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nissakii · 2 years

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Spy x Family - Parenting for a Peaceful World

Another season begins and so spring welcomes us with a long-awaited anime: Spy x Family. Highly recommended by the many manga-readers who finally rejoiced when the anime adaption was announced.

Now the first episode is already out, and it makes everyone wonder, could this be my next recommendation?

Surely, today’s Blogpost may answer your question in an all-well-known spoiler-free manner like in every of our breakfast anime series.

Are you ready to spy on this new series?

Plot of Spy x Family

Twilight.

The name of the best Spy around Westalis who not ever so often saved the country from many threats of upcoming wars and commotion when it comes to their neighboring Country Ostania.

To no surprise his new mission is also related to such an affair, as his new target is one of Ostania’s politicians Donovan Desmond, also known as Operation Strix.

But in order to get close to Desmond, Twilight has to marry and get a child which would infiltrate the former son’s school. With less time than he actually needs, Twilight makes his way under the false identity of “Loid Forger” and adopts a child – Anya.

Anya is supposed to enroll into the prestigious Eden Academy and for that he also needs a wife to attend the social gathering which he quickly finds as well, Yor Briar.

Under the pretense of a happy family, Twilight’s most difficult mission starts as his new role of a husband and father with much more risks and difficulties than he expected.

Can he succeed without getting attached and reach world peace by parenting?

Characters in Spy x Family

Loid Forger

Loid Forger is another of many faces that Twilight puts on when he is going through one of his missions.

This time: The happy family with a wonderful daughter who is head over heels for his wife. The proud father of Anya Forger.

Despite being used to walking his path alone and not getting people intermingled with his missions, he is forced into putting a child and a woman in danger, unusual and out of the question for him.

Nobody knows his true identity, nor does he know much about the other family members as he tells himself not to get too attached to them since it is just a mission.

A happy family façade he puts on only to succeed in Operation Strix to reassure that the world stays peaceful.

Only to realize how less peaceful his life as a family would become…

Anya Forger

The adopted daughter is the core role of Twilight’s mission.

Her part is to enroll into a private academy in order to get close to Desmond who attends social gatherings there.

Since Anya is an Esper who can read other people’s minds, she is the only one aware of both her parents’ identities and on top of that thrilled for a new eventful life of her cool parents.

With a new home and willing to compromise to stay there with her new-found family the eager yet curious little Anya gives her best to impress those around her fully knowing that she is the key for world peace.

Yor Forger

A shy beauty on the outside who is absent-minded most of the time when she works her usual job in the office.

Getting teased by her friends for still being single she gets pressed to marry and therefore finds a great convenience in Loid’s offer.

But never judge a book by its cover since this shy office lady is the renowned Assassin “Thorn Princess” now under the cover of a happy wife and mother of a lovely daughter who focuses on her family.

Will she also be a mother that would kill for her child?

Animation

Despite the setting of a country that is threatened by war several times and very shady things going on underground, the animation and colors were held pretty bright.

This also goes for the exceptional design of the characters that bring in many different yet mood-brightening color palettes that pleases the eye in midst of a steampunk-ish setting that seems to hint at early German architecture and references (as seen in the Berlint train station which implies that German city Berlin).

We also see that the fashion is held quite classic and in the direction of a more vintage oriented time, in which we see that modern technology has progressed, but not as far as our modern times.

Meaning a lot of brown and metallic tones are used for colors, as well as ambience lights that go more into an orange tint due to the lamps used back at that time. This is not for the action-filled alleys and nights when battles are held, and the ambience fittingly goes into a more blueish or violet tone to match the frightening sides of the character’s hidden identity.

It’s as if the light represents on one side the happy family at day with more bright bursting colors, scenery, and ambience. On the other hand, when flashbacks or scenes in which the characters are alone are presented, their true faces coming to the surface, the colors turn more faded, cool and less saturated.

Since the first episode is only out, we still didn’t see the opening, but we already have the ending from it as it shows us the town and peaceful side of the anime. Jazzy and calm as if we were led to a calm family evening after a harsh day. Whether it was the official ending video or just for the episode is still unknown.

