Hi, you had mentioned at one point that angels are...

alexdaikaiju asked:

Hi, you had mentioned at one point that angels are seen are evil (or mistrustful) in Japanese culture? Could you elaborate if possible? That's a interesting concept, thank you.

revretch Answer:

Well, it’s not really cultural per se, since Christianity just isn’t a part of Japanese culture. Its lore is viewed the same way we view any non-Christian lore in the West - as something fun, even quaint.

In Japanese media, however, angels are consistently portrayed as evil. It’s not really hard to see why, coming from an outside perspective. These are beings described in the Bible as being literally impossible to properly comprehend (a la Lovecraftian monstrosities), who toy with the lives of human beings with power they cannot hope to fight and tell them it’s for their own good, even into death. Buddhism and Shintoism don’t really have any figures quite that draconian. Even Enma only has control over you until you reincarnate out of hell.

Not all angels are even ostensibly good, either. Even outside the non-canonical fallen angel interpretation of Lucifer, the banned book of Enoch speaks of angels who came down and bred with human women to create unstoppable monsters, and the incident is still mentioned in Genesis iirc.

Angels are fucking terrifying. The only thing more terrifying than them is the being they serve. There’s a reason Christians traditionally describe themselves as “god-fearing.”