Anime Lectio: Made in Abyss

                                                         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. 

The Hero's Journey, or monomyth developed by the thinker Joseph Campbell, is a formula of how adventure stories usually work.  It is usually divided into four parts with each part containing three subparts (I'm only interested in the four parts described here - this is also based on what I learned in graduate school), starting with the call to the adventure, continuing with the response to this call, followed by the abyss, or what the response leads to, and ending with the return.  This is how adventure stories usually play out.  But what if it wasn't always like this, meaning one of these parts isn't followed?  An answer to this question can be seen in the series Made in Abyss.

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 girl who likes exploring the abyss in the middle of the town she lives in ends up finding a mysterious robot-like boy, so she brings him back to the orphanage that she lives in, which is also a school to learn more about exploring and how to do it.  One day, she finds out that a team of explorers that has explored a lot of the abyss in their town has returned after a long time of being away and among the things this team brings back, one is a note for this girl supposedly from her mother that simply says she’ll be waiting for her at the bottom of the abyss.  Despite the fact that she doesn’t have a lot of experience exploring, and the fact that once you reach a certain point in the abyss, especially the bottom of it, you can’t leave it, she decides to respond to this call from her mother to join her at the bottom of the abyss.  Armed with only her knowledge of exploring the abyss, the mysterious robot–like boy to help her, who is most likely from the abyss since one of the things brought back from that team previously mentioned is a drawing that looks like this boy, and her faith in her mother’s message, she begins this journey.  It starts off with no problems until they find a woman who lives down there who knows the girl’s mother.  After testing them to see if they can survive the lower levels of the abyss, she decides to let them continue their journey, which leads to meeting new friends and enemies that’s still continuing.

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.

I think the reason that I like using this series as an example of how it's not like the typical hero's journey is because it literally and figuratively ends with the abyss (that's how I'm guessing the series will end based on what's happened in it already - still not finished as of this writing), as well as what that could mean. There most likely won't be a return in the usual sense, meaning going back to where you started the journey with the call to it, as a different person because of what you experienced in the abyss, but is the return necessary? Does not returning from the abyss mean you don't learn anything from it? Does the response only have to be to the call to the journey? What about responding to the journey itself? These questions, as well as others that you could have about the hero's journey, can be answered by thinking about the hero's journey, as well as praying about it and how it can be seen in your own life.

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 the hero's journey in our own lives.