The psychology of After the Rain: A psychosocial perspective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGC5FK6uzmY - 7:56

      One of the ways I find anime to reflect on is based on video recommendations from youtube.

That is how I found the video I use for this reflection.  After watching the video for the first time, I

then proceeded to watch the anime (I don't do this for all these reflections actually). After watching

the anime, and this video again (several times actually - I usually do that though for the videos I use

in these reflections), I definitely was not disappointed.  I think why I like After the Rain so much is

because of how down to earth and realistic it is.  I will explain what I mean by this by looking into

examples of what the video says about the anime, and the two important characters in it, with the use

of psychosocial theory, an important theoretical perspective in the field of psychology.

      What makes psychosocial theory, or development, an important theoretical perspective in the

field of psychology is that it can serve as a guide for what people do, and why they do it, based on

their age group.  Each age group has important developmental tasks, a crisis to resolve due to these

developmental tasks, a way to resolve this crisis, and reactions to this crisis, one positive and one

negative, based on the developing person (for the purpose of this reflection, I will only focus on two of

these age groups - there are obviously more).  With this in mind, let's now look at the two important

characters in this anime from a psychosocial perspective and with examples of what the video in this

reflection says about them, as well as the anime itself.

     First, we have the character in high school who is most likely near the end of the age group of

early adolescence (12 - 18).  The important developmental tasks for this character are

physical maturation, formal operations, emotional development, membership in the peer group, and

romantic and sexual relationships.  The crisis resulting from these tasks is group identity versus

alienation and the way to resolve this crisis is peer pressure, which gets either a positive reaction of

letting your peers help you or a negative reaction of not only not letting your peers help you, but also

not being able to help yourself either.  Several examples of this can be seen throughout the anime and

what the video talks about, like the importance of peer pressure for this character and how it

influences what she does, like her developmental reactions, which is also seen in the other important

character in this anime according to their age.

     This other important character in this anime is the 45 - year - old that the other character interacts

with.  For this character (in middle adulthood: 34 - 60), the important developmental tasks are

managing a career, nurturing an intimate relationship, expanding caring relationships, and managing

the household.  The crisis resulting from these tasks is generativity versus stagnation and the way to

resolve this crisis is person - environment interaction and creativity, which gets either a positive

reaction of caring about all of this or the negative reaction of not only not caring about all of this, but

also not accepting it.  In other words, helping himself, but also other people, like the other important

character in this anime, is important for the development of these characters.  Several examples of this

can also be seen throughout the anime and what the video talks about, like in the swallow metaphor

described in this video.

     There is much more I can say about both of these characters, this anime, and video reflection of it

that I use for my reflection, but the important thing I want to stress is that everything that happens in

this anime can be explained from a psychosocial perspective.  For example, the reason we know more

about the thoughts of the older character than the younger one is because knowing more about your

thoughts, and relying on these thoughts, as well as thinking, is more important, and is clearer, with

age.  The younger character clearly has trouble with this, but this trouble is due to her development, not

a preference for a certain character over another.  Looking at anime from a psychosocial perspective

could also be done with other anime, but I think this is easier to do with an anime like After the Rain

due to its down to earth and realistic nature, as well as the fact that age differences are more noticeable

in it, especially between the two important characters in the anime.

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