Spoilers for Promare, Jujutsu Kaisen (anime), My Hero Academia (anime), and Revolutionary Girl Utena (anime and movie)/
One of the (many) things I love about anime is its creative use of animation when telling a story, especially when it comes to illustrating how characters are feeling in certain situations. Sure, you can have characters blushing to show that they’re in love, but you can also fill the space with various colors and shapes to drive home the point. Being scared to the point of tears can unleash a superpower, feeling like an outcast can have characters suffocating in darkness, and wanting to experience more out of life can have someone quietly swimming through the sky.
One of my favorite emotions to see anime tackle is anger. As a Black woman, anger is an emotion that I’m told to stray away from. When I, inevitably, do get angry about something, I’m accused of being just another angry Black woman before an attempt is made to see WHY I’m so pissed off. Anger is seen as a negative instead of being seen as a valid emotion that deserves to be addressed.
This is why I appreciate the way anime handles anger. Not only are characters allowed to go off, but in many cases, anger is seen as a tool, a sort of trigger toward becoming stronger and getting things done. If a character’s anger does lead to them being hurt, or even hurting others, they’re encouraged to learn how to channel it instead of completely disregarding it.
Anime was one of the first times I saw anger being validated. At times, it was even seen as a necessity, as something to embrace instead of being afraid of it. Characters would be fueled by their anger and go on to do great, world-saving things, and they would be thanked for their efforts.
Also? It always looks so frickin’ cool.
Anger is powerful, especially when reaching the breaking point
The embodiment of the phrase “Aren’t you tired of being nice? Don’t you wanna go apeshit?” is when a character has tried absolutely everything to work things out, is backed into a corner, and completely loses it after being pushed too far. This is usually someone who has been wronged in some way, shape, or form. Maybe they’ve been completely misunderstood, or maybe they’ve had to watch as the villain hurt (or killed) someone close to them.
In the case of Promare’s Lio Fotia, he and his fellow burnish have been painted as the bad guys, but in reality, their power is being misused by the story’s actual villain. Since they are so closely tied to their power, the actual villain is essentially killing them. Even worse? The villain is hailed as a hero by the entire city. Eventually, Lio reaches a breaking point where he gets so angry that he erupts from a volcano and turns into a dragon.
The animation is astonishing. The music is fantastic. And watching him explode after being mistreated is actually pretty cathartic. It’s become my go-to scene to watch when I feel like I can’t do anything about my frustrations because, if nothing else, I can listen to a kick-ass song and watch an anime character have such an epic moment that the dragon BLINKS away an enemy. Literally. His eyelid snaps shut to bat an enemy away.
Use your anger to make folks regret ever doubting you
Jujutsu Kaisen is full of amazing characters and stunning visuals to back up their fight scenes. Maki Zenin here is an absolutely petty queen whose entire family has counted her out. It’s easy to see that she is an extremely capable fighter, but since she lacks any kind of power the way other sorcerers do, her family shuns her and she’s considered “low rank” when accessing everyone’s skills at Jujutsu High School.
So? She decides to prove them all wrong by becoming the best Jujutsu sorcerer anyway. All of her fight scenes are a sight to behold. She’s an absolute beast in battle and holds her own against some pretty devastating circumstances (especially in the manga). She’s not only justified in her grudge against her family, but she delights in showing them just how wrong they are about her. I wish to be this level of petty when I grow up.
Sometimes you gotta fight to process your feelings
Arguably the entire purpose of anime rival battles, every now and then two characters have to punch each other in the face to work out all the pent-up feelings they’ve been keeping bottled up inside. In the case of My Hero Academia’s Deku and Bakugo, this confrontation was so necessary that even All Might himself allowed it.
After dealing with the guilt of All Might’s retirement, Bakugo is left to process his feelings on his own. He blames himself because All Might fought so hard to save him from the League of Villains, but no one really checks in to see how Bakugo’s handling it. Deku’s not the only one who looked up to All Might since childhood, but because of Bakugo’s feral wild child demeanor, not too many folks think to check on him.
These feelings combined with a whole lot of other emotions that have been festering since, like, the second episode of the series. Bakugo’s always kinda been seen as the “strong” kid. He talks a big game, but he kinda thought he HAD to since he was constantly gassed up in situations where he shouldn’t have been (note: if a child is held hostage, you should probably ask if they’re okay instead of applauding their bravery). Even his own mother comments on this.
Bakugo has a complete breakdown in front of Deku, then the two fight so he can let all of that shit go. It has done him a LOT of good in the series (especially the manga), and while he is still very much an angry pomeranian, he has a lot more clarity than he did in the beginning.
You should absolutely fight for something better for yourself
Something that anime fans point out whenever someone says that the medium doesn’t tell stories about fighting for a better tomorrow is the fact that, um, anime ABSOLUTELY tells stories about fighting for a better tomorrow. Not just figuratively, characters get fired up and have entire earth shatter battles for the sake of a better future. This can be for the sake of the entire universe, or it can be a moment where someone finally decides to stand up for themselves and fight for something that might be uncertain, but it HAS to be better than their current circumstances.
Take Revolutionary Girl Utena’s Anthy Himemiya, someone who spends a lot of her screen time being used by everyone around her—including her own brother. While the series ends in a way that does show her walking away, the movie takes it up a notch with a lot of wild symbolism, like Utena transforming into a car so Anthy can take the key and drive off.
This isn’t a fight in the traditional sense, but Anthy reaching this point feels really damn good. Her actually SCREAMING feels really damn good. And watching her breakthrough her brother’s grasp in a flurry of rose petals (again, symbolism) feels really damn good.
Anger can be dangerous, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be useful
Of course, anime has its moments where anger is seen as something that’s too destructive to contend with. That doesn’t mean it’s not treated as something useful, it just means that the character has to learn how to channel it.
Jujutsu Kaisen’s Megumi holds himself back a lot, but his potential is seen by everyone around him (including the King of Curses himself, Sukuna, who decides that Megumi is the only person worth giving a shit about). When Megumi does have moments where he finally let’s go, it’s easy to see why he always hesitates. His power is incredible, but you can see the danger signs waving all around whenever he unleashes it for real. However, instead of being encouraged to NOT do the thing, characters like Megumi are encouraged to figure out HOW to do the thing in a way that won’t hurt themselves or the others around them.
Basically, the moment Megumi, and characters like him, figure out how to use that build-up of anger properly? It’s over.
(featured image: Crunchyroll/HBO Max)
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
