Tentacle-Free Anime: "Saint Young Men" (2012/2013) Review

- by Kazekun, 29 September 2015

Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha, leaders of two of the biggest religions in the world. Chanting about truth, justice, and the peaceful way of life, it's only natural that if these two met they would become great friends. Regardless of whether or not they held the same “religion” to be true. And that's what we're gathered here today to discuss: what would actually happen if Jesus and Buddha decided to become best buds and also decided to hang out on Earth? Aw! Yeah! People, it's Saint Young Men!

Saint Young Men (2012/2013)
Episodes: 2 (+ 1 Movie);
Director: Noriko Takao;
Studio: A-Pictures;
Rating: PG

Summary: Jesus and Buddha have decided to take a holiday in Japan, where they try to live a life of the common and mundane, but it will not be easy as there are many features of their holiness that will make fun happen but cause many drawbacks. [AnimeNewsNetwork.com]

Whether you're Christian, Buddhist, or any other religious denomination/non-religious denomination, it doesn't matter when going into this. I mean, it kind of does if you wish to get some of the religious subtext and jokes, or if you're easily offended by someone poking fun at your religion, you might have a hard time getting into this. However, I suggest giving it a shot. It's all tongue-in-cheek and in respect of these two religions – not something that is meant to offend anyone.

Promo poster.

Based on a long-running and still ongoing manga, this anime doesn't worry about attempting to cram all of the currently 11 volumes into two episodes and a movie. Instead it picks and chooses which stories from the manga to adapt and weaving a tale around them. How can it get any better? You can watch both the OVAs and the Movie as separate entities or watch them together and get interconnecting stories for a greater experience.

I loved Saint Young Men.

Telling anthology tales in both episodes and the movie, with interconnecting subplots from both this series falls mostly under the comedy & slice-of-life genres. Jesus and Buddha are literally like two foreign hipsters living in Japan, getting to know the way of life and not get caught as being divine beings.

​There's very little in the way of drama. Jesus and Buddha are peaceful beings, and so the “dramatic” things that happen around them are mostly played up for laughs and very rarely resort in something awful actually happening. This is a feel good anime.

The art style is very colorful, and there's a lot of detail put into the world surrounding Jesus and Buddha. Everyone feels like a genuine part of it, including our two main characters. Noriko Takao does a great job at making sure both of these guys blend in to the world around them, yet keeping them quirky enough so as to make both of them personally feel out of place. A wonderful balancing act that's on equal display in both the OVAs and the movie.

Jesus and Buddha decide to take a vacation on Earth.

​We also get to see how Jesus and Buddha inadvertently affect people's lives. They're living in the 21st century so people are a little harder to please in these times, however all it takes is a couple of nice guys doing genuinely nice things in order to liven up a person's life – and eventually maybe even change them. Like i said earlier, this anime also falls under the comedy banner. There's a crud ton of funny moments in this series. A lot of it revolves around Jesus and Buddha recounting their personal experiences of when they were originally last on Earth; such as Jesus talking about how he had consulted with an angel first on what expression would be the best one to greet the world with upon his return from the grave.

Plus the best one being when Jesus recounts his resurrection in a sauna to a Yakuza member, and the Yakuza member mistakes him for being the young heir to a massive crime syndicate. A running gag that never gets old as the story rolls along.

There's a lot of pulp culture references as well. I mean, where else will you see professionally animated imagery of Buddha as James Bond in 007 or Jesus as Marty McFly from Back to the Future?

Literal Rock Gods.

If I had to choose one bad thing about this anime, and I'm quite frankly grasping at straws here, it's that there's simply not more to watch. Sadly they haven't made anymore Saint Young Men anime, so in order to get your fix you'll need to go read the manga.

There's just very little bad I can say about this anime. It's hilarious, it's feel-good, the animation is awesome and the jokes are spot on. This is a series that allows you to sit back, relax and turn your brain off for a bit while still remaining intelligent.

And yes, there is some yaoi undertones. Nothing that actually announces Jesus or Buddha as being gay, but because these two care so deeply for one another as friends, there are often moments of levity which put these two in more-than-just-friends territory without ever actually crossing that line.
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Saint Young Selfie

​This series also treats every religion as if they're all right. As we regularly see Jesus and Buddha paying respects to the local Gods of the areas that worship those local Gods, and never fretting because someone isn't a specific believer in each of them. As long as you're a good human being, they don't really care either way. And I truly do love that.

Saint Young Men is so freakin' good. Seriously, everyone needs to go watch this.

Final Score: 5 Prayer Beads out of 5, there really is nothing bad I can say about this show.

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Have you Seen Saint Young Men and feel the need to preach? Do so in the comments below!

Tagged: Tentacle-Free Anime, movies & TV.

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