Hi guys, so it would appear that I’ve missed this deadline by quite awhile. This post is about two weeks late, in fact. I’ll be posting some sort of mid-May update here soon to caption what’s been going on and why I haven’t been posting (though you could probably guess). This way, I can avoid cluttering up the hero week celebration. Welcome to café talk . . . ?
What was this post supposed to be about again?
That’s a good question, haha. Hero Week was ideally supposed to encompass my thoughts and reviews for four anime with heroes in them followed by a café talk to wrap everything up and conclude with a few of your guys’ thoughts.
Unfortunately, there were very few comments. On two posts, exactly zero. so I won’t be doing that part.
In huge part, this was all my bad. While I did get the first few reviews out on perfect schedule, I lacked the promotional qualities that would technically keep bringing people back. Little preparation went into setting up the “festivities.” In fact, I mainly set this all up as an excuse to review the recent flow of anime I had finished with heroes in them.
Another reason Hero Week fell pretty flat was – again, on my fault – the shows that I picked. ERASED was a good one, and it got the matching hits and comments it deserved. Since everyone has already talked about One Punch Man, I figured that it would attract little public eye. The hardest one to write, Yuki Yuna is a Hero, is the most obscure show on the list, and despite how much effort went into writing it, only a tiny handful of you checked it out — and that is FINE! As readers (and writers), we deem what we think is worth our time, and if it was worthwhile, we might even drop a like or a comment. As a content creator, I was a bit discouraged.
Then my dinky iPhone-published-on-the-spot My Hero Academia impressions post came out, and several of you rejoined the congregation. This was unexpected! While I didn’t feel it made up for the lack of activity on the previous ones, I was definitely happy to talk with all of you 🙂
So where does this leave us? I mean, why even bother? Because heroes should be celebrated, and also because I am NOT a quitter! I realize this was kinda a failed project (and I won’t rush into one like this again), but there were very important lessons learned during the process. Part of me is glad that it turned out like this just so that I can emerge even stronger and more knowledgeable about the whole ordeal. But enough about my pitfalls, let’s talk about what the heroic spirit means to some other popular anime (no spoilers)!
The Heroic Spirit Manifests in other Anime
Fate/Zero – Quite literally, the seven “heroic spirits” which are conjured up by the Holy Grail itself each contain their own ideology on heroism, some being more extreme than others. The majority believe, however, that heroes are leaders among the crowd, and they must continue to inspire their brethren in the pursuit of peace and triumph. They must be feared, awed, and worthy.
Attack on Titan – Heroes are hard to come by in this world overrun by gigantic zombies, but even those few reluctant heroes must spur comrades – and even humanity – to find the will to survive, and to be bold and brave during dark times.
Eden of the East – Twelve influential people are given the possibility change humanity for the better by transforming not only politics and economics, but also society itself. Though they all possess their own opinions on how the world should be saved, these heroes must give the average man or woman a sense of belonging and purpose in such an overwhelmingly crowded world.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica – All magical girls seem to do is fight bad guys with sparkles and pink dust, but this dark fantasy’s twist adds extreme weight to the biz. Whether it’s fighting to purge your mind of troublesome thoughts, clashing with others who oppose your methods, or moving forward (or going back) to save the lives of the ones you love, heroes must make devastating sacrifices and bear terrible burdens in order to protect those who are precious.
A Certain Scientific Railgun – In this massive network of a city for academics, darkness lurks behind forgotten alleyways and inaccessible files. To eliminate surface crime and the unspeakable evils of power and curiosity, heroes must possess good judgment and an open personality to keep their dearest friends out of the chaos. Consequently, they also must be able to accept a helping hand when faced against extreme odds.
Guilty Crown – Being ordinary is just dandy, but when accidents so tremendous shake the very foundation of science and human health, heroes must arise to the occasion and step up to bat when potential is thrust upon them. And in their pinnacle depression, they must be able to accept the guilt of others by transforming shame into valuable experience.
The Rose of Versailles – A life of luxury comes at the expense of others’ suffering. When that suffering becomes inhumanly great and revolution ignites on the horizon, a hero of passion, charisma, and valor must understand both sides of the spectrum before taking a stance.
I could go on until we’ve covered nearly every anime I’ve watched, but I think you get the picture.
Hopefully now you can see that in ERASED, heroes must be able to overcome trial and error by empathizing with the past. Or that in One Punch Man, heroes can be any guy off the street so long as they have fun fighting for the good of the cause. Or how about in Yuki Yuna is a Hero, where heroes must be able to bear the pain of others, however intense, and handle loss in order to keep them truly safe.