Voices in Spy x Family

Takuya Eguchi as Loid Forger’s Voice in Spy x Family brings back the chivalry of Julius (Re:Zero), the provoking yet attractive side of Hanma (Tokyo Revengers) and also softness of Kakeru (Fruit’s Basket).

Yor Forger on the other hand is voiced by Saori Hayami well-known for her elegant yet delicate voice which is recognized in her role as Shirayuki(Shirayuki hime), Himawari (Boruto) and Nino (Fukumenkai Noise).

The energetic and curious Anya Forger is spoken by Atsumi Tanezaki who lends her voice to other characters like Mayu (Death Parade), Niki (Dr. Stone) and Emilia (Durarara!!).

It has also been announced that several other voice actors will join in later.

Conclusion

After the first Episode was out everyone was on their toes whether it was worth waiting for an anime adaption or not. Whether the anime will stay true to the manga or not is still far away to tell with one episode, but we can agree that it did successfully hook the first viewers.

If you are looking for a perfect balance of a heart-warming, yet action-filled comedy anime then Spy x Family should be on your list next.

With the diversity of so many characters not only design but also personality-wise (and at this point even with many identities), they are all as lovable and interesting to see how they would end up interacting in the future.

Anya as an adorable comedic relief and both of the parents being not only attractive, but very dark characters in their true occupation makes one wonder:

Will world peace happen with the help of this family?

Stay tuned over a cup of tea,

-Makii

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nissakii · 2 years

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We love them so much yet...

Kagehina is underrated for many reasons, not that people do not love the freak duo dynamic it's quite opposite but they are even more reasons why we should appreciate Kagehina.

Wanna know why?

Check out here: 10 reasons Kagehina is underrated partners, rivals and more!

And recently we added another precious dynamic that is seen from a shallow standpoint sometimes while the dynamic is much more than it seems to be...

The notorious turnaround Senpai-Kohai dynamic of Bokuto and Akaashi!

We gave you 7 reasons why Bokuto and Akaashi's relationship is actually precious!

And no, not because Akaashi is simply a Mum friend b

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nissakii · 3 years

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ANIME QUOTE TIME PT.05

“…most of the people in this world are neither good nor evil. Death is the final destination for all of us, but no one dies the same death.”

-Nanami Kento

As Jujutsu Kaisen already served to impress us with many simple yet meaningful quotes, there is another one from a very simple yet thoughtful man who chose to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer again leaving the world of the ordinary business people once and for all.

Nanami Kento’s complex but also simple character is one of his many charming points as he is someone who blatantly tells what is needed without talking too much around the topic but getting straight to the point. Still in his words one can see that they stem from experiences and while it’s hard to see at times emotional attachment to the person he gives his little advice to.

A man of not many words, but actions that do not go over more than needed, which makes the watcher turn their attention whenever Nanami explains certain things due to these characteristics, that he displays since his very first appearance.

As humans tend to see things subjectively, despite that they claim that they are objective it’s unusual to see that someone is really neutral and sees things from a distanced perspective. Even the most logical person cannot fully detach their emotions from time to time when speaking about advice or discussing a certain topic.

“… most of the people in this world are neither good nor evil”, again a simple fact yet sometimes hard to understand when one has already met many people and seen the reality unfold in front of us.

Nanami mentions that most of the people are neither good nor evil, as it is true that the words good and evil are terms to describe the moral standing of a human being can only be seen subjectively most of the time. Someone who may seem evil to one person can be a good person for another, many factors play into the way we perceive a person. It goes from the very first impression, to daily habits, behaviour around work and free-time and so on.

Judging a person through categories like good or evil is simple since we sometimes just think that’s how it is but like Nanami mentions most of the people are neither. Why?

Because every person has bad and good sides and it depends which side another human sees to judge that person, if someone is truly evil or good, nobody surely can judge about that fact it’s an uncertainty that can probably never be proved only in some cases as there are humans whose destructive behaviour and egotistical means to cause many casualties not caring about a single soul, is an obvious sight that cannot be hidden, as we see in Mahito’s case.

