OVA
Description
Buddha, known in the story as Gautama Buddha, is the founder of Buddhism and one half of the divine duo taking a vacation on Earth in modern-day Tokyo. He shares a small apartment in Tachikawa City with Jesus Christ, and their goal is to experience the pleasures and challenges of ordinary life while keeping their true identities a secret.
In terms of personality, Buddha is calm, level-headed, and thrifty. He serves as the responsible, almost maternal figure of the household, taking charge of cooking, cleaning, and managing their tight domestic finances. He is often portrayed as the straight man to Jesus’s more impulsive nature, frequently chastising his roommate for frivolous purchases or unrealistic ideas. Despite his serious demeanor, Buddha is deeply kind and good-natured. He is willing to go to great lengths to secure a good bargain and has a unique, often hilarious, approach to leisure activities, such as his famously awkward swimming style or his terrified chanting of sutras on a roller coaster.
Buddha’s primary motivation is simply to enjoy his vacation from divinity. He is content to spend his time meditating, but thanks to Jesus’s influence, he finds himself exploring amusement parks, attending local festivals, and engaging with modern pop culture. He has a particular fondness for manga, becoming an avid fan of Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha series, and he even tries his hand at drawing his own comics. He is also a skilled gardener and enjoys the simple pleasure of growing things.
Within the story, Buddha’s role is that of the grounded anchor for the duo. While Jesus is often the one to get them into humorous situations with his boundless enthusiasm, Buddha is the one who figures out how to get them out of them, or at least manage the consequences. His key relationship is with Jesus, and their dynamic is that of close friends who are considerate and respectful of each other, even when bickering over a new rice cooker versus a new laptop. He also has a significant, though fearful, relationship with their elderly landlady, Matsuda Sachiyo, whose stern authority is one of the few things that can truly intimidate the enlightened being.
A subtle development for Buddha is his growing appreciation for the worldly experiences that Jesus pushes him toward. Though he initially resists the chaos of modern life, he acknowledges that Jesus’s selfishness is, in his own words, his salvation, as it prevents him from spending his entire vacation in meditation. He learns to find joy in small, imperfect human moments, even if they terrify him at first.
Notable abilities are a natural and often comedic part of Buddha’s character. When he says or does something particularly virtuous, a golden halo shines around his head, which he and Jesus must frantically try to conceal. When he becomes too excited or reaches a state of enlightenment, his entire body glows a brilliant gold. Animals are instinctively drawn to him, flocking to his side wherever he goes, a trait that often threatens to blow his cover. He also possesses immense patience, a remnant of his years of extreme asceticism, and his most powerful expressions of virtue can have tangible, if sometimes inconvenient, effects on the world around him.
In terms of personality, Buddha is calm, level-headed, and thrifty. He serves as the responsible, almost maternal figure of the household, taking charge of cooking, cleaning, and managing their tight domestic finances. He is often portrayed as the straight man to Jesus’s more impulsive nature, frequently chastising his roommate for frivolous purchases or unrealistic ideas. Despite his serious demeanor, Buddha is deeply kind and good-natured. He is willing to go to great lengths to secure a good bargain and has a unique, often hilarious, approach to leisure activities, such as his famously awkward swimming style or his terrified chanting of sutras on a roller coaster.
Buddha’s primary motivation is simply to enjoy his vacation from divinity. He is content to spend his time meditating, but thanks to Jesus’s influence, he finds himself exploring amusement parks, attending local festivals, and engaging with modern pop culture. He has a particular fondness for manga, becoming an avid fan of Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha series, and he even tries his hand at drawing his own comics. He is also a skilled gardener and enjoys the simple pleasure of growing things.
Within the story, Buddha’s role is that of the grounded anchor for the duo. While Jesus is often the one to get them into humorous situations with his boundless enthusiasm, Buddha is the one who figures out how to get them out of them, or at least manage the consequences. His key relationship is with Jesus, and their dynamic is that of close friends who are considerate and respectful of each other, even when bickering over a new rice cooker versus a new laptop. He also has a significant, though fearful, relationship with their elderly landlady, Matsuda Sachiyo, whose stern authority is one of the few things that can truly intimidate the enlightened being.
A subtle development for Buddha is his growing appreciation for the worldly experiences that Jesus pushes him toward. Though he initially resists the chaos of modern life, he acknowledges that Jesus’s selfishness is, in his own words, his salvation, as it prevents him from spending his entire vacation in meditation. He learns to find joy in small, imperfect human moments, even if they terrify him at first.
Notable abilities are a natural and often comedic part of Buddha’s character. When he says or does something particularly virtuous, a golden halo shines around his head, which he and Jesus must frantically try to conceal. When he becomes too excited or reaches a state of enlightenment, his entire body glows a brilliant gold. Animals are instinctively drawn to him, flocking to his side wherever he goes, a trait that often threatens to blow his cover. He also possesses immense patience, a remnant of his years of extreme asceticism, and his most powerful expressions of virtue can have tangible, if sometimes inconvenient, effects on the world around him.