The lessons I learned watching Japanese animation this year
All interaction with any media can be an opportunity for learning, watching animation is no different in that regard.
This year I came across some audiovisual works that I liked a lot, and I learned, or so I want to think.
The first example is One Piece, it teaches me about collectivism. In many Nekketsu Shonen there is a dream, a goal for the protagonist. Often this goal is an individual one, and on the way to achieving it, the protagonist grows in mind and body, makes friends, and eventually becomes a force that changes the course of history in his world.
One Piece is no different in this: Luffy wants to be King of the Pirates, and in achieving this the protagonist will grow, become stronger, and change the world in the process (even the real one in places like Nepal). So, nothing new, but in the first chapters we can see something that I find very interesting. The first specific goal of the protagonist is to recruit nakamas, because to achieve his goal, Luffy needs a crew. This contrasts with other Nekketsu like Naruto or HxH, where gaining new allies is a consequence of the personal journey of the protagonist, but not a specific requirement. Gon meets Killua, Leorio, and Kurapika, but his main goal didn’t require that specifically; it just happened on his journey to find his father. Naruto meets Sakura, Kakashi, and his soulmate Sasuke on his journey to become Hokage, but that was coincidence, not a requirement for becoming Hokage. In contrast, in order to become the Pirate King, you need a crew…from the start.
The other interesting thing about this is how the importance of every crewmate isn't their fighting abilities. Nami is valuable because of her navigation skills, Sanji for his cooking and food knowledge, Usop for his sniper and lying powers, Chopper for his medical and pharmacologist skills, Robin for his archeologist knowledge, Franky for his carpenter competence, Brook because of his music, Jimbei for his helmsman competence and Zoro… well Zoro is mostly because he is good at fighting but he is the exception.
Anyway for me the idea of looking for comrades to achieve a dream from the start, and being consistently important is fascinating, and very infrequent in the media made for kids and teens. And when I think about real life…I and many in my generation have goals, but they are more often than not very personal goals: a career, going to the gym, intellectual development, etc. But these personal goals, I believe, can be rethought. It might be socially challenging, but actively looking for people to help me improve intellectually, physically, and professionally is something that might be very good for achieving my goals. And thinking about other, more lofty goals: I personally want to make the world a better place for humans. How to do that is kind of puzzling, but one thing is certain: it can’t be done alone! Before thinking about this aspect of One Piece, I had never seen things that way. I was always self-centered first and centered on others later.
Now I am studying to become a teacher, but thinking big, I want to improve the educational system…and if I really want to do that, I’d better get started recruiting nakamas.
The second lesson that I learned this year from Japanese animation was from Orb: On the Movements of the Earth. It teaches me about the perspective of us as companions that forge an Era.
Orb is a gem, very intellectual, philosophical and reflexive, it makes me crave for the sky that is lost for city people it makes me learn about history, it makes me feel joy for science, for questioning everything, for learn and discover, for that “hmmm”, for that “¡aha!” moment for that Thaumazein.
But, the thing that stuck with me the most, was a very specific, kind of unique reflection.
Paraphrasing what Rafal says: Yes, it's true that we were on opposing sides. The world is full of all types of people, there are so many of us, and yet no one is the same as the other. It's no wonder we never stop fighting. But, when the people of the future gaze across the span of time they'll merely see us all as people of the fifteenth century. We found ourselves in this day and age, though we may have been better in another, is mere coincidence, but is miraculous.
More than those born with similar philosophies, I feel much closer to those who were in the same era as me. Though it may seem absurd, and thought and feeling may deny it, I'd like to believe this: We who happened to live in this day and age, even if we hated one another enough to kill, are comrades who built an era together.
Even if we hated one another enough to kill…..we are comrades who built an era together ... .this idea…has never crossed my mind before. When I think about the XX century I certainly think of the people of that time like a set, even when they were so different and they hated each other enough to kill each other. That happens to me to a degree with the XX century, but then going backwards to XV century, V century ...Neolithic… the differences between the people that share the same era starts to blur.
I live in Chile, we had a dictatorship last century, the people that lived that time tend to have very opposite views of that period, and they hate each other. But they tend to have similarities too, common experiences that the people born in the XXI century don't have, when the breach increases the differences too, for digital natives can be very challenging to understand the way of thinking and living before the rise of digital technology, and the digital environments can be difficult to understand for people who were born in the first half of XX century.
So, when this post comes out in Chile, we are going to be in a presidential election period, and the views of the candidates and their ideologies will be very different and opposite. We will be divided. Before Orb, I would have thought, well in the end we are all human, but now also will think: In the end, we are comrades that are building an era.
Those were the two things I learned from watching Japanese animation this year that I wanted to share. Have a good day!
Post by Darío Hidalgo Paredes
