MANIME: Manly Lessons from Anime featuring "Rising of the Shield Hero" Part 1: Toughness vs Roughness
This week we start a series that we are super excited about. We are combining two passions of ours: Anime and Thriving Men! Welcome to MANIME!
The power of stories has been a constant throughout history and today some of the most powerful storytelling is through the Anime genre. We wanted to choose an anime that we felt had many lessons in it for us as men so we chose the show, “Rising of the Shield Hero.”
We will discuss many things the protagonist, Iwatani Naofumi, goes through in season one. If you haven’t seen the show, we would love for you to check it out before listening to the podcast, but you don’t have to watch it to understand the lessons that we can learn through the shows.
This week’s show talks about Toughness vs Roughness. This is relevant to us because we all go through hard times in our lives. Sometimes it is because of things we have done and sometimes it is because of things that were done to us. Either way, these things can cause us to be tough or rough. Toughness is a necessary trait for us as men and it helps us succeed. Roughness can cause us to isolate ourselves and hurt relationships in our lives. As men, we want to be tough but not rough. We discuss what that looks like and why in this week’s episode.
Hard Times Hit Us All
- Naofumi had it rough because he was betrayed hard! He was accused of something he didn’t do, but everyone believed that he was guilty.
- We see him struggle with this betrayal and the pain it causes him all through the first season
- It causes him to grow in toughness- which isn’t a bad thing. We see him get creative and the situation ends up leading to a lot of good.
- We also see him struggle with his rage. His betrayal from the past colored all of his relationships- even with the people who were trying to help him.
- Bitterness does that to all of us as men.
- The issue is: that we can’t see it as “our lonely burden” and isolate ourselves from everyone! Don’t forget: all men go through hard times. Everyone suffers.
- If we aren’t careful, the pain and bitterness will cause us to reject everything and everyone
- Naofumi projects this aura of being a grumpy man who doesn’t care, but those closest to him see it isn’t true cause he still treats people well.
We Can’t Let The Past Define Our Future
- One of the best lessons we can learn from Naofumi is to not let the past determine our future
- We see him not dwelling too much on the past but looking at what he can do right now
- He decides to get help and becomes financially independent
- He begins to make alliances and build his network of people to work with
- This is his toughness being developed, which he needs.
- We also see him moving on and not allowing the “reputation” he has to define him
- We see him sometimes doing the right thing and then sometimes acting like a hurt child. This is normal and is part of the process of working through the grief of a painful past
- Naofumi shows us that struggle in different aspects
Difficulties Develop Us
- Difficulty when creatively embraced builds different muscles in us
- We see in Naofumi that the difficulties he went through grew him and made him stronger
- The other heroes don’t ever grow in their development
- We see that in society today among a lot of young men who aren’t growing up because they have never gone through any difficulties in their life
- Ease can make us whither - too much comfort and not doing hard things can make us weak
- Hard things build up our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical selves.
CHALLENGE:
- Ask yourself the question: “How do I treat people?”
- Do you see everyone as your enemy? = This is a symptom of roughness
- Where are you focusing your mind?
- Do you replay old problems and pains or are you looking for solutions to your current issues?
Watch and Enjoy!
David & Reese Maxwell
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