“Death is the final destination for all of us”, there is a parallelism in this quote underlying one fact, the total opposite which is still additional to his former sentence. This fact is something proven, something that cannot be hidden nor seen subjectively as the final destination of every living being on this planet will end at some point, for some earlier and for others later. We saw that Nanami chose to tell that there are things which are not explainable, cannot be judged, discussed or are a fact since they differ from person to person.

But with death it’s different, no matter how many times someone tries to run away from it death is something inevitable, everyone dies and that’s something that especially we humans have in common even if it’s the only thing.

From something that can only be seen subjectively, something that is not a simple fact transiting into a fact that cannot be refuted and that even a child knows.

With birth comes death, we are destined to die at some point of our life from the moment we are born and yet even if we think: So Nanami is telling us this is a fact we cannot differ in, he adds some words to loosen the raw objectivity in his statement.

“But no one dies the same death”, if we have something in common which is death then there is still a difference in our similarities.

As this sentence can have many meanings, let’s look at the first one: same death as in the way we die.

Truly there are a lot of ways a human life can come to an end and through the many deaths prior to our own demise that may await us at some point, one death differs from the other even if the “cause” may be similar.

We see that even with diseases many humans show different approaches of therapy or different ways how the same disease was discovered through different symptoms.

But since there are possibilities that two people encountered the same way of death, there comes a second hidden meaning in this message: emotions and perception.

No one dies the same death, the emotions, last thoughts, decisions and many more that are made in the last moments can never be the same. Everyone has a rich inner world, their own desires, dreams and their own way to perceive things.

While others are plagued and may see death as a way of salvation others fear it and don’t even want to think about it, and those are just two simple ways to “feel” about death as it ranges even more.

Not only that but also the aftermath of the death, depends on the people around the person as there is the third meaning: same death as in after the person has met their demise.

As many people died and were missed, there are also the kind of people who died a lonely death without even being buried, same death could refer to the way people approach the death of the person as well.

Whatever meaning was meant by Nanami or even if combined, in the end with his simple, obvious yet complex and meaningful message he wants to emphasize something, especially for people like Itadori who wish to bring everyone a good death.

There are similarities between humans and it’s that we all die at some point, and whether that person is good or evil is not something that stems from your judgement alone as for most people it cannot be divided into those categories as simple as that, yet nobody will die the same death even if we all die at some point.

The ideal of wanting to give everybody the same good death is much more complex and hard to achieve, let alone by the fact that nobody dies the same way and that even if oneself thinks that the person who supposedly should have a good death doesn’t equal that others want to guarantee that.

Just as complex as the perception of humans, it’s just as complex to achieve equality for everyone’s death.

-Makii

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nissakii · 3 years

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Anime Quote Time pt.04

“I wonder if the first person to say ‘the opposite of fondness is indifference’ went to hell like they should have.” - Junpei Yoshino

Treat others as you would like to be treated.

This is a sentence we often hear from others when we grow up, as we still learn how our actions in life have consequences. Apart from the fact that “being nice” can be part of our morale as a child, we learn for ourselves through our lives what we wish to do.

As much as a human is free to do what they want, we live in a society where norms exist. There are things that are universally seen as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ which of course still might be different according to where you grew up and what you were taught.

In the end, what might be normal and acceptable for one person could be a horrible act for the other.

We have found some things that are approved by society, such as being nice and helping others as well as acts that are prohibited, like hurting and killing.

Now, if we would dive deeper into what morale is and what can ethically be acceptable, we would have a long journey ahead of us, but let us look together at a very interesting instance in which morale is displayed in Jujutsu Kaisen.

Junpei Yoshino is quickly introduced into the series as a young man in high school who is a victim of severe bullying from his peers.

Ibou Shouta, the hot-shot rich student whose popularity is through the roof, is the main culprit amongst others, which we can see out of Junpei’s perspective.

Junpei loves movies, and despite his school experience being extremely jarring, he tries to stand up for himself as he is ground to the dirt. We can see how he takes initiative in building his own movie enthusiasts club and tries to stay in the clubroom despite his bullies’ claim of stealing the room.

Still, in the end Junpei stays on the ground while he is being chastised as his frustration and malice inside him grows and grows.

