30DAC – Day 29: An Anime You Wish Was Real

There are a lot of anime I wish actually existed. Pokemon, Digimon, One Piece and Fullmetal Alchemist. Some I’d like to exist purely to have the powers and mecha but then I’d have to remember that I’d be living in the same world they do, and it’s usually not pleasant.

To tell you the truth, I was going to choose FMA because the prospect of alchemy usage the way they present it is just so incredibly awesome and the world itself is perfectly livable and nice for the most part….barring the genocides and war. But I feel I’ve been singing FMA’s praises too long, so I went a different route.

My choice is Naruto. Why? Because that was literally the first thought I had when I first learned of the series. ‘Damn, I wish that was real.’ I mean, no matter your stance on the series, mine being decent, you can’t deny that the aspect of a ninja school (One for kids, no less) as well as learning all sorts of cool ‘magic’ ninja abilities would just be awesome. Not to mention all the cool weapons and specialized capabilities like bloodline abilities and ones that you can just invent to customize your style.

Granted, I’m being a little bit of a hypocrite here because, despite the world of Naruto being pretty cool, it can also be incredibly frightening when you think about it. People can control your every move through your shadow, control your mind, crush you to death with sand, blow fireballs at you etc. Plus, if you’re a civilian, you’re especially screwed if an enemy ninja targets you.

But eh, it’s not that bad for the most part. There are frightening aspects of our world, so I can’t be too strict there. It’s just a really interesting concept for a world as a whole.

….I just really want to write ‘Ninja’ on a resumé, okay? 😐

30DAC – Day 28: Favorite Anime Quote

– Tohru Honda “Maybe the reason you don’t see it is that it’s stuck to your back. What I mean is, a person’s admiral qualities, they’re just like, say, a pickled plum on a rice ball. In other words the person’s the rice ball and the plum’s stuck to their back. So, all over the world you can have rice balls made with all sorts of wonderful ingredients, all different flavors and shapes and colors, but since they’d be stuck in the middle of everyone’s back, someone could have a plum and not even know it. They’d look at themselves and think “I’m so plain, nothing but white rice,” even though it isn’t true because, turn them around and, sure enough, there it is. There’s the plum. So if someone is jealous of somebody else, well, then, it’s probably because it’s easier to see the plum on someone else’s back than it is on your own. Yup. I can see it. I can see it very clearly, Kyo. You don’t know it but you have a great big plum on your back.”

Some riceballs also have the shikon jewel in their backs.

I’m not going to lie, Tohru gets on my nerves quite often. She’s a major league doormat, and her incredibly gentle nature tends to get a little grating. Granted, she’s not like this all the time. There are several moments when she stands up for others (though rarely herself) and breaks down, but I won’t deny that her basically mousy demeanor aggravates me. That being said, she does have one of the kindest hearts and she has beautiful views on life. She’s definitely someone I’d love to have as a friend, and this quote highlights why that is.

This is a quote that I really need to hear and keep in my head as I go through life, and probably a lot of other people feel that way as well. In a world where having high self-esteem or a good view on life can be just incredibly difficult, this quote pokes through the clouds and gives a ray of sunshine. And unlike a lot of other positive quotes that seem unrealistic and cheesy, this one is presented in such a way that, while being very simple, also makes a lot of sense and is realistic. I nearly cried during this scene and only Tohru could be the one to make this quote hit home, especially since she may be integrating her own experiences into it given that she’s associated with riceballs. (In school, they’d play a game called ‘Fruits Basket’, the namesake of the series, in which all the kids would be given names of fruits. She would always be labeled as the riceball and would be excluded from the game since riceballs don’t belong in a fruits basket. It could be taken that this quote is her turning what was an insult for her into a positive thing, which is just what Tohru would do.)

I’m actually thankful for this prompt because this is a quote that I wish would be passed around more often. It’s a long quote, yeah, but it’s well worth every word.

By the way, you have something on your back. 😉