Through the years, there have been a good number of movies featuring a messianic figure taking on some megalomaniacal entity with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

It’s on that hook that the Japanese animated film "The Mystical Laws" hangs its hat. It’s the year 202X, when the Godom Empire, led by Emperor Tathagata Killer, is taking over an ever-increasing chunk of the globe, thanks in large part to stealth-cloaking technology developed by Leika Chan and her company.

The United States, having declined in power, is not a factor and the United Nations can only sit on the sidelines, wringing its hands.

And as is customary for anime filled with political intrigue, Japan is squarely in the crosshairs, prime for Godom picking.

The fate of Japan — and ultimately the world — rests in the hands of Sho Shishimaru, a doctor who, through a series of circumstances, ends up leading an undercover opposition group known as Hermes Wings. If a 2,500-year-old prophecy is to be believed, Sho is also the reincarnated Buddha and the "Light of Hope" who will conquer the overwhelming evil embodied by Killer and the Godoms and unite the universe.

It’s a plot that’s been done before, and it’s been done better elsewhere. The film lurches from set piece to set piece, with expository dialogue and homilies waiting at every turn. The traditional 2-D animation is adequate at best, and the several computer-animated sequences nestled in between won’t have Pixar or Dreamworks animators breaking a sweat anytime soon.

To really appreciate what this film is, though, one must consider its source. It’s based on a book by Ryuho Okawa, the founder of Happy Science, a religious group based in Japan with branches worldwide (including here in Honolulu). All of Happy Science’s core teachings play prominent roles in the plot, including the Fourfold Path — the belief that principles of love, wisdom, self-reflection and progress lead to a state of genuine happiness — and the belief in a supreme god made manifest in several forms throughout the millennia.

Ultimately what plays out is a battle of secularism versus spirituality, with an obvious winner. As an action-adventure taken at face value, it’s decent. But its real power lies more as a jumping-off point for Happy Science-led discussions of faith.

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ON THE NET:

For more on anime and manga, read the "Otaku Ohana" blog by Jason S. Yadao and Wilma Jandoc at otakuohana.staradvertiser­blogs.com.