In several of these categories, I’ve had the problem of, “Too many candidates.” Now, I have exactly the opposite problem: too few. None, actually. I can’t think of one anime I’ve wished was real.

Oh, there are things featured in various anime that I’ve wished were real, particularly the superpowers, the sci-fi tech, and fantastical creatures like dragons. I love the wonders we can create with our imaginations, the lessons we can learn, and the discussions we can have. I can even appreciate, though with considerably less “I wish it were real” zeal, the horrors we can contemplate. That goes more into how characters can grow, evolve, and learn from the tragedies they endure, and how heroes great and small can triumph in the face of monstrous evil.

Actually, I think that’s my biggest hangup with this. Any anime I can think of, which is remotely distinguishable from real life (by which, I mean, their fictitious world is any different from ours), may have wondrous things, but also unspeakable horrors. Personally, I find the real world has enough horrors for us to deal with as is, thank you very much!

But then, one might argue, the wonders of these anime, were they real, might be worth the horrors which accompany them. To which, I say: perhaps, but our world is filled with wonders too. The God-made wonders of nature, the man-made wonders of civilization, and the greatest wonders of all: charity, kindness, and love. There is nothing more wonderful than people who love each other.

Putting it a little differently, I suppose when I watch an anime, or anything else, or read a book, etc., I am like a traveler. I’m a tourist, visiting all of these other worlds, learning as much as I can. But while they’re all fine to visit, even stay awhile, you can’t stay forever, and there’s nothing that beats coming home, to my own world. I don’t want another world to be my home, I love this one.

Even more, I can take the lessons I learn in this world of fiction, where people are not actually getting hurt, and apply them here, where people are getting hurt. Maybe I can help them smile a little, or give them just enough light to stand one more minute of the darkness. If it makes people smile, then let the rest of the world mock it as nonsense all they like, I won’t care. That’s what I like to do. That’s the point of “Merlin’s Musings.”

So, with that brief, somewhat pompous pontification, I beg your collective pardons.

I am copping out of this one! 😉