Media industry is a vibrant element of East Asian popular culture that has become increasingly
important on a global level in the last decades. Japanese and recently South Korean and
Chinese films or TV series have a growing and worldwide audience not least because of easier
access through streaming services. The many film productions provide a multifaceted arena of
highly diverse content that spans nearly all aspects of the cultural developments in the
countries. Religion has always played a major role in these contexts in various ways and in
accordance with the highly diversified religious landscape of East Asia. Consequently this
issue brings together contributions on Japanese Chinese and Korean films including one
additional glimpse to South Asia thereby presenting portrayals of independent filmmakers
highly renowned classics but also specimina of manga and anime the cyberpunk genre or on
most recent highly successful streaming series. The admittedly tiny sample we can provide is
intended to pique curiosity and encourage readers to delve deeper into the multifaceted and
intriguing relationship between religion and media in Asia. If the presented contributions
which have been carefully selected lead to academic discourse and inspire further research
then this issue will have served its purpose.