I’d like to conclude with one of the heartiest anime I’ve come across thus far: My Hero Academia. Loaded with stereotypes and gimmicks so cheesy and redundant that we know the outcome of every scene — But we still love it, why? Because heroes must be able to inspire others to do good deeds for the cause itself. They’re not out to eliminate all evil in the world, but to spread enough positive vibes that outdo negative potential.
Watching Izuku Midoriya stumble during every training session and getting back up again is what fuels us to believe that he is a hero. We can relate to him and the other students and heroes alike. All Might himself has decided to pass on his quirk, the culmination of strength of previous holders, to Izuku, which is proof from the get-go that Izuku has the capacity to serve the world well.
All of the celebrity-like heroes in My Hero Academia have this cool edge to them (beyond the neat costumes and variety of superpowers), and watching them soar in and save the day fills us with this familiar sense of well-being — like there truly is someone out there fighting behind the scenes for all of us and boosting our drive to right our wrongs, find hope, and smile through the pain. All of this isn’t set out to rid the world of evil, but more in the hopes that one day, we can inspire those around us and the world to do wonderful things.
To bring all of this in full circle conclusion, I TASK EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU to comment below with an anime title and how the HEROIC SPIRIT manifests itself within the story or characters. It’s hard to go wrong, especially after the examples I listed, and I know that you have some interesting things to say on the matter. Upon submitting your comment, you will have completed Takuto’s hero training course – Congratulations, and thank you for celebrating Hero Week with me!
What do we have in Common? WE ARE HEROES!
If I Went Missing . . . ERASED | Hero Week Review
One Punch Man is Absurd, Out-of-this-World Fun! | Hero Week Review
Loss Has Little Meaning in Yuki Yuna | Hero Week Review
My Hero Academia (Eps. 1-5) Thoughts | Hero Week
Above are the Hero Week reviews just in case you missed them the first time around and wish to check them out and/or add something to them. Sorry again for the late finale (consider this a lesson learned for myself) and I can’t wait to see you in the comment party! We can still make this awesome 😀
– Takuto, your host
Takuto's Anime Cafe 
This sounds like a very interesting series. I’ll have to look at your other posts. These days, my ability to keep up with my fellow bloggers’ articles is terrible–but, I mean to improve! That was an awesome drawing of Oscar de Jarjayes in a modern style by the way. I only disliked two things about The Rose of Versailles: the tragic ends of many of the characters and how biased it was toward the Revolutionaries. Though, it does end with a final note that Oscar would have been appalled by the Reign of Terror.
I always thought that Rurouni Kenshin had an interesting vision of heroism: the hero must fight for the happiness of those he loves, but at the same time his obligation towards them precludes sacrificing his own life. This idea places an interesting limit on heroism.
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(Sorry I’m so late, just got back from break!)
I have an enormously hard time (as you can tell by my infrequent ability to respond to my own comments) keeping up with everyone, haha, but we can only try our hardest to stick with the group!
I picked that fan art, in fact, because of the suave modern look it supports. Whoever drew it, my hat goes to them.
I had the same problems (production issues aside), especially how the Revolutionaries seemed so brutal–I mean, it was one of the largest overturns in history, but still. Oscar always seemed like the good guy (girl?) in every scenario, and while the inner fan in me was screaming “YES!”, the reviewer me was a little bit turned off by this. With it all ending with the Bastille, I was wondering when they were getting to the Reign of Terror. It’s probably best that they left it as a dialogue-only outro, for I’m not sure how much more corruption I could have witnessed, haha!
Everyone is always saying wondrous things about Rurouni Kenshin, so I’m not surprised to hear it’s filled with heroism interpretations. The limits on heroism, eh? I recently finished Seraph of the End: Battle in Nagoya, and there seems to be a similar underlying theme here. Instead of love, however, the whole lot of characters must fight for family’s sake, and that in such an apocalyptic world, the mission of fighting off vampire hordes mostly takes priority over familial preservation. But anyway, Kenshin has a great take on heroism–I’ll have to remember that.
Sorry again for such a late response, and hey, thanks even more for the recommendation at the end! I’ve seen very few anime where heroism takes on a twist, so reading and exploring about these concepts with others only excites me to watch more anime. I’m so glad you enjoyed my musings, take care ~!
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Reblogged this on Medieval Otaku and commented:
Be sure to check out Takuto’s analysis of heroism across various anime series.
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Whilst that is the nature of the beast, don’t be discouraged Taku. I’ve pretty much been busy myself, so I haven’t had the time to check out most posts, gave a few comments here and there (have given a comment on Yuni :D). Been a pretty slow month for me over all.
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Very true, and I suppose I chose a wrong time to be distraught, for it was the second busiest month of the year: May. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one occupied with things other than blogging. Glad to hear your tactic in all of this mayhem, and yes, I did read and respond to your comment on Yuki Yuna (thanks for embracing my pity, no JK LOL)!! Everything flew by so fast for me, and now it’s already a week into June?! By the Gods, why such a rush?
