Anime Lectio: Strawberry Prince the Movie

                                                            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 living and/or working with a group of people, either voluntarily or involuntarily, it helps to get to know the group in order for the group to get anything done.  This can be seen in many ways, like living and working with a community and in the anime movie Strawberry Prince the movie.

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 boy on the student council is asked by another member of the student council to be in charge of a group to meet about planning for the school festival for the year, which will actually be the last one since the school will be destroyed and rebuilt in a new location at the end of the year.  The boy actually spends most of the time for the first meeting looking for the members who are supposed to be in this group.  When they do start actually meeting, they don't get much, if anything, done because they don't know what to do and don't know how to work together.  Another one of these reasons is that one of the members leaves these meetings early for some reason and when the other members follow him one day when he leaves, they find out it's because he has a job somewhere else at a cafe, which ends up being their new meeting place.  This also leads to them going on a beach trip together and while on this trip, they end up realizing that they can all sing, which they think they should do for the school festival.  They decide to let one of the members come up with a song for them to sing so they can learn it, as well as the instruments to play with it, before the school festival.  Despite issues with the weather that causes the school festival to be cancelled, this group still decides to sing this song, as well as decide to keep working together as a singing group after the school festival.

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 I don't know what the title of this movie has to do with this movie and why the main character looks like a human with animal features while others don't have these features, I do know that working with other people takes time and other things depending on the people in order to get to know them and work with them, not for or against them. A group is only effective if all of the members help with its work, not just one of its members, like the boy on the student council in this movie asked to help with this group due to his helpful nature. The group does this work and not just one or some of its members. While knowing yourself is important when working with a group, and not just on your own (as well as the difference), it's also important to know others in the group that you work and/or live with.

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 take the time to learn about the people that we work and/or live with in order to get things done and work and/or live with them, not just for or against them.