Anime Lectio: Yu Yu Hakusho

                                                            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. 

Recently, I finished a rewatch of my favorite series Yu Yu Hakusho, which is also the first anime that I plan to talk about in that book about Anime Lectio that I've been saying for a while that I would work on.  Rewatching the anime recently and starting to work more seriously on the book now has helped me remember why I like the series so much.  There are other anime that I plan to talk about in that book too and doing an Anime Lectio post about them here too would also help in terms of having an outline/reference for the chapter (except for The Garden of Words, Ranking of Kings, Platinum End, and Blue Lock since they have Anime Lectio posts here already).  However, I will start doing this with Yu Yu Hakusho and continue with the other ones I plan to talk about (with some newer anime I'm still watching now mixed in).  Anyway, I also plan to focus on a certain theme with each anime for the Anime Lectio book based on the main thing/topic I get out of it and for Yu Yu Hakusho, that would be the question of what's important.

5. Brief and written explanation of the anime

Pay attention to how the brief and written explanation of the anime seen on this blog, as well as seeing the anime for yourself since I think that's better than any explanation, might “speak” to you or shed light on the things that have been on your minds.

The first thing we learn about the main character of this series is that he's dead due to saving a little boy from getting hit by a car. In order to understand how this happened, in terms of what led to him dying, he thinks back on what he did before he met the little boy, which involves learning more about the main character and some of the people he interacts with. When he eventually realizes what did happen and what is going on now, he meets a girl who says she's the grim reaper and tells the main character that he can accept an ordeal to get his life back. The main character initially refuses the girl's offer since he thinks people will be happier with him gone, which seems to make him happy too, but the girl lets the main character go to his wake to see if that's really the case. While there are some people who are actually glad that he's gone (mainly 2 of the 3 teachers that you see at his school), there are some people who are sad about him being gone (his friend/rival, his girlfriend, his mom, the third teacher, and even the little boy he saved, seen by his mom since he doesn't get what's happening). This is enough to convince the main character to accept the ordeal to get his life back, which ends up working out and is what leads to him becoming a spirit detective in order to help out the prince of spirit world, who offered him the ordeal to get his life back. This is also when the question of what's important comes in (at least directly anyway).

After the main character's first case as spirit detective of stopping three demons and getting back what they stole to spirit world and his second case of winning a certain fighting tournament, he ends up fighting another demon in order to stop him from causing chaos in living world, or back on earth, by turning humans into demons. During his fight with this demon, this demon decides to control the humans he's been turning into demons and have them hunt down the main character's girlfriend. While the main character is fighting this demon, they can see that the main character's girlfriend is in trouble. The main character tries to use all of his power to stop him, but when he doesn't think he can use anymore and looks like he will be defeated by this demon, he hears the voice of his mentor reminding him of what she taught him as a result of winning her fighting tournament in his second case. This mentor calls out the main character for what he usually does when fighting, saying that being born with a talent for fighting doesn't matter if you don't use it fully, which leads to her telling him to concentrate on what's important and fully commit to it, not just when you want to. The main character has to ask himself what's important in order to know why he's even fighting this demon. After thinking about the people who have helped him and/or who needed him in the past, he realizes that they need him now too, which is enough for him to eventually defeat this demon and save the people who have needed him since the first episode and is also seen in various ways as the series continues and ends.

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.

Another reason why I like the series Yu Yu Hakusho so much is that it was the first anime I remember watching that I also remember being different from the usual cartoons I would watch growing up (one of this cartoons was actually the Pokemon anime, which admittedly, still feels like a cartoon to me). At the time, I was being treated for cancer as a teenager in the pediatric unit of a hospital that catered more to younger kids. Not much for me to do except stay in my room and do things in there, like watch TV, which is where I first saw Yu Yu Hakusho. It wasn't until thinking more about the series over time that I realized why it was so important to me and why it still is, not just to me, but in general. Most anime in the genre of Yu Yu Hakusho, which is the shonen, or fighting, genre, would just focus on the question of what's important once, as well as the training that led to the question (if the training even leads to a question) once. The main character usually doesn't even have to think about what's important - they just know, whether it be friends, family, and/or who/what else they want. The main character here doesn't always know that. He has to remind himself what he wants and needs (I think what you want and need should be the same thing) more than once throughout the series. Heck, if it were completely up to him, he wouldn't have even had the chance to do that at all without someone who cared about him. The question of what's important is a question to think about, as well as pray about, all of the time in order to really understand your answer.

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 take the time, and not just once, to ask ourselves what's important, as well as pray about it.