I’m not really a fan of Japanese Anime films, and years have passed by since I “read” the last Manga comix when my sons were still younger. But recently I stumbled across an Anime video called “The Rebirth of Buddha“. Somehow I was drawn into the fantastic story, and my wife and me kept on viewing.
You can read about the story in a short or an interesting long version in Animenetwork.com. It says that behind the film there are people inspired by a Japanese neo-spiritualist movement called “Happy Science”. But this I only came to know later when I searched a bit the web. And it seems that the story is illustrating a book of the founder of Happy Science: An article about the movie says: “The film illustrates Happy Science’s belief that the religious figure Buddha will return ‘when the world sinks into darkness’.” This is precisely what Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, that “When Dharma, the Law, is significantly disturbed and the world and its existence are being threatened, then I come down to establish the Law.” And it reminds of the expectations of a return of the Christ or of the Shi’ites waiting for the coming of the Imam Madhi…
What attracted my interest was the way the movie is presenting realities from the subtle worlds in the presentation. The film starts showing how Sayako, a young high school journalist, hears about the suicide of Kanemoto, a newspaper reporter she admires, and slowly develops clairvoyance. She sees how spirits and dark thought forms are moving around. On a train station she is nearly drawn in front of a moving train by a dis-incarnated soul and saved in the last moment by a friend. In these seconds she witnesses how the reporter who had committed suicide is standing in front of a council of Elders – like it is being described by hypnotherapeutic “Life between lives” researches like those of Michael Newton.
The plot of the film is a big battle between the powers of good and of evil – with alien attacks and gigantic mass manipulation by Arai, the “false Messiah”, fought by Sorano, the re-born Buddha, and with the help of Sayako. And in between there are some sermons of the new Buddha, probably spreading the beliefs of “Happy Science” and the hope of a big “bling” to solve all the problems. However, you meet various scenes where they quite well present subtle realities: The visual realization of the spirits of mass manipulation reminded me of descriptions of Aurobindo and the Mother about the psychic effects of fear and of contagious diseases.
Though the story is full of spirito-fiction, sometimes diving into kitsch, the film is very well produced and of a high visual quality. Enjoy.
Sorano, the Buddha reborn, healing a boy possessed by evil spirits. Picture (c) from the video
