Anime Lectio: Vinland Saga Season 2

                                                             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. 

What would you do after what you try to do yourself ends up getting done by someone else?  Would something like this change you?  Or would you be able to keep on living how you always lived as if what you were trying to do yourself didn't end up getting done by someone else?  The only way to really answer these questions, as well as others, is to continue living your life in order to answer them, which can be seen in the second season of Vinland Saga.

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.

The second season of Vinland Saga starts off by introducing a new character and how he ends up meeting the main character of the series, who clearly is different from how he was in the first season.  After the person the main character was trying to kill, due to that person having his father killed, gets killed by someone else who they were traveling with at the end of the first season, the main character loses his fighting spirit and ends up working on a farm as a slave.  Despite the main character having someone else to help him with his work now, life is still difficult for them due to their status and the personality of the main character now.  However, with the help of his new friend, who doesn't have any other family or friends now, as well as other friends and experiences, the main character is able to change his thinking to realize that he has no enemies, even though this thinking gets challenged sometimes.  An example of this can be seen in his interaction with the character who tries to take over the farm with force, who also happens to be the same character who killed the killer of the main character's father (and it will most likely be seen in future seasons too).

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.

When I did my panel yesterday at an anime convention held at a nearby college about my idea of Anime Lectio in response to a video about the decline in critical thinking in anime culture (https://www.facebook.com/reel/1400932350964359), I talked a little about the series Vinland Saga. This series is also mentioned in the video as an example of an anime that people aren't interested in anymore, which I think is due to the differences between the first season and the second season since the first season has more fighting in it than the second one.  The contrast between the two seasons, which can also be seen in the seasons themselves, is seen in the main character's actions.  Instead of physically fighting others in order to get his questions answered, as seen in the first season, he tries to answer his questions about life, based on the questions in the reflection before the explanation of the anime, without resorting to violence, which is difficult.  Loving your enemies is an important part of this, as well as realizing that you have no enemies, but I've thought that this meant loving yourself, which is also difficult and is how I think loving your enemies, as well as loving others, really happens.  If you can't really love yourself, which the main character also struggles to do, then how can you really love others?

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 really love our enemies, as well as others, by first being able to really love ourselves.