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.

In Volume 2, things get even… holier? Weirder? Yes?

Our heroes spend their pages meditating on the great mysteries of the universe: the perfect balance of air conditioning and hoodie during the summer months. How long it’s polite to take up a table when you simply must get your money’s worth from the self-serve drink machine. What the clear liquid that comes from said machine along with the orange juice could possibly be when the juice tastes exactly as it should. How one breaks a move to their elderly landlady. Whether Jesus can only turn water to wine or whether he can summon any grape-flavored fluid. Whether it’s fair for Buddha to use the Thousand-Armed Kannon to win at ping-pong…

The further we delve into the great mysteries with Jesus and Buddha, the more we learn about them and their lives in the heavens and their sainthoods, the more human they seem.

And the more human the paragons become, the more we’re forced to acknowledge that perhaps being kind, compassionate, or – for lack of a better word and in a very secular sense – “saintly” isn’t as hard as we like to pretend it is when it’s inconvenient or tiring or even a little uncomfortable. This Jesus and this Buddha aren’t perfect, and they remind us that being flawed doesn’t preclude doing good or being a positive force in the universe.

Using the day of rest as an excuse to literally lay around and do nothing doesn’t mean you won’t work extra hard to buy your best friend the perfect birthday present. That being a little jealous of how devoted your friend’s disciples are doesn’t preclude your being happy for him as well.

And let’s talk about those disciples for a moment, because quite a few of them make appearances in the second volume of Saint Young Men – and they have a lot to say. The archangels Uriel and Michael show up during karaoke night at the spa (during which Michael has to be stopped from blowing the Trumpet of Judgment as a finale), and they are perfect in their roles as Jesus’s protectors but they’re so perfect they’re absolutely literal and completely inflexible, which causes some tension – and more than a little bit of competition between the usually chill Jesus and his friends.

More stress crops up when Andrew, Peter (known as “Petey”), and Jesus consider adding Buddha to their online questing party, then realize he’ll be replacing unlucky number thirteen, Judas. Debate and hilarity ensue as they make every effort to work around the situation.

Buddha continues to struggle with his chief rival, Mara, who – having failed to break him by other means – seeks to make Buddha laugh against his will. The roommates are also plagued by Brahma, keeper of the laws, who’s sent from the heavenly publisher of Buddha’s manga to keep the author/artists on track. No matter the weather or circumstances, Brahma will stand outside the apartment door, bursting in at the exact moment pages are to be turned in. He inevitably parks his goose in the loading zone because as a law enforcer, he feels no need to be a law abider.

The more time I spend with these books, the deeper they go into theology. And the deeper the cuts, the more I adore both the books themselves and the writing. Although the majority of the second volume, like the first, is black and white, there was an additional full-color interlude that was a gorgeous surprise. Obviously, I’m not going to pull it out of the book, but I really do wish I could frame and hang a few of the pages.

I’m very much looking forward to the next four volumes that have been announced and hope we’ll get the full series by the time all is said and done.