Motivation in Anime | Collab

 Welcome to another collaboration this time with my group to celebrate our return . This blog will be about lessons and values learnt from anime and how it can be motivational to us. We will share this with and hope it will motivate you too and spread the unwavering positivity of the human spirit. Remember to always be positive and have fun.

Jishin

BLUE PERIOD

“Art is a language without words. It conveys things that cannot be conveyed by words.”

I actually had a hard time choosing which anime to talk about as there is a lot that I can choose from, but I decided to go with Blue Period as it was something that touched my heart surprisingly. At first, I thought the anime would be boring, but it proved me not. I had an impression that it was a fantasy story, but instead it has a touch of realism. Blue Period is an inspiring story about a student named Yatora Yaguchi who lives a life pleasing others. He believes that people who are true to themselves can’t survive in society ‘till he saw the painting made by an art student, Maru Mori. It was a painting of an angel and even I myself was left in awe by how breathtaking it was, words are not even enough to describe it. With that, Yaguchi found himself struck by inspiration and pursued a passion he long neglected because of how harsh life can be.

Realizing that it is something he would like to do, not all things will work the way you wanted them to. Making your passion a means of living doesn’t always guarantee success and doing things you like doesn’t mean it’s always fun. There are a lot of setbacks that will hinder you from pursuing your dream. As for Yaguchi, one is gaining his parent’s approval. This is so far one of the greatest challenges our peers often face because of parents deciding things for their children without asking what it is they want in life. With the famous line, “We’re doing this for you because it is what’s best for you”, how would someone know that it is really what is best for you? Pursuing art isn’t a practical decision as it is an expensive education and securing a job is statistically improbable to happen thus most likely not the best choice when pursuing a career for a living. I was touched by how Yaguchi convinced his mom to let him study art as having support from your family is the greatest motivation you can have. He also realized that there were a lot of talented people and he is not one of them but it didn’t stop him. He may not have the talent but he compensates for that with hard work.

I choose this anime as motivational because it opens your eyes to the things you had ignored just so you can survive living in this mundane world. I’m pretty sure a lot of us give up on our passion and dreams and pursue something we know can help us get through. It’s quite envying when you see other people being able to do the things they like and it’s because life isn’t fair, but it doesn’t mean you can’t do something about it and be bitter and blame it on others when you yourself can do something to change your life’s path. Yaguchi, despite the repudiation he received from others, as long as there were people who believed in him, pursued his passion. Many of us are afraid to face the challenges head-on and say there’s nothing we can do about it, but this anime motivates you that it is not yet late to follow your dreams. Yes, it’ll be an arduous path as you will soon realize that there are other people better than you but it shouldn’t stop you from pursuing your passion and if you compare yourself to others, you will never see the blessings that you have. There will be a time when you will also question yourself if what you did is the right decision but sometimes the right choice isn’t always the best choice. No one knows what lies ahead and there will be no assurance that you will be successful with the career you choose. The only way to know is to pursue it without what if’s and regrets, thus this anime will be a great motivation to watch to those who are afraid of pursuing their dreams.

Coma

Dragon Ball

The most motivational and inspirational anime I’ve ever watched has got to be Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Starting with the original DB which is pureness at heart with a young Son Goku heart of gold who can always laugh and have fun no matter what happens teaches the type of mindset that you need in life. As no matter what happens in life, you must think of the bright sight which builds strength of the mind, grown up Goku has this mindset but you can see it in its truest form in the original. Goku has this mindset which is how he is able to enjoy every day to its fullest without having all the tribulations stop his tracks as he has amazing mental fortitude.

OG DB Goku has that naivety as a child even as an adult which shows how he can do so much as he is not worrying about everything or doubts his worth and he has so much dedication you can’t help but be motivated like him. His dedication to everything is infectious in its final form, if you have seen a lot of Dragon Ball then you can relate to this; a lot of people who are massive fans of the series end up going to the gym and living more positivity just because of this anime. It goes to show that Dragon Ball is a pandemic for positive living, even if you have no muscle you’ll watch this and want to train like Goku and go Super Saiyan in everything you do too.

DB may be about mental fortitude but DBZ is about psychical strength. Watching DBZ was the most hypest anime I’ve seen, the show spans episodes training and gaining strength then fighting. It tests the cast's capabilities, sometimes when they had no hope of winning and all the odds were against them they pushed through and won. This type of storytelling was very infectious to me and made me want to go to the gym after watching. Finishing this show actually made me go to the gym more often as well. This show is so motivational that you’d want to be like Goku or Vegeta and the anime is amazing as well, and it just hits a chord in your heart about unwavering determination which just motivates you in every way.

The anime has a lot of lessons as well, Piccolo as a father figure, Vegeta as redemption, Goku as strength, Buu as the heart, Freiza as evil, Gohan as being yourself, Future trunks as being a hero. Gohan is very inspirational as well as he started as a weak baby but always had something which he worked to and saved everyone against Cell when it counted, that shows that weakness isn’t bad and shows you that you can get strong. Then after he could take his own path in academics and find love, which shows that you don’t have to be the person everyone wants you to, but the person you want to be.

