Wyvu Cosplay

Of all the movie references and hidden details in the Chainsaw Man OP, the one I adore more than any other is this damn snail. Those green eye stalks indicate the snail Makima is feeding Denji is infected with Leucochloridium Paradoxum, a parasite that mind controls snails and leads them to their death by making them more appealing to predators. Sound familiar? But the symbolism is even more perfect than that as snails are also viewed as quite a high class dish in the form of escargot. Put it all together and you have an absolutely impeccable metaphor for Denji and Makima’s relationship: She tempts him with the allure of a higher quality of life but is secretly manipulating him and driving him to his death.

Symbolism is a key part of anime OPs, but I can’t think of a single one in recent memory that has packed this much meaning into a single metaphor. I can’t wait to see people breaking it down even more in the coming days!

The books were continued by their son Mike, who assumed complete authorship in 2012 ( and had already assumed partial authorship around 2002 iirc, due to his parents aging and needing help). Mike Berenstain has talked at considerable length how he was unsatisfied with his secular upbringing, so he eventually converted and got baptized in Presbyterian Church.

New line of Berenstain books is published by Zondervan, an evangelical Christian publishing company, which is commercial rights holder for New International Versions of Bible in North America, and they claim that they are the largest Christian publishing company, which might be right given that they are owned by  imprint of HarperCollins.

So yeah, you are completely right, they very much did take extremely hard evangelical nationalist turn in that period. Apparently all books that contain such explicit religious themes, from Storybook Bible to that flag covered mess, were authored at least partially by Mike Berenstain, under separate imprints than the ones published by his parents ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B086SWKP1X?binding=hardcover&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_thcv here is list of books published by Mike and Jan after Stan’s death, all of which are done under separate imprint and contain big religious themes, though less extreme than post 2012 ones, and there has been some talk that he had much larger influence in them than she.)

Here is one Christian news website that does mini interview with him: https://www.christianpost.com/news/berenstain-bears-author-uses-his-talents-for-god-in-faith-inspired-series.html.