What Anime Can Teach Us About Being Human

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People will tell you to read philosophy, gain a religion, volunteer, meditate and even travel to become a better person — but I’m going to offer something much simpler.

Watch anime.

Yes. Anime. And while you’re at it, maybe pay attention to how the characters treat each other.

Anime teaches empathy

Currently, I’m watching Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You. It is quickly becoming wildly popular. I began reading the manga over a month ago, and I’ve already had the pleasure of watching an older man (mid-40s) and a younger woman (mid 20s) share a smoke behind her supermarket and talk about life stuff. They find that they have much in common besides just smoking.

A huge strength of storytelling is that it lets us inhabit people we’d probably never understand in real life.

In real life, I’d never understand smokers. I’d also never get what a forty-something could talk about with someone in their mid-twenties, but watching the show made me see that, despite the big age gap, I can understand why they’re growing fond of each other. I can also understand why people smoke sometimes. It feels good and calms the nerves. Understanding doesn’t mean approval — though, honestly, would they even need it from me?

It’s a fantastic lesson for human relationships.

Another example of empathy is from the classic anime, InuYasha.

InuYasha grew up as a half-human, half-dog demon. Although he is definitely a demon, he grew up like most children, except with the added layer of being teased and discriminated against because he was a mixed species.

The show really knows how to tug your heartstrings when it comes to how people can be mistreated due to being different. You develop empathy and sympathy for this pitiful dog demon because some of us know how it feels to be bullied for our uniqueness.

Anime teaches us not to judge too quickly

Anime excels in giving us the “misunderstood” character. You know the kinds.

The villains who aren’t entirely evil.

The quiet person who is hurting.

The arrogant person who is also terrified.

An anime that comes to mind is Say I Love You.

Say I Love You is the most beautiful, angsty anime ever, and yes, it will make you jump for joy and weep. In the anime, we meet Mei Tachibana. She is a plain high school girl who ends up catching the eye of the most handsome guy Yamato Kurosawa. One day, she lifts her leg in a swift kick to knock some dude out on the steps(forgot why). Yamato witnessed it, and that moment stole his heart.

The problem is that Mei can’t believe that a popular, really good looking guy like him is even one of the good ones. But he genuinely likes Mei and it takes her so long to figure out not all good-looking people are horrible. She misjudged him. This guy has fallen hard for her.

Going back to InuYasha, it is understood now, as well as then that demons are not good company, but in anime you’ll soon learn not to judge so quickly when there is an animal, beast, demon, or other monster appearing in the show.

You must learn their story first.

Anime teaches consequences

Going back to Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You anime, I can admit that there’s LOTS of smoking and a tiny bit of profanity. I worried about watching it because my father died from smoking Newports all his life so why pick up this manga?

I picked it up because it looked like a good age gap romance with slice of life elements. I worried that there would be no mention of consequences of smoking —

But I was wrong.

Two scenes come to mind.

In one scene, Sasaki, the older gentleman who loves visiting young Yamada’s register, tells her his boss thinks he stinks. It’s because of the smoking of course. This is days after Yamada(who calls herself “Tayama”) tells him a customer complained of her smell. They both realize that a downside to smoking so much is that the scent lingers on skin, clothes, and hair.

Another scene is when Sasaki gets a health scare from his doctor.

We all know smoking can potentially kill, but it is a highly addictive product and a habit that’s super hard to kick.

Anime shows us we can be powerful and compassionate at the same time

There is a favorite character of mine in the anime, Bleach.

Her name is Orihime Inoue.

She has such a sweet, compassionate nature(and secretly is in love with Ichigo, the main hero).

When she comes into her powers, which is like healing, she becomes such an asset to her crew. Well, she has always been an asset, but her healing powers do more than just heal. These little fairy things reverse time — making Orihime powerful, which is enhanced by her naturally friendly personality.

Any anime with demons and monsters that fight for us, is a fight because of compassion for the human race.

We just finished watching the rest of Black Clover. An anime about a world where everyone has magic and, in this world, one boy named Asta — has no magic. None. But he works out a lot and is really ripped.😍

He eventually gets his own grimoire, but it contains a devil in it. A devil that also grew up not having any magic and thus wanted to bestow this gift of magic nullification to another human. Now, his reason is tied up with revenge, but ultimately the devil remembers when a kind human woman raised him when his own demonic family teased and tortured him. Compassion was found in him, just like compassion was found for him.

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There are so many more anime where I was encouraged and inspired by how these stories reinforce human love and compassion in different forms. I see this in books all the time too.

Maybe watching anime won’t make you a better person. A television show certainly can’t substitute for being actually kind. But stories remind us what kindness looks like.What empathy feels like. What love should be like. They make us cry over people who do not exist.

I originally posted this on Medium recently but wanted to add some additional thoughts here. Such as how watching anime is now a part of my daily JOY routine. How it brings strangers together who may not have otherwise spoken. How it turned me into a temporary mangavangelist over on TikTok when I had it. I seriously tried to recruit more people to my addiction.

But at least it's a fun addiction.

Thank you very much for reading.

Topics: anime, manga, television shows, philosophy, society, culture

Erica writes about the myths we are sold about work, success, and survival- and what's really behind them. She believes writing and literature are medicine and the cure. Sign up for more pieces like this, delivered fresh to your inbox.​
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