Frey,Malte2023-11-202023-11-202023https://www.jrfm.eu/index.php/ojs_jrfm/article/view/342/312https://mediarep.org/handle/doc/21346This article argues that Western cyberpunk narratives often suggest a technologically invoked transcendence, a cyber-transcendence, which represents a new ontolog-ical sphere and offers catharsis in dystopian scenarios. While Japanese cyberpunk anime also explore the idea of cyber-transcendence, the clear distinction between immanence and transcendence often becomes blurred. Aesthetic concepts invoking transcendence can be linked to the awe-inspiring kami (deities) of Japanese Shinto, which are intertwined with the immanent sphere of reality rather than external to it. In Western cyberpunk, cyber-transcendence seems to provide the sense of depth that Paul Tillich labels the “dimension of religion”, in contrast to postmodernist meaning-lessness. Cyberpunk anime provide an understanding of transcendence as a religious dimension that exists within realityengCreative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike 4.0 GenericCyber-TranscendenceImmanenceReligio-SpiritualPhenomenonCyberpunkAnime70010.25364/05.9:2023.2.310.25969/mediarep/201232617-3697