[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-141323-105":59,"doc-detail-141323-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","horrific-cults-and-comic-religion-manga-after-aum","Horrific “Cults” and Comic Religion Manga after Aum","","After the 1995 Aum Shinrikyō sarin attacks, influential commentators argued that manga’s enthralling apocalyptic narratives encouraged extremism and violence. This article reverses that claim by examining how popular manga after 1995 both expressed and mirrored a morbid fascination with the sensational material generated by the incident itself. Early works exploit an “evil cult” trope, later thrillers probe psychological conditions enabling cult-like behavior, and a recent example reframes “religion” through mild, irreverent comedy.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":45,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/horrific-cults-and-comic-religion-manga-after-aum/141323/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/horrific-cults-and-comic-religion-manga-after-aum/141323.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Sage","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-04","2026-08-25",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":19},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why did commentators after 1995 link Aum extremism to manga narratives?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"They suggested manga’s apocalyptic, enthralling storytelling made Aum members more prone to extremism and violence.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the article challenge the idea that manga directly caused Aum doctrine?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"It argues that reducing Aum’s violence to media influence is problematic and instead investigates how post-1995 manga reflected fascination with the Aum incident and used cult-like tropes in fiction.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What changes occur across different generations of manga after the Aum attacks?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Early manga depict “evil cult” tropes with graphic moral corruption, later thrillers interrogate human psychological aspects enabling cult-like behavior, and a very recent manga rehabilitates “religion” via mildly irreverent comedy.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},141323,1790114274,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":44,"category_name":45,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":19,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},687197207057,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 39/1: 127–151 © 2012 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture  \nJolyon Baraka Thomas  \nHorrific “Cults” and Comic Religion Manga after Aum  \nAfter the 1995 Aum Shinrikyō オウム真理教sarin gas attacks, influential commentators suggested that enthralling apocalyptic narratives characteristic of manga (illustrated serial novels) made Aum members prone to extremism and violence. This article inverts this interpretation, showing that popular manga published after 1995 have exhibited—and reflected—morbid fascination with the sensational fodder provided by the Aum incident itself. Early manga responses advanced variations on a horrific “evil cult” trope in which marginal religions modeled on Aum were graphically depicted as hotbeds of sexual depravity, fraud, and violence. Over time, equally chilling—if less sensational—psychological thrillers appeared that interrogated the aspects of human nature that allow for “cult-like” behavior. Finally, one very recent manga has sublimated the formerly popular “evil cult” trope by divorcing“religion” from “cults” and rehabilitating the former through mildly irreverent comedy.  \nkeywords: Aum Shinrikyō—manga—“evil cult” trope—Believers—Death Note—Saint Young Men—Twentieth Century Boys  \nJolyon Baraka Thomas is a PhD candidate in religion at Princeton University.  \nIn the immediate aftermath of the 1995 subway gas attacks, a number of  \ntheories proliferated about Aum Shinrikyō’s オウム真理教 attractiveness  \nto its generally youthful and intelligent members. Such theories included speculation about the pernicious effects of popular media, claims of a general weakening of social mores among Japan’s youth, and—less frequently but significantly—cautious acknowledgment of Aum’s allure (Morioka 1996; Ōsawa 1996; Miyadai 1998; Metraux 1999) . One hypothesis that emerged at the time was that the fictional worlds of manga and anime somehow contributed to Aum members’ inability to distinguish fiction from reality (Ōsawa 1996) .1 It must be acknowledged that the influence of manga and anime on Aum’s world view is evident. Leader Asahara Shōkō麻原彰晃(b. Matsumoto Chizuo松本智津夫, 1955–) was notoriously an avid reader of manga, and the group borrowed terminology from famous anime series (Hardacre 2007, 201–202; Schodt 1996, 46–47) . However, it would be excessively simplistic—not to mention a slight to Asahara’s theological creativity—to say that Aum Shinrikyō’s doctrine was directly derived from manga (Miyadai 1998) . While Aum’s world view was certainly fantastic (Reader 2000, 185–87), reducing Aum’s violent activities to the negative influence of manga is problematic (Gardner 2008).2 Moreover, while  \n*The author would like to thank University of Hawai‘i Press for permission to reproduce, in modified form, material from his book Drawing on Tradition: Manga, Anime, and Religion in Contemporary Japan (in press). He would also like to thank discussant Mark Rowe, fellow panelists Michihiro Ama, Kimberly Beek, and Melissa Anne-Marie Curley, and audience members for their helpful feedback on a penultimate draft of this paper delivered in November 2011 at the American Academy of Religion meeting (Japanese Religions Group, Session A20–272) .  \n1. Manga are illustrated serial novels; anime are animated films that are often based on manga. Helpful introductions to the manga medium include Schodt 1996 and MacWilliams 2008. Most manga are serialized in weekly or monthly magazines. Episodes are then compiled and sold in abound volume (tankōbon単行本); a completed series of volumes may run from hundreds to thousands of pages. Below, I indicate the years of serialization in the magazine, but citations will be from tankōbon (for example, Urasawa 2000–2007, 1: 1). Titles originally in English have not been transliterated (for example, Death Note); authors’ chosen translations have been used where appropriate (for example, Saint Young Men for Seinto oniisan). The synopses contain plot spoilers.  \n2. The a","cbCaipWikv0tmjXA","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipWikv0tmjXA","pdf",289398,25,"English","# Horrific “Cults” and Comic Religion Manga after Aum\n## Manga and the post-1995 Aum interpretation\n## The evolution of “evil cult” depictions in manga","[{\"question\":\"Why did commentators after 1995 link Aum extremism to manga narratives?\",\"answer\":\"They suggested manga’s apocalyptic, enthralling storytelling made Aum members more prone to extremism and violence.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article challenge the idea that manga directly caused Aum doctrine?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that reducing Aum’s violence to media influence is problematic and instead investigates how post-1995 manga reflected fascination with the Aum incident and used cult-like tropes in fiction.\"},{\"question\":\"What changes occur across different generations of manga after the Aum attacks?\",\"answer\":\"Early manga depict “evil cult” tropes with graphic moral corruption, later thrillers interrogate human psychological aspects enabling cult-like behavior, and a very recent manga rehabilitates “religion” via mildly irreverent comedy.\"}]","Horrific “Cults” and Comic Religion Manga after Aum | PDF",1787653757,63]