Anime Lectio: Life Lessons with Uramichi-Oniisan

  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.

Work is difficult for everyone. There are parts of it that some people like while others don't, but the people who don't like it put up with it anyway for whatever reason. This reason may be that they'd have nothing else to do, wouldn't know what else to do, and/or have nothing better to do. This isn't exactly hypocrisy, but more like not fully enjoying what you do. As I continue to respond to the positive and negative things about my community in writing before we talk about these things, I think about how we can make our life of prayer and work 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, or seeing the anime for yourself since that's better than any explanation, might “speak” to you or shed light on the things that have been on your minds.

The anime Life Lessons with Uramichi-Oniisan is about a gymnast who is the host of a kids show with the help of his friends, two who are singers and two others who also help with the show by dressing up as animals. There are also several other people who help out with the show behind the scenes. What happens in the anime depends on what people behind the scenes of the kids show want the hosts of the kids show to do for the show, which the hosts still do (for the kids I guess), despite clearly not liking what they are doing.

7. Reflect on the anime

Has this brief and written explanation of the anime, or seeing 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.

The anime Life Lessons with Uramichi-Oniisan is most likely an anime that's more relatable to people and how they can feel about work. There's doing what you love to do and then there's doing what you need to do in order to survive. Doing what you need to do in order to survive seems like what the hosts of the kids show are doing and why they still do it despite not really liking it. They don't do much outside of the kids show either other than take time for themselves, which doesn't happen much. They don't do much on their own either. As I said before, work is difficult for everyone and there are parts of it that aren't enjoyable, or fully enjoyable, for everyone. Talking about this to others in a constructive way, and not in ways where you just complain about it with friends or talk to kids about it (which actually happens during the kids show sometimes), is the way to deal with it.

8. Final Prayer

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

Let us pray that we can figure out how to fully enjoy what we do by figuring out why we do what we do in order to make our lives better.