Why are crosses so popular in anime and manga? I've recently noticed that I see a lot of "Crosses" in manga and anime. I thought it was just because Japan has a lot of Christians as I remember my history teacher telling me how Japanese people once really liked the Bible when Europeans came to explore, until the Shogun or someone of great power closed the gates of Japan and essentially isolated Japan from the outside world. 

Some of the more popular characters that I currently remember are Asuna Yuuki (SAO) in the real world when meeting Kirito and Dracule Hawkeye (One Piece). 

After further investigation, I realized Japan was only 1 percent Christian. 

Is there another meaning to the Cross in Japan?
One possible explanation could be that it looks foriegn or exotic, or "western". In Neon Genesis Evangelion, which uses the cross symbol pretty rampantly, one of the creators gave this explanation (from the Q&amp;A "Amusing Himself to Death" with Tsurumaki):


  Can you explain the symbolism of the cross in Evangelion?
  
  KT: There are a lot of giant robot shows in Japan, and we did want our story to have a religious theme to help distinguish us. Because Christianity is an uncommon religion in Japan we thought it would be mysterious. None of the staff who worked on Eva are Christians. There is no actual Christian meaning to the show, we just thought the visual symbols of Christianity look cool. If we had known the show would get distributed in the US and Europe we might have rethought that choice. 


(Emphasis is mine)

So it may not be that the cross means something different in Japan (most weddings take place in a Christian church, I believe), but that because it has an air of the exotic or mysterious.