Interview With Beneath The Tangles : Bringing Christ To The Otaku Community

Hello Readers! Nostalgia here! I’m sooooo excited to finally conduct my first interview on this blog! Getting a “yes” to this article idea was what encouraged me to run hard with a new direction on my blog that would somehow focus on God without completely abandoning Japan, Japanese Music or Anime…which is hard as Japan has always had less than a 2% Christian population.

But as I came to find that missionary efforts have increased in Japan, I had hope that I would be able to find original Japanese Christian music this time around, and a few artists actually popped up! From there, I started thinking about not just covering songs on my channel, but perhaps performing them at a con as well….but being Christ to a Con? I know famous voice actor Vic Mignogna has done so, and obviously people would listen to him, but what about the average Joe like me?

I started doing more research, and actually found a few people who have hosted Christian panels at conventions! The Beneath The Tangles blog popped up quite a few times on my search, and I was just so inspired to see an active blog that was actively bringing Christ to the Otaku community through articles and activities. I read their Values and Beliefs page and knew they were genuine about their mission, so I reached out and shared my idea, and they said “yes”!

So without further ado, I hand the mic…the screen rather, to TWWK, the owner and founder of Beneath The Tangles!

INTRODUCTION

1. Please introduce yourself and your brand/platform!

Hello! My name is Twwk and I’m the director of Beneath the Tangles, an “anime ministry” that I founded in 2010 to help bridge the gap between otaku and the church. We do lots of fun stuff as we share our love of anime, manga, and light novels with our community, and then also drill down into faith through conversations, small groups, and articles that analyze anime through a Christians lens.

2. Before we get started, is your name TWWK pronounced like “Tweek?” And does it stand for anything? I’m also curious as to how you came up with the name “Beneath The Tangles” for your blog!

Yes, it’s pronounced “Tweek.” An early username I used was “The World We Know,” which community members shortened to Twwk. It stuck. As for “Beneath The Tangles”, they are song lyrics that felt exactly right for what I wanted to do, to dig deeper—not just as an analysis of anime, but to find God working in places where one would assume he doesn’t exist. I would try to “untangle” that.

3. How and when did you get into anime and/or gaming? What is your favorite series/game?

I have a long history with anime, but I really became a super fan around 2000. Digimon Adventure, Princess Mononoke, and Tenchi Muyo all really drew me into the medium, and Evangelion sealed the deal!

4. Please share your Christian testimony with us.

I grew up attending church and really excelling in all the Sunday School stuff; in fact, I excelled in lots of spaces, including academics, which really led to a pride disease inside of me. But as I entered college, setbacks in life and seeing others start to mature and move past me really shook me to the core. I became despondent and even depressed. God was paving a way for me toward him, I now realize. I had even become agnostic and was exploring Asian religions when a classmate invited me to church. I found a loving, bible-centered community that was the place I needed to be to really understand the gravity of my sin and weight of grace and mercy. I turned my life over to God, started serving and building the church, and really finding pleasure in knowing and worshipping God.

5. What inspired you to bring God to the community you are in? Please share your timeline from conception to fruition.

I recognize now as the Holy Spirit at work, but back in 2010, I just thought I was crazy when I decided to bring anime and Christianity together. No one was doing what I wanted to do, which was to talk about anime and faith to non-Christians in a way that was authentic and meaningful. Actually, that’s not entirely true—there were a few people who had done it, but not with consistency, and those sites were both a model to me and a whisper that said, this space needs to be filled. Otaku need to be reached. So after taking time to pray and really starting to involved myself in community, I started Beneath the Tangles.

At first, we were just a blog. Blogs were starting to decline at the time but were still pretty big, and there was a thriving aniblogging community. My first audience was just other anibloggers and they welcomed me into the space. It was awesome. I did post after post about faith and some projects, too, that pushed the community to talk more openly about religion. So many things happened after that, including adding staff (we now have about two-dozen volunteers), moving towards an additional focus on social media platforms, developing our own community centered on Discord, and all sorts of other things as God has really used us, despite all the inability and unfaithfulness (especially on my end), to continue pushing to reach a people he loves but that are severely underserved by the church.

6. Prior to this initiative, did you have Christian friends within the community, or were able to find and connect with other Christians within the community?

It was all pretty new to me! I had online anime and gaming friends during college, but we had drifted apart and the landscape had changed since then, so I was starting anew. Joining that larger community again was part of the process, and building a Christian anime community was something new, too. There was at least one thriving community of Christian otakus already in existence (Christian Anime Alliance), and I did participate a bit there, but mostly I was building one from scratch.

MORE ABOUT TWWK

7. Do you have any favorite Christian shows/games? How did you discover it?

I tend to shy away from Christian media. However, I am excited and supportive of an anime-influenced series that is in production: Gabriel and the Guardians. I’m very hopeful for it.

