fcdd42 No.624018
Can't show that in a Christian manga
Serenity is a Christian-themed, American-made “““”manga”””” written by Buzz Dixon, an Evangelical. The story follows the teenage troublemaker Serenity Harper as she struggles with her budding faith in Christ and develops relationships with members of the Prayer Club at her school. It ran from 2005 to 2010, and is more or less what you'd expect from a low-budget imitation manga released in the anime boom of the mid 2000s, at least at first.
For those that aren't aware, /co/ historically has a Serenity general on Christmas and Easter where the entire run is posted. First-time readers often mock it at first, but find themselves getting drawn into the story and sincerely attached to the characters as the plot thickens. But I digress. This isn’t exactly Shakespearian drama here.
Reading through this with /christian/ should be a great time, since I doubt a great number of you are familiar with it, and this may be the first time in history that a group of actual Christians get to read it as a group. Particularly since Buzz’s liberal, hyper-Evangelical theology can get suspect at times.
Without further ado, I present Serenity (along with some fun bonus materials at the end).
It's storytime! Kick back and enjoy the show.
fcdd42 No.624020
Since we can post so many images per post here we should be able to get through the whole run in a single thread.
fcdd42 No.624023
And, naturally, you read from left to right.
What that? Manga are usually read from right to left? That's silly.
240d71 No.624024
180b6e No.624025
>>624018
>american
>manga
I will pray for you
240d71 No.624029
>>624027
I did read it, it looks like something off DeviantArt.
fcdd42 No.624030
>>624029
Precisely. Now, would you believe me if I told you that this series was commercially successful?
fcdd42 No.624032
And so our dashing hero comes to Youth Group.
240d71 No.624033
>>624030
is it a "so bad it's good" situation? (like Sonichu) otherwise I'm not really interested.
fcdd42 No.624036
>>624033
Pretty much. And, to its credit, it does genuinely attempt to carry a Christian message.
Whether it succeeds or fails at that is really the question.
fcdd42 No.624037
For the record, the art does get better with time. Marginally.
fcdd42 No.624042
Money doesn't being happiness, it seems.
8d5d27 No.624050
>>624018
Thanks for the story time OP
fcdd42 No.624051
>>624050
No problem. Given how infamous this comic is, I'm actually shocked how little it gets mentioned here.
fcdd42 No.624056
And that's the end of the first volume. I'm gonna take a quick break to eat something.
Let me know if you're interested in me posting the rest, if only to continue watching this slow-motion train crash.
ccd34e No.624057
Is this manga free(as in you don't have to buy it), or are you giving us pirating stuff right here?
If its pirated you can stop posting it now.
fcdd42 No.624058
>>624057
Realbuzzstudios no longer exists. The creator is on record supporting Serenity threads and discussion because it keeps up interest in his work even though it's no longer in print.
ccd34e No.624060
ccd34e No.624061
>>624060
>sage
working as intended.
4d9694 No.624072
>>624056
I'm interested, can you please post the rest?
fcdd42 No.624073
Alright, apologies for the delay. We're continuing on with Volume 2.
fcdd42 No.624079
You can see here in this 12 Step plot one of the main complaints this series gets – even when the subject matter is really serious, the art never seems to show it.
4d9694 No.624084
fcdd42 No.624087
Our intrepid heroine is making progress.
07d919 No.624092
>>624018
Haven't seen this in ages! Nice call back.
fcdd42 No.624095
And Serenity manages to somehow deepen Kimberly's grudge against her.
fcdd42 No.624103
And so Serenity does the right thing.
fcdd42 No.624109
I hope you're all enjoying Buzz's attempts to use the hip new lingo that's all the rage with the kids.
c5291a No.624110
>>624108
I'm enjoying this for some reason. Oddly entertaining.
fcdd42 No.624114
And so everyone's doing the purity test.
fcdd42 No.624119
Sometimes during Serenity threads, people will post purity tests like the one in the story. Given that the message here is that they're only negative, I'm not going to bother.
fcdd42 No.624121
And so now we're taking care of egg babies.
fcdd42 No.624124
Hank Hill baby makes his dramatic entrance.
e9497c No.624132
>tfw no serenity christian gf
fcdd42 No.624133
The baby is saved and Serenity doesn't drop out of school.
fcdd42 No.624134
And here's the last few pages from 3.
>>624132
I know that feel.
fcdd42 No.624142
I'm genuinely not sure if we're going to hit an image limit since I've never seen that happen on this board. If there is one, I'll make another thread.
fcdd42 No.624146
As we all know, this is definitely how all teenagers talk in chatrooms.
fcdd42 No.624158
No one actually ends up dying from scouring powder, fortunately.
fcdd42 No.624165
Who's excited for snowboarding?
fcdd42 No.624178
Serenity finally gets to go on the ski trip.
fcdd42 No.624183
And so Serenity is publicly embarrassed.
fcdd42 No.624190
Serenity avoids death by tree.
fcdd42 No.624192
And that's Volume 5. We're halfway done!
fcdd42 No.624193
Volume 6. We're just about at 500 images, so I imagine that if there's an image cap we'll be hitting it soon.
fcdd42 No.624197
Left with no other options, Serenity finally decides to pick up Scripture.