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First off: I haven’t read any of the other posts you posted for Hero Week! I just stumbled on this one because of a recommendation from a recommendation in my WordPress feed, but if it’s any consolation I liked the ideas you (even briefly) went over here. Will probably come back to take a look at them later, but first: The Heroic Spirit Anime Recommendation.
The first thing that comes to mind for anime with “heroism”, aside from what you mentioned above, is Concrete Revolutio. It’s still got about 4 episodes left, but both its seasons thus far have been chock full of thematic content and amazing narrative that expresses itself in every way it can. But if I go with CR, then I just know that I’m going to end up writing 5 or more paragraphs of loosely-tied rambling. It’s probably best if that doesn’t happen… XD
So I’m choosing Inou Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka De: Also known as When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace.
You know, the first full-length Trigger show after Kill La Kill. A perfectly good show… but one that defied everything its title and initial summary said it would be. As such, it wasn’t too well-received.
Again, it’s a bit of a stretch here, since they don’t really talk about “heroism” as much as “the use of power”, but I’d say that in and of itself is related to heroism pretty closely. And Inou Battle’s final message, after 12 episodes that subverted everyone’s expectations in every single (bad) way possible, was something along the lines of “It’s not whether you have superpowers or not. Because everyone has the power to change their here and now, to affect the everyday life around them, and that’s what really makes the difference.”
…Yeah, I might be reaching a little. But that’s what struck me the most, a good 2 years after I watched it (gods, time is a scary thing). Feel free to correct me and whatnot, and thanks again for the article!
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Well, you stumbled on into a great place! Read a little, a lot, none, I’m happy that you’re simply here 😀
Concrete Revolutio, that name hmm, didn’t it do quite well/is doing pretty well? I feel I’ve heard only good things, but I’m not sure if that makes it a noteworthy show. I’ll have to keep it in mind during the hunt for heroes, and haha, it’s one those shows you could blabber on forever with? I totally get that.
I didn’t know When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace was by Trigger! Even though I did happen to hear mixed things, I’ll now have to check it out regardless because of my unwavering spirit for Trigger.
I’d say your comparison is close enough for rock n’ roll. My Hero Academia falls under a similar take on heroism, in that yes, you don’t supernatural powers to better your ideals, the world, oneself, whatnot, but merely a sense of drive or passion to perform heroic acts. I guess with the way I’m tackling all of this, I see Gurren Lagann mirroring the same approach, so I’ll rest there.
And no, I think that’s pretty spot on! Has it really been 2 years? Yikes, I must have amnesia or something. Thank you for the comment! But more importantly, thank you for giving the time to stop by and type this all up–you said a ton of great things here! I hope to see you around again sometime. You’re most certainly welcome! ^.^
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Would you be surprised if I say that the lack of comments probably has nothing much to do with your way of writing, or content, or posting schedule at all? I have been experiencing pretty much the same problem myself, but I figured that May is a generally busy month for most people. I admit I haven’t been reading posts either, because I have had tons of stuff to deal with. Having said that, I apologise for being late 😀 (I know I did say I was going to read the posts haha :p) Still, its great that you still continue to write! Can’t say I have the same spirit as you hahaha.
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You know, right after I typed that up and hit the publish button, I realized, “Wait, this is May. I’m not the only one otherwise occupied by a ton of end-of-school-year crap.” I think I just wanted to b*tch about something (all the more reason to get a Twitter, right?). And don’t apologize–I didn’t realize we were going through the same sort of phase. While I want to say the hardest part about blogging is the actual writing itself, right now, I’d have to say it’s harder to keep up with everyone more than anything. I mean, some of these guys post every day–some twice a day(!)–like, how?? I struggle to just respond to comments on time *internal sighing*
I’m trying to artificially pump that stuff called “spirit” into myself to get off my lazy bum and catch up, but both reading and writing are some things I want to occasionally avoid after a long day of work. Sorry to ramble on ya, complaining and finding excuses is just a forte of mine! Hope to talk with you again soon 😀
(and thanks for reading, that always makes me feel good inside)
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Haha that IS probably why you should get a Twitter, if you are finding that sort of outlet and can’t find anywhere else to 😉 Haha exactly, which is why I am responding to comments on my trip as well – don’t feel bad, there’s a lot of waiting involved and I have nothing else better to do xD
But I really wholeheartedly agree, I do only write when I feel like it, and it mostly averages out to one post per 2 or 3 weeks in the end – that’s why I call myself lazy! Don’t feel bad about rambling, it’s good to know someone feels the same as me about this 😀
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