8. What non-Christian game/anime touches you the most and/or taught you the most when it comes to your Christian walk?

Clannad After Story really moved me and help me feel the weight of my sin and the power of God’s grace more meaningfully and deeply than most sermons and praise songs focusing on the topic. The episodes dealing with Tomoya’s depression, alcoholism, and neglect of Ushio, and where he deals with his own past abuse, illustrated God’s graciousness so well, like a modern-day, anime parable.

9. What non-Christian character inspires you most to be more like Jesus (ie. kind, meek, sacrificial, forgiving)?

Recently it’s been Thorfinn from Vinland Saga, who exhibits the idea of a non-violent hero, one who turns the other cheek and seeks to love even his enemies. He’s also influenced by Jesus canonically!

9. Can you recall a scene from a show/movie/game that really hit you hard when it comes to your faith, whether in a good or bad way? Why did it impact you in such a way?

I’ll pick a book if that’s okay, though it does have an excellent movie adaptation! Silence, the classic Japanese novel, tore down my pride as a Christian as I put myself in the place of the protagonist, one who eventually has to cast his own religious pride away as he’s brought to the point of denying Christ. And it also spoke powerfully to me of God’s grace, one who speaks even in the most horrible of circumstances, one who speaks in the silence.

11. Being honest, do you find your interest in gaming/anime tends to draw you closer or pull you farther away from God? Why?

I think in general, great art draws me nearer to the heart of God, who is the great Creator. But if I embrace media that tempts me to sin or which encourages me to likewise value sinful things, it can certainly draw me away.

12. Do you ever feel conflicted about whether you should continue indulging in these hobbies due to their unbiblical themes (ie false gods, sexual images, violence, magic) or its general secularity (similar to how people view secular music)? What is your inner dialogue like regarding this matter?

I think it’s important for Christians to be conflicted about secular things. Great storytelling and great art is, at the end of the day about God because we, as humans, are seeking Him, reaching out for Him, whether we know it or not. That said, how those stories are created and demonstrated can vary. Some will be outright dishonoring to God, and those, I feel, are pretty easy for me to identify and avoid.

Sometimes harder is when there’s a great work that I enjoy but need to stay away from because it encourages me to sin. For instance, movies featuring gore are a big no-no for me, because those images stay with me for a long time, years sometimes. They cause me to dwell on things that are awful and violent. And then I struggle, because the more I’m enjoying a program, the more I will justify continuing to watch it even if it’s not good for me. Sometimes the desire to entertainment wins out.

13. Do the people around you ever question your faith because of your interests and hobbies? If so, how do you respond to them?

I’ve been pretty blessed that people in real life don’t typically question me. I think a lot of Christians in my life knew about my faith and service before they knew I was an anime fan, so perhaps there was some benefit of the doubt at work. The online space is where I get more direct confrontation about anime. I often point them toward articles I’ve written about Christians watching anime, or else summarize my thoughts about it, if I engage them at all.

14. How do you personally feed your spirit and take care of your soul to ensure you remain close to God, despite the time you invest in your hobbies and platforms? (ie prayer, devotion, church, music, breaks).

Most of my hobbies and platforms are directly connected to ministry. I’m frequently looking for God while I watch anime. I’m developing content in hopes of sharing Christ. So even my hobbies are really about seeking Him. They support my faith. More directly, I attend church, read scripture and pray daily, and engage others, including my family, is talk about faith all the time.

15. If a Christian isn’t currently into anime, would you recommend or encourage them to get into it? If yes, please share some recommendations.

I probably wouldn’t unless they reached out to me first. Our experiences and our design encourage us to engage with different parts of the culture and media. Some will find themselves immediately drawn to gaming; others will find that other spheres are better for them to serve and worship God through.

OUTREACH EXPERIENCE

16. What were your initial thoughts and feelings when you considered bringing your faith to your community? Fear and anxiety? Excitement and passion?

I tried not think about it too much because I had a spirit of timidity when first launching, and then every time I posted a piece, too. I was worried that I wasn’t a strong enough writer to engage with a writing community, and also that I would be rejected for my faith. But I felt compelled to share my faith as I wrote about anime. And I was certainly partly fueled by people who engaged with me; it was encouraging to know the work I was doing was being used to reach others, and that excited me.

17. Please share your first experience hosting a Christian related event (panel, table, performance) at a convention. How did you plan for it, what materials did you bring, and how did it go?

I was definitely nervous the first time I hosted my panel about anime and Christianity, but I felt well-prepared. I’d spent a lot of time developing my presentation, running through it, identifying my A/V needs and ensuring they should go off without a glitch, and hyping myself up to speak in an engaging way. I think it went well—more attendees than I thought would come and most of them stayed the whole way through. The panel also helped me connect with some folks, which was always the point of it anyway.

