Patriarch Kirill on Orthodox anime:

…a few words on church art as an instrument of the Orthodox mission.

Church art, in its most varied forms, has always been a vital component of our national culture. Of late, a new and highly ambiguous style of icon painting has gained currency, in which the images of the saints look more like anime characters than like the saints of God, whose labours we venerate and glorify in prayer.

I do not call upon all icon painters to work, without fail, in the manner of Dionysius, the Venerable Andrei Rublev or the academic school. I think, however, that the new style of icon painting can scarcely express the Orthodox understanding of aesthetics and the spiritual meaning of the icon, which is meant to be a window into the heavenly world, to bear witness that “the Word was made flesh” (John 1:14), and not to stir the emotions, leading one away from the realm of prayerful spiritual disposition into the realm of the soul’s feelings. At the same time, I consider the style in question admissible for illustrations in books of spiritual content, especially for children and young people. As illustrations in books, it may even be quite good. But as an image in church premises, it seems to me, it is not altogether right.