It’s not a comfortable thought, but one we must all face. We will die. This realization should govern our every action. Many times while watching a terrible anime, the thought strikes me, and I turn off the drivel. Each of us have a set number of hours to spend. We often spend them foolishly.
Many could argue watching anime is a waste of heartbeats. Escapism wastes time. Quite the contrary, good stories enhance life. Good stories allow us to explore different perspectives. They help us develop compassion and empathy for others. However, finding stories worth our time is difficult. Even though drivel consumed someone’s heartbeats to produce, but it may not warrant our heartbeats to consume.
Watching anime, or watching movies or reading books are all forms of consumption. They are food for the mind. The messages we consume form building blocks for our identities and world view, much like how food forms building blocks for the body. Eating poor food creates an unhealthy body. After all, it is hard to build healthy cells with poor quality amino acids, proteins, and sugars. Likewise, it is hard to build a healthy mental life with drivel, short-sighted messages, misogynistic messages, and other poor materials,. The limited nature of our lives doesn’t help matters. It takes time to find good mental building materials and sometimes we don’t know if those materials are good until after they are consumed.
All of this seems rather floaty and philosophical, but anime does change us. The messages and stories we consume either reinforces or challenges our current understanding of reality. In turn, that understanding impacts everything we do. People who consume anime with values centered on friendship, loyalty, love, understanding, and persistence will have those mental nutrients. Those who consume anime with messages of ownership, control, and sexual debasement of women will have those mental building blocks. This idea extends to all messages we consume.
The Internet makes it easy to cocoon yourself in messages you enjoy and agree with. This can distort your perspective. It makes you believe reality is thus when it can be quite the opposite. The limited time you have to live makes these cocoons all the more dangerous. The time spent to consume these cocooning messages cannot be retrieved, and it weds you to those messages. Few of us want to face the realization that everything we’ve believed in or thought was wrong after spending most of our lives with that perspective.
Otaku culture allows its own cocoons. As a guy, I am troubled by the proliferation of massive-breasted women and the messages of sexual availability. These fantasies target a sliver of fans who struggle with forming connections with women. The messages of sexual availability and the focus on serving male sexual needs whenever they arise form a perspective that is unhealthy and self-defeating. These guys only increase their issues with women by consuming these messages. The fantasy creates self-centered expectations and breeds resentment when reality can’t match the cocoon. Many prefer the cocoon to reality, but what will these fans think when a shinigami finally comes for them? What legacy do they leave behind with their final heartbeats?
As a Christian who also practices Zen, these questions needle me. I beat up on otaku culture, but the same idea extends toward American conservatives and American liberals. It extends toward Christians who insulate themselves from other religious perspectives. I used to be one of these. Cocooning creates small minds and reduces empathy. It is easy to ostracize those you don’t know. It is much harder to think poorly about people you speak with everyday. I understand why many wrap themselves in fantasy and comforting viewpoints. I’ve done it. However, in the end, this stunts us as people.
Don’t feel singled out if you are an otaku. Anime teaches many worthwhile values. In many ways, otaku caterpillars have advantages over conservatives, liberals, and Christian caterpillars. Otakus tend to be more inter-culturally minded. Otakus also tend to be creative. Otakus tend to be open minded. These traits make the culture more receptive to rants like this post.
So the tl;dr:
The messages we consume, and how we choose to spend our limited time, have an impact on the world around us. How we think dictates how we act. Anime and other messages infiltrate our souls, so be careful of what messages you consume.
Very well said. Anime, just like any other genres of TV shows and movies varies a lot in terms of content. Some contents are very well written, thought of and contains valuable messages to the viewers while others are just some bunch of worthless craps just created for the mere purpose of mere entertainment without any other else to offer.
And one thing’s for sure, whatever that content is, tv shows and movies are extremely capable to hook their viewers with their attractive presentation. And once hooked, we absorbed the story’s content into out subconsciousness. Thus explains how powerful tv shows, movies, books and other media in influencing one’s attitude and personality.
So as viewers, we need to be mindful of the content of what we are watching and be more analytical of the message of the story to avoid becoming too carried away by them.
Producers and writers at the same time should also be more responsible in terms of the material content of the products they feed to their consumers knowing how powerful their products in influencing and shaping the behavior and way of thinking of the masses.
Btw this article got great content. Thanks for sharing. Keep it up.
You touch on many important ideas. Media is designed to hook you. That’s how you end up binging on a show when you intended to watch only one episode. If stories can push us to binge, they can influence us to do more as well. I agree that producers and writers need to be aware of how their content could affect people. Media tends to objectify and reduce relationships to transactions, making people believe reality works in the same way, for example.
Thanks for the encouragement :).