18. Please share your most positive/favorite interaction with a non-believer in the community.

A woman reached out after seeing a post on Facebook, curious about how we approached anime from a Christian perspective. We chatted a lot about faith and eventually, we read through the Book of Luke together. As it ended, I asked her if she felt that Jesus was her Lord and Savior and she did; she confessed it and was born again. Later, she joined our ministry and remains a devoted Christian and good friend.

19. Please share your most negative/most-hurtful interaction with a non-believer in the community. How did you recover from this?

Most of my “negative” experience with non-Christians don’t stick with me. They may be frustrating, but they’re not hurtful. I’m on mission, and I remember that these are not Christ followers; this is supposed to be hard. They’re not supposed to react happily to the gospel message. It’s mostly (almost always!) the Christians that hurt me.

The only negative experience with non-Christians that really stick with me is when I see people talking about me “behind my back” on social media. It’s happened multiple times where folks will trash me or a project I’m doing. Even then, I’m not sure if it hurts; it’s more frustrating than anything. Just tell me to my face, you know? Then we can talk about it!

20. On that note, do you mind sharing more about your negative experiences with Christians? I know it can be a touchy topic, but I also feel it’s a shared experience that others should be warned out.

I’m happy to follow up on that question: I sometimes understand the scorn from Christians because I was there, too. I had a judgmental attitude that I now feel was something that developed from passion without enough grace and humility born from experience as a Christian (and resulting as fruits from the transforming work of the Spirit) and from a lack of depth in my theology. I tended to listen to church culture rather than explore scripture. But I do become upset sometimes because we as Christians should be united and caring for each other; I would rather someone reach out to me to discuss than to talk behind my back publicly, which is often what unfortunately happens.

21. What is your favorite way to evangelize/share the gospel and why? (ie panels, street preaching, articles, social media posts).

I love writing about the gospel because it uses a skill I’ve developed and have a sense for. But very little beats out sharing the gospel personally with someone you’ve developed a relationship with; there’s a sense of fulfillment when you can explain your hope to someone you care about who doesn’t have that same hope but desperately needs it.

22. What would you say has been the hardest part about reaching nerds/otakus/gamers when it comes to the gospel?

There’s often a lot of hurt to work through, especially that inflicted by people who identify as Christian. It’s really sad to know how profoundly people have been hurt, doubly so when it’s by the church. And that in turn makes it hard for me to love the church sometimes. I have to pray that Jesus will give me the same love for the church he has!

23. What would you say is the general reception for Christianity within the community? Do you find that most are open-minded and curious or tend to be hateful and defensive?

I think the reaction to what we do and the gospel message has changed considerably over the 15 years I’ve been doing this. At first, we were speaking mostly to Millennials and Gen Xers, and overwhelmingly they either just ignored us or were willing to engage thoughtfully and kindly with our discourse. Now, many in our audience are Generation Z and unfortunately, it’s like, good luck getting them to engage on anything deeply. Quick hits of dopamine are the priority; deeper spiritual conversation is not. But I will say that among all generations we hit, there’s always been reticence to dwell on spiritual matters in the heart, to really be open, pushing away all that hinders us from examining the claims of Christ, and to really think on these matters in a way that could change one’s life.

24. What has been the biggest lesson you personally had to learn when it comes to evangelizing? (ie patience, not taking things personally, more studying and preparation)

I’ve had to really accept that it takes time, energy, and lot of heartache, sometimes, to reach people. There are those who are gifted in evangelism, the ones who plant the seed and move on—on one hand, God bless them, because I could never do that consistently. So much rejection and hard work! But on the other hand, we who are involved the long haul, in developing the relationships and meeting people where they are, often see failure, which can be discouraging. My mindset has had to shift and I remember that 1) these are people on journeys and I’m just a part of their pathway that hopefully leads to Christ, so I don’t need to put such pressure on myself and what we do, and 2) God is working and my role may be to just model Christ over and over again as God uses me in whatever way he needs.

25. What motivates you to keep evangelizing and ministering despite any cold or hateful experiences?

The more I know Christ, the longer our relationship goes, the more I desire to please him. As the hymn says, there’s “no turning back.”

TIPS & ADVICE FOR OTHERS

26. What would you say is the best approach for others who want to evangelize to friends or strangers within the community?

Most of the evangelists that are most prominent for their work have a gift for speaking, but they don’t seem to exhibit a love for people. They don’t seem to really care. To me, the heart is where it starts: a love for God and a love for people. If you’re lacking one or the other—a heart of obedience to God or a love for his creation—pray for it. Cultivate it. Evangelism will come the closer you are to the heart of Christ.

