Saint☆Oniisan

Ok, so pretty much everyone here knows or even heard of Hataraku Maou-sama right? The one where the Demon Lord is transported the the human world and forced to live among the society of humans. Well, Saint☆Onii-san is pretty similar to HM, only that instead of a demon lord, we've got religious icons living their daily lives in the human world (disguising as ordinary citizens as part of their two-month vacation from their holy duty), and those figures are Jesus and Buddha.

Yes, you've heard right. That Jesus. And that Buddha.

Kinda sounds like a scene coming from the song One of Us by Joan Osborne if ... I say so myself. And upon seeing this OVA (2 episodes, one episode for now), it made me laugh so hard and said to myself, those religious zealots screaming blasphemy will be having a field day upon seeing these, and that could be annoying. Well, sorry for them, but this anime preaches nothing but pure fun and hilarity.

In fact, this anime basically answers: What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us, Just a stranger on the bus, Trying to make His way ho - er, damn, I just sang that song. Funny thing is, they are roommates in an apartment managed by Matsuda-san the strict landlady. Even more funnier is the fact that two of the most revered religious figures in history are scared shitless of her! The scenes usually shift from Matsuda-san's perspective to the two 'foreign men', but usually most of the screentime is allocated to Matsuda-san, who in all honesty, suspects the two as anything but ordinary foreigners renting and sharing a room. Its understandable, because since they boarded there, strange things have happened. Like Jesus' unintentional miracles (levitating much?) and Buddha's godly charisma (it literally glows!). Hilarity ensues when she scolds them afterwards!

That said, this light-hearted anime should not be taken seriously and in all honesty, parodying the daily lives of religious figures is quite novel in itself, if not daring. So enjoy this nice addition to this season's to be watched anime, and at the end of the day, you'll be wondering if Joan Osbourne's song influenced the author into writing this funny piece of a series.

Welp, looks like I just made my first ever review, lol. Thanks for reading!

I really wanted to like this anime, but sadly, the comedy mostly fell flat and the VAs didn’t do a great job. There’s not much to write about an anime with just 2 short episodes, so I’ll keep my review brief.

The reason I gave it a 6 (and nothing lower) is because even though I didn’t like the anime, I didn’t dislike it either – it was pretty average. The setting is quite unique, of course, and more power to animators who can go through concepts on anime without involving high school children, nudity or violence. It’s a nice and sweet comedy, suitable even for ... children, although if I’m being honest, a lot of jokes went over my head. I mean, I’m someone who has a fair amount of knowledge about Christianity, and unlike most other people, I know quite a lot about Buddhism (seeing how Gautam Buddh was born in my country) so I was surprised at how many references I didn’t understand. And if I didn’t get them, then how is it those people who gave this anime such a high rating, get them? Did they study Buddhism in college or something?
Elitists. SMH.

Speaking of, Buddhism was all about peace and ahinsa, so the concept of wearing silk shirts (leave alone decorating them) would have been out of the question for Buddh, so the animators fuked up there. Same for the negative stereotype “the water is dirty” comment for India – it wasn’t really funny, it was outright offensive, something that would *never* be uttered by Buddh for his motherland. And before you tell me to “laugh it off”, let me know how you’d feel if, for example, you’re a religious American who sees Jesus calling all Americans fat, ugly and stupid?

The art, animation and sounds - everything is average. Anyway, give it a watch. Who knows? You might enjoy it more than I did!

PS. Just for kicks, just *imagine* the uproar that this anime would have been created if it where Mohammed in place of Buddh!

So, A-1 Pictures decided that one day they were tired of being stereotyped as otaku panderers that were well-known for drawing characters with chipmunk faces and wandered down the avant-garde path. I’m pretty sure that after a few too many huffs of crack, they decided to adapt a psychedelic adventure in which Jesus and Buddha are roommates, but are pretty much gay.

• The character designs are weird, Jesus looks like a praying mantis. And the cringe-worthy source material wrote these two formerly renowned religious saints as cute boys who update their blog and do tee shirt prints in their apartment as NEETs.

• I initially ... thought that the idea of it might be handled in an entertaining or enjoyable way, but it’s not funny. Just weird and uncomfortable, and occasionally, a heh, I know that story from Biblical or Buddhist lore. Oh, the bunny struck a match and threw itself on a plate. I know what that’s from. That kind of thing.

• I had hope for it at the beginning of the first OVA, because the landlady’s perspective of the two weirdos with no grasp on normal human behavior was pretty entertaining. But, after that first arc dissipates, it’s nothing but random monotony. Which goes to show that A-1 Pictures can’t even do artsy nonsense right.

• As someone who occasionally enjoys moe, I can’t even say that this has any merit in that regard. I didn’t so much feel like I watching two characters developing with cute quirks, as I felt like they were just insultingly stereotypical stoners. There was nothing endearing about either of them, unless you reside on Tumblr.

• There is no story. Like I said earlier, the first arc was the only one that was passable. The rest is full of cringy jokes and pretty-colored nonsense that makes absolutely no sense. A-1 Pictures should not become an auteur studio, end of story. I give the two episode OVA of Saint Young Men a 2/10, and I have no intention of watching the film.