In a desperate attempt to remedy the declining readership of the Bible amongst today’s Filipino youth, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines is offering mobile phone downloads of Bible stories and other inspirational material rendered “anime-style”.
Philippines cell phones get Bible ‘anime’
Catholic Church taps new, cheap download medium to keep kids inspired
MANILA — To spark renewed interest in the Bible among young Filipinos, the Catholic Church is making use of popular Japanese-style “anime” to spread inspirational Bible verses that can be downloaded on cell phones for a few cents.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines has launched the Bible Anime program, a line of “manga” comic book-inspired religious passages and Bible-based characters aimed at winning over youth in the predominately Roman Catholic country.
from THE JAPAN TIMES
To avail of the service, subscribers can text BIBLIYA ON to 8947 on any SMART mobile phone. Subscribers are then directed to a selection to download the latest Sunday Bible readings plus their animations. Each download will cost PhP 5.
The Bible Anime project was created through the joint efforts of the Philippine Bible Society, and Enzima International Inc. — a Manila-based Japanese-owned company supplying the service’s anime-style slides pro bono.
JPOP Manila 
Great, they got a manga for catholics. Now why not a manga for pastafarians, you know the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
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i’d totally convert to the church of the flying spaghetti monster — no jihadis there.
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I actually bought a copy of that, and in St. Francis Square behind Megamall of all places.
I enjoyed it although i do admit i cringed in some of the artworks where Jesus is portrayed to cure the sick with Dragonball-like special light effects.
Plus the application of stereotypical good guy / bad guy manga designs was amusing, although i was surprised one of the disciples had a facial scar. There was no clear indication who that disciple was, although I not surprised at the artistic freedom the manga artist had when creating this Bible version.
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