The Christian Anime Alliance is an internet organization founded in 2001. It currently consists primarily of a forum created in 2003 for anime fans who also share a belief in Christ. The site is not affiliated with any major evangelical Christian organization or any particular Christian denomination. Though its members are predominantly Christian, there are a number of prominent members of different beliefs and the only requirement for membership is adherence to forum rules.

Overview ==

The Christian Anime Alliance is considered a safe haven for Christians who have an interest in Japanese animation. Many fundamentalist Christian organizations have condemned anime for its excessive violence, themes of pornography, and for advocating immorality, Eastern philosophy or nihilism. However many Christian anime fans point out that not all anime has these qualities and that not all titles should be condemned. Many members of the site wish to use this site for evangelical purposes while others just wish to talk about anime. Although most members are not narrow-minded, the basic worldview of the site could be considered orthodox. However, bringing up ideas or philosophies that might conflict with these views usually results in censoring of the material, deletion or locking of a thread, and possibly a ban. The administrators of the site seek to stay away from controversial issues in order to keep a constructive atmosphere in the forums.

The site has expanded considerably over the few years of its existence. It includes an anime review section, a manga review section, and several forums on sundry topics. One of the most active sections is the Gallery, where fanart and original art are posted by many members.

== History ==

Founded in August 2001 by Ashley Mills, the CAA was inspired by the writing of Gilbert Morris on the subject of devoting all aspects of life to Christ. It began as simple website with a listing of anime fans that were also Christian.

After approximately three months, there were enough members that an MSN group was created. During this time several members joined who would later become moderators: Archan (who stepped down after the most recent forum switch), Ark, Gypsy, and Lightbringer. This early stage of the CAA gave rise to a number of projects that continue to this day, including the manga reworking of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and the concept of anime reviews.

By Christmas 2002, members agreed that MSN was no longer sufficient for the growing organization. Nothing lasting came of this until May 2003, when a man using the handle Straylight offered to buy a server, domain name, and vBulletin Version 2. In June, Lightbringer became a moderator along with new members Inkhana and Shiroi Hikari (both of whom have since decided to step down). This shift caused exponential growth of the forum. This growth necessitated the promotion of three new moderators: Shooraijin, Mithrandir, and uc pseudonym. Though this staff was sufficient for some time, in January of 2006 Rogie, Yumie, Link Antilles, Mangafantic, and Eirewolf become moderators.

Currently, the CAA is operating on vBulletin Version 3 from a privately owned server and has well over 3000 contributing members.

== Societies and Threads ==

There are many smaller societies (or clubs) within the forums, e.g. a CLAMP fan club and a "Wolf Pack". These small societies are actually very informal and obviously "just for the fun of it". Such communities are nonexclusive, and individuals may have membership in multiple niche societies. There are also threads entirely dedicated to Goths and J-Rock although this has been met with some controversy between forum members.

Some threads are created for the purpose of generating widespread participation and interaction, such as the "Bump Thread", "Avatar Caption Game", "One Word Story", and "Corrupted Wish Game". Two very popular threads include the "BISHIES!" (short for bishônen) and "Bishôjo Pic Thread," in which members post pictures of their favorite anime/manga characters. These threads do not necessarily involve spam.

Plays are also popular in the CAA's "Goof Off" forum. "Days in the Life of CAA" is the first and only attempt to chronicle the daily happenings of the forum (albeit in a highly exaggerated and comical manner). Several tournament plays have spun off of "Days", notably "The Second Annual CAA Tournament" (the first one being within the "Days" play). Although not technically connected with the CAA itself, "Days in the Life of GRG" (Guild of Redeemed Gamers, a sister forum of the CAA) was inspired by "Days in the Life of CAA".

== Reviews ==

While the site is primarily a forum, it also features growing/developing anime and manga review sections. Both of these sections are dedicated to providing quality reviews (from a Christian standpoint) of anime and manga to members and guests alike. All of the reviews are found in a database via the "Reviews" links on link bar at the top of the site.

In keeping with the tradition of the site being a community, it is unsurprising that both review sections have their own forum. Every one of the reviews added to the databases are posted in these forums (by the staff), so members can stay up to date and comment on each other's work.

A long-awaited video game review database is also in the works.

== Webmanga ==

Many members have created their own webmanga, some of which are updated regularly. Most of these mangas have been with the forums for a long time although the forum was only created in 2005.

== Do Not Discuss Titles ==

In order to keep the discussions neutral and avoid flame wars, many titles have been put on a "do not discuss" list, often abbreviated as the DND. Titles include Neon Genesis Evangelion, Angel Sanctuary, Bible Black, Gravitation, and any hentai title. This list is not always considered to be good institution because some members see the need for debate. On the other hand, proponents of the DND believe that one carelessly-stated post can cause any healthy debate to degenerate into a name-calling, finger-pointing battle. Excepting hentai, the DND list is composed of titles that have consistently and repeatedly caused debate in the past.

The most recent addition to the DND list are the One Piece Dubbing vs Subtitle discussions, as they bring forth heated debates.

Politics are considered permanently off-topic and the moderators will close all threads directly addressing it, though there is precedent for threads with tangential political material to remain open. Similarly, debate about Christian doctrines that fall along points of dispute between various denominations are prohibited and such threads are typically closed immediately. The Alliance has an affiliate relationship with http://www.theologyweb.com, a theology debate forum to send persons who wish to debate Christian doctrine, and TheologyWeb sends Anime and Manga fans to the Alliance for participation and discussion. Borderline threads generally remain open until signs of brewing dissension appear. Discussion of any topic is allowed via private messaging.

==Podcast(s)

As the web site expands its horizons and continues to grow, it has even reached in to the realm of Podcasting. Several of the more beloved and talkative members of the website wax esoteric on their views on anime and videogames. Usually an hour long, the topics range from the latest news and what releases to expect to even the personal favorites of the hosts.

Typically esteemed to be a highly entertaining piece of work, the hosts tend to go off on tangents which lead to most of the shows humor and side gags. Most recent of these has been in the Anime cast, where the host known as Angel informs the host known as Link that "he fails" and takes as much time as needed to remind him of that fact. Another in-joke comes from the fact that during recording during the first few episodes of the "gamecast" one of the members was unable to attend. It was later said to be due to a plot created by black mages from the ever popular Final Fantasy series.

Yet for all the humor they never forget that they are Christians and always keep their beliefs in mind and use their beliefs as a driving force behind most of their conversations and topics. Early on in the game cast they tackled the topic of the problems with christian videogames and how they thought that the problems could be rectified. While they neither bashed christian gaming, they also did not completely praise it as they tried to find a way for there to be a well balanced game with a good and positive message.

==External link==

http://www.christiananime.net/

http://www.linkantilles.com/caaradio/

http://www.linkantilles.com/caagamecast/