Here's an interesting recent manga. "聖☆おにいさん"
, which the publishers render as "Saint Young Men" but could also be "The Saint Brothers", is a story by Hikaru Nakamura which imagines Buddha and Jesus Christ, having survived the turn of the century, deciding to take a break together by renting an apartment in present-day Tachikawa. Jesus finds it mildly embarrassing that local high school girls think he looks like Johnny Depp while Buddha gets irritated that every time he want to take a nap, local creatures think he is trying to achieve nirvana. Apparently there are a couple of jokes about the landlord wondering whether it was such a good idea to rent the place to a couple of foreigners. The first few episodes are already in book form through the link above but the series continues in Kodansha's.Morning 2. I can't see a sequel featuring Mohammed any time soon.
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[/floatl]T-shirts slogans play a major part on the manga: Jesus often wears "Dad, Me and the Holy Spirit" (父と私と精霊) while Buddha sports "Siddhartha". Buddha knocks them up an a silk screen kit. Followers of both religions have apparently not taken offence at the manga because it stops short of outright parody and attempts to show how both philosophies deal with real-world situations. I haven't read it yet but I think I might have to pick up a copy.
