Anime Lectio: Great Pretender

                                                           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.

When we don't really know what we want to do in life, we end up doing things that we think we want to do.  What we want to do could end up being what others, not just you, want too, as well as need. However, sometimes we end up doing what we are good at, even if we wanted to avoid and stop doing these things because we didn't like them since we didn't feel good doing them.  Such actions can be seen in the anime series Great Pretender.

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 Great Pretender, a young man who is considered to be the great con artist in Japan ends up getting conned by an American tourist. Not only does the young man from Japan follow the American tourist to con him back, but he teams up with this American tourist, as well as other con artists who work with him, to pull off bigger cons that he could pull off by himself. However, the young man from Japan tries to get out of the con artist game sometimes, even though he always finds a way back into it. This is due to the other con artists he meets and/or realizing what he can do despite wanting to live an honest life, which is something that his father, who's actually on this con artist team, tried to do too.

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.

One of the interesting things that I learned from this anime is that the con in con man (or woman) is short for confidence. I never really thought of a scam artist as a confidence man (or woman) before, but I guess it makes sense since confidence is needed for such a livelihood. Confidence is really needed for any livelihood no matter what it is and whether you like it or not, so in a sense, everyone is a con artist in that they need confidence for what they do. Being a great pretender is another interesting way of describing a con artist 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 the confidence that we need in what we do, whether we like it or not and/or are good at it or not.