hyperdulia morally necessary, and dulia necessary to practice when obligated by one’s diocese (as in a saint’s feast day being declared a holy day of obligation) but mostly subject to personal taste.  Having said that, many spiritual authors strongly recommend devotion to St. Michael, St. Joseph, and the holy angels as a group.  Be sure to thank your guardian angel for putting up with you so patiently since your days in the cradle!

Reblog: Can Christians Watch Anime?

TWWK of Beneath the Tangles wrote a very good article on what Christians need to think about when deciding whether to watch anime or not.  I highly encourage my dear readers to peruse it.  I’ve linked to it below.

Also, Beneath the Tangles is having a Patreon drive involving giving to a charity for orphans.  One of the new patrons will have the possibility of winning a copy of the film Your Name.  Something you might want to consider.

Can Christians Watch Anime