Anime Lectio: Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple

                                                            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. 

I used to help out with a class about the history of martial arts that was offered in one of the sessions of our school year when students are engaged in projects that emphasize experiential learning (the main teacher was a blackbelt in a form of karate who retired recently - I didn't continue the class on my own or with anyone else).  My main contribution to this class was talking about anime (including the history of it some years - manga too a little) and the martial arts one that I liked talking about the most was the series Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple since it clearly talked a lot about actual martial arts and the differences in how using them is seen.  These differences are seen in the ideas of yin and yang, commonly seen as a certain symbol that represents the Taoist idea of the balance of good (yin) and evil (yang), which also includes the idea that a little good is in evil and a little evil in good.   This is also seen on a badge in the series that also represents the ideas of yin and yang in the characters in this series.

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.

A boy who learns about martial arts, as well as everything else, by reading books ends up meeting a girl who happens to be a transfer to his class while they are both running late to school.  After school, as well as after the martial arts club the boy ends up in, even though it's not a great club for him, the boy ends up walking home and sees a situation that could turn into a fight, but ends up ignoring it at first, even though the girl he met earlier is involved.  However, after realizing what he is doing, after hearing that other people are ignoring the situation too and thinking about what other people have told him before, he decides to get involved in the situation, even though he doesn't need to since the girl who also got involved is actually a highly skilled martial artist.  Despite the fact that he didn't really save her, the girl thanks the boy for what he did and they talk about martial arts, which the boy needs to learn more of due to being challenged by another, and far stronger, member of their school's martial arts club that pretty much bullies him.  The girl suggests he try training at the dojo where she lives in order to get better at martial arts so he can survive this challenge - that is, if he can survive the brutal training of the masters at the dojo first who only train the boy in terms of strengthening him up for the fight.  Realizing what the masters are doing, the girl secretly teaches the boy a fighting move he can use to win the fight against one of his bullies at their school's martial arts club, which he does despite people not thinking he could do it.  However, the boy ends up fighting more people because of this and the masters who were just strengthening him up for the one fight end up teaching him more in order to win these fights.

This also leads to the boy fighting his childhood friend again, as well as the significance of the yin-yang badge the boy wears, which he was wearing since the beginning of the series, but wasn't explained in terms of what it meant in a broader, or more general, sense until about the middle of the series (explanation seen in the fourth step paragraph is more or less like the explanation given in the series).  However, in a more narrow, or specific, sense, the badge itself is something that the boy and his childhood friend fought over when they were younger after witnessing martial arts used by a little girl, who happened to be the girl the boy met at the beginning of the series.  They (the boy and his childhood friend) both got different ideas of what martial arts is based on what they saw, as well as their other experiences, which results in the boy using martial arts for good and the childhood friend using martial arts for evil.  The boy doesn't remember any of this until he starts fighting his childhood friend again, which the childhood friend not only remembers the whole time, but took too seriously.  However, with the help of his friends and masters, he ends up beating his childhood friend and realizing the friends he has made in his martial arts journey.

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.

What's also interesting about this series is that by the end of it, all of the friends of the boy's childhood friend that were originally on the side of the childhood friend end up siding with the boy who fought him in some way, either directly helping him or indirectly (mostly directly). I think this proves that good is ultimately better than evil, not just in terms of how to use martial arts, but also with anything else. However, what's also important to remember is that good and evil aren't completely black and white concepts, made more interesting by the fact that the Taoist concept of yin and yang is symbolized with the yin, or good, side as white while the yang, or evil, side as black, as well as a black dot in the white side and a white dot in the black side with the two sides forming a circle. I never really brought this up in the martial arts class I mentioned when starting this post, but there are many other examples of how martial arts is used that we did show, as well as talk about. We also took the time to let our students think about what we were doing with them (you can see some of that on the blog we used for the class - https://sbpmartialarts.blogspot.com/), which was important for us too, still is, and always will be for both us and everyone since I also try to do that here.

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 how to use martial arts, as well as why, and how the concepts of good and evil, symbolized by yin and yang, can be understood.