Next to his scared and tormented side, we also catch a glimpse of Junpei in an environment that is supportive of him.

He has a wonderful and funny mother and even meets Itadori, who not only accepts him for who he is but also spends time with him. Junpei now laughs and smiles, has interesting views on the world and engages with his surroundings like any other happy person would.

From a watcher’s perspective though, we know that despite the good moments, Mahito is playing with the strings in the background. Throughout Junpei’s conversations with Mahito, we find out a lot about what the both of them seemingly think about the world.

Indifference is the virtue Junpei describes as truly what humans should strive for, but where does this sentiment come from? Clearly, we see that Junpei is a nice person with good intentions, he even thinks about how he cannot hurt anyone without tainting his own soul and also thinks of his mother in the process.

It is the excessive bullying and abuse he endures that makes him indifferent to his own struggles, swallowing his pain down and pushing through from day to day.

“The opposite of fondness is hate”, he says, while explaining that one cannot simply use indifference as an antonym for such a strong emotion like love.

When looking at the three terms ‘fondness’, ‘indifference’ and ‘hate’, indifference is the central middleground between the three. This is also what Junpei so strongly explains.

He continues with: “[...]went to hell like they should have”.

Junpei himself is indifferent to the people who hurt him, and even though most of his dark thoughts stay exactly that- thoughts, we can identify his tendency to think of people that hurt him the same way. His bullies, later on Shouta who supposedly cursed his mother and even Itadori.

Junpei distances himself from the view that fondness is the other side of the spectrum of indifference, because he tries to ignore the people that hurt him. It is when that indifference turns into hatred and malice especially channelled towards Shouta, that the tide shifts.

With Mahito as an enabler to Junpei’s dreary thoughts, making him believe that whatever he wants he should just take, be it lives or revenge, the highschool student quickly uses his sharp idealistic thinking to justify his actions.

With a morality that is based on ‘I’m allowed to hurt others if they deserve it’ and the fresh grief of losing his dear mother he goes on to flip the switch that has stopped him from acting out too much.

Junpei took a lot of thought into what his actions would do to him, as his mother was alive he contemplated on how what he would do to others might taint his soul, but Mahito’s grip on him was already strong.

The support and backing he got from Mahito was the first step in having Junpei believe that there was someone in his corner. Someone who understood him both intellectually and ethically. Mahito played on the pain Junpei went through and channeled it into a weapon that would grow from malice and the virtue that was so highly praised by Junpei.

Indifference.

With Mahito’s “people don’t have hearts”, Junpei found the last puzzle piece to his idealistic thinking. Seeing as he views most things in either a good or a bad light without looking much more into it, he found the justification that he needed with the chaotic cursed spirit that is Mahito.

He even furthers his constraint on the boy as he promises to sanction him, giving him the last push to permit Junpei’s actions after he played with him and his family. That is all that Junpei needs as he charges into a stage of anger and numbness when he attacks Itou Shouta.

In his mind, Shouta is one of the bad people who now deserve punishment.

It’s such a jarring difference from the happy and smiling Junpei we can see for a short moment before he gets stuck in a sort of despair that is unsettling to watch. In the end, the tragic tale could have been avoided if Mahito hadn’t elected Junpei as his new plaything, but it is still a thing to think about: is Junpei not at all to blame for his actions?

Yes, Mahito has had his fingers in this plan from the start. If he hadn’t, Junpei’s mother might still be alive and Itadori wouldn’t have to exist with the memory of losing a dear friend in such a horrendous way.

What does Junpei’s story tell us?

The interesting part here is that Junpei contradicts his own views and his quote “the opposite of fondness is hate”. He goes all the way to explain how hating someone and being indifferent to those emotions are very different things, yet in the end it is the anger that overtakes him.

If one is indifferent to other people’s demise, why is it that the hatred that Junpei feels for Shouta is the catalyst for killing him?

Does he feel indifferent to Shouta’s pain? Or is it his hatred for him that justifies his actions?

If Junpei was indifferent to the people bullying him this whole time, then the anger he felt after losing his mother was the reason he could ignore his previous doubts like “tainting his soul”

Anger made him blind, which is also what Itadori told him. In a rage, Junpei forgot all about his previous inhibitions and only strived for revenge.

