Hello everyone, it’s been a fast year so far. We are six months in, and already into our sixth OWLS blog tour of the year, which is amazing and this couldn’t have been done without:
Wonderful anibloggers that work on their blogs but still find time to work behind the scenes of blog tours making sure everything goes smoothly for the rest of us OWLS.
And for new readers just joining us, that don’t know about the OWLS, we are;
a group of otaku bloggers who promotes acceptance of all people regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and disability through the use of anime and manga. We emphasise the importance of respect, kindness, and tolerance to every human being.
Sadly this is only my third tour, cause I have not been able to take part as much as I would have liked. So when the sixth one tour came around I knew I just had to do it. And also having and idea for this immediately I saw this months Topic helped.
“Vulnerable”
In the month of June, we will be discussing what it means to be vulnerable. To some individuals, being vulnerable could be seen as a sign of weakness, but in fact, vulnerability is actually a sign of strength. In this month’s posts, we will explore what it means to be vulnerable and how certain characters in pop culture glamorize vulnerability. When do we show our vulnerability? How do we express vulnerability? Why should we show vulnerability? These are questions that we will be discussing in our posts featuring characters that show vulnerability and/or sensitivity and what we can learn from them or even our own personal stories.
To me the first thing I thought about when I read this was Shinsekai Yori. It’s an anime to me that has a lot of depth and meaning, and for me one of the meanings I noticed was vulnerability.
Before we continue for people who haven’t heard of Shinsekai Yori
What is ShinSekai Yori?
Following a sudden outbreak of psychokinesis in 0.1% of the population, a rapid transformation swept the world. The godlike ability to manipulate matter remotely turned many power wielders to violence, inciting a long period of upheaval. Finally, after a chaotic era shaped by the rise and fall of oppressive regimes, the psychic humans were able to achieve a fragile peace by isolating their society, creating a new world bound by complex rules.
In the town of Kamisu 66, 12-year-old Saki Watanabe has just awakened to her powers and is relieved to rejoin her friends—the mischievous Satoru Asahina, the shy Mamoru Itou, the cheerful Maria Akizuki, and Shun Aonuma, a mysterious boy whom Saki admires—at Sage Academy, a special school for psychics. However, unease looms as Saki begins to question the fate of those unable to awaken to their powers, and the children begin to get involved with secretive matters such as the rumored Tainted Cats said to abduct children.
Shinsekai yori tells the unique coming-of-age story of Saki and her friends as they journey to grow into their roles in the supposed utopia. Accepting these roles, however, might not come easy when faced with the dark and shocking truths of society, and the impending havoc born from the new world. –MAL
Vulnerability of Our thoughts
Thoughts fester
We see this when Shun loses control of his cantus, due to repressing negative emotions. Becoming a danger to himself and all thats around him.
Shun tried only to acknowledge his good parts– the kind and gentle boy, which I think we are all gulity of. It’s not a bad thing to do, but we are human we have both good and bad in us.
Bottling up thoughts or emotions are never a good idea, for any reason like– fear, weakness, thoughts of sounding dumb etc. Not voicing them out doesn’t really let them go away but can evolve them and make them even worse over time. Just like Shun, by ignoring the ugly parts of himself, he eventually became the ugly parts.
If it bothers you voicing your worries is always the path to fixing the problem, or more simply
Admitting there is a problem is half way to fixing the problem.
Fearing the unknown
Fear is an emotion that can save or destroy, dragging you into even despair and sometimes paranoia.
The Queerats fear of being eradicated one day by the humans pushes them to create a weapon to fight the humans.
Causing casualties on both side. And almost actually causing the eradication of the queerats.
Or
The fear of the villagers of Mamoru becoming a fiend, causing them to send a tainted cat to kill him.
This ends up badly with Mamoru running away from the village with Maria, which ends up bringing the fears of the villagers to life, years later.
Sometime we are the ones that give our fears physical form, making us humans our own worst enemy. When we make decisions out of fear.
Thoughts of Weakness
Is weakness really a vulnerability?, I don’t think so. Weakness to me is knowing yourself.
And by knowing your weakness, you can find a way to adapt or at least be better next time.
Saki is a good example of this not being the strongest or smartest.
Saki one of the most sensitive breaking down to tears the first, turns out to be the strongest being able to accept the good and bad. she overcomes any experience and continues moving foward.
So that’s all I have for you hope you enjoyed my post. You should not miss Karandi take on vulnerability! and Naja post after mine.
You can follow along with the whole tour:
- 6/9: Megan at Nerd Rambles
- 6/11: Crimson at Read at Night
- 6/12: Hikari at Hikari Otaku Station
- 6/13: Aria at AniManga Spellbook
- 6/14: Dylan at Dynamic Dylan
- 6/16: Irina at I Drink & Watch Anime
- 6/18: Lyn at Just Something About LynLyn
- 6/20: Jack at Animated Observations
- 6/21: Ange at Just being Otaku
- 6/22: Matt at Matt-in-the-Hat
- 6/23: Karandi at 100 Word Anime
- 6/24: YumDeku at MyAnimeGo
- 6/25: Naja at Blerdy Otome
- 6/26: Scott at Mechanical Anime Reviews
- 6/27: Mel at Mel in Anime Land
- 6/28: Carla at Popculture Literary
- 6/29: Takuto at Takuto’s Anime Cafe
- 6/30: Fred at Au Natural
Hope we see you there!
