Nuns Are Mikos/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A Christian nun follows the conventions expected from a Japanese Miko instead of the much stricter conventions expected from her.

  • Straight: Mary is a nun but goes to a secular mixed school and plans to marry after graduation.
  • Exaggerated: Mary claims to be a Christian nun, but dresses in miko uniform and looks after what looks like a Shinto shrine with a cross on top.
  • Justified: A new Christian church is founded in Japan that seeks to blend Roman Catholic and Shinto customs.
  • Inverted: Kimiko is a miko but, for some reason, sticks to strict prayer rules, permanent chastity, etc. May be a case of Western Author not doing their research, a personal choice, or some form of plot twist.
  • Subverted: Akira meets Mary and falls in love with her but gets some unexpected bad news regarding the nature of her vows...
  • Double Subverted: ...and a wink. And Mary elopes with him to Japan.
  • Parodied: Kimiko is in Europe and is disguised as a nun but has never seen one before. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Deconstructed: An order of Real Nuns is created because everyone else is not so real anymore.
  • Reconstructed: ...then an older nun explains why things have changed from the Old Times and why they are better as changed.
  • Zig Zagged: The hero tries to find out how this strange obscure order of nuns works but none of the known ways, European or Japanese, seem to fit.
  • Averted: A Japanese author does the research and his Mary is as authentic a nun as they come.
  • Enforced: A Japanese author does the research but the publisher rejects the draft because it's not fanservice-y enough.
  • Lampshaded: "Kimiko, welcome to our convent. Here are the rules, and no, I'm afraid they're not what you expected..."
  • Invoked: "We need to keep this Christian order running under that Shogun's ban, so let's make it as if we're Shinto." Truth in Television, the Japanese Christians survived several centuries with somewhat similar arrangements
  • Defied: Kimiko converts to Roman Catholicism, is very zealous, looks for the strictest convent out there and forcefully dismisses any suggestion that she might be able to get on with her "normal" life even with the new faith, just because Japanese religions would allow it.
  • Discussed: "Hey Jake, when we decided to stop by for the night, I thought this was a convent, but it seems somewhat strange..."
  • Conversed: "You've been watching anime again, my son? I have tried that before but they managed to get everything wrong about the things I do know - can't trust them for a moment now. Here, take this Mel Gibson DVD instead".
  • Played for Drama: Kimiko agrees to enter a Christian convent to save her family from something, then realizes she's in for more than she expected.

OK girl. It might be on the Vatican List of Prohibited Books, but never mind. Return to Nuns Are Mikos

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