There’s no house here anymore. Dad’s gone, too.
Episode 8 of Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! continues where seven left off, with Tōka attempting to force Rikka into seeing the visible truth – their father, along with their former house, are gone. The older sister utters the words above as she tearfully pushes Rikka to face reality.
Last week, I joined Alexander in discussing similar scenes in the series for his Ashita no Anime podcast. He sees the show as an atheist allegory. Rikka chooses to believe in something unreal, oblivious to reality. Yūta, meanwhile, has thrown off the shackles of his former ways and now lives according to the truth. Alexander sees the chuunibyou ways of Dark Flame Master and the Wicked Eye as the false trappings of religion, while life without God as reality. Thus, the quote starting this post would take a deeper meaning in light of this idea.
Obviously, I disagree with Alexander’s assessment of religion, but I think his comparisons are dead on.
Rikka isn’t ready to face the truth yet; but eventually, she will be. While she may be a bit immature for her age, perhaps Tōka should forgive Rikka for her strange coping mechanism, since she’s still young.
For those of us who are older, though, we lack excuses for examining our belief. As children, we generally go along with what our parents instill in us, but as adults, we must make decisions on our own.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
– Paul, I Corinthians 13:11
I sometimes hear people say they are Christian because they were born into Christian homes. The Bible makes clear that our heredity doesn’t determine our place with God. We have to sit down and test our faith and see if we really believe what we claim to. Dig into God’s word, pray, practice His ways, and see if Christianity stands up in the fire of examination. Seek guidance from a trusted, faithful friend or pastor as you do so.
As you look into your faith, either you’ll find that you don’t truly believe or you’ll be encouraged and strengthened. Either way, you’ll have moved closer to understanding faith and becoming that (even for a short time) which the world calls an oxymoron – a contemplative Christian.
Listening to the aforementioned podcast was quite interesting, for I felt that practically all of the comparisons that Alexander made in relation to Atheism v. Christianity were fairly applicable in the analogy you made with Mature Christianity v. Immature Christianity. Very enjoyable podcast overall, and a very enjoyable follow-up as well (as usual, of course).
I’m finding as I grow in my faith, I am finding more and more analogies present in the anime I watch. In fact, I’m hoping to be able to bring this to the attention to people on my campus as well (I am a college student).
I did not mean to go on this long in a simple comment, but it’s interesting to consider things like the top 5 anime and the Christian implications therein:
1- Haibane Renmei (the topics of sin; the need for a savior; being sanctified)
2- Clannad (purity in love, particularly sexually; suffering, the suffering in After Story especially brought my attention to the book of Job)
3- The World God Only Knows (correcting the false perspectives on the separation between Hell, Heaven, and the physical world as well as the existence of demons as opposed to TWGOK’s perspective on them; the natural striving for a perfect world, which for us comes after death but for Keima exists in games)
4- Spice and Wolf (the corruption of the medieval Catholic church vs. the existence of a true God that requires faith, not good works and tradition, for justification, which especially reminds me of Horo’s contemplation regarding the existence of God despite the corruption of the church)
5- Nichijou (being created in God’s image and thus including joy and humor in our lives)
At one point I may have believed that you could simply find any message you wanted in any medium if you looked hard enough, but I’m beginning to believe that this is due more to a common Creator rather than human effort. Even if many do not believe the same as Christians believe, from a Christian perspective we are still all created by the same God, and thus will convey similar messages even without meaning to.
Anyway
/rant
/rant
Awesome post as always, definitely looking forward to more in the future.
Long live Chuunibyou!
Thank you for these wonderful comments! I agree with your point about a common Creator! I’m also glad that you enjoyed the podcast.
I really enjoyed the examples you gave. In fact…I think I’ll need to write about the comparison between Job and Tomoya. I’ll refer back to your comment – thanks for the inspiration! 🙂
On a totally unrelated note, I am particularly enjoying the snow effect on the page.