Saint Young Men

Saint Young Men (Japanese: 聖(セイント)☆おにいさã‚", Hepburn: Seinto Oniisan) is a Japanese slice of life comedy manga series written and illustrated by Hikaru Nakamura. Its plot involves Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha, who are living as roommates in an apartment in Tokyo. It has been serialized by Kodansha in the monthly seinen manga magazine Morning 2 since September 2006, with chapters collected in eleven tankōbon volumes. A-1 Pictures adapted the manga series into two original animation DVDs (OADs) and an anime film which was released on May 10, 2013.

In Japan, the Saint Young Men manga has sold over 10 million copies. Individual volumes of the series has been placed in lists of the best-selling manga in Japan, and have frequently appeared on the annual best-sellers lists. It received a Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and was nominated in the Angoulême International Comics Festival. Its film adaptation has been well received by the public.

Overview

Jesus Christ (イエス・キリスト, Iesu Kirisuto, voiced by Mirai Moriyama in the anime) and Gautama Buddha (ゴータマ・ブッダ, Gōtama Budda, voiced by Gen Hoshino in the anime), the founders of Christianity and Buddhism respectively, are living together as roommates in an apartment in Tachikawa, in the suburbs of Tokyo. While taking a vacation on Earth, they attempt to hide their identities and understand modern Japanese society. Each chapter shows their lives during an average day, when they are sightseeing, drinking beer, blogging, or playing video games.

While Jesus is portrayed as an impassioned person for his love for all (even for shopping), Buddha tends to be calm and thrifty, and also likes manga. The comedy often involves visual gags and puns, as well as jokes in reference to elements of Christianity and Buddhism; for example, Jesus turns the water of a public bath into wine and Buddha shines when he is excited.

Production

Hikaru Nakamura started to serialize Arakawa Under the Bridge on December 3, 2004, in the first issue of Square Enix's comic book Young Gangan. It attracted the attention of a Weekly Morning‍ '​s editor who wanted Nakamura to publish a series in the magazine. She accepted the offer because of her admiration for Kaiji Kawaguchi's works such as Zipang and The Silent Service that were serialized in the magazine. The series' title is derived from a song by Denki Groove and Scha Dara Parr called "Saint Ojisan" (聖☆おじさã‚", Seinto Ojisan, literally "Saint Old Man"). Starting from sketches of two friends wearing casual shirts, she conceived the idea of portraying Jesus and Buddha as average people.

Nakamura envisioned a comedy manga in which the protagonist would be a "very very powerful character", and realized a divine character would fit this premise. She first planned Jesus to be a character in the series, but to make the gags work well, Buddha was added to the series. The idea of the characters' opposing personalities was influenced by Nakamura's sister, who is "really manic", and by her sister's husband, who is "more relaxed". By observing their relationship, she saw some amusing situations. She also saw a resemblance between her version of Buddha and Osamu Tezuka's version.

Despite the religious references in the series, Nakamura stated she used only her personal knowledge and some aspects of modern society, such as yakuza and blogging, which were not intended to be critical but were added because they fit the story. Similarly, secondary characters were only introduced in the series if a chapter needed a new character to introduce a topic. The themes of the chapters were created before the situations and jokes. However, if Nakamura had a specific theme she created several jokes then connected them to form a story. When creating "a more relaxed chapter", in which not much happens except Jesus and Buddha's banal daily lives or talks, she wrote without preparation. With the help of her four assistants, on average she took between ten days and two weeks to make a chapter.

Media

Manga

Saint Young Men, written and illustrated by Hikaru Nakamura, had it first chapter published in the Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Morning 2 on September 26, 2006. On September 22, 2011, the series was put on hiatus because of Nakamura's pregnancy. After her child was born, she returned to the series on March 22, 2012. Its first tankōbon (collected volume) was released by Kodansha on January 23, 2008, and the eleventh volume was published on February 23, 2015. A guidebook to the series was released on April 23, 2013.

The series has been localized in other languages including Chinese by Tong Li Publishing, French by Kurokawa, Italian by J-Pop, and Spanish by Norma Editorial. Ed Chavez, editor of the American publisher Vertical, contacted the Japanese licensor of the series with a view to publishing in North America. However, the licensor refused, saying he does not want it to be released in America "until the readership changes here".

