An Anime Lent Part 3
(Warning: This weeks show contains... an overload of adorable cuteness! Unlike the first and second week's shows, this one contains no lewd content whatsoever and is suitable for all ages. The ban on piracy still applies, though.)
The 3rd week of Lent is upon us. By now many of us are starting to feel the weight of our penances, voluntary and involuntary (Why do the hamburger cravings always have to strike hardest on Fridays during Lent?). Thanks be to God that Mother Church gives us a reprieve on Sundays, and offers refreshment and encouragement to us from the Holy Scriptures.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this series, I will be following the Mass readings from the Extraordinary Form, which I and my family attend almost exclusively (Our parish is run by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter). While those of you who attend the Ordinary Form will hear the episode from John's Gospel in which Our Lord met the Samaritan Woman at the well, we will see Our Lord yet again in combat with the devil, this time in front of an audience. It's worth quoting in full:
Luke 11:14-28 At that time, Jesus was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb; and when He had cast out the devil, the dumb man spoke. And the crowds marveled. But some of them said, By Beelzebub, the prince of devils, He casts out devils. And others, to test Him, demanded from Him a sign from heaven. But He, seeing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and house will fall upon house. If, then, Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because you say that I cast out devils by Beelzebub. Now, if I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When the strong man, fully armed, guards his courtyard, his property is undisturbed. But if a stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he will take away all his weapons that he relied upon, and will divide his spoils. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he roams through waterless places in search of rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house which I left.’ And when he has come to it, he finds the place swept. Then he goes and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse that the first. Now it came to pass as He was saying these things, that a certain woman from the crowd lifted up her voice and said to Him, Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts that nursed You. But He said, Rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.
This Mass also features St. Paul's exportation to the Ephesians to imitate Christ, especially in His purity and compassion. Now, we've examined purity in this series before, both last week with Ao-chan and the week before with Tomoko. In both these cases, we saw the damage that pornography can do, and how hard, but worth it, it is to overcome. But there is another type of purity that we see especially in Our Lord and His Saints: a purity of purpose. Jesus Christ, as portrayed in the four Gospels, is not a complicated figure, if by complicated we mean that He has many different conflicting desires and values, held together by half-truths and comfortable excuses. He, as God and as Man, is thoroughly simple: all that He does is motivated solely by love of His Father and of each of us. His Saints are the same way, though of course to a lesser degree.
We, unfortunately, are not so simple: daily our desires seek to pull us apart in different directions, and nearly every direction leads back to the Ego if we do not take care. Fortunately, those who choose to make Our Lord their enemy, both human and demonic, suffer the same malady. It is why, eventually, they always lose.
For a lighthearted illustration of this principle, I present this week's show: Teasing Master Takagi-san.
As before, I could not find a version of the opening song with English subtitles. I did, however, find a lovely English cover of the opening song:
Teasing Master Takagi-san is a cute comedy about a middle school boy named Nishikata, and his hopeless teasing battle with his female classmate, Takagi. True to it's manga origins, each episode is divided into several mini-sodes, most featuring Nishikata and Takagi (the rest feature three of their classmates, and are just as funny). Easily embarrassed, oblivious, and prone to overthinking and saying more than he means too, Nishikata is an easy target for the calm, collected Takagi. Often, all she has to do to get him flustered is one of these numbers:
Endlessly frustrated by how Takagi can embarrass him so easily, Nishikata spends about 90% of his time thinking of ways to get back to her. Takagi is more than willing to play along, but she's playing a different game than he is. Nishikata may see (or at least pretend to see) Takagi as his arch-enemy, but Takagi sees him as prime boyfriend material.
Aside from having a terrible poker face and tendency to overthink everything, the main reason Nishikata suffers daily defeat against Takagi is that he's divided against himself. Like most boys that age, Nishikata is a weird state of liminality with regard to girls: he's started to see them as fascinating, but hasn't yet grown out of seeing them as totally alien. This conflict between childishness and maturity shows itself in many areas of his life. Outwardly, he tries to portray himself as a stereotypical tough guy, but he's scared to death that people will discover he's kind and sensitive, and that he like cats and reads *gasp* romance manga. It also undermines his attempts to get back at Takagi; half the time he self-sabotages a prank because he's afraid of being to cruel to Takagi. He's also notably crushed (in the first episode, no less) when Takagi tells him about how some people write the names of their crushes on their erasers, and sees that his name isn't on Takagi's. (It was, but he was looking at the wrong side.) Nevertheless, he protests loudly if anyone so much as implies that he and Takagi are an item. He even uses the most formal honorific possible when addressing or referring to her: "-san" (the equivalent of "Mr." or "Miss." The more appropriate one in this case would be "-chan," which acknowledges her as a female friend). In short, Nishikata cannot win against Takagi because he's too divided against himself.
The Pharisees are similarly divided within themselves with regard to Our Lord, though their case is much more serious and sinister. Given that their whole identity is bound up in being holy servants of God, they should be the first to pay homage to Jesus. Instead they position themselves as His rivals, finding fault with His every action and hurling every accusation against Him. Like all human authority, they seek to secure themselves by demonizing others. (As students of Rene Girard know, this has always happened, and sadly continues today, even in "enlightened" societies such as ours; see this essay by yours truly.)
As we see in the Gospel passage above, our Lord is more than willing, and able, to smash the mask of their ego-driven false piety with some well placed truth bombs. Yet his rebukes do not come from malice or wounded pride, but from pure, uncomplicated love. The Pharisees may want Our Lord to go away, but He wants to draw them close to Himself, converting them as He later will convert St. Paul, and forming a deeply personnel relationship with them that will last eternally.
Like Our Lord with the Pharisees (and with all of us), Takagi wants to draw Nishikata into a relationship with her. Also like Our Lord, Takagi possess a unity of purpose. She is perfectly comfortable implying, suggesting, or outright admitting her feelings for Nishikata (Note how she never uses an honorific with his name, implying that they are very close friends). She also isn't concerned too much about whether she wins against Nishikata, as long as they get to hang out together (though she does all she can to win; Nishikata's embarrassment makes her laugh). She does not suffer from relationship anxiety either, nor is she afraid that Nishikata will be snatched up by someone else if she waits too long (everyone thinks they are already dating). She is content to gradually draw Nishikata further into her orbit, one little humiliation at a time.
Our Lord deals with us in a similar manner, drawing us closer to Himself by humbling us, lest we be separated from him by Pharisaic pride. It may be something out of our control (a natural disaster, a freak virus outbreak, or sudden unemployment) or it could be the just deserts of our own screw-ups; all serve the same purpose: to draw us away from folly and towards Him, and to the better things He has planned for us.
We and the whole human race may be fighting what Tolkien called "The Long Defeat," but if we are faithful we have a certain hope of hearing from our Lord what Nishikata heard from Takagi:
"You haven't been losing."
Because I can't get enough of these two, here's the opening song for Season 2 (with English Subtitles):
Happy repentance, my dear readers. Please stay safe and healthy during this time of crisis. Remember that my novel Cain: Son of Adam is available for free on Kindle Unlimited. Check it out and enjoy a mythological retelling of world's first murderer.
Stay tuned for next week's Anime Lent feature:
Multiplication of Love: Dragon Ball and Laetare Sunday.