Anime Lectio: Patlabor: The Movie

1. Why do Anime Lectio? 

Anime Lectio is a time for us to stop and take a breath. Between work, activities, family life, and social media, our minds are always moving. We rarely take time to contemplate and ask, why am I watching this anime? What’s the point of all this? And, how is this making me feel? 

2. Put away all distractions 

(phones, work, etc.)

We are so enslaved to things that stimulate our minds. Let this be a moment for us to free our minds, look inside of ourselves, and be at peace.

3. Deep Breathing

Take several deep breaths. Let your mind relax. If you’ve had any questions, desires, or struggles that you’ve been hiding or stuffing away, let them rise up to the surface. 

4. Open yourself to God’s Presence

Remember God places all our thoughts and desires inside of us, and He uses them to draw us closer to Himself. God gives us a community to help us understand who we are and what He is calling us to do. The faces of other people you know and don't know are like signs of God’s presence.  

5. Think About What’s on Your Mind in relation to the anime

Think about what’s been on your mind in relation to the anime.  The following is an example of such thoughts written by me.

Lately, I have been thinking more about why I do what I do. An example of this would be my interest in anime. My idea of Anime Lectio is a way for me to understand this interest, starting with the first step of asking myself the question of why do Anime Lectio and the questions involved in this step. I believe Anime Lectio is helpful for all us, or at least those interested in anime, to focus more on our interest in anime in relation to ourselves and get more out of both anime and ourselves. The anime for this post is Patlabor: The Movie because it happens to be mentioned in what I read about the anime movie Angel's Egg, which I took the time to check out recently because it's been compared to one of my recent favorite series (Sonny Boy). I like to see a point in all anime I watch for whatever reason and I think Anime Lectio can help me do this better. Watching anime based on what I feel like watching usually makes me feel good and I like talking about it in a meaningful way, even if I still have to figure out how to do that.

6. Brief and written explanation of the anime

Pay attention to how the brief and written explanation of the anime seen on this blog might “speak” to you or shed light on the things that have been on your minds.

Patlabor: The Movie is an anime movie that focuses on using advanced robots, called Labors, to fight crime. An upgrade to these Labors that is supposed to make them better not only makes them worse, but could also cause mass chaos and destruction. This involves an investigation of this upgrade and not the man who created it since the man who created this upgrade killed himself before this investigation. This investigation involves biblical phrases and passages, like the fact that the name of the dead man sounded like Jehovah, a name for God.

7. Reflect on the anime

Has this brief and written explanation of the anime shed any light on what's been on your mind? The following is an example of a reflection on the anime from me.

Why people use technology is also an important example of thinking about why you do what you do. Do you need technology in order to improve your job or do you just want to do that? Either way, how you use this technology, whether it be in the form of advanced robots or anything else, is important, as it can be used for good or bad reasons depending on who is using it. This is also true for other things, like the use of biblical phrases and passages.

8. Final Prayer

Please voice any prayer intentions for friends, family, or people around the world that relate to this anime and close with a prayer relating to the anime. The following is an example written by me.

Let us pray that we use what we have, like technology and the Bible, in ways that can help others and not as clues in solving crimes, which shouldn't happen in the first place, or for any other bad reason. We ask for this help through the intercession of Jehovah.