Also, no limit at 500! No new thread needed.
fcdd42 No.624202
"Honor your father and mother" is probably a bit more relevant than "Love your enemies" in this situation, Buzz.
fcdd42 No.624205
Serenity is finally making actual use of the Prayer Club.
fcdd42 No.624206
By the way, I hope you agree with what I said earlier. The art has improved somewhat with time.
09c895 No.624211
I read this on /co/ a while back. If you can get past the amateurish art it's sweet and heartfelt. Even got me to tear up a few times.
fcdd42 No.624223
Volume 6 over, with the main character arguably having become Christian.
fcdd42 No.624225
Volume 7. Between this issue and 6, there was a change in art direction. I personally think it looks a lot better.
982f76 No.624228
>Niggers
Into the trash it goes. """""""""""Manga""""""""""""
fcdd42 No.624233
Serenity's mother continues to be terrible.
fcdd42 No.624243
You will be forgiven for tearing up at the previous page.
fcdd42 No.624245
The rest of this issue is the movie. Naturally, this means more plot development is going to have to wait until next issue.
fcdd42 No.624261
And that's Volume 7. I hope you didn't find the movie segment too painful because they're a running part of the series from here on out.
fcdd42 No.624265
We're already all the way up to eight.
fcdd42 No.624274
And so Serenity goes to church.
fcdd42 No.624277
Serenity's in serious trouble.
fcdd42 No.624278
Thank you, mysterious fireman.
fcdd42 No.624284
And now we're in the mires of movie 2.
fcdd42 No.624286
The change in artstyle can be a little refreshing.
b75584 No.624297
Anime is sin, manga is sin, mods delete this please !
fcdd42 No.624301
The end of Volume 8.
The series ends at 10, and I've heard it said before that these long movie episodes were a big contribution to the cancellation of the series. Honestly, I agree.
>>624297
I know you're funposting, but I actually got clearance from the mods before I made this thread.
b75584 No.624304
>>624301
Oh ok, I see, the filth is everywhere…
Seriously, you need a clearance for this ?
fcdd42 No.624305
>>624304
Well, I just wanted to be sure that storytime threads were acceptable before I spent the time getting all the files together. It took a bit of effort.
fcdd42 No.624307
Eddie's been struggling behind the scenes.
fcdd42 No.624311
Eddie and Serenity's date ends in feels.
950921 No.624314
Thanks for posting! I've read through the majority of this and I'm really enjoying it so far.
God bless you and thank you for taking the time to post it. :D
fcdd42 No.624315
>>624314
Glad you're having a good time!
fcdd42 No.624319
These past few pages really give you a sense of Buzz as an Evangelical.
And now for the ever-so-exciting movie three.
fcdd42 No.624323
I do like the use of colors in this episode.
fcdd42 No.624340
There's the end of Volume 9!
I'm going to take another food break here. When I get back, we'll finish off with the last volume and some bonus stuff.
fcdd42 No.624358
Alright, let's finish off the last volume.
e9497c No.624361
Thanks for your hard work anon!
fcdd42 No.624365
Do you want to protect that smile?
fcdd42 No.624368
I always thought dyeless Serenity looked a lot like Christ-chan.
fcdd42 No.624371
Serenity's mother actually shows a modicum of concern.
fcdd42 No.624377
Derek is too powerful to fall for Kimberly's schemes.
fcdd42 No.624381
And the blue comes back!
Since what follows is another movie segment, this is more or less the end of the story.
fcdd42 No.624387
I know it's part of the aesthetic they're going for, but I think the drab brown inking was a poor choice.
fcdd42 No.624398
And that's the end of the last volume, the formal end to the series.
fcdd42 No.624401
But that's not it!
Even though the series was cancelled, Buzz continued to write a couple Serenity shorts on his blog for a number of years. No real art, but for all intents and purposes they're more entries in the series. There's only a couple of them, unfortunately.
fcdd42 No.624403
Here's the first part of another short.
fcdd42 No.624410
And here's short prayer by Serenity. This capped off the last of the blogposts that Buzz made about the series.
fcdd42 No.624412
For anyone that's made it this far, you're definitely going to want to see this.
As I mentioned in the beginning of the thread, /co/ has been doing Serenity threads on major Christian holidays for quite some time. There's been plenty of discussion about the characters and about the message Buzz is trying to give. Once, an anon actually wrote an email to Buzz himself to ask him about the series. His response is actually fairly profound and is really worth reading.