It shows us how easy it can be to be nice to people who have had troubles in the past, but it also shows us how quick one can turn from a loving place in life to a dark one. A support system can not only be used in healthy ways, but they are also the backbone of toxic relationships.

Mahito made sure to give Junpei not only the support he needed to find some self-confidence, but also presented him with the idea that the indifference Junpei strived for was a normal instinct. He told him that indifference to human life is natural, if he wants to kill someone he should just do so.

Which in the end clears one thing up: Junpei was in fact indifferent to the pain he would cause because his hatred towards the one who he thought killed his mother was strong enough.

His story starts with the support of someone with low self-esteem and big ideas, and it ends with a tragic death that left Itadori with a piece of his heart missing.

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nissakii · 2 years

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Tanaka-kun is always listless - sometimes you gotta be lazy

The cold season is still hovering around and with it the desire to just lay around in blankets that keep you warm and cozy.

Listlessly we fight through the winter and it's gloomy times but there are still anime that keep us a little bit warmer and happy around this time.

Cue listless, today's anime is all about it with Tanaka-kun wa itsumo kedaruge or how it is called in english Tanaka-kun is Always Listless.

For those lethargic people who are tired of action-filled anime and dramas that spoil the mood, this anime might let you calm down and get the relaxed side out of you.

Again like in any breakfast anime we are keeping it spoiler-free for you.

Plot

Since this anime is a comedy slice of life that plays in a school setting there is not a heavy plot as in other series that tell a much bigger story.

It shows the life of a very lazy and listless boy who wants to spend his days as peacefully as possible not wanting to be disturbed or aiming for any action.

With his best friend Oota who basically acts as a babysitter for him, his wish for a peaceful life gets destroyed by characters that enter his life step by step.

Despite his effort to not make any effort at all, Tanaka gives his best to not let his peaceful days end just like that and get as much lazy time as possible!

Characters

Tanaka

A young man who is often seen either asleep or spacing out.

He is the main character of the story and despite that he often breaks the fourth-wall to make clear he does not yearn for a busy life of a big character, but if he had the choice would like to be a mob character whose face wasn’t drawn in the first place.

His passion and goal is being as listless as he can and avoiding any events happening as much as possible. Still it is seen that he is pulled into one thing or another while trying his best to slip out of the situation not caring a single bit about what others might think.

With a bold nature not shying away to say what people don’t want to hear he says what is on his mind as long as it aligns with his values.

The wish to be as listless as possible makes him repugnant not wanting to make any effort at all, as he even decides to build up muscles in order to doze off in class peacefully.

His best friend is Oota which he appreciates a lot and spends most time with.

Oota

A tall man with a piercing stare that is often described as intimidating.

Sometimes mistaken for a delinquent, the reliable Oota is far from a scary guy and more of a ‘motherly’ figure in his friend group. That’s why Tanaka often jokes about Oota being a good wife.

He likes to cook and is fond of sweets which doesn’t match with his appearance of a serious and stern highschooler.

He always takes care of Tanaka so he won’t get lost, doesn’t sleep somewhere he shouldn’t and more, funnily carrying him over his shoulder most of the time. As caring as he is, it doesn't bother him at all and he has a sense of duty to help his friend and others.

That’s why he is seen by others as a very capable and responsible person from kids to elders.

His awareness of other people’s feelings let’s him assess the situations easily especially when Tanaka is lacking any tact or empathy, which is why we see him go the extra mile to make others happy by comforting them or clearing a misunderstanding.

Others

Many characters appear in the series that play a role of representation of problems that the one or other could relate to. From someone who sees Tanaka as a master to someone who hides their true self we get a variety of people interacting with Tanaka despite his wish for uneventful days.

Animation

This time around not only the opening but also the ending have both a cute yet soothing air around them being much more calming regarding the theme of the anime.

Most colors are kept bright close to pastels which add a certain idleness and peacefulness to the overall impression. They sooth the watcher in a way and the character designs are kept much more simple yet beautiful.

