Jesus and Buddha move into an apartment together…

Yes, it sounds like the beginning of a terrible joke. It is, instead, the premise upon which Hikaru Nakamura builds her brilliant, hilarious, touching, and award-winning Saint Young Men.

After fulfilling their heavenly duties, the young saints decide to take a gap year to experience 21st century life in Japan. Of course, they’re still saints, which means Buddha glows when he gets angry or blisses out and Jesus starts to bleed around the crown of thorns when his emotions overcome him. When Buddha catches a virus and dreams, he accidentally leaves his body and goes back to the heavens, and when Jesus sweats too much and uses his shirt as a towel, he leaves the residual print of his face on it.

Whereas Buddha strives to be frugal and keep the house on a budget – to eat vegetarian food and live in moderation – Jesus is a social media junkie who loves steak, is certain the pair will always have enough to get by, and loves to give extravagant gifts to his friends.

The real humor comes, however, when Nakamura plays with the tropes that have become staid and stodgy over the years. For instance, when Buddha complaints about his earlobes being too long to be warmed by his hat, Jesus presses his friend’s byakugo to retract them (and then Buddha warns Jesus not to get ideas about another part of his anatomy). When Buddha flashes that same byakugo at a priest to freak said priest out after he cuts off a line before Buddha has a chance to ring the New Year’s bell. When Jesus pretends to be the son of a Yakuza strongman by spouting platitudes about his Heavenly Father. When the two play the board game Life and both reach the end… but as single men. When Jesus is hungry but doesn’t feel like going to the store so he turns clay into bread… and on and on.

Maybe I find Saint Young Men hilarious because I’ve made an academic study of religions: I have a BA in the subject and a Master’s in theological studies. I know enough about many different practices in the abstract to see where the foibles are and have distance enough to see how, through a certain lens, those dents and dings and veneers might be funny. Perhaps it’s because of my personal experience as someone who grew up in a relatively conservative branch of a very old religion and loved it but walked away from that religion when she was told by a trusted member of the clergy that her voice didn’t matter and her questions weren’t deserving of his consideration simply because she was a she.

Or maybe it’s because Americans in general, and religious Americans in particular, take themselves – and the objects of their worship – just a tad too seriously.

Listen, the Bible is rife with inconsistencies. The Christian Old Testament is the Jewish faith’s only Testament and was written, rewritten, translated, mistranslated, and mucked about with by different people for centuries. Most scholars believe that even the original original version had multiple authors. Eve being created from Adam’s rib? Mistranslation, and possibly a deliberate one to lessen the impact of women in the world.

The proper translation of the original phrasing is Adam’s side. As in half of him. As in equal. That could have saved society a lot of strife through the centuries, no? And the Ten Commandments? Number one isn’t “You Shall Have No Other God.” It’s “You Shall Have No Other God Before Me.” Yahweh was monocentric, not monotheistic. Plenty of folks worshiped Yahweh and El or Yahweh and Ba’al up to the time when Alexander the Great captured Judea in 332 BCE.

And the New Testament? Don’t even get me started on four dudes who were supposedly Jesus’s BFFs not being able to get their story straight.

What I’m saying is this: faith, if you have it, if it’s important to you, is good. Hold on to it. But not so tightly that you lose sight of the fact that religion is a construct crafted by humans and, therefore, okay to find humorous.

It took 13 years between Saint Young Men first appearing as a serial in Japan and being translated into English (during which time it was readily found in Chinese, French, Spanish, and Italian) because Kodansha was concerned American audiences would find it offensive. (In fairness, that was, and likely still is, a correct assessment.) That is a travesty because this series is delightful and hilarious and makes one rethink not only the modern world and the place of religion in it but also our place in the world. It makes us reconsider our preciousness and utter absurdity, our awkward grasping, and, every so often, the satisfying click of finding the perfect spot to call our own.

Saint Young Men Vols. 1 and 2 by Hikaru Nakamura are available now from Kodansha Comics USA.