Anime Lectio: Dead Account

                                                            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. 

Relying on technology a lot can be a good thing, but it should be limited, especially when it comes to using your phone.  As someone who lives in a monastery and works in a high school on our property, teenagers tend to be on their phones a lot.  We do have a system where students are supposed to turn in their phones at the beginning of the day and get them back at the end of the day, but we can't always control it.  It's up to parents, or other parental figures, to help with this, as well as teach them how to use technology, particularly phones, properly or else deal with the consequences of not doing that.  An example of this can be seen in the series Dead Account.

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.

In order to pay for his sister's hospital bills, a boy resorts to creating a social media channel where he creates videos involving insulting people.  Despite his efforts, his sister dies, which the boy doesn't think is a problem since they can still communicate through their phones.  However, the sister ends up becoming a corrupted ghost that possesses her phone.  An exorcist who knows how to deal with such possessions shows up in order to exorcise this ghost and with the help of the boy, they manage to exorcise this ghost.  The boy then ends up going to a school run by monks that teaches kids like him how to deal with these kinds of exorcisms by using their phones as weapons.  The weapons are based on the personality of the user and the boy ends up wielding blue flames as weapons (insulting people is also considered flaming them or something like that), which leads to a lot of people at the school not trusting him since their main enemy also happens to wield blue flames as his weapon.  However, after learning more about himself and his classmates, which includes him exorcising one with their help, people there start to trust him.

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.

It's easy to imagine this series taking place sometime in the near/distant future. I know dead people can't take over their phones and I don't know how that can happen, but it seems like being obsessed with your phone, as well as what you do with it, is a factor in that. This can also be seen in the series with the exorcists who use their phones as weapons for these exorcisms and such weapons being based on their personality, influenced by what they did or do with their phones. How you use your phone is important, whether or not it can be used for exorcisms or as something to be possessed by ghosts.

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 are able to use technology, especially phones, properly and be willing to learn how to do that.