424157 No.624414
fcdd42 No.624418
And as one, last, final treat.
Thanks to everyone who read along with the story and God bless!
5f24d8 No.624500
d13b3d No.624505
post manga messiah next please
f5fe23 No.624507
>>624020
Why does Serenity look like a man
Why does the black dude have woman's eyes
fcdd42 No.624521
>>624505
I'll look into it. I had a good bit of fun doing this so maybe we could have another storytime in a few weeks.
b331ad No.624534
This is cringewothy af. Sage.
b331ad No.624536
>>624507
Serenity looks like a dyke.
6b69ee No.624689
>>624534
you forgot to sage dummy
d13b3d No.624700
>>624082
wow his gf is a real bitch
d13b3d No.624702
>>624095
lmao oh no. she's gonna be mad with she finds out what serenity did
d13b3d No.624706
>>624106
any big arcs coming up? the next book sounds like filler
d13b3d No.624717
d13b3d No.624752
>>624153
i'm trying to hear some of that wwjd hardcore trance
fcdd42 No.624759
>>624719
Even if that isn't OC I'm definitely saving that to post in future storytimes.
fcdd42 No.624761
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
>>624752
Something like this, I imagine.
bfb490 No.624764
>>624029
Whats wrong with DeviantArt?
272112 No.624780
>>624764
What's wrong with it? What's right with it! I looked up Pink Floyd fanart not too long ago and I saw two (2) My Little Pony dolls that were supposed to be personifications of The Dark Side of the Moon and the Worms from The Wall.
272112 No.624781
>>624780
By the way, don't go full /pol/ and unironically listen to the last fourth of The Wall. For good Christian prog, why not Neal Morse?
d13b3d No.624782
>>624191
i wonder if the website is still around lol
d13b3d No.624789
>>624212
wtf did she think serenity wanted to jerk off lmao
d13b3d No.624791
>>624222
dude this is too precious
d13b3d No.624798
>>624281
so are they gonna end up together or not
d13b3d No.624801
d13b3d No.624804
>>624316
poor eddie man wtf
d13b3d No.624809
d13b3d No.624811
>>624375
serenity's outfit in this is great
d13b3d No.624815
>>624412
>>624418
thanks for this experience my friend
fcdd42 No.624837
>>624815
Cheers. I'm glad you had a good time.
c1d145 No.624913
>>624018
you gotta have blue hair
c1d145 No.624914
>>624028
literately butt hurt
c1d145 No.624915
>>624031
walk like an Egyptian
c1d145 No.624916
>>624028
also it's amazing how relevant Ms Baxter or wherever her name is today
fcd74b No.624918
>>624534
t. (((Ms. Baxter)))
c1d145 No.624921
c1d145 No.624940
eaeb32 No.624955
>>624301
Thanks for the comic. And love the way you put funposting , truly shows the Christian in you. Thanks again .
7b7dd3 No.625140
Never heard of this before but that was quite a read. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to share all of this, and Buzz's own words were also really great to read!
God bless, OP.
c1d145 No.625193
>>624124
>>624127
how is baby formed? how girl get pregnant?
c5ebe2 No.625720
>>624700
Kimberly is worst girl.
4c4bbc No.625725
>>624373
>Start to experience Dark Night of the senses
>>624378
>Get talked out of it
I got sad a little.
Other than that (and few evangelical-mambo jambos) it was good manga. Art sucked a little bit and movies though good were too long but overall it was a good read.
PS Eddie is /ourguy/
c5ebe2 No.625746
>>624018
Thanks for sharing this, OP. I was laughing during volume 1, but by volume 3 I was actually hooked on a preteen fake manga from the mid-2000s. The art sucked and it was hardly a work of theological/apologetic genius, but it was a charming Christian story nonetheless. Could have done without the movie chapters in volumes 7–10, though.
Really a shame to see Buzz Dixon unironically retweeting Kurt Eichenwald after finishing this.
fcdd42 No.625757
>>625746
>Really a shame to see Buzz Dixon unironically retweeting Kurt Eichenwald after finishing this.
In the process of getting all these files together I actually stumbled upon some of Buzz's recent articles on the Christian faith. He's really gone off the deep end of liberalism, unfortunately. Here's some quotes:
>If you are a Bible literalist, and if you are so opposed to same sex relations that you try to deny gays their legal rights, then you are in serious danger of hellfire.
>[Conservatives] refer to social justice (as if that were a bad thing!) as “hippie love”. Let me remind you: The dirty #@%&ing hippies were right.
>[I realized that gay marriage is something to be celebrated] from the moment I realized that sexual orientation was either innate in most human beings from birth; or if acquired, acquired at such a deep emotional and psychological level as to not be an act of free will on the person who has it. It is not something that can be “cured” or even needs to be cured or changed, even if such a thing were possible.
