A New Year's Resolve and Destiny!

Hey readers! Happy New Year to You All! Read on for a New Year Otaku thought on fate and destiny...

What about destiny and fate? They're usually grown-up, mature words but as anime fans and otaku, we've wondered about this question almost forever. Anime and manga makes them seem like these questions are nothing special, if you're a main character you just change everything you want, that's all there is to it, right? In IRL or the "real world" it's a bit different or rather let's take a look at the world of anime.

In DBZ, a character can enter a serious bureaucracy world when that Z warrior loses a fight and subsequently loses their Z life. Goku and Vegeta always went to the same place when they lost a Z-fight. In other words, the place they go to is the processor of lives, kind of like a re-imagined "River Styx" or the "Underworld". Goku calls it heaven but Vegeta could have only come back to inspire Goku, with no clothes as Goku was being panhandled by Frieza. Why wouldn't Vegeta just run "Snake Way" and come back like Goku after training with King Kai on his gravity harsh planet? That might have been harder but it beats barely being the main character's inspiration...!

In Bleach, however, everything changes since there's a whole hidden dimension called the "Soul Society" that supposedly uses "reishi" as oxygen and water for soul reaper characters or also as food for the monster Hollow creatures. Either way, the real world dimension didn't operate by "reishi" or spirit energy, but life energy. The monster hollows in both, try to eat "reishi" or life energy by hurting soul reapers or human beings. Bleach then is every action-paced, right? But nobody does anything other than defend themselves from monsters...

There's then Natsume Yuujincho where Natsume's grandma had made friends with hundreds of folk spirits that are as scary as ghouls or ghosts but they're really not so bad at all. Natsume had to put together all of his knowledge of his grandma to make new relationships with them all and even the folk spirits that were less amicable toward him and his family. Some of such spirits wanted nothing more than to move on, even though they were immortal... Natsume had to decide how to help and spend time with them all without becoming trapped in their problems, himself...

But then there are anime like Yu Yu Hakusho, Clannad, and Toradora. What they all have in common is ailing family bonds met with new relationships in the absence of presence or help from any family. It would be cool though, don't you think, if life was a Toradora and love overpowered distant family members or Yu Yu Hakusho and face the spirit demons while getting a second chance at a seemingly normal life. Maybe however in real life fate is not so clear and plug and play. They say you won't know when you're dead (the scientists), but that could be a loaded crocker. You always know when your destiny is calling and the world of anime has given its fans, the gift of optimism and laughter!

Aren't us fans and otaku, us imaginative people and dreamers, lucky for those dreams that those manga-ka, the creators of responsible for changing the way animation and animation media changes our lives? FOR SURE!