Anime: Journal With Witch

I liked the movie adaptation Worlds Apart and decided to watch the anime. It didn’t disappoint. I enjoyed the slow development of Makio and Asa’s relationship, as well as the mundane conversations Makio has with her friends and loved ones.

It reminded me that, whether adults or teenagers, we are all delicate beings. We may never truly understand another person, but we can still try to be considerate, accepting, and nonjudgmental.

I relate most to Makio, even though our lifestyles are completely different. I like her honesty, sensitivity, and clear sense of who she is and what she likes. I also like the opening song “Sonare” by TOMOO.

Quotes:

Makio: Write with the intent to die and kill. Strike, train, sharpen with the intent of dying. Risk your life to kill. That’s what it means to write. [Similar to Teshima’s advice from Draw This, Then Die!]

Asa: I wanna be the me I wanna be!

Makio: Who you are, what you love, what you don’t love…How you’re going to live…One day, maybe you’ll find out. One day…

Asa: “Is standing out a good thing or a bad thing? I’m not the type to stand out. I’m not growing any taller, I’m not in love, and I can’t write lyrics. So if I try to stand out, is it, like…Like, it’s not my place, or like, it’s not me? So I thought, maybe it’s a bad thing?

Motsu:…I think the whole being you thing is totally overrated. I did that, and I regret it. Being the person who always understands. Being the person who never fights back. Being the person who always prioritizes others. Being the person who never cries or screams. I regret ever trying to be me. I kept thinking about how to be me and lost sight of what I really wanted. So I quit. Asa, you see, I think that when you really want to do something, that’s what you should do. Why not? Who cares?

Tono: You have an unshakeable sense of self.

Shingo:…No, that isn’t true at all…I really wish I did. If you feel like I do, then maybe that’s why. That thing you mentioned earlier. It’s because I quit trying to stay on it…

Rites of initiation into men’s circles…Maybe that’s what to call it. I decided that I wouldn’t do any of that anymore, and all sorts of things in life got a whole lot easier. The man who takes on the greater risk wins. The man who can objectify women more wins. The man who has it easier and enjoys more things wins.

The truth is that you’re dying from the pressure, but you grin and bear it because you don’t know that there’s anywhere else you can be. You think it’ll all be over if you fall from that ledge, so you hang on for dear life.

There were plenty of other selves that you could’ve been. There was no need to test your worth in a chicken race…I got off it, ran away, and I guess you could say I finally became human, or that I finally found my center…Up until recently, l lived trying to make things work with others. That’s why I have great respect for people who need things to be a certain way. People who have a real self.

Makio: I’d never write anything for someone else. Or rather, no one acts for the sake of others. That goes for writers and everyone else…but regardless of whether you do something for someone else or not, others’ emotions and actions are not something that you evoke. The vast majority of actions bear no fruit. You receive no thanks or reward for them. The world will not change. You should think that way…But you know, acting despite know this truth is respectable. That is what I think.

Asa: My goal…is for a depressed friend of mine to listen and feel better…Back then, I didn’t have anything that I truly resented. Didn’t know the colour or shape of despair. I didn’t understand any of it. But even so, as foolish as it was, I believed that my tiniest actions, surely, surely, could change the world…