>…half of the marriage between Christ and the church is a same sex marriage…either that or we who were born male have become transgender.
>We have triads and polyamorous relationships going on right now; some of them are quite happy and stable, so who are we to interfere?
Seriously, just read this article he wrote. It's a real shame.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unfundamentalistchristians/2015/07/40-questions-for-christians-now-waving-rainbow-flags/
Honestly, I'm very worried that he wants to revive Serenity. I'd like to see more of the characters, but if this is the new context he's writing from it'll do damage to the people reading it.
fcdd42 No.625760
>>625757
And to expand on that – it's really a shame, since he shows some real interesting insight on other issues that Christianity is facing. In another article, he expands nicely on some of what he wrote about in the /co/ emails.
>We cram little kids into a Sunday school class, tell them fairy tales – and that’s how they’re processing the dumbed down Bible stories we’re feeding them – and end up creating false impressions in their minds of what those stories mean in proper context.
>We give them crayons to color in a big bright rainbow over the ark, let them glue cotton bolls over the sheep gamboling down the plank, put glitter on Noah standing there with a big smile plastered over his face that God spared him and his family…And we never really take them past that point, do we?
>Our entire approach to the Bible is kept at that dumbed-down-and-not-at-all-accurate first depiction. When they become adults, the lesson plans and sermons don’t deviate much from that initial image that completely belies the meaning of the flood story, that completely ignores the complexity and the contradictions of Noah and his behavior.
>We argue we do that out of deference to visitors who may not be familiar with the Bible, or to keep from confusing young kids in church with a more thorough study, but a story told badly should not be told at all, and the messages we should derive from Bible study have to first fight their way past a morass of misconceptions that have been carefully hammered down on us for years.
I agree with this criticism of Evangelicalism, and I even think it would be great to explore this in a story like Serenity. But it's impossible to take his opinions on faith seriously when he defends so much filth.
fcdd42 No.625762
One more quote from Buzz's blog since this one causes me physical pain.
>If human sexuality could be expressed in one fashion and one fashion only (i.e., hetronormative) then why did Jesus teach us that some people are born asexual, some become asexual (strongly implying that castration & emasculation was an acceptable route to this end goal), and that those people had an advantage over straights because they weren’t distracted from their love of God by sexual urges?
>If God doesn’t want us fiddling with our physical forms in order to feel more comfortable in our own skins, then why did Jesus restore withered limbs, cleanse leprosy, restore sight, staunch gynecological problems, cure the sick, raise the dead? Why not just put a mental whammy on them to make them feel comfortable with their twisted limbs, pustulent skin, deteriorating bodies?
God help this man. Holy hell.
4a209b No.625777
>>624153
>#5
The feels are real
85602a No.625783
>>625757
>>625760
>>625762
tfw if serenity was made today (((ms baxter))) would be one of the heroes
d13b3d No.625837
>>625757
>3. How would you make a positive case from Scripture that sexual activity between two persons of the same sex is a blessing to be celebrated?
>Ecclesiastes 4:8-12
i am angry. angry about apostate sodomites
85af71 No.626453
Not sure if anyone's still watching this thread, but I'm actively looking into Manga Messiah, like >>624505 suggested. It looks both amazing and terrible, much like Serenity, so I very much want to do it.
Here's the thing, though – I've run into an interesting situation. The company that makes the Manga Bible is still selling copies of the older books and actually raising funds for the last entry in the series. Naturally, I wouldn't post that here since it falls into a grey zone of piracy (I felt comfortable posting Serenity here since I knew that Buzz was alright with the threads on /co/).
But the story doesn't end there. I found a page on facebook that actually has scans of the entirety of Manga Messiah and is seemingly associated with the publishers. I'm going to reach out to both the owner of that page and the author to see if I can get permission to post them here. Wish me luck!
e45fc1 No.626593
20a839 No.628373
>>624153
#5 is fucking too close to home
>>624162
#1 I had something similar happen to me.
Also in all honesty guys I do have a fondness towards this Christian manga, and I think the reason is that it the pure senserity of it. I'm not a fan of the home movie arcs but it still show just pure senserity to read this. I believe it is the way that the characters are written it doesn't show Serenity constantly being shit on or the other kids with no problems or temptations to sin. And even the art style while it is not good it and is made to get teenages to read, it feels less like of a, "this is popular I'll do it this way and make money!" and more like the author chose to do it in order to just, "talk" to the teens with what interested them as a gateway to talk about God.
Anyone else think this?
aaf451 No.628451
>>628373
After like the first volume I was pretty hooked thanks to this thread. I can stomach bad art and cheesiness as long as it comes from a sincere place, which is extremely hard to find nowadays.
If you can get folks interested in God while still conveying the proper message and doing it for the right reasons, that is a pretty impressive feat.