It’s a marketing strategy. They have a product and they’re trying to expand into an un/under-exploited market. What the product is just so happened to be religion, which is increasingly unpopular, archaic, restrictive, controlling, and fictional. They have fairly stringent rules and since the anime mascot doesn’t violate them, they’ll try it out and see if there’s any returns.
It’s a pretty low investment, and it’s not even close to the first cartoon character made specifically to try and hook kids to a religion. It’s only noteworthy because the format is slightly different than past efforts.
“…oh yeah and throw in some rice for the starving peasants I guess.”
Kim Fatty 3rd, probably