Many sceneries are provided with a similar pastel-like color palette showing the beauty of nature that connects ‘peaceful’ and ‘calm’ with it. With Oota’s love for sweets we also get to see a variety of aesthetic foods and their arrangements.

Colorful and soothing, the animation is kept on a level with the theme and simplistic style of the anime.

Voices

Ono Kenshou who lends his gentle yet calm voice to Tanaka is also known for voicing Akutagawa (Bungou Stray Dogs), Floch (Shingeki no Kyojin) and Nanase (Idolish 7).

Oota who may seem intimidating but surprised with his soft-spoken yet polite tone is voiced by Hosoya Yoshimasa, the voice actor known for his roles as Honda (Fruits Basket), Yamazaki (Free!!) and Fumikage (My hero Academia).

Other Voices actors like Yuuki Aoi, Takamori Natsumi, Suwa Ayaka and Koiwai Kotori also join as different characters in the anime later.

Conclusion

Tanaka-kun is always listless is an anime to watch when wanting to calm down. Since the anime represents the topic around laying back and taking things easy (even when we shouldn’t) the atmosphere of this anime is exactly that- wanting a peaceful life.

In order to get the most peaceful life possible the main character goes ways and lengths that somehow contradict with his goals which is funny to watch and very relatable if compared to our lives. Sometimes we make things even harder just because we are lazy and try a ‘more easy’ solution ending up with much more energy-taking ideas.

For a change of pace with not much action and a heart-healing as well as soothing atmosphere this slice-of-life comedy about a lethargic boy and his best friend is highly recommended.

With a meaningful message to read between the lines, we humans tend to forget that life is not only about hustling through it but always taking a moment here and there to enjoy a little bit of laziness in our daily-routine, which nobody is supposed to criticize us for.

We see that many characters have their little struggles as well, for example his best friend Oota who might look like a delinquent but is much more sensitive than his friend Tanaka who looks fragile.

The overall setting is very pleasant with the ambience created around the school and afterschool activities, as well as lunch breaks and holidays.

With diverse characters that each are growing to the viewer's heart in their own way and the great effort Tanaka brings up just to be lazy puts a smile on the face.

A perfect match for a little break from action, drama and tragedy that could also have the message for one or another person with the people represented in this anime.

If you want to be a little bit laid-back and watch something next to your breakfast then this might be your next on the list.

Because we gotta be lazy from time to time as well…

Trailer:

youtube

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nissakii · 3 years

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The moment when Haikyuu!! characters realise they like you pt.2

Hanamaki: As he is the guy to joke around all the time with the other Seijoh boys, he is used to getting remarks from girls around him like “oh my god stahp~” but when you just joke with him, or even better, roast him he is gone. Whipped, down bad! He even stumbles over his own words the first time you do it, and Matsukawa never laughed harder :D

Osamu: Silent Consideration is the key here! Whatever it is, you listen to him intently and remember every small little detail. He is not much of a flashy guy, but whenever you bring him his weirdly specific favorite drink from the conveninece story or when you say, “oh yeah I know, you told me that once”, he feels heard and loved.

Aone: This might be a little obvious, but you are not afraid of him, not a bit! It starts when you just sit down next to him as if it were nothing, when you look at him or call him ‘cuddly’ or give him other cute affirmations. One day, you just feel a dark looming presence behind you and some students flinch away, but you just turn around with the brightest smile knowing it’s him. From that day on he only had you on his mind.

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nissakii · 3 years

Conversation

Haikyuu!! characters as vines

*working on math problems*

Kita: If Sakusa has 19 bottle's of dishsoap-

Atsumu: Wait, why does Sakusa have so much soap?

Sakusa: MIND YO BUSINESS MIYA

#haikyuu #hq #haikyuu!!#miya atsumu #sakusa kiyoomi #kita shinsuke #math #memes #vine #haikyuu incorrect quotes #funny #joke #nissakii #season four haikyuu #iconic vines

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nissakii · 3 years

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Significance of “Madness” in anime

We’ve already established in other posts about significant emotions and concepts in anime or specific media before. The Significance of losing or the one of visuals and metaphors in Haikyuu!! are some of those I would love to mention here, but today we shall delve into a broader topic that goes more along the lines of Makii’s thrilling post about Danganronpa and the Significance of Despair.

