Anime Lectio: Sonny Boy

                                                            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.

Ever since the last episode of Sonny Boy aired yesterday, I have been thinking a lot about not just that last episode, but the series as a whole. There have been several good anime this year so far that I have seen, as well as other anime from past years, but I haven't had to put as much thought to most of them as I do for Sonny Boy. Hopefully, writing about it now will help me put my thoughts into words so I can understand these thoughts better.

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.

Several students somehow end up in a strange world with strange powers. The story is basically like the classic story Lord of the Flies, but with a more supernatural twist with a heavy emphasis on the supernatural. Not everyone possesses strange powers, at least not knowingly or fully understanding what they are or do, and the characters (more than just the students) end up traveling to other worlds too referred to as a 'this world.' While most of the students prefer to stay in the strange new world full of 'this worlds,' some of them (only 2 actually) decide to go back to their world.

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.

There are several different things you can get out of this anime without having a wrong answer. In other words, this is an anime that's open to interpretation, which isn't always the case for anime. I think that anime like this aren't usually the most popular, but are more interesting since people want something that they can easily understand and/or find more engaging. Anyway, the main thing that I get out of this anime is the importance of finding yourself and knowing what you want to do. Knowing what you want to do requires, or should require, finding yourself in order to have an actual idea of what you really want to do with an emphasis on you, meaning what you want to do, not what others want you to do. Listening to other people is important, but it's more important to listen to yourself after you have listened to what everyone else around you has to say, which also happens a lot in the anime. Some people prefer one thing and some another. In the case of this anime, the preference is whether or not people wish to stay in a strange world with other worlds or to go back to their own world.

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 are able to listen to ourselves after listening to others in order to make better decisions for ourselves, and in other decisions that we have to make, in order to find ourselves and know what we want to do. May we find the answer to this prayer in our own world without relying on others, except for the world known as Heaven.