Anime Lectio: My Deer Friend Nokotan (yes, really)

                                                             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. 

Accepting your past self can be difficult, especially if we are trying to be a different person now that isn't like our past self.  What also doesn't help with this is having other people around you know what your past self was like, people who judge you for it, and/or people who think you should still like certain things because of your past self.  An interesting, and admittedly incredibly bizarre, example of this can be seen in the series My Deer Friend Nokotan.

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.

A high school girl who now strives to be a model student has a random encounter with a deer girl (girl with antlers) on her way to school one day.  The deer girl somehow knows that the high school girl who now strives to be a model student was a delinquent in the past, so in order to prevent others around her from finding out about this, the high school girl who now strives to be a model student ends up in crazy situations because of this deer girl.  This includes becoming president of a Deer Club, which actually gets other members, dealing with people who are after the deer girl, and a lot of other things.  In all of this craziness, it seems that the high school girl who now strives to be a model student learns to accept her past self despite how difficult it is due to the people around her, who are usually into what the deer girl does no matter what, but the last episode proves otherwise.

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.

As I said in the reflection before the explanation of this series, this series is admittedly bizarre. The difficulty of accepting your past self may not even be something that you get out of this series. Personally, I like trying to get something out of any series that I choose to watch in order to keep watching it. I chose to continue watching this series because I thought I could get something out of it, despite that not being so obvious. Perhaps it does that in a bizarre way in order for it to be more entertaining? Or perhaps this is just a bizarre series where thinking about what's happening is only not required, but also not necessary or even a good idea? Whatever you think about this series (I prefer to believe in the first question), it's definitely one that stands out and makes you think, which is why I feel that this series is 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 importance of anything, even if it's rather bizarre or even seemingly unimportant.