27. What tips and advice would you give to someone who wants to host a faith-based panel or table at a convention?

I’m no expert—but there are people who are! I would check out what Love Thy Nerd, Jesus Otaku, or other people who do convention ministry are doing. So many of these people are great at what they do and just awesome people in general. You don’t have to start from scratch like I did—lean on the expertise of those who have gone before you.

28. Are there any bible verses you find yourself bringing up time and time again when talking to individuals in this community?

This is a funny one, because you’d think it would be the traditional Romans verses or others that we use when guiding people to faith, but honestly, I find that knowing the breadth of the Bible is so important. When connecting how I live to my faith, verses from all over pop up in my mind all the time. Now, I admit I haven’t invested the proper time in memorizing scripture, so they often come up a little jumbled, but I do know where the scripture is from and I can head over to biblegateway.com to quote it. But I wouldn’t even be able to start if I wasn’t reading the Bible from cover to cover.

29. What about bible verses do you say to yourself to stay motivated and to combat fear/anxiety?

Filling yourself with the truth over and over again, as opposed to human perspectives on the world, which is what we get through anime, gaming, and other media, encourages you to go to that truth instead of to your own intuition or to the world’s thoughts when you consider a topic. I definitely know that the more I’m in the word, and the more times I’ve read the Bible, the more immediately I turn to God. It helps keep the devil from gaining a foothold.

30. What is something someone should avoid saying at all costs when trying to evangelize to those in the community?

This is a good question! I’m not sure there is one thing you should say because everyone is a little different. For instance, I dove right into gender stuff and God’s creation of man and woman with a contact that I don’t think was ready to receive that message; it damaged the relationship. And then with a Muslim contact, we both were just very straightforward in explaining what we believed about Christ and, eventually, we became really good friends.

The lesson, I think, is to just prayerfully and actively invest in people. Listen to them. Be there for them. Love them. And trust the Holy Spirit to provide the words.

31. What would you say is the best response when someone condemns a Christian or questions their faith due to their interests in anime/gaming/cosplay/etc?

That typically signals one of two things to me: Either the condemning person is from a very conservative culture and he or she is too blinded by the eyeglasses of that culture, automatically assuming this perspective is from God when it might not be, or this person just isn’t mature enough in faith yet to see how something outside of scripture can still point toward the God of scripture. If that person is humble enough to chat, I would say that’s a great opportunity to explain your insights about how God can be found in gaming or anime. But if the person is closed off, just pray for him or her and move on; I usually do that with the thought that eventually, this person will comprehend all this better. I know I did!

32. Is there ever a time when you think a Christian should seriously avoid or take a long break from anime/gaming?

Oh yeah! If you feel these things are hurting your relationship with God and others, then stay away from them. They can become additions and they can feed your mind with content that isn’t godly. Flee from temptation—even if that temptation is something you might love, like gaming.

33. What is something you feel the non-Christians within the nerd community need to hear/understand the most when it comes to God/Jesus/The Bible/The Gospel.

I would just repeat what my friends from Geek Devotions always say: You are loved.

34. Please share some words of encouragement to your fellow brothers/sisters in Christ who are interested in sharing their faith to their local nerd communities.

First of all, awesome! Thank you so much for your love for nerds—they need us to reach out, serve them, and show them Christ! And secondly, know that you’re not alone. So many people are out there right now doing this—a number of them fulltime as “digital missionaries”—so you’ve got a community you can already engage in to support you in being a witness for Christ in this sphere. Take your time, learn about the community, connect with other ministers, pray, and figure out what God has prepared for you to do with the nerds!

CONCLUSION

35. Any final words for the readers?

If you’re reading this, I believe it’s because God has something planned for you related to him and to nerddom! And if you need anyone to chat with, feel free to reach out to me—I’d love to talk to you about Jesus, faith, missions, anime, whatever is on your heart!

36. If anyone would like to contact with you and/or ask more questions, how can they reach you?

You can reach me by email or by sending a message through virtually any of our platforms.
[ Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Tumbler ]

37. Are there any additional resources you would like to share or other individuals/platforms that you would love to recommend?

I’ve mentioned a few already, but there really are a ton of groups and people doing digital ministry to gamers and nerds right now. I’ll give just two quick resources: The NCMU Podcast, where people like you are sharing their experiences and advice, and the Anime Ministry Network Discord Server I’ve created, where folks using anime to reach people for Christ gather to partner and share.

Final Words From Nostalgia

I had so much fun coming up with interview questions and I personally feel understood, edified and encouraged by TWWK! Definitely check out the Beneath The Tangles Blog and consider following their social media (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Tumbler)!

And while this is the first interview, it won’t be the last! I even got some Japanese Christian artists who have agree to an interview, and I’m so excited to personally learn from these amazing ministers and to share their experiences, wisdom, and advice with all of you. If you haven’t yet, you can follow my Facebook page or subscribe by email in the sidebar to be notified~

And that’s all from me. Hope you all have an amazing day! God bless <3