Today, our topic of interest is madness.

To ease your mind, in this post we will be talking about the representation of insanity and madness in some anime characters and how that reflects on the story and ourselves as an audience.To make one thing clear, a lot of the times we see overexaggerated versions of unstable characteristics in anime that aren’t realistic.

This is in no way a discussion about actual mental illnesses and not a professional approach to analysing them to our real life standards, but maybe a start to an interesting discussion about how we portray and handle what one may colloquially call “craziness”.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s start!

Artists, and no matter for example if they write or draw, use their platforms to deliver messages in cryptic ways. As humans, we have the innate ability to look at something and consume the facts through entertainment which makes us crave new media to follow and analyse.

We love to question things instead of just taking them as they are, and that is why most writers out there will play around with the perception of their audience.

You may be familiar with the common question that ghosts through your head as you enjoy the latest episode of your favorite anime.

Why did he do that? Is she a traitor? What makes them think that way?

Although one might always do it consciously, we most definitely analyse whatever media we consume and decide for ourselves if it is important enough to keep in mind for future reference.

What the writer or founder of the anime ultimately wants from the reader is a reaction.

No matter what they intend to do with it, if they enjoy the viewer getting excited or traumatised is not of importance, but a reaction is evidently one of the goals.

And as strong emotions always evoke an even stronger reaction, anime characters are often very idealized and have ideologies that make them want to do one particular thing.

Be it save the world or destroy it, we focus and look at these characters and root for them if they give us a reason to do so.

Both sides of good and bad can have deeply rooted admiration drawn out of us, and it sometimes doesn’t even matter because the more interesting part is the lovely grey area in between.

We need a balance of good and bad to enjoy both.

Empathy makes us viewers want to relate to the characters, and if the author gives us the possibility to learn why someone does something, it gets harder and harder to dislike them. That’s why tragic backstories and flashbacks are such an overused tool in anime, because with the extreme behaviour some characters show they also need equal amounts of redemption.

We attach ourselves emotionally to characters depending on our personal tastes as well.

If someone likes and relates to a strong and independent protagonist who would drop anything for the sake of justice, you will find a lot of resembling characters in shounen for example.

On the other hand, if a darker or more obsessive character manages to take over a special place in a viewer’s heart, putting them on a pedestal gets more and more interesting, because you’re not supposed to.

Contrary to that, characters with insane or dark personality traits are often very popular, again tracing this back to human instinct of emphasising with wronged characters and curiously inspecting the fully deranged ones.

As this isn't something that should be put into vague concepts, we’re instead going to look at examples of characters and entities that are seen as ‘mad’ and how they’re interpreted.

It’s not just about villains being unreasonably immoral in this post, as we look into what madness entails and how it's shown, we also have some examples of corruption to look at.

So of course there are the typical evil-thinking evil-doing villains out there.

Some of them have an actual backstory to make them more realistic and believable, some others are just pure evil. While they are often called mad for their actions to achieve their goal, the reason why they are put into that light is the stark contrast between the protagonist and the villain.

If the protagonist loves to save people and always has a smile on his face, of course he will differ from his counterpart when he finds out that his methods are a bit more vicious.

The protagonist perceives the villain as insane most of the time, but what does the viewer think?

We seek to look not only at characters that are enjoyable to watch, but also try to find similarities between us and them or draw lines in their behavior to understand them better. As mentioned before, empathy plays a huge role here as well, since whatever happens in anime doesn't have actual repercussions, we can forgive characters more easily.

For example when they are taken by Insanity as a side effect rather than being insane due to trauma, we often get an 'ally turned traitor' trope through hypnosis or brainwashing, which is just as interesting to look at.

If a person did something horrible under the influence of something they had no control over, are they still to blame?

Does Insanity only involve a separate entity that comes from evil, or are we also looking at the gradual descent into darkness when life just isn't the same anymore?

Insane and with no fear: Soul Eater

A great example of how insanity plays with characters be they good or bad is Soul Eater.

With a premise that one needs a sound mind and body to inhibit a sound soul, we obviously know that people close to becoming Kishin-eggs will have a rotten soul drenched in bad deeds, but what about the good guys?

