Anime Lectio: 86 Eighty-Six

                                                            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.  

What is war? War is usually seen as two groups of people, or two sides, fighting each other for certain reasons that are important to them. These reasons may be more important to some people than others. People may just be fighting for a certain side because they want to while others don't think that they have much of a choice but to fight. While the kind of war I usually think about has to do with the war within yourself or your own personal wars, which is also important in how war is usually seen, how war is usually seen is also important to think about in order to understand why it happens.

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 series 86 Eighty Six, a group of people known as the 86 are people that live among themselves for the purpose of fighting in a war and are controlled by the government in this fighting. While this method of fighting is acceptable to most of the people in the government, it isn't to one of the people in the government who works as a handler, or controller, of these fighters. When she is assigned to be the new handler for the 86, she tries to get to know them, do what she can to make the fighting better for them, and gets the government to change what they are doing. Besides focusing on what this handler does, and tries to do, the series also focuses on members of the 86, particularly the ones who survive and try to live new lives in a new place in the second part of the series. After going through a lot of fighting, both individually and communally, the surviving members of the 86 are reunited with the handler they met in the first part of the series and they all see each other for the first time.

7.  Reflect on the anime

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

No matter how you see, understand, and think of it, war influences people in various ways. People who fight in war aren't always people who are involved in war in some other way, like trying to control what happens. There are also casualties of war besides people who fight in and/or are involved in war in some other way, like people caught up in the fighting, or innocent bystanders, and family and friends of those who are fighting and/or involved. Everyone has their own wars to fight, like addiction and doing what they do (battles in a war - everyone fights their own battles and these battles make up a war). There may also be another war that they are fighting in that also involves other people that they didn't ask for, but fighting such a war could also be important. Your own wars tend to be more important, but others you can't control as easily can be important too.

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 for everyone involved in all kinds of war, whether the war be personal or one that's not as personal.