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Pretty much as my question states itself. **Why are the seven deadly sins used
so often**?

In a lot of anime I have watched/re-watched, lately I notice either a
reference to the 7 deadly sins or their use. For example, in anime like _Full
Metal Alchemist_ and _Soul Eater_ , these 7 sins are referenced as an obstacle
to bypass or enemies to overcome.

Is there a specific reason for this? Or is this a reference of them being
beyond sin?


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Why are the seven deadly sins used so often in anime?


From my English composition class - its easier to write a story around a
theme.

I don't think stories that use the seven deadly sins are more prevalant in
Anime, its just that we are talking about eastern entertainment using western
themes, which naturally calls more attention to itself.

As far as there being any significant message in the theme of the seven deadly
sins. To me, the works just use the seven deadly sins because they are
universally recognizable.

> The most common contemporary understanding of theme is an idea or point that
> is central to a story, which can often be summed in a single word (e.g.
> love, death, betrayal). Typical examples of themes of this type are conflict
> between the individual and society; coming of age; humans in conflict with
> technology; nostalgia; and the dangers of unchecked ambition. A theme may be
> exemplified by the actions, utterances, or thoughts of a character in a
> novel. An example of this would be the theme loneliness in John Steinbeck's
> Of Mice and Men, wherein many of the characters seem to be lonely. It may
> differ from the thesis—the text's or author's implied worldview.
>
> A story may have several themes. Themes often explore historically common or
> cross-culturally recognizable ideas, such as ethical questions, and are
> usually implied rather than stated explicitly. An example of this would be
> whether one should live a seemingly better life, at the price of giving up
> parts of one's humanity, which is a theme in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New
> World. Along with plot, character, setting, and style, theme is considered
> one of the components of fiction. -
> [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_%28narrative%29)


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First, this question begs the question of **“ _Are_ the Seven Deadly Sins
often used in anime?”** _Full Metal Alchemist_ and _Soul Eater_ are provided
as examples. Both series deal with the concepts of souls, taboos, and
consequences of breaking said taboos. It makes sense that in such a storyline,
like stories featuring shinigami, you might come across inclusion of the Seven
Deadly Sins (a.k.a. capital vices or cardinal sins).

However, a lot of anime which contain the Seven Deadly Sins as a plot element
or even as a reference do not immediately come to mind… Whereas if you asked
why the Five Elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Void) are in so many anime,
or why Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, The Four Symbols (Azure Dragon of the
East, Vermilion Bird of the South, White Tiger of the West, Black Turtle of
the North), the Chinese Zodiac, Journey to the West (Sun Wukong, a.k.a. the
Monkey King), vampires, or such themes are in so many anime, I could more
easily and quickly form a list of series that contain these recurring themes.
So **in contrast, the Seven Deadly Sins are not a major, frequently-occuring
theme in the corpus of anime and manga**.

The second question asked was **“Is there a specific reason for this?”** Of
course it is easier to write a story around a borrowed theme, or to
incorporate one to give support to the story you already want to write, or to
simply insert one that has a built-in fan base in order to pull in an audience
already primed to find it interesting.

However, to answer whether there is a **specific** reason in regard to its use
in anime (as compared to, say, use of it as a literary device in American
comic books), we should consider by what means a Japanese mangaka or anime
director could have even heard of the concept of Seven Deadly Sins in the
first place.

**Basic Japanese education does not include mention of anything that touches
on religion virtually at all, even in courses such as History or Literature**
; it is safe to say that over 90% of Japanese university students have not
even heard of the Apostle Paul, who remains one of the most famous figures in
world history even from the perspective of non-Christians. They do not have a
basic literacy regarding the Bible or other religious texts (including
Buddhist and Shinto texts). Unless they attended a Catholic high school, they
cannot likely name the main strands of Christianity (Roman Catholicism,
Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Protestantism), name the Ten
Commandments, name the Beatitudes, or so on. So the chance that they would
have received any mention of the Seven Deadly Sins (which is [a much later
product of
Christianity](http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php?topic=22364.0)
than the New Testament) within their educational career is very low.
**Academic writing, writing skills, and creative writing are not generally
taught in Japanese schools, and Japanese education does not generally
highlight recognizing, analyzing, or making use of literary themes** , also
rendering the chance of exposure to the Seven as simply a literary reference
inside of an academic class low.

Since we cannot look to educational institutions as a likely source of
knowledge of the Seven, we should consider other possible sources.
**Christians in Japan make up less than 1% of the population** , and of those,
some are "in the closet" and do not mention that they are secretly Christian
to any of their friends. Thus, it is not likely for a mangaka or anime
director to run into the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins or other Christian-
related topics of conversation in regular day-to-day life interactions.

