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