Yin & Yang in Anime

 In this blog I will be talking about examples of dualism philosophy of yin and yang symbolised in anime, about how opposite ideals and themes or anything and everything is closer than we think and are related to each other. How one opposite can create the other thing or destroy it or vice versa. The yin is the negative forces and yang is the positive stuff and they’re interconnected, one example is tragedy turns into comedy, disasters turn out to be blessings. Whenever something negative happen there will also be something positive that is made from it, like the second law of thermodynamics makes it so you cannot create a perfect engine because of entropy. For purpose of not repeating myself I will be referring to this idea as YaY just so it doesn’t sound like a broken record

Kaguya-sama: Love is War

The first one that was fresh on my mind after watching winter season was Kaguya-sama: Love is War, even in the title of the anime you can tell already about the twisted idea of YaY. Kaguya-sama if you haven’t already read or watched it is about a girl and a boy who like each other but are too stubborn and embarrassed to confess so it turns into a “war” and whoever confesses loses the war and then each day it resets as they probably to embarrassed to acknowledge it, rise and repeat. In Love is War the main characters like each other which is positive trying to get each other fall in love and do wholesome stuff but also has downside as they might have stalemates then be frustrated at it, but it is necessary in the relationship because of the premise of the show. Another negative it makes is the friendship of other people in the council might be left out or get in the war if they find out the they could let out the secret so it would make them lose. My opinion this premise is that it creates a relatable yet hilarious show as the interactions with the characters intentions and reality is a funny concept.

Mob Psycho 100

Next one is Mob Psycho 100. The protagonist is a very interesting one, he is one of hardly any that have opposites colliding. Shigeo is a very gifted Esper, he can easily bring very powerful psychic abilities but it comes with a downside that he is not so great at social situations from being bullied to not being able to speak his own mind as he is a mob aka something like the npc meme where he can’t articulate any of his own thoughts. I guess it’s true what Chinese philosophy said that when there are positive there will always make a negative or be one but this is fiction so Shigeo can overcome these problems and be his own person but when that happens maybe they will be more negatives, say if we're going off the philosophy what problem will he face after that? In my opinion, Shigeo is a very realistic character as he has issues just like everyone else has, has a lot of room for development which the show can use to their advantage to make it even better. When he gets emotional it’s shown from him reaching 100% and bursting out his emotion which I can relate to and he has to learn how to be himself and let out his feeling not from his physic abilities but by his other side, like yin and yang he has to find a balance between the two.

Sangatsu no Lion

3-Gatsu no lion aka March Comes in Like a Lion is very deep show with its themes of melancholy and sociology issues that are present throughout the show. No wonder having a deep show would also have a deep character, Rei Kiriyama is a trouble guy with having a lot of past trauma has turn him shy and meek his depression is very muted with this being such an emotional anime; the absence of emotion or absence of understanding emotion causes the emotion to happen because of his poor social skills that comparable to autism aka inability to understand emotion, he himself has still got much emotions conflicting him making a very touching story to watch as he discovers his melancholy that he was hiding away from his psychological trauma from his childhood. Another YaY is that Rei is a talented mind in the realm of shogi (a savant some would call it) but he also unable to understand a lot of human emotions and thought processes or lack of common sense which are interconnected as he used shogi as way to cope with past trauma some times the shogi pours emotions into him, when he loses shogi it resembles him understanding the concept of suffering this concept of using shogi as a way to animate what’s going on with his condition it’s a masterful way of showing it 10/10.

Todoroki Shouta

Todoroki Shouta is an obvious choice for this one as it’s not as subtle as the others because of this I left it until last. Todoroki Shouta has a fiery and a cold side which conflicts him that ice resembles his sombre side and the fire to resemble his angry using the elemental powers to portray his emotions is brilliant, the conflicting sides of sombre and angry make him one of the best characters in the show as both the emotions stem from his parents so not only can it tell what he is feeling from emotions but also can show it from using his powers. Him being such a very composed fighter but then having another deeper side to him very much yells YaY as on the surface you see the yin of stuff but once you explore more you get to the yang of his character, using this as character development and plot development is a fantastic premise for just a shounen anime, it's very much way more than just a shounen anime.

Thanks for reading!