This blog post is a about an hour long read so I don’t expect anyone else to check it out unless they really want to, but I read it (most of it, I skipped spoilers to a couple games I havent beaten) and here’s my extremely condensed summary (I could make a video essay on this but I don’t want to)
Shin Megami Tensei is a game series with a ton of occult themes, where you summon gods and demons from various religions in post-apocalyptic tokyo. Typically, you can align with Law faction lead by God, a Chaos faction lead by Lucifer, or take a neutral route where you are aided by Japanese gods to defeat both sides and create a human-focused world
The blog post shows evidence of the game’s writers being influenced by the “Japanese-Jewish Common Ancestry Theory” a fringe theory from the late 1800s that claims that a lost tribe of Israel had traveled to Japan in ancient times (I guess lost tribes of Israel are really good at traveling, just ask the Mormons). Supposed “evidence” of this theory includes aesthetic similarities between Japanese “Yamabushi” monks and certain religious attire in Judaism, as well as certain similarities in mythology. Of course, this theory is completely crazy, and is (in my opinion) no different than noticing the similarities between Aztec and Egyptian pyramids and claiming they were built by aliens
A lot of the in-game inspirations are hard to explain without knowledge of the games’ plots and Japanese spirituality and Judaism (a lot about which Japanese gods sided with big G God), but I can at least show you a Japanese Kurama Tengu wearing a traditional Jewish tefillin and kippah The kippah is similar to headwear the Yamabushi would wear, but the box-shaped tefillin is definitely inspired by Judaism.
Viewing the games with the lens of this theory makes it obvious that the God that leads the order faction bears more resemblance to the Jewish god than the Christian one. The character of Satan in SMT2 is a servant of God and not His foe, Jesus is noticably absent while other characters take the place as Messiah, and He is also referred to as YHVH, a shortened version of God’s ‘true name’ that is mostly used by Jewish people
While being very outlandish, it seems like a relatively harmless theory, until you remember that (the Jewish) God is the primary antagonist in many of the games. Now, I have no qualms about attacking and dethroning God, but over time the idea of killing the Jewish God specifically gains some problematic aspects.
Taira no Masakado was a samurai who lead the first known Japanese rebellion in the 10th century, and his rebellious spirit lead him to be worshipped by some as a deity. In games, Masakado is portrayed as one of the most powerful guardian spirits, and is integral in many neutral routes in defeating the forces of God and Lucifer. Why is this important?
“If we were to follow the theory that the [Japanese] Imperial Family is part of the Hebrew lineage, then [Masakado] would also become the one who opposed the Jews. The imperfect hero, so to speak. It would be cool if that kind of man existed.” -Kazuma Kaneko, series artist and creative director
The Japanese-Jewish Common Ancestry Theory retroactively makes Masakado Japan’s first antisemite, so in SMT4: Apocalypse when he grows 1000 feet tall and protects Tokyo from God’s barrage of nuclear missiles (this guy is venerated in about 4 shrines in real life, one of which they prayed at during development ), it definitely makes things more problematic
I don’t have a conclusion cuz I just read it and spent the past 2 hours just trying to summarize it, but, crazy right? I don’t think smt is specifically designed to make people antisemitic, but the themes are definitely there
Edit: antisemitism definitely isn’t the only theme but I think it’s interesting to point out
I’m having a really hard time tracking the article’s argument about how the game is anti-semetic. Maybe it’s a definitional problem because to me the first and most obvious definition of anti-semitism is discrimination against Jewish people, and there’s not much in the article that really points to that.
I can understand how depicting a peoples’ God as evil and worthy of opposition can promote hate toward that people. On the other hand, the belief that the God of the Old Testament is either morally deficient or downright capricious and cruel is hardly a fringe concept. Anecdotally, I know quite a few atheists, Christians, and even a few Jews who share that belief and I don’t think it’s justifiabls to call them anti-semetic.
In addition, you have he God of War series wherein your character murders many Greek and Norse gods, who are mostly depicted as being evil and worthy of death. I’m not sure that those games could be said to promote hate towards current day believers of ancient Greek or Norse religions (of which there are apparently hundreds of thousands).
I don’t know, maybe I’m just failing to understand the argument fully but I’m also kind of weary of over-expanding the definition of anti-semitism given how Israel weaponizes that term to silence criticism and smear leftist politicians.
I think you can make a better case for smt being japanese nationalist rather than anti-Semitic
I honestly think they added in all those jewish elements just because they look cool
Hold on I took an edible and I broke my rule not to scroll on the weekends but this makes a lot of sense. Any idea what the fan base in Japan is like? Is this something the average gamer would pick up on over there?
I don’t know anything about the community over there but I’ve played a bunch of the games, without specifics God is definitely portrayed as an outside, controlling force (could just as easily be Christian, and Christians have had a lot of influence over Japan in the past few centuries), and it’s pretty natural for a Japanese player to support Japanese gods.
But even if neutral endings are encouraged, law and chaos endings are also encouraged and have fans. But idk how hard people think about it. In a scenario where all the gods are real, the abrahamic one would be the most powerful cuz he has the most followers making him a natural leader of the order faction. But at the same time peoples opinions of that God would be influenced by their opinions of that God’s believers
I hope that answered something I’m rambling at this point
What a title :galaxy-brain:
Is there a possibility that the God and Lucifer represent outside religious forces like from a colonizer, and by choosing the neutral route it’s rejecting the outside influences and embracing the indigenous religion? In a similar way to how Sekiro used themes of Buddhism vs Shinto as one is seen as originating outside Japan while the other is considered more indigenous
Yeah totally! This article really goes into the Judaism part but the games are also about the West in general. The most literal one I mentioned in another comment in Smt1, where in the first act the Law faction is controlled by the literal US army (secretly controlled by God) and the Chaos faction is a character representing Yukio Mishima
In Smt5 (which came out after this blog post) the order faction is portrayed as past its prime, and the chaos faction seeks to create a multipolar world where every country is allowed to have their own military have their own gods