Anime Lectio: Gachiakuta Season One

                                                           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. The only device you need is the one you use for this blog.

3. Deep Breathing - Open yourself to God’s Presence

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. 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 people you

know and don't know are like signs of God’s presence. 

4. 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. 

There is a saying that one man's trash is another man's treasure.  But what about treating your own trash, or part of it, as your own treasure?  And what about how you treat others based on who they are, what they do, and what you think because of who they are and what they do?  These questions, as well as others, can be both seen and/or answered in the first season of the series Gachiakuta.

5. 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 who lives in the poor part of where he lives and grew up, known as the Sphere, has an interest in repairing trash, which usually takes him to the rich part of town since people throw out things that are still usable, but slightly damaged. One day, some people from the rich part of town catch him going through their trash and nearly catch him, but he manages to escape to where he lives with his adopted father. After things happen between him and his adopted father, he ends up being framed for the murder of his adopted father, which leads to him being punished by being dropped into a pit that everyone on the surface where he lives, including him, thinks is just full of trash and trash beasts that result from all the trash sent down into the pit. Besides finding trash and trash beasts, the boy also finds out that there's another world down in the pit too (this world is referred to as the Ground). This other world has different groups of people, like the guy who finds this boy and asks him to join his group that fights trash beasts with trash. On their way to this group's headquarters, they get attacked by a group of people who are interested in capturing the boy since he's from the Sphere and not the Ground, but when attacked, the boy discovers that he can turn any piece of trash, not just a specific piece of trash, into a weapon due to the gloves given to him by his adopted father that he wears to protect his hands. After this, they get to this group's headquarters, and after meeting other people there, and on other adventures they have, which involves meeting new people, like the evil organization that they try to stop, the boy realizes that there's more to the revenge that he's trying to get by trying to get back to the Sphere, like who he is.

6.  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.

Gachiakuta is a series that immediately caught my attention due to the first episode being an obvious commentary on what is known as throwaway culture (more about that in following link - https://substack.com/inbox/post/167674564?r=1v3xg1&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true&fbclid=IwY2xjawO2cLxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe4omlRlvB_jjmuGK5KUhub0_Q9vetD7LXQGhoDK6KJXHzVK8xN17BU9gG81w_aem_0wMsnNOpE9WQldP6odjViw&triedRedirect=true). While most of the series doesn't directly focus on this idea of throwaway culture, I like to think that it's still important as it's based on this idea, as well as the other ideas and questions seen in the reflection before the written explanation of the anime (I say it's brief, but it's not always brief, or as brief as usual, since the explanation depends on what anime I'm talking about and how I feel about it). There's more that I can say about this series, even though I've said a lot about it already, but thinking/praying about throwaway culture and how it can be seen in our lives, not just in this series, is also important.

7. 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 what throwaway culture means in our lives.