I don't know why, I've just always found the mental image of a stereotypical anime girl going "Jesus Christ is my lord and savior!" very amusing.
Non-obvious/more subtle examples are preferred.
Maria Holic was mentioned, and it's a parody of Maria-sama ga Miteru (MariMite) which translates as, "Mother Mary is Watching Over Us," and is a yuri set at a Catholic school, where the imagery is taken more seriously. There's a fair amount of anime set at all-girls Catholic schools where everyone is gay, like Strawberry Panic, and it's an interesting little case study in cultural differences.
For most Japanese people, religion is just a matter of ceremonies and aesthetics. They don't really get the whole "homosexuality is sin" thing that Christianity has going because to them, Christianity is just when you have crosses and white wedding dresses and schools segregated by gender. I've heard you can get a gig dressing up as a priest and doing weddings over there because they don't care whether you're a real priest. Meanwhile, homosexuality was historically permissible in Japan, and there is this perception that lesbianism is just a phase that people grow out of so it's "harmless," which is certainly homophobic but in more of a patronizing and dismissive way. Generally the view of sex and sexuality being an inherently moral issue is way more common in the West, even among people who aren't Christian.
So put all that together and an all-girls Catholic school starts to look like a totally natural setting for a show where everyone's gay. And it's also probably why the idea of an anime girl going "Jesus Christ is my lord and savior!" is funny and incongruent, because Christianity is generally such a foreign concept in anime.
Jesus is in an anime where he's a roommate with The Buddha
Going to catholic school would've been way more entertaining if the priests had been as spicy as they're portrayed in the nasuverse
I was going to say Alexander Anderson from Hellsing, but you said subtle
Alexander Anderson from Hellsing abridged is a much more entertaining and realistic portrayal of a catholic, imo. The original is great tho.
Most of the characters in Hellsing are nominally Christian, but half of them are undead vampires who are doomed to Hell
One of the main characters in A Certain Magical Index is a nun, and a huge part of the plot is the Protestant Church and Catholic Church getting into a secret magic war over Japan's experimental super-science city.
It's a goofy concept (in a good way, if you ask me) but I just couldn't get into the Index anime...gave up about halfway through the second season. Enjoyed Railgun a lot more, though: the OPs are all bangers, Misaka >>> Touma, and the pacing was a lot better from what I remember.
Yeah, the Index anime is pretty mid altho people tell me the light novel is better. I think all three seasons have rushed adaptation problems.
And I agree that Railgun's a lot better because it's more focused on it's premise (CGDCT's but they have X-men powers), and as someone who read the manga all the anime only changes they made honestly made it a better story (Saten having a bigger role, etc.)... and all the best parts of Index end up in Railgun anyway with better characters lol.
Ain't there an entire faction of Super Catholics in Hellsing? (CW: it's Hellsing)
At the very least the most entertaining anime catholic, though he certainly isn't a very subtle example.
I'd dare to say there's a number of anime with devout Christian factions.
Maria Holic takes place in a Catholic School. A lot of Christian imagery used for comedy.
Lilly Satou from Katawa Shoujo:
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Studied in a Catholic school
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Wears a cross
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Shows interest in underaged boys
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