ever wondered why ‘this anime hits home’ or ‘i felt sad after watching the anime!’? yes, me too. this is because, i assume that this would already be obvious for you but yes, it is because they’re human, just like us, that happens to live in a real world just like us! you might say ‘no sh*t sherlock, what’s your point?’ but my point is that even though they’re just animations, a thing that’s purely fictitious, can be a driving force for something; an impetus of some sort, which could allow us to harbour feelings, nostalgia, relive past experiences, sympathise with the characters through intimacy and empathetical desires portrayed by the character, and many more. anime, as wikipedia describes, ‘a Japanese-disseminated animation style often characterised by colourful graphics, vibrant characters and fantastical themes.’ and ‘ it consists of an ideal story-telling mechanism, combining graphic art, characterisation, cinematography, and other forms of imaginative and individualistic techniques.’ which is true and unarguably correct. once again, even though they’re ‘not real’ in a sense that the story that the characters live out and the characters themselves aren’t real, the story that the anime was theoretically inspired by, is in fact real. (excluding mecha, magic, isekai (other world), cyberpunk, vampire, superpower, etc. those kind of genres) for example, a person who once was an apathetic person, with a cynical, narcissistic, and semi-nihilistic views of the world, lived a life that’s purely meaningless; a nonchalant and melancholic cycle of living everyday just for the sake of living, who, one day decided to make a change in their life, be it through living life to the fullest, becoming a scientist and discovers a cure for cancer, or say, becomes a great thinker and inventor, where he/she invents something that could benefit the world in any way shape or form, leading to eventual recognition and acknowledgement by great thinkers alike. now this story, as some people would probably say, is very inspiring, motivational, and life-changing. oh and hey i forgot to mention, let’s say this person had a dream to become a writer (completely un-coincidental i know), and decided to write a story about his experiences, and how perseverance and stoicism, that despite all the hindrances that one experiences, can make you an overall better person, leading to a better future by following what you desire and having an unwavering desire to make that dream come true. now, that story could soon become an inspiration for others, for example, a budding author, an animator or producer, or in this case, a manga-ka, where they reinforce this idea through cinematography, animated media, drawing/manga, posters, a biography, movie, etc. going back to my main point, anime isn’t just a ‘cartoon’ or an ‘animation that’s purely fictitious’, but rather a representation of something that’s real and that has happened in real life in someone real’s life. and that the feelings, the pain, the emotions and the sentimental values it upholds are all REAL. hence, it allows the reader, or literally anyone who gains knowledge of it, to empathise and experience REAL feelings that the author wants the reader to experience, be it sadness, happiness, gloom, hardships in life, what life is for someone who’s living in poverty or someone who’s lived their life as privileged members of the society, or just simply someone who’s living their life normally without any supernatural happenstances and phenomena.

how does this relate to poetry?

if anime can relate to real life experiences, why not poetry too.. right? if you think about it, experiences and poetry is closely related. poetry aims to express feelings and emotions and ideas of the poet and ‘is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.’ and experiences are.. well, a compilation of emotions, memories, feelings, events, people, and all sorts of everything. and luckily, undeniably un-coincidental, anime too conveys all that sort of stuff, heck even stuff that’s not even generally exposed to everyone or something imaginative. anime CAN and WILL inspire you to do something eventually in your life, but depending on what you watch, anime will affect you differently, as it did to me. except hentai of course ;-). in fact, the reason why i actually decided to create a blog is mainly because of my love for anime and my passion for poetry. if you love a lot of things, why not mix it together and hope to form something even better? anime-poetry, a-poetry? i don’t know, but it sounds decent to say the least. there are a lot of things that would inspire you on a day to day basis, but nothing beats personal experiences (and anime, if you include that as a personal experience), in expressing and drawing out different emotions and feelings that may harbour within you, and that specific feeling or emotion can be your driving force towards something, a goal perhaps? a poem? a story? or something you dreamt of when you were a kid, anything really, if you put your mind and heart into it.