It makes more sense for those Japanese who could recite to you a list of what
the Seven Deadly Sins are (and I guarantee you, this would be a meager
percentage of the population! I cannot even think of a single one of my
Japanese friends here in Japan who I imagine could do it [even though I teach
in the English department of a high-ranked Japanese national university and am
a doctoral candidate in the Religion department at another]), to have heard of
it, most likely, from either 1) coming across it in a prior manga or anime or
light novel, or 2) reading of it within the sort of Japanese novels considered
to be decent, respectable literature by most Japanese (something like
Akutagawa Ryuunosuke or Murakami Haruki). If the Seven Deadly Sins are found
in modern Japanese literature, that is a prime source that could have spread
the concept.

Since most average Japanese adults do not read manga and do not watch anime,
if it was primarily spread through either of these two mediums, we’re looking
at the demographics who would know of the Seven Deadly Sins as 1) young
children and 2) otaku, neither of whom are a majority in an aging society.

Realistically, what we are looking at is that some author or mangaka in recent
history found out about the Seven Deadly Sins and thought it would make a nice
trope; then, readers of said novel or manga heard of it, then one of them gave
it a different spin in his manga, then someone else saw it there and adopted
it, and so on.

One **specific reason** that a Japanese author or mangaka originally latched
onto the idea of Seven Deadly Sins might be precisely because **it is not
common knowledge in Japanese society: it is novel, foreign, and niche**. The
Bible originates from the Middle East (which still bears the sense of an
exotic, far-away place to the Japanese), though, perhaps unfortunately, most
of the Japanese conceive of Christianity as “Western.” While the Seven Deadly
Sins are most well-known within Roman Catholicism, their origin is not
actually Western. The origin [dates from before the East/West schism in
Christianity and involves Eastern church
fathers](http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php?topic=22364.0).
Also, there is wide variation among the strains of Christianity (Roman
Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Protestantism’s many
branches, indigenous Christianities), [not all of which recognize a set of
Seven Deadly
Sins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_sin#Eastern_Christian_views)
(some Eastern ones do, some Western ones do not).

To put it simply, the Seven Deadly Sins has **a curious, intriguing, "Other"
aspect to it from the Japanese perspective**. Precisely because it is not
familiar or easy to understand gives it a juicy hook. This means _the reason
for its use in anime is **different in nature** from the reason/s for its use
in works produced in countries that have a history of Christendom_ where it is
commonplace for the average Joe to have at least heard of the Seven Deadly
Sins.

The third question asked was **“Or is this a reference of them being beyond
sin?”** I am not clear on what is being asked in this question (What does
“them” refer to?), but an additional factor which should be considered is
that, in Japanese language, the word used to translate the Greek word for
"sin" is 「罪」( _tsumi_ ), which commonly refers to crimes. The average Japanese
person does not have a conceptualization of any sin that is not
criminal/against the law/severe (such as murder or theft). Thus, the more
globally-recognized definition of "sin" as something that one could do which
is either 1) mild in its effects (laziness, tell a 'white lie,' shove your
brother) or 2) internal/an attitude (lust, greed, pride) is not understood as
fitting the definition of 「罪」 to the Japanese. (This means that every
missionary and pastor in Japan must go to some pains to re-explain the word
“sin” to their would-be converts, because most Japanese do not think they have
ever committed a sin at all, since they have never done anything that would
warrant getting arrested). The Seven are, therefore, not the easiest things
for Japanese to conceive of as fitting the definition of what 「罪」 is, since
none of them are illegal: wrath, greed, pride, lust, and envy are things you
can keep to yourself without affecting others, and sloth and gluttony are
looked down upon as personality flaws but not the sort of things you’d need a
Savior to rescue you over. Japan is a rather don’t-ask-don’t-tell, do-
whatever-you-want-in-the-privacy-of-your-own-home-and-just-don’t-bother-
anyone-else-about-it society, so **the Seven Deadly Sins are not necessarily
things that the average Japanese even considers make a person evil, bad, or
guilty** : if you lust over your _bishoujo_ dating sim video game or porn,
even on your lab computer at university right in front of everybody, or
mention that you’re going out to feel up a stranger's breasts for a fee at the
hostess club afterward, your labmates don’t think you need to be punished or
forgiven.

So we come back to the fact that **the content of the Seven Deadly Sins
themselves would be viewed as unexpected and even somewhat bizarre,** whereby
it could become a theme that **sticks in subcultures in which having niche
knowledge is valued**.


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