Anime Lectio: Apocalypse Hotel

                                                         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. 

Treating others the way you would want to be treated, or how they should be treated, is important for everyone.  While it is important to treat everyone the same way in terms of what should happen, knowing what should happen in order to treat others the way you would want to be treated is also important.  Not everyone is the same, so knowing what people want and need based on who they are is necessary.  An interesting example of this can be seen in the series Apocalypse Hotel. 

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 a mysterious virus makes Earth a place that humans can no longer live on, a human in charge of a hotel entrusts the care of the hotel to its robot workers until humanity can return to live on Earth again.  One of these robot workers acts as the manager of this hotel in order to keep it running like usual, even though they have no guests for a while.  Their first guest is an alien, which leads to more aliens staying in this hotel as guests and the robot staff learning how to treat their guests based on who they are and what they want and/or need.  Some of these aliens, a family that looks human, but isn't, ends up helping the robot staff with this work.  After many adventures with this family, as well as more unique experiences with its alien guests, a human comes down to Earth in a space suit and tries to live on Earth while in the suit, even staying as a guest of the hotel in the suit.  When she tries to live on Earth without the suit, thinking it would be safe based on what she's told, she seems to be able to do that.  However, after a little time, she gets sick and learns that humans have been away for so long that they can no longer live on Earth without wearing space suits, which leads to the human leaving and Earth itself becoming a hotel.

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.

While the ending of this anime doesn't make it clear if humans would go back to Earth to visit and stay as hotel guests, the anime itself does make clear that the various guests that do stay at the hotel now, meaning aliens, have needs and/or wants based on who they are as individuals. This is also true for humans, even though I guess humans would be considered aliens in the anime based on how it ends. While living with others is important, whether it be on a permanent basis or in a situation like staying in a hotel as a guest with other guests, it's also important to remember that wants and/or needs are different for people, both individually and collectively, according to circumstances.

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 understand the wants and/or needs of others, both on an individual level and a collective/communal one.