Creator / Happy Science

Happy Science (幸福の科学, Kōfuku-no-Kagaku) is a Japanese religious organization founded in 1986 by Ryuho Okawa, a former stock trader who purported to be the present incarnation of a supreme deity named "El Cantare" and someone who can commune with various deities spirits of the dead. Suffice to say, the organization is controversial within Japan and regarded by many as a cult.

They are most well known in the West however as the producer of several bizarre anime films that exist primarily to spread their religious messages, featuring a highly Japan-centric form of New Age spirituality and taking a very big artistic license to both history and world religion, namely Buddhism and Christianity.

To date, the organization has made nine anime films, most of which are based on a different book written by Okawa:

• Shiawasette Naani (1991): A 15-minute OVA, intended for children, based on a children's book Okawa wrote.
• Hermes: Winds of Love (1997)
• The Laws of the Sun (2000): Based on Ryuho Okawa's first book, The Laws of the Sun: One Source, One Planet, One People.
• The Golden Laws (2003): Based on the second book of a trilogy written by Ryuho Okawa, The Golden Laws: History Through the Eyes of the Eternal Buddha.
• The Laws of Eternity (2006): It is based on Ryuho Okawa's third book, The Nine Dimensions: Unveiling the Laws of Eternity.
• The Rebirth of Buddha (2009): Based on Ryuho Okawa's book The Rebirth of Buddha: My Eternal Disciples, Hear My Words.
• The Mystical Laws (2012): Based on Ryuho Okawa's book The Mystical Laws: Going Beyond the Dimensional Boundaries.
• The Laws Of The Universe: A series of four films total, three of which have been released so far.
  • The Laws of the Universe: Part 0 (2015)
  • The Laws of the Universe: Part 1 (2018)
  • The Laws of the Universe: The Age of Elohim (2021)

Tropes found in their films include:

• All Myths Are True: Happy Science holds all world religions and myths to be true, and preaches that Odin, Osiris, Hermes, the Abrahamic God and the Gautama Buddha are all reincarnations of a supreme deity known as "El Cantare".
• Author Avatar: Most of the protagonists are thinly-veiled stand-ins for Okawa.
• Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Happy Science preaches that various historical figures were actually angels sent from Heaven to guide and uplift the human race, including Confucius, Moses, Jesus Christ, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison and the founder of Toyota Motors. On the other end of the spiritual spectrum, the religions states that philosophers who preached atheistic values such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche, and of course Hitler, were demons who rose up from Hell to lead humans astray.
• Dark Is Evil: Demons are depicted as shadow entities hellbent on possessing humans and have several ways to lead them astray from God and the Eternal Buddha, be it by inflaming their worldly desires (money, sex, creature comforts) or by inciting hatred among several countries, faiths, ethnicities, and families.
• Deity of Human Origin: In Happy Science mythos, all humans are reincarnations of immortal spirits, angels, and demigods throughout history. Therefore, it's implied some of the gods in pantheons around the world, like Hermes and Konohana-no-Sakuya-bime started off as humans who upon dying met the requirements for admission into the highest tiers of Heaven.
• Demon of Human Origin: Conversely, high-level spirits who go astray and decide to go against Buddha's teachings of the mind in their lives as humans and instead teach wrong doctrines or deliberately plunge other humans into worldly pleasures will end up becoming demons upon dying.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: According to Happy Science, angels, demons, spirits, demigods of various religions and aliens all mutually coexist with one another.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Satan plays this role in most of their films, where the Big Bads are demons looking to lead humans astray.
• Hollywood Atheist: This is a common type of human antagonist in these movies. Any atheist character featured will be portrayed as either a materialistic, hedonistic scumbag, hiding secret traumas behind a stuck-up veneer, or a misguided soul tricked or corrupted by demons.
• Light Is Good: God/Eternal Buddha, El Cantare and all his past lives on Earth, as well as the angels and Bodhisattvas led by him are depicted as creatures of light and they seek to save humans by speaking about Buddha's teachings of the mind. Some of them in the Spirit World are even willing to descend into Hell itself to rescue any repentant human soul they can find and lead them back to Heaven.
• Self-Inflicted Hell: Since Happy Science doctrine teaches that the Spirit World reflects a person's mind upon death, this is more than evident. Anyone who had "sinful" thoughts and attitudes in their life not only will fall into Hell upon dying, but the place will amplify the soul's thoughts, which will then warp their appearance into a monstrous form that reflects their minds. Moreover, Hell is also divided into tiers tailored for a specific sin under the "Three Poisons" teaching in Buddhism.