Norse Mythology in Anime

 This blog is tough to do as I didn’t know anything about Norse mythology because I had to do a lot of research and reading. I’m even writing this when I’m sick because I can’t let some flu virus get in the way of this. I will be comparing anime characters I like to Norse mythology; this is a series of mine where I get something random (aka blank put it in anime), and I make a blog about it like Greek mythology and Chinese philosophy (yin and yang). This time I’m doing Norse Mythology suggested by my good friend Twin, who slightly inspired me to do this even though I already had it in my planner for so long, so I may as well make it when I’m ill. It’s the next day of writing as my head wasn’t computing, so here goes nothing, although I am worse than before.

SPOILER WARNING

 for Code Geass, Sankarea and Children of the Whales

Rea Sanka – Hel

Sankarea

When researching for this blog, I found out about the goddess of the dead, just like Hel Rea is also half dead and alive, so it’s a perfect match in heaven. Hel’s name means hidden because she is underground and “in the grave” this compares to Rea as she is dead too. More symbolically "hidden" might say that she never had a real childhood because her father would keep her in the mansion being exploited by her incestuous father. Sankarea is a very tragic story about Rea because of her past. She doesn’t know what to do in social situations or doesn’t know much about; however, even though she is like this, she very gentle and only wishes to have a happy, healthy life.

Her character makes me so emotional as she never got a normal life, so after she died, Chihiro Furuya managed to give her that dream by making her undead. Which she always wanted which is very sweet and makes me react like “must protect Rea” Hel’s family is very evil; consisting of Loki, Fenrir, and Jormungand which can be said for Rea as her father is probably way more corrupt than them because he hurt Rea throughout her life which is unforgivable (hurting waifus is worse than being a malevolent god). Having her father as being immoral or even could be considered the “villain” in this anime is a genius way to relate to Rea and make the audience love her because it worked on me.

Lelouch – Forseti

Code Geass

Forseti has only been mentioned twice in old Norse literature so that a lot of this part will be up to my imagination, Forseti is a human law speaker and has a dwelling place made of gold and silver, and I’m going to take speculation of Forseti as accurate for Lelouch. Forseti had a very holy place name after to him and was worshipped as a god. This relates to Lelouch because he became a pseudo-god of his world; his words can be like the law of the land because of his powers. Lelouch is one of my favourite male characters because of how genius the anime is and how in-depth it goes into keeping a persona like Zero secrets while manipulating your close friends and then following a normal life is very hard to do, but the show pulls it off brilliantly because of how good it is in execution. This premise is similar to Death Note. Something about this premise is so entertaining and fascinating to watch if done right.

More about Forseti is that 13 lawmakers were punished by the king and cast out in the ocean and no way of getting back but prayed to Forseti and was saved, this is a perfect likeness to Code Geass. The lawmakers are the black knights in the anime, and when they get into a pickle, Zero comes to save them or anyone who is being punished by the government unfairly. Code Geass is way more than a Death Note clone as Lelouch was part of the royal family but was overthrown by other families. He is taking revenge back on the corrupt politics of his country and trying to do good by giving fairness to everyone, although he gets too ahead of himself and becomes as bad as them then pays the price at the end of season two. Another tragic story, but for a reason, tragedy is always my favourite in anime as it has a higher success rate of being entertaining, and Japan probably knew this then took advantage of it. Tragedy has sadness, happiness, and everything in between; you can do so much with it. I don't know why I love it so much, maybe because I'm a little sadistic. It’s a breath of fresh air from all the lovey-dovey type optimistic shows, sometimes you need a bit of reality, and Code Geass is perfect between reality and fantasy.

Lykos – Gullveig

Children of the whale

Gullveig's story is another tragic one, which is very much a coincidence. The story is that there are two tribes of gods, and they fail to gain peace together; this reminds me of Lykos a lot as she is from another ship where peace was never an option, but Gullveig was burnt and impaled whereas Lykos wasn’t. I feel like Lykos is Gullveig in another timeline. I couldn’t find any other deities that related to anime characters I knew, so this is the closest I could, so I’m going to do it, and I want to talk about children of the whales. Lykos was brainwashed by a pirate whale ship, then they came into contact with the main character's ship, and Lykos ship attacked them; she is spared by the Mud Whales. Gullveig is seen to Asgard as very antisocial and dangerous. Still, I feel like this is how people in the Mud Whale perceive her as but that isn’t accurate because Lykos is actually very introverted and caring when she comes out of her shell.

Lykos is one of my favourite coloured anime characters because the anime is symbolically about discovering your feelings and self, which is portrayed with Lykos as she wasn’t her own person at first then becomes independent. Introversion is a topic that is close to my heart as it relates to my struggles and personality which is why Lykos is a great character, make sure to watch Children of the Whales even though it is a shoujo because it’s way more than that. This anime is shoujo because it's very feely, maybe that says something about our society; that exposing your inner feelings is female, which it is not, but that’s a topic for a whole another blog, bye.

Thanks for Reading!!