Most people think that because anime or Japanese cartoons are just for children because they’re just cartoons. What they fail to forget is that, though there are anime shows made for children, there are a lot of things that we – including myself, can learn about life from these shows. How is that possible, you ask? Think about who made these shows – adults like you and me. People that have a story to tell, but decided to share it through drawings and caricatures instead of a film or real-life people. Why, you may ask? Maybe because it’s easier that way; cartoons have a lot versatility compared to real-life films and can express emotions and experiences in a way that real-life films cannot.
I am on the verge of completing the second season of the anime show Inuyasha – a childhood favourite. I forgot what drove me to watch it again, as I believed I already got over “cartoons” and so have been watching mature films such as the likes of Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and Mad Men. I cannot for the like of me, remember what made me click on the first episode of Inuyasha instead of the next episode of Mad Men. Childhood nostalgia? Perhaps. A yearning for something different? Maybe. What I know is that I’m glad I went back and watched it again. It reminded me why I enjoyed such shows in the first place. It was just the trick to get my mind to start “working” again.
After school finished and I finally had a well-deserved break from commitments, responsibilities, and obligations of academics and volunteer life, I felt worn out and dried out, creatively. I felt that I couldn’t write anything or could not produce anything artistic; I felt that I had no creative juices left and dried up my pool of creativity. For someone that carries this imaginative side as mere hobby, this struggle becomes all too real. As a psuedo-artist that hopes to one day have the time to let their mind wander and get lost in other worlds, I used this as a way of figuring out things in the “real world”. I find that there will always be this need, this desire for a retreat.
I miss getting lost in my thoughts; swimming through and searching for hidden worlds, forcing me to write it all down for fear of losing it all. I felt that I was losing this part of me; that I was getting caught up with the so-called “realities” of life. But I decided to take a deep breath, leave the obligations of this life and just go back to that bubble of a world that I call my imagination. Nothing like being able to finally swim after much longing for the sea. It was like a breath of fresh air. Like finally being let out into the open after being cooped up in the house for too long. It’s the feeling of creative freedom that you can only experience once you’ve allowed yourself to get lost.
For many people, this seems other-worldy, even — dare I say it, crazy. They see it as childish and foolish; things that I, as a 23 year-old should have grown out of. Either that, or be labelled as business student in the wrong program. I should be thinking about the future, thinking about my career prospects, what kind of job I should have, the grades that I need to get, and ways on how to increase my productivity. These are important things they say; these are what I should be filling my mind with. Not those useless stories and cartoons that I should have outgrown. They ask, what are you, 7? I should be worrying about “real” problems and “real” life. Whenever people ask me this, it makes me question: what is “real” life?
For a young adult, the “correct” answer is the life that you are living in; the life where you should be looking for means to an income. That is the real life because that is what everyone worries about. To deny and to question it is to be called “stupid”, “crazy”, or a “maniac”. I think most forget that those declared geniuses today, were once declared as madmen during their time. Comedian Oscar Levant, considered as a creative legend, said that “there’s a fine line between genius and insanity”. Well, who is to say that genius and madness is not the same? For people who are geniuses, tend to be mad men in the end. Great artists get lost in their own world and only comes back up for air once in a while — and bringing with them what we hail as great works of art. Or maybe it’s not even madness. Maybe it’s just a way for people to escape the realities of the world to come out a better, and stronger person than before. Even if it means getting lost in anime shows once in a while.
goingroyal 