Anime is a great way to pass the time and access dramatic and emotional stories that only a country like Japan could create. But sometimes anime can teach us some of the painful life lessons we might not be able to learn otherwise. I asked J-List’s wonderful customers to suggest some examples of life lessons we can learn through anime, and here’s the list we came up with!
Ten Painful Life Lessons We Can Learn from Anime
First off is this observation by Hanabi from Scum’s Wish: “You can’t rewind time.” It’s obvious that time that’s wasted can never be recovered, but hearing it expressed like this can be eye-opening. While the anime is talking about taking too long to realize that your love is one-sided love, it could apply to any aspect of life, from putting off your education to taking too long to get serious about what direction you want to move towards in life.
Then there is Yuri-chan Sensei’s advice: “Not everything goes smoothly in life.” It somehow surprises people in their 20s when life starts to go in different directions than we intend, almost like a car driving on ice that’s sliding around this way and that. Calmly learning to get control of the car is the best advice we could offer.
The Monogatari Series is full of useful tidbits like this one. Live a well-rounded life and keep your expectations realistic.
There’s a word 八方美人 happo-bijin or “person who projects a beautiful face in all eight directions,” or someone who tries to be liked by everyone.
I’ve been there and it’s not worth it. Plus the minute you stop worrying about what people think, you become more likable anyway. pic.twitter.com/P2n8jwEQrh
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) November 2, 2018
Another bit of life advice anime can teach is is the idea of 八方美人 happo-bijin, which means someone who tries to be liked by everyone, to fit in with every group. My wife told me that I did this when we were dating and that it wasn’t a good idea. When I stopped caring who liked me or didn’t like me, life got a lot better for me.
Fighting isn’t good. It’ll turn you into sushi.
I sort of agree with this observation about the need to work hard, and I’ve always tried to emulate the strong work ethic of the people I’ve encountered here in Japan. On the other hand, there is an aspect of luck for all of us, and being aware of this fact and being grateful for it is important, in my opinion.
Hikki’s observation about why now is the happiest time is surprisingly good.
School Days reminds us that if you’re a big enough douche, you might be trapped in a “BAD END” game route, so maybe rethink things before it’s too late. Also, if you have unprotected sex, it’s not a matter of if the girl will get pregnant, but when. (Setsuna is holding a notebook with information doctors give to pregnant women.)
(Remember that the School Days game is very different from the anime, with uncensored H scenes and 21 endings, only 4-5 of which are dark. There are fully developed routes for several side characters, harem endings, and even some happy endings. Shiny Days has no dark endings at all and every character’s mother is a MILF route you can play.)
It’s not anime, but I’ve always loved this sequence from Watchmen, one of the four eternal graphic novels from the 1980s. It reminds us that whatever crisis we’re in, whether it’s a huge earthquake and tsunami or a worldwide pandemic, because “nothing ever ends,” it means time will always flow on, and we’ll always come through the crisis and get to a point where we can look back on it, even though it’s hard to believe it when things look dark and grim.
(The other awesome graphic novels are Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Elektra: Assassin by Frank Miller, and V for Vendetta by Alan Moore.)
Finally, while we may be tempted to worry about every little detail of life, most things are out of our direct control, so we’d often be better off just relaxing and letting things happen as they happen. This is part of the philosophy of Stoicism, and it’s quite useful to employ in our daily lives.
Thanks for reading this post about 10 painful life lessons we can learn from anime. Got any more? Post them below, or tell us on Twitter!
Unfortunately, the winter Comiket doujinshi event won’t be happening, but J-List is stepping up to the plate and adding lots more stock of awesome doujinshi comics from your favorite artists, so we can all support them and get those lovely doujinshi in our collections. Browse today’s new doujinshi offerings here!
