10 Second Anime - Vatican Kiseki Chousakan - Episode 1

Translated - Vatican Miracle Examiners. Two man team examines reported miracles for the Roman Catholic Church. Season Premiere.

Episode I - "Through God's Succor, My Eyes Are Opened"

Heh.

This is a mystery and suspense show, so it looks like we're going to get dropped into the very first case and will have to get to know our skeptical priest duo as they determine what's going on at this isolated monastery and boarding school.

Kids playing with a Ouija board drawn on a pentagram... not a good sign.

Ah. Floating ikemen with stigmata. Also not a good sign. My yaoi sense is starting to tingle. Well, this is a show where the two main priests are lanky good looking young men with very sharp chins. Fujoshi are going to be all the way over this anime.

The two main guys are Fr. Joseph Kou Hiraga and Fr. Roberto Nicolas. Other characters from the opening credits show Archbishop Saul, Lauren, and Fr. Joseph's little brother Ryouta.

Eh, do miracle examiners get trained as exorcists? Looks like this show is trying to sex up the supernatural aspects of faith.

Good. This show is set in the real Vatican, not some fake Vatican.

Fr. Joseph's younger brother is stuck in a wheelchair with some kind of bone cancer. This point of stress will probably be used as a dramatic device to test the young priest's faith.

500 year old building with a retina scanner with signage in Italian. This is a modern Church story.

Boom! You guys are going to Mexico to figure out a virgin conception. Archbishop Saul says this certain Catholic institution will test their faith. That's ominous sounding of some sub rosa Church politics and innuendo.

The two priests figure the investigation is really a ruse to uncover blasphemy, devil worship, or some kind of corruption at the church of Saint Rosario.

Neat. I love this airplane graphic of traveling to Mexico. Very much like Indiana Jones. Paints a brush of a romantic notion of archaeologists to our miracle investigators.

The first episode of a mystery arc means you have to pay attention to all the details. Nothing presented is extraneous, even if it does end up being not related to the main mystery. This cabbie is telling the priests about a UFO sighting in 1945 on the mountain where the church and school was founded. Well. That's going to mean something.

This also means this one place is going to get loaded up with all sorts of interesting Catholic suspense. Miracles, devils, vows of chastity getting broken, deaths based on Church lore. The Japanese were never ones for patience when it comes to Western based stories...

This is such a mystery show. Name plates for all these characters we're going to forget when the mystery gets solved and we move onto the next case.

Hey. Priests actually praying and showing their faith in God. That's refreshing.

Uh oh. Stained glass showing a whole bunch of martyrs dying. We're going to get a serial killer too, aren't we?

This backwater church in Mexico has a replica of the lance of Longinus? That's going to be tied to some financial corruption.

Alright, we finally get to the nominal reason Fr. Joseph and Fr. Roberto are here: Sister Anna Dolores came up pregnant without ever having sex. Also, this backwater church and monastery built a huge state-of-the-art hospital. Hinky.

Anna's story sounds like every delusional rant I've ever heard. The "angel Gabriel" came to her "in a dream" and told her she was with child. Uh huh.

Not only that, she reported this "miracle" to the Vatican herself since her superiors were reluctant to believe her. I'm sure they were! Not just for the probably banal reason she became pregnant instead of a virginal conception miracle, but because the Vatican's curious eye would come down on whatever else they were doing at the secluded Saint Rosario.

Ah. Stigmata again.

And now we get a scene of a two headed baby (maybe) being held by a woman by the river. Demon spawn too! They're really loading this place up with every Catholic-themed suspense story.

Nice. Ave Maria being played in the background as Frs. Joseph and Roberto examine Anna medically.

Things are really suspicious with this lady. She got "visited" right as she arrived at the convent, yet her hymen is intact. Fr. Joseph suspects in vitro insemination, but why would this woman do that right before she became a nun?

Now we get to know our two priests better. Roberto is all ancient texts and codes. Joseph is all science and math.

Hmm. Sister Dorothea seems kinda sexy for a nun. She talks kinda ojousama-poi too. Roberto seems kinda scared by her.

Oh. Oh my. She looked right at Fr. Francesco when she bit that sausage. There goes all the vow breaking.

Saint Rosario has 30 million dollars worth of assets. Yeah, there goes the financial corruption.

Ha. Fr. Roberto has hieroglyphics for his desktop wallpaper.

Here we go. Some people aren't too keen on these Vatican guys being here. Fr. Klaus just got snuffed like one of the martyrs in the stained glass window.

Fr. Roberto also noticed how Sr. Dorothea just collapsed in to Fr. Francesco's arms. Calling him "Francesco!" Yeah, there's a big stink of blasphemy and corruption happening at this isolated church. That's not surprising that cult-like aspects would develop there.

And the president of the grounds Fr. Johannes doesn't want to call the cops right away. That's soo not suspicious.

To top it all off, the statue of the Madonna started to weep after the announcement of Fr. Klaus' death. We're getting almost every kind of "common" miracle the devotional Church is known for in one place.

The end credits are yaoi-licious with Roberto and Joseph acting like a same-sex married couple.

I do like how they use their last bit of conversation as a hint-laden clue for a preview of the next episode.

Next time, Fr. Joseph will prove that the Madonna statue wasn't weeping. We'll see about that!