In this instance we have a lot of different types of madness and insanity that touches multiple characters at different times, and by far the most drastic would be the black blood.

The black blood being a synthesized weapon form of blood that can change form and harden into shape, is a weapon made by Medusa and introduced for the first time with Crona. He was melded together with Ragnarök as a weapon and used the black blood in his proficient fighting style.

Soul Eater as well as Maka and other characters later come into contact with the black blood, and the consequence of the immense strength that comes with it is debilitating madness.

As explained in the anime, the madness makes one deny the soul of oneself and others and takes away your fear. Now with no fear present, the person exhibits extremely erratic behavior and is not scared to hurt others or themselves.

This is an insanity that shows how essential a person's fear is, shown by Maka in one of the latest episodes when she fights Asura. The fact that she learned how to accept her own fear and realise that humans need it to survive is why insanity in Soul Eater is merely a concept to differentiate between what is human and what is Kishin.

A Kishin kills and murders with no fear of anything.

A human protects and masters one's own fear.

The power hungry insanity: Hunter x Hunter

In Hunter x Hunter we have a lot of characters that don't exactly fit the norm of human action.

With people like Chrollo, Illumi and even Chimera Ants there is enough crazy to go around.

Still, the character we shall delve into to look at a different kind of instability is none other than Hisoka Morow.

Yes, in comparison to black blood madness Hisoka is an actual human being with no known influence outside of his own intellect. The contrary to another weapon or entity making someone insane is being shown in this anime.

Hisoka is just insane.

We have no means to see if there is anything that might have caused Hisoka to be the way that he is, but what we do know is that his character is almost too nonchalant for his own good.

His goal is to accumulate power and fight others that he seems worthy, as that is what attracts him. No person is spared if he believes he found a worthy opponent he will make that clear to them and pursue them passionately.

We could rule that the clown is just eccentric, but with the given information from the anime he definitely had some sort of mental difference next to his peers. Harming himself holds no problem to him, and his behavior is deeply rooted only to suit himself. He has no self-preservation except for when he needs to accomplish something, and he even enters the spiders just to get close to Chrollo.

Now we see a single person carry themselves throughout a story only to achieve one thing: a good fight.

After having looked at these two examples of insanity in anime, let's look at how that insanity can be portrayed visually.

A famous way to show someone's psychosis is the “Kubrick stare”. A directorial technique that got named after the director Stanley Kubrick who used a forward tilt of the head with eyes locked onto the camera to show the actors of his movies at their peak of madness. It became a very popular stylistic device and is used still very often in modern movies.

The character is supposed to look menacing, evil-plotting and absolutely unhinged.

Such devices, if used often enough, automatically invoke the message to the viewer.

If you’ve seen the Kubrick stare once in a psychotic character, you will definitely associate it with the same derangement again.

In anime we have a similar thing, and you might be aware of this already.

Familiar with the ‘eye angle just before a character goes insane’ meme?

It’s a running gag that shows multiple characters such as Asura from Soul Eater, Pain from Naruto, Light from Deathnote and Jason from Tokyo Ghoul in a frame where you can only see their eyes and it somehow looks extremely grotesque as if they were looking into different directions with their eyes.

As much as it is a joke, it is a perfect example of something extremely similar to the Kubrick stare used in anime culture. It goes so far that if any anime watcher would see a new character look like in a frame, one would assume they were about to go crazy.

Even Oikawa Tooru from Haikyuu!! was shown with a Kubrick stare in the last moments of the second Seijoh vs. Karasuno game, when his desire to win overtook him with incredible force.

Without loss there naturally can’t be any wins, and without sadness there will be no joy in laughter.

We need the different depictions of what one might call madness, to fill our stories with nuance that relies on our reality.

Be it an unknown entity, hunger for power, lack of fear or the good old fashioned thrive for world domination.

Madness is just another part of what we call life, and to be honest in healthy doses and for effect why not enjoy it in anime?

Now, do you guys know any other characters or concepts in anime that would be worth mentioning? I would love to see them in the comments!

Until then, stay sane!

-Nissa

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