Saint Young Men

Saint Young Men
Cover of Saint Young Men first volume as published by Kodansha
聖☆おにいさん (Seinto Oniisann)
Genre	Comedy, Slice of life story
Manga
Written by	Hikaru Nakamura
Published by	Kodansha
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Morning 2
Original run	2007 – ongoing
Volumes	8
Anime film
Directed by	Noriko Takao
Written by	Rika Nezu
Studio	A-1 Pictures
Released	May 10, 2013 (2013-05-10) (Japan)

Saint Young Men (聖☆おにいさん, Seinto Oniisan) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hikaru Nakamura. It has been serialized by Kodansha in the monthly seinen manga magazine Morning 2 since 2007, with chapters collected in eight tankōbon volumes as of December 2012. It was adapted into an anime film which was released on May 10, 2013.

Plot

Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha, the founders of Christianity and Buddhism, are living together as roommates in a Tokyo apartment while taking a vacation on Earth. The comedy often involves jokes about Christianity, Buddhism, and all things related, as well as the main characters' attempts to hide their identities and understand modern society in Japan. Each chapter shows how they go about or react to an average day, though they also go sightseeing or visit amusement parks.

Characters

Jesus Christ (イエス・キリスト, Iesu Kirisuto) (voiced by Mirai Moriyama in the anime)

Jesus is portrayed as a care-free, generous, and humorous "sei-jin" (聖人=holy man or 成人=adult in Japanese). Unlike Buddha who is very strict about the relationship between him and his disciples, Jesus is very friendly to his apostles. But because Jesus is even nice to Judas, this makes Buddha worry. The residents of Heaven are overly protective of Jesus and will sometimes attempt to intervene to save Jesus if they hear his cries, even if they were from riding a roller-coaster. As a holy figure, Jesus' head will shine with a halo if he does or says something especially virtuous. Whenever Jesus' emotions are at a high or low peak (due to finding something funny or being scared), miracles may happen unexpectedly. Jesus is a devout follower of drama shows, and reviews them on his online blog.

Gautama Buddha (ゴータマ・ブッダ, Gōtama Budda) (voiced by Gen Hoshino in the anime)

Buddha is portrayed as a calm, rational, and kind "sei-jin". However, he tends to be very tight with money. When Buddha sees things too seriously, he is often "saved" by Jesus’ care-free simplicity. But when the same care-free nature appears as Jesus being an impulse buyer, it often irritates Buddha. When his anger shows, often as a result of Jesus' antics, his head will start to shine with a halo and increasing in brightness until Jesus either calms him down or apologizes. His head can also glow if Buddha says anything especially virtuous, upon which he will have to do something to lower his virtue. Ever since Buddha spent a night in a manga cafe, he has become a follower of Osamu Tezuka's works such as the one about himself.

Animals

Animals of all kinds frequently appear before Jesus and Buddha due to their concerns to help the two holy figures as much as they are physically capable of, such as shielding them from rain right to the point of attempting to sacrifice themselves as food if the two are hungry much to their horror.

Reception

Saint Young Men received the 2009 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for Short Work Manga.

Saint Young Men was the tenth best-selling manga series in Japan for 2009 according to Oricon, selling over 2.6 million copies. Volumes three and four were among the top 25 best-selling manga for 2009. As the result of its popularity, issues of Morning 2 started selling out on newsstands; because of this, in May 2009 Kodansha began making the magazine available online the day it is published.

External links

• Saint Young Men at Morning's website
• Saint Young Men (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia