Japanese Bible ASMR with cute anime girls is a thing 

A recent post on Japanese social media called attention to a YouTube channel that offers ASMR readings of the Japanese Bible in a cute girly voice. With many of the videos featuring images of doe-eyed anime girls and absurd thumbnail captions, the strange combination elicited puzzled and amused reactions from commenters. 

What the poster discovered is the YouTube channel ASMR Church of Christ (ASMRキリスト教会). The channel describes itself as a cyber-church that preaches Christianity through ASMR, adding that “cute voice actors will heal you through whispered recitals of the Bible.” ASMR Church is part of the Calvinism branch of Protestantism. In their profile they state that the videos are based on a 1954/1955 vernacular translation of the Bible for copyright reasons. 

The video thumbnails feature cute anime girls, sometimes in slightly provocative poses- leading to some bemusement among X users about the delivery not matching the nature of the content.  

ASMR Church’s channel seems to use humor and bizarre thumbnails to help it attract viewers.  

ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) refers to a pleasant tingly feeling that some people experience when listening to certain sounds. Gaining in popularity, ASMR is now often used to label various sound-based content that attempts to trigger this sensation (such as soft voiced narration, tapping and crinkly sounds). ASMR has been described as a good sensation, but not everyone experiences it. For some, the sounds can feel as pleasant as nails on a chalkboard.   

The Bible is not the only example of a very old text being given the ASMR treatment in Japanese. Another poster pointed out that there are similar videos using ancient Japanese texts like the Kojiki.  

Whether you like these ASMR videos or not, one thing is for certain- it’s definitely a different way of learning old scriptures.