Anime Lectio: Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop and Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish

                                                             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.

I have thought a lot about romance in anime a lot before, which can be seen in some of my previous posts, and it's something I not only think about a lot with anime, but with romance in general. Does helping and caring for others always have to involve some kind of relationship where the boy gets the girl (or something like that)? I'm not in that kind of relationship with anyone, but helping and caring for others is something that I still do, so I would think that other people could do this too without being a monk (or nun or some other kind of religious, like a priest that doesn't live with other monks). For this post, I figured I would reflect on two anime romance movies because they both seem so similar to me, but I will still give a brief and written explanation of both individually before reflecting on both as a whole.

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.

In the anime movie Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop, a boy meets a girl due to an incident where they both happened to be at the time that causes them to take each others cellphones by mistake, which is how they find one another. They also help each other with their problems. For the boy, this involves communication as he has an interest in haikus and speaking in haikus, as well as wearing headphones when he doesn't want to hear others. For the girl, this involves self-image as she usually wears a face mask to hide her braces and buck teeth. In the process of helping each other with their problems, they also help an older man find a way to listen to a song of his dead wife by looking for a record of the song. Helping this old man also helps them as it ultimately leads to them really talking to each other, which is what the movie ends with.

In the anime movie Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish, a boy and a girl meet by chance when the girl's wheelchair goes out of control when going down a hill and the boy catches her as he happens to be going up the hill in order to go home. The girl's grandmother, who is also her caretaker, decides to have the boy help out with her granddaughter. At first, the girl doesn't really like the boy, but over time, they start to care for each other and help each other out with their dreams.

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.

What I like about the anime movies Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop and Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish is that even though they're considered romance movies, they don't really, or rather ultimately, feel like a typical romance. I think the reason for that is that both movies also fall into the slice of life category, which means that seeing meaning is more obvious. I like to think that all anime is slice of life. This would obviously depend on the anime in question, but personally, I like to see the meaning in anime, which is one of the reasons why I focus on certain series or movies. Anyway, seeing meaning in something like romance is how you can see what romance means. Anime movies like Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop and Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish, as well as others (there are definitely plenty of examples out there), provide examples of how you can see what romance means, which is why having so many anime movies with romance in it in some way is so important.

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 see the meaning behind romance movies in the examples of romance anime movies that we can see, like Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop and Josee, the Tiger, and the Fish.