So, I was reading volume 3 of Highschool DxD novel when I reflected in slight shock to see how ethnocentric in terms of religion the story became after the Raiser Phenex arc. For those that do not mind, I list some notable moments below; however, to my main point of the discussion they are not essential.

1. Like Qwaser of Stigmata, they make mistakes about hierarchical structure of the church and past biblical events. HS DxD takes this to same level by mixing up attitudes and the actual religious sects of Catholicism with the Eastern Orthodox Church and Protestant sects in some places. For example, Balbade and Freed make references to fringe Eastern Orthodox and pre-Roman Catholic fringe Christian cults than actual modern Christian dogma.
2. After revealing that God is essentially is dead, the protagonist fights not for sake of honor or protecting self-worth of his friends, but for the ability to cop a feel the very friends who world view has been just shattered. While also an echii scene, this is almost text book egoism and ethnocentrism.
3. The religious 'rivalry' between Zenova and Irina is ethnocentric by mimicking more Japanese/nihonjinron cultural beliefs and mannerisms than the actual historical ideologies and economic factors that separated Protestants and Catholics. For this and additional reasons, it is also kind of a stereotypical.

Like Qwaser of Stigmata or Da Vinci Code, I understand in fiction involving religious conflict, authors must use their artistic license to alter some of the facts about Christianity in order to make an interesting story. Its also a minority in ethnic anime/manga controversies when compared to the growing use of femicide or altocide(*) in horror and even the comedy genre (R-15, Battle Royale, Freezing, Eden no Ori, Fire Fire Fire, Triage X, Qwaser of the Stigmata are all notiable minor examples.
I find Highschool DxD and some other recent works simply odd despite that vast amount of manga out there. In this topic, I like to get your guys opinion on manga/anime and its history in order to better understand phenomena like HS DxD and other ethnically controversial manga/anime.

** A. ** How do you define discrimination or ethnocentrism in terms of manga/anime? In other words.... Suppose for a moment a manga decided about your hometown, heritage, and the culture of you grew up in, the mannerism of your friends and family, your beliefs that define your self-identity and self-esteem. ** * Where do you draw the line in how accurate and realistic it should represent those ethnic traits that define who you are? ***
** B. ** What is the significance of crossing that line for you personally or socially? Why? Does manga/anime often cross this line or is it rare?

On a side note, I am kind of curious in generally on how Japanese media has really changed over the past 10-15 years, historically speaking--
A. What kind of shows and stories motifs have the Japanese public really pushed towards? What trends and motifs (not shows) have been popular?
B. How has the industry changed over the years in terms of censorship or shaping the otaku or AV consumer consciousness? (After all, TV ads do affect us and shape public discourse on some level).

Seriously, consider these questions for a moment because I am curious to hear your replies.

(*)Gendercide: The intentional killing based on gender and other malicious acts involved in removal of one’s genitalia to prevent a person or people from giving birth. It is the modern day 21st century form of genocide as defined by the Geneva Convention and thus consider a violation of international human rights and a war crime. When done to women its called femicide and when done to men its called androcide.

....wow that's quite an essay you have there. So um can you like give us a thesis statement to summarize your point? You know, for those of us who get dizzy when faced with a wall of text?

You get used to ethnocentrism in anime/manga over time... for me, that is. And I read manga not for how accurate it reflects my reality but, how they see theirs.

"I'll shut your mouth~~~~~ with mine~~~"

二息歩行

A1. Discrimination in anime/manga is the same as any other media. Often times its simply a matter of storytelling (ie. Japan often times surviving an apocalyptic scenario), but other times its simply a matter of playing up stereotypes (ie. the gun-toting American or the gentleman-like Englishman).

That said, I draw the line where the stereotyping is NOT limited to a very small group of characters or the writers do NOT make it clear that the group they are depicting are a minority. Other than that, I don't really care, but then again, I'm a second generation American immigrant, so I'm in that weird flux between people asking me if I lean more towards my "home" country or my "native" country.

B1. Not much, its just a matter of recognizing poor writing.

A2. Oof, thats something my crappy memory can't really answer. One thing that comes to mind though is how Japanese manga/anime don't really reference sensitive real world issues anymore (if they do, its a lot more subtle and rarer).

B2. In Japan, the industry has been shaped more by the politics/people more than anything. The recent ban on underage/loli content (I'm too lazy to look up the exact terminology) has definitely put a chill on the industry

I don't really have enough knowledge to answer all your questions but I can comment that it's very common for Japanese anime and manga to take huge liberties in portraying Christianity. TVTropes calls it Anime Catholicism. I think this artistic license is only a problem if the author is presenting their work as fully researched and/or representative of reality, which your example Seikon no Qwaser clearly isn't given it seems to be about the supernatural. For the most part it seems anime and manga include such elements mostly for the Rule of Cool or the sake of an interesting plot. While they may commit numerous inaccuracies to the page, it doesn't affect the integrity of the story the author wants to tell. I would say your other example, The Da Vinci Code, is a different matter. The author claimed the story was meticulously researched but, excusing the actual plot since it's fiction, numerous factual inaccuracies have been pointed out. While Seikon no Qwaser clearly occurs in some sort of alternate reality where the supernatural is a normal part of life, The Da Vinci Code, as far as I am aware, is basically set in the world as we know it. Therefore, the threshold where divergence from actual facts ceases to be acceptable depends upon the aims and setting of the story. I don't really see anything wrong with portraying something different from reality unless you are claiming your book/manga/anime is 100% truth. Regardless, author bias is inevitable and I think many works from all around the world are going to have some ethnocentrism. Of course the way an author perceives a story and portrays it is going to differ based on infinite factors. I don't think that's an excuse for stereotyping or plain laziness in research but I think there is really a limit to how accurate someone can be when, even with the best of intentions and many, many hours of research, your method of presenting something is skewed by your own perceptions, opinions and conclusions.

Or something. 🤣

世界のどこかに必ず
キミの居場所がある筈