Space

Cyberpunk Edgerunners

We defined our lives by the circumstances which had happened to us. In a sense, that would have been logical but if the experiences for everyone were endless tragedies, which would lead to a lifetime of dead-ends miseries where they gradually developed a belief in themselves and decided to frame, "I am not enough." Thus this sort of pessimistic view led us to believe that our reality was bleak and nothing could save us.

Then as we moved our lives with the hopelessness of today, we were allowing ourselves to be the victims of our past because we gave up since according to the next pessimists, “Better to end our sufferings by awaiting death to come knocking on our doors.” Thus, the bleakness of this situation had led us to recall a well-loved character who gave us an endless string of heartaches and his pain kept on dampening our dying ember. The further we dwelled about him, the more we could not help but to grievance over David Martinez from Cyberpunk Edgerunner.

When seeing the word, ‘Cyberpunk’, it gave us a distorted preconception about David where we disillusioned him as an individual who would care less about fitting into the stigma of normalcy and live and, breathe with a problematic punk attitude since his background made it encouraging to be outlaws. Furthermore, with futuristic advancement of technologies where its chips could be surgically implemented into his organic body then slotted in drives, it could make it easy to stimulate an accessible cheap thrills and pleasures as if making it virtually and tangible to feel. Therefore, we thought the series would lack a good plot and nothing to gain from watching it.

Further emphasising it, we watched it for a few episodes to prove our scepticism was valid. However, the series made us unable to leave our sight from it especially when we continued to be gravitated towards David while also taken aback by the enormity of his life. His existence as we watched until the end became our medium to contemplate the notion about choices and deaths. Morbidly, he was mirroring death in every step he took and made us wonder if losing his mother was the trigger to make drastic changes which compelled him to speed up or barge towards death’s door.

Ironically, the choices he decided to do shaded light on the perception of a purposeful life. His action made it seem like he was forwarding to his future as if the dreams he gathered which was founded from the aspirations and connections with whom he shared with, led him to believe it was within his grasp to fulfil it. Visually, he was the definition that circumstances which were bleeding with pain and suffering were the key ingredients to become a better version of himself as well as the rest. In hindsight, when facing it, growth became a part of us. Thus, to David who made us realise, it was true that our circumstances defined our lives, but it was up to us to take accountability of our responses and live our moments to our own definition of well-deserved best life today within our terms.

Miyamura

Haikyuu & I Want to Eat Your Pancreas

Motivation quite obviously comes in different ways, shapes and forms. Motivation is a very sketchy topic. You can be motivated by watching AMVs of DBZ with a Linkin park banger to hit the gym, or see an anime about a sport you had a vague interest in to really train and be better at the game. Maybe you're the type who watches a romcom and sees the growth of a character who wanted to be more confident because of the one they loved, to be a better person to match up better with them. There always comes a series within hundreds that truly lifts your spirits and makes you want to live freely doing what you love, or to tough it out through the journey while enjoying it instead of worrying anxiously about the result. For many of my friends, a motivational anime is Haikyuu. In Haikyuu we see a boy named Shoyo, who is bright as the sun never gives in to all the challenges put in front of him, along with Karasuno high school climbing new heights when the world never expects them to scale the next hopelessly high mountain - but they fly.

For me, a motivational anime is actually far different from the usual shounen hype anime that make you want to be the best version of you through vicarious practice. For me, I choose a relatively somber and yet more impactful route. I feel that "I want to eat your pancreas" is my motivational anime. In a quick movie packed full of heartaches and outpouring drama, we get to see the essence of life through the eyes of two polar opposite high schoolers. One on hand you have the initially unnamed Haru, on whom the lighting is always used as that for background characters and Sakura, whose every scene is sparkling with color and life.

I love the way Sakura thinks that nothing happens by coincidence but instead by every individual choice made by all the people everywhere, nothing is by chance, you choose to do what you want and so you should take pride and accountability for what you do, live your life like you mean to. Because after all, you're the one dictating what you're doing, and the same goes for everyone else around you. Similarly, for me, I think everything I do is a choice I take, and of course I believe in taking a hundred percent of the responsibility for them - whether they're for the better or the worse.

How "I want to eat your pancreas" motivates me if to look at life properly for what it is, with all the ups and downs, the hope and despair that comes with, the good, the bad and the neutral, the overwhelming joy and the heart wrenching despair, the lament of living life by yourself and the joy of being willing to show your vulnerabilities to others, the self driven isolation and the other-influenced escape route - these are what the movie is filled with, and how every time I watch it, not only do I cry but also feel more alive and grateful that I'm here and can experience life in all its wonders and pains to the fullest.

Thanks for Reading!!