Using Anime to Heal

To say the past two years of 2020-2022 has been difficult for many people doesn’t do justice. Many people have lost loved ones, suffered mental difficulties, lost income, and suffered through many other trials.

Sometimes, you just need to take time to heal.

If you are a long-time reader, you know I’m an advocate for self-discipline and self-reflection. People need to think before acting, keep their emotions subjected to reason, and otherwise be mindful. People need to use their time well because death sits on our shoulders. The past two years has made this even more apparent. However, sometimes you just need to stop and rest and heal. One of the most important parts of weight lifting, for example, is rest. Your body needs to take time to rebuild muscles. So too the mind needs to take time to rest and rebuild. Of course, in today’s environment, amusements can easily dominate our every waking moment. This danger needs to be kept in mind (amusements can easily consume your life), but that’s not the point of this article. It’s okay to take time out to check out if you need to heal as long as you aren’t avoiding your problems.

Anime offers some interesting options for healing. In fact, there’s a genre of anime referred to as “healing.” These stories don’t have heavy-themed conflicts or extreme violence or anything that can disturb the mind. Most of the time, there’s cute girls doing cute, wholesome things. While it’s curious the focus is on cute girls, these stories feature a female comradery and go-to-itness that often lacks in other anime genres. What conflicts there are focus on small problems, such as deciding who cooks the best cookies or where to camp next. These everyday conflicts resolve gently or in a silly way. These slice-of-life stories provide a space to escape into a fun, yet gentle story full of simple joys.

Now this likely sounds cheesy or lame. In many ways these “healing” stories offer the most realism, even the fantasy-based ones. Most conflicts center on small, everyday things. The characters live small, everyday lives, yet there’s a joy, a dignity, to such everyday lives. The small things, like putting up a tent, in the case of Laid Back Camp or cooking a good, dragon-sized omelet in I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years. These stories and small joys provide a space to escape into a world not too different from our own. They remind us that the best joys of life are small, like a good cookie, or a cup of chocolate heated over a campfire. The stories are a lot slower paced with consequences ranging from burnt cookies to apologizing for hurting feelings.

These gentle stories feature relaxing soundtracks and focus on soft visuals. The character designs are often rounded. Nature features in most stories with soft watercolor landscapes. Nature has a proven healing effect (make sure you walk outside among trees as often as you can!), so it’s logical healing anime would feature nature. Sometimes it plays a large role, such as in Laid-Back Camp; other times the landscapes provide setting and play no other role in the story. Small towns, as opposed to bustling cities, remain common to these stories too. Considering how many people live in urban areas. After all, cities are artificial, bustling, and noisy. And these are often a source for unconscious stress. Rural towns, on the other hand, sit closer to nature, and nature taps into our evolutionary history. This syncing of ancient mind with its environment relaxes us. Of course, as those of use who live in rural towns know, not all is corn and fishing and hiking! However, rural towns do offer a slower pace than cities, a slower way to use your time. I write this on a foggy, cool morning while sitting on my outside swing. I’m surrounded by the sound of crickets and birdsong.

Some stories have a redemptive theme to it, such as Barakamon and Mushi-shi. The key idea behind healing anime is heart. All healing anime have a sense of community and heartfelt connection behind them, both which often lack in modern-day life. Conflicts serve to strengthen this sense of heart and connection. You often see acceptance for who the character is, whether it is the neurotic Handa of Barakamon or the slime children of I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years. There’s a sense of open arms, and this acceptance provides space for the characters to change, if only a little. With these stories, the viewer brings ichis own inner conflicts. As they watch, these conflicts clash against the gentleness of the anime. Relaxation doesn’t come easily, after all. So, by providing little conflict, healing anime create conflict with the audience, issuing a challenge to explore how the world actually is. And that’s the thing, healing anime does portray how the world actually exists. We have more good around us than evil. We just have a bias toward noticing only the negative. After all, the negative can harm us while the good cannot. But this bias distorts reality. Healing anime reminds us that life is good at its core.

This conflict with the audience scours away the rough edges of our attention as the stories draw us into their worlds. The stories accept whatever problems you bring to them, focusing on relaxing you with nature, silliness, and small triumphs while indirectly challenging you to go out into nature, be silly, and savor your own small triumphs. The stories challenge you to camp, bake cookies, write, go shopping, and otherwise see the everyday good that surrounds us.

Here’s a few healing anime to consider watching:

• Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
• Laid-Back Camp
• Barakamon
• Mushi-shi
• The Helpful Fox Senko-San
• Restaurant to Another World
• Taisho Otome Fairy Tale
• I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level
• Akebi’s Sailor Uniform

Some of these suggestions have more story to them and conflict than other healing anime have, but they retain the same focus on relaxation, nature, and gentleness.

When you need to emotionally heal, there’s no shame in checking out from the world and giving yourself space. Be careful not to use anime to avoid your problems, however. It’s best to take action and make the changes necessary, no matter how hard they can be, than to avoid such difficulties. You always have the ability to determine your thoughts and actions. But if you are one to take action and to be self-reflective, there’s no shame in resting in anime like these. Modern living is divorced from our natural state of humanness. These stories offer a reminder that good surrounds us, nature heals, and the small everyday joys matter. After you are finished, take a walk in a park or in the woods. Spend time alone with trees.