Saint☆Young Men

Jesus and Buddha decide to take a holiday. They rent a flat in Tokyo. The rent is cheap, the room is small and the neighbours are curious. The two try to learn everyday life: the shopping, the washing, a bicycle, the summer festival and the electricity bill. Jesus likes spending and buys things online. Buddha keeps the budget and saves. They try to hide who they are but odd things keep happening; light appears around Jesus when he laughs and a halo shows above Buddha when he gets excited. Noriko Takao directs. Gen Hoshino, Mirai Moriyama and Aiko Hibi are among the voices. It is a Japanese production and animated. The source is Hikaru Nakamura's manga, which ran in Japan for a long time. The narrative is episodic; each section comes out of an everyday situation and there is no plot. The humour comes from the sacred and the ordinary being set side by side. The film does not mock the two figures; the tone is respectful and the joke comes from the situation. The manga was not published in some countries over religious sensitivity and the film's distribution was limited too. The animation is plain; the details of daily life are drawn with care. The narrative also shows neighbourhood life in Tokyo. Its limit is scale; the narrative is small, there is little event, and the ending gives no closure. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese animation and quiet everyday comedy. Who it is not for: it is uneventful, episodic, and the humour depends on culture.