Volume list

Anime

The production of an anime film was first announced in issue No. 44 of Weekly Morning. Before its release on April 30, 2013, a guidebook was published. The film was directed by Noriko Takao and written by Rika Nezu. Its characters were designed by Naoyuki Asano and the music was composed by Keiichi Suzuki and Ryomei Shirai. The film was produced by Aniplex, Kodansha and Toho, was animated by A-1 Pictures, and distributed by Toho. It premiered in Japan on May 10, 2013. Its soundtrack was published by Aniplex on May 8, 2013. Later, on October 23, 2013, it was released in DVD and Blu-ray formats. In addition to the film, the same staff produced an original animation DVD (OAD) that was released along with the eight manga volume. A second OAD was released along with the ninth volume.

In an interview with NHK World, the staff for the anime noted that they wanted to stay loyal to the artwork of the manga while creating the movie. They decided to focus more on the art and character designs, and decided to give it a "sketched" look, instead of the traditional "bold, dark lines" typically used. All the shadows were colored by pencils, sometimes even scribbled to make sure that the "sketched" look came through. Like the manga, the anime film also recreates various attractions of Tachikawa, including the Showa Memorial Park.

Reception

Manga

Saint Young Men received the 2009 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for Short Work Manga. The 2009 edition of Takarajimasha's guidebook Kono Manga ga Sugoi!, which surveys people in the manga and publishing industry, named it the best manga series for male readers. It was nominated for the Angoulême International Comics Festival in the category "Best Comic". As the result of its popularity, issues of Morning 2 started selling out on newsstands; because of this in May 2009 Kodansha began making the magazine available online the day it is published. It was the tenth best-selling manga series in Japan in 2009, selling over 2.6 million copies. It was the sixteenth best of 2011, selling 2.5 million, and the eighteenth best of 2013, selling 2.4 million. All individual volumes appeared on lists of 50 best-selling manga of the year. Volumes one and two were placed forty-eighth and forty-sixth respectively in 2008, and volumes three and four were placed seventeenth and twenty-third in 2009. Volume five was ranked twentieth in 2010, volumes six and seven were ranked fourteenth and nineteenth in 2011, and volumes eight and nine were twenty-fourth and thirty-ninth in 2013. By May 2013, the manga had sold about 10 million copies in Japan. The manga was also displayed at the British Museum in 2011. In 2014, The Daily Dot reported a growing fandom of the series that widespread various Tumblr GIFs.

Comics writer Paul Gravett elected it as one of the best comics of Japan in 2008, while writers Shaenon Garrity and Jason Thompson elected it as one of the most wanted titles for licensing in 2010. Japanese manga critic Kaoru Nagayama has noted that the manga is "fun to read" and commended the main characters, for staying true to their real character and staying that way even when confronted by evil. Carlo Santos from Anime News Network praised the series' comedy, noting its simplicity and saying, "its brilliance comes not from purposely trivializing two of the world's great religions, but by highlighting the quirks of the secular world when these famous religious figures are placed in it". Santos praised the fact that unlike other manga the series does not lose its steam as it progress. He criticized it for its art and questioned its capacity to evolve into something other than "Jesus and Buddha hanging out, while normal people do embarrassing things to them". Santos complained that Jesus' and Buddha's philosophical differences and personalities are not explored. Jolyon Baraka Thomas of The Guardian praised the constancy of "visual gags and puns", also saying "Her story is not an introduction to abstruse religious doctrines, nor does it feature much overt commentary on the role of religions in contemporary society."

Film

The anime film adaptation of Saint Young Men debuted at number nine in Japanese theaters, grossing ¥49,930,836 (US$491,369) on 75 screens. In its second weekend it grossed ¥34,903,192 (US$346,743) and ranked eleventh at the box office. It was placed twelfth at the box office during its third weekend, when it earned ¥27,497,830 (US$274,758). The film closed its run having grossed $1,888,062. Its DVD release ranked seventh on its first week on the list of best-selling anime DVDs in Japan, dropping to twenty-ninth place on its second week on the list.

References

External links

• Saint Young Men at Morning‍ '​s website
• Saint Young Men (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia