Anime Lectio: Train to the End of the World

                                                            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. 

Technology can be good or bad depending on how you use it, as well as depending on why you use it in a good or bad way, which is true of anything else.  Using it to make the world better is only a good thing if it really makes the world better for everyone, not just certain people, or even just one person, who say the world is better for everyone regardless of what actually happens because of advances in technology.  An interesting example of this can be seen in the anime series Train to the End of the World. 

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.

After finding out where their missing friend is, who ended up changing the world in a bizarre way due to being told to press a button to activate 7G technology, her friends decide to leave their town, which was odd even before the world changed due to 7G technology (the people in the town turn into animals when they become 21 and 3 months old for some reason), in order to find her.  They look for this missing friend by riding on a train owned by a conductor who isn't himself most of the time due to some weird surgery from a guy who he tried to stop from creating the device to activate 7G technology.  Since their missing friend is now in the town farthest from theirs, as a result of an argument with one of these friends, finding her involves several bizarre adventures where they learn a lot about themselves, from other people who help them in their own ways, and people who try to stop them.  When they get to their destination, they find that their friend is being manipulated by the guy who created the device to activate 7G technology since he needs the friend who actually activated the 7G technology to take the blame for what he created, even though he claims that the world is better.  With the help of allies, they get their friend to change the world back to what it was before by having her press the 7G button again.

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.

Train to the End of the World is a really bizarre series that's difficult to explain, but what can definitely be seen in it is how technology can influence the world, as well as the people in it. What I also like about the series is that it's an anime original, so in addition to seeing something profound being told in an interesting way, which I already liked, what made me like this more was the fact that you really couldn't know what would happen next. You can have theories about this, but seeing what would happen is how you would really find out instead of comparing it to material that the anime is usually based on, or the manga of it. Anyway, besides seeing how technology can influence the world by literally changing it, and how this influences people's thinking based on who they are, the ending also gets into what normal means when the world goes back to the way it looked before 7G technology changed it. The world going back to the way it looked before 7G technology changed it doesn't mean it's back to normal, or the way it was. The world, like everything and everyone in it, changes over time. That's what normal really is. It's not about things staying the same. It's about things changing over time due to changes in yourself and what you do because of these changes.

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 use technology to benefit others, not just ourselves, as well as understand what normal actually means.