Sushi Ninja is a short form, open source CG anime series. The series is about three anthropomorphic pieces of sushi who want to be sushi ninjas and heroes. The problem? They’re terrible ninjas and completely delusional. It leads to more humor as a Princess arrives needing actual help which they’re quick to provide, but are really, really bad at it. These three pieces of sushi really think they are heroic and helpful, but instead they mostly cause more issues, are initially very cowardly, and less useful than they think.
When we meet the three Sushi Ninjas, they are sitting around watching TV. They’re not training, they are not preparing to be actually useful, and they are not getting ready for action. They are sitting like lumps on their couch, fighting with each other over inconsequential things. When the Princess arrives, they spring into action thinking they are going to be capable, thinking they are going to save the day, thinking they are going to get the girl. They’re not. In the end, the day is saved primarily by the…Princess, as their delusion is on full display, failing miserably to keep up.
In the end, the Princess is left frustrated as these three goofballs promise to keep her safe. In the end, she didn’t need them because this delusional trio was incapable of preparing or doing what needed to be done. While they did believe they were helping, they did not.
We do this on a fairly regular basis. We overstate our own importance, believing ourselves to be at the center of everything. We become wise in our own eyes, thinking ourselves to be righteous, when in actuality we are not. When we do this, we are even less capable of doing what needs to be done than a fool (Proverbs 26:12). I know this behavior, because I’ve done it before.
For those who do not know, I am a licensed professional engineer. This requires a number of years of experience being an engineer as well as passing two separate 8 hour exams (more if you are licensed in California, but I digress). I passed the first exam under less than optimal conditions, so when I was up for the final, official exam, I got cocky. I trusted in myself. I assumed I was smart enough, ready to roll, and did not need to study that hard. I mean, I passed the first one and everyone told me the first test was way harder than the second. After the exam, I still thought myself a genius who crushed it. I totally believed myself to be right and ready to roll…then a few months later I got the results. I failed. Badly. I did not pass a single section of the exam. Being overconfident in my own abilities I had created this delusion that I was unstoppable. I was not.
When I retook the exam 6 months later, I studied much harder, spent hours focusing on the exam in the final days building up to the exam. I passed the second time. Allowing my delusion to be popped opened my eyes to reality – I may be smart, but I can’t just coast through everything. None of us can.
When I think of truly delusional from a Biblical perspective, I think of King Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the king following Solomon, and the one who watched as Israel crumbled into two different Kingdoms. When the people led by Jeroboam asked for him to lighten their loads, Rehoboam turned to the men who had guided his father. He didn’t like what they had to say. He instead went on to get friends of his, a bunch of yes-men, to tell him what he wanted to hear. Thinking himself smarter and more capable than Jeroboam, he insulted the people, made their day to day burdens more heavy, and did what his friends said, insinuating that he was more well endowed than his dad. Yes, really (1 Kings 12:10, 2 Chronicles 10:10).
When we let our pride take over, we become delusional to our own failings. That’s what the Sushi Ninjas did. That’s what I did. That’s what Rehoboam did. We all do it, but let us take inventory of our own selves. Let us note where we are weak and where we are strong. Let us not become a burden on others because we think we can do that which we cannot. Let us not become totally delusional.
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Cool article Mr. Newman! It’s so true that we prefer to overestimate our abilities rather than admit weakness: I’ve definitely paid the price with a test or two. I also want to say that you’re style is very interesting: you made me want to watch Sushi Ninjas and be a better person at the same time!
My blog is freelanceanimeblog.com: If you have time to check out an article or two, I hope my style can sway you as well!
Thanks Andres for the comment and the link, I’ll have to check out your blog later. And Sushi Ninja isn’t a great show, but it’s fun and a bit wacky. Also, only a few short episodes which are free to watch on YouTube, so that’s plus.
Great post on how we can sometimes overestimate ourselves and puff up our own importance more than really makes sense.
I think we’re actually prone to doing this in a different sort of sense, as well. Countless studies have demonstrated that the brain is an inherently egocentric organ. Not having any other universe to view but its own, it assumes it is the center of the universe. It’s not just that we all think ourselves “better” than we are, because that isn’t always true. (In fact women tend to suffer from the opposite problem: “Imposter syndrome,” in which one thinks one is worse than one really is). It’s that we’re all so insistent on being “special” and “important,” regardless of actual skill. We all think we have some grand part to play in God’s master plan, despite the fairly obvious reality that each individual person is a bit player in the plot as far as I can tell.
When I initially discovered my particular bit of connection with the supernatural (And that it wasn’t bloody likely to go away) I must’ve come up with a hundred explanations as to what was going on. “There’s this tree in the school playground that likes me” is honestly the least egocentric of those explanations (Besides being the earliest). Eventually I settled on never getting an explanation while I was alive, but I still figure that the truth is a great deal more mundane and depressing than any of the fanciful things I came up with.
We all want to be a part of something greater than ourselves, and to bring meaning to our lives. To be capital-S Special. It’s part of the impulse that drives us to God. But like you said, and like the Sushi Warriors did, we shouldn’t delude ourselves with those dreams too much. I think we’ll find that some stretch of them is true, but it’s not in the way we’d like, and it doesn’t make us any more Special or any less fallible and imperfect.
I love how you always cover materials that often get ignored by the larger anime-consuming-world (or at least the sphere of which I’m a part). I’ve never seen this series, and will probably never watch it, but I still feel like I gained something indirectly from it. Thanks!
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