Anime, a topic that has surrounded my life so heavily in the past few years that I can’t just not talk about it. Just like people have things that influence them greatly, I have anime that has become a high influence on my life. It sounds weird but then again, it doesn’t sound weird as people always have different things that influence them. Sure, watching characters speak in Japanese while you have to read subtitles doesn’t seem like the most relaxing thing to do but after awhile, you don’t mind.

I started watching anime when I was young. I was born in the 90s so I caught the tail end of Sailor Moon and had watched a lot of Studio Ghibli movies. Sure, I had my taste of Dragon Ball Z and One Piece, when it premiered on 4Kids TV but never really got into it. I had loved the concept of Sailor Moon, I loved it so much that as I got older…I had a digusting habit of watching the series all over about once or twice a year. Even now, Sailor Moon holds a deep passion in my heart. As Sailor Moon had been my only anime for awhile, I didn’t start getting into deeply until I started college which was about two years ago.

I was a Digital Art & Design major so my venture into anime was no longer a choice but an inevitable destiny. My friends all watched it and I needed things to watch in my downtime while all my TV shows were on break. I started off with shouenes and made my way into shoujos, eventually reading mangas for shows that I was too impatient to wait for episodes with. I never expect animes to have such serious themes like tragic ones, I went in expecting a Sailor Moon feeling. However, there was so much more to anime that I expected and venturing into the genre left me glad.

As I started watching anime and reading manga, most of them had very common things. The actions based upon your family, friends and those around you can either make or break you, causing a lot of influence of how you act later on in life. I found that as an important lesson because I never really thought about those, I never figured out that lessons can be learn and be turned positive - making you a stronger person. In Sailor Moon, Usagi was a big crybaby but tone it down over the episodes. I feel like that hit me the most, seeing her transform into this strong woman and thinking, I cry and complain about a lot too - maybe I can learn from the challenges I face and become like Usagi. A strong, influential person that a lot of people depend on as well as her having friends she can depend on. I wanted to be Usagi, I wanted to be like Sailor Moon. I wanted to be the person that people are able to depend on. In Naruto, he spent his childhood life isolated and discriminated against due to the beast he had sealed inside him. As the years went by, he pushed himself to prove everyone wrong which is something I love to do. Everyone who ever looked down on me, to push through the obstacles and move forward is something I learned greatly through Naruto.

Although those were common, other themes included tragedy which helped me understand the phrase, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”. A lot of them focused on how people aren’t always who you expect them to be. In Akatsuki No Yona [Yona of The Dawn], Yona fell in love with her cousin Soo-won in who he turned out not to be the softsided person she loved. In “ERASED”, the teacher who the main character trusted ended up being the reason why all the events were happening.

Using these lessons learn, as well as others that I can no longer think of, really helped influenced me on who I am today. I keep thinking back on all the shows that I wanted, all the shounens, the tragedy, the shoujos, the supernaturals and so much more…I think about how they influenced me. I end up using quotes as inspirations, I end up thinking of … “What would so and so do?” I know I dwell on it a lot but I honestly don’t think I would be able to chase my dreams of writing without it. I had hopped from things to do with my career all over again due to my fear of not being successful in writing. However, the lessons that I learned in all the animes that I watched [some tagged] had made me push towards that dream.

I really hope people sit down and think about the things that influence them like I manage to do. I really hope that people have things that are so minor but can cause a big impact on their life. Well, now that you know what lessons I’ve learned that helped influence who I am today - I guess you get the insight of the post.