Honestly, going back to basics doesn't mean to completely rejecting everything that came
before.
It means to stop and take stock of where you are and to remember why you're on this journey
in the first place.
Because it is easy to become so fixated on the ideal that we forget the idea.
And in this season finale we're looking at a character who sought to create his ideal
world by rejecting the old one.
And that character is the strongest high school primate Tsukasa Shishio.
Hey what's going on guys my name is Nate and you're listening to the Otaku Liberation,
a show where we help you break the chains that are holding you back in your life by
connecting some biblical principles with themes from your favorite anime.
And without further ado, let's get right on into it.
And we're going to go right into the verse today which is Romans 12 chapter 2 which says
do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may
discern what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God.
And what does all that mean?
Don't worry I hear you in the back.
Basically what it means is don't be conformed to this age.
Don't be so caught up in the world that you become a part of it.
But renew your mind, steal it.
Steal it from all the craziness that is out in the world.
That influences the things that you know wouldn't really vibe with you, wouldn't please you
and definitely wouldn't please God.
And essentially just try to remain as pure as you possibly can and to seek out his will
and to do what is pleasing to him.
Basically just do the thing that he told us to do.
Because God told us to be in the world but not of the world.
We're here, we got things to do and this is our world but we're not meant to be here the
entire time.
And I know it's a little, but trust me, stick with me, we're going to get through this together
and I was a little kind of meta to think about what, trust me, Sukasa is my boy and he's
going to get us through it.
And speaking of Sukasa, so for those who don't know by now, which if you don't, you've obviously
skipped the other five episodes of the season so go back.
But Sukasa is the, he was the main antagonist for the first two seasons of Dr. Stone, right?
He was one of the modern day kids, if you can call them that, that were, that was petrified
all those years ago, centuries ago, right?
And he wants to essentially create a morally pure world or as I put in the point here is
just rejection of the past.
And basically what that means for him is he wanted to create a world in which modern day
corruption, you know, money, drugs, guns, chemical warfare, things like that, where
it doesn't exist and he will go to any lengths to see this vision fulfilled.
So the kind of breakdowns, cause to understand how he got to that point, you kind of understand
his past and how he grew up.
So Sukasa has a younger sister.
Her name is Mirai, I believe, hopefully I'm saying that right.
And she has, she basically has some type of illness that put her in a coma and their parents
weren't around.
And so it was just him and her for the majority of their lives, right?
And the adults in Sukasa's life wouldn't, wouldn't help, right?
I mean, her hospital bills were racking up, the treatments weren't really working and
he was at a loss, but no one would help him out because they didn't really see any benefit
in it for them.
And so Sukasa did what he had to do.
He joined like the MMA circuit, you know, winning fights and things like that to help
provide for her sister.
But it was during that whole timeframe that his worldview got warped and shifted into
what it is that we see in the, in the, in the anime is that he sees just adults as the
root of the corruption of the, just the evil, the morally corrupt things in the world.
And now that essentially the world has started over, he wants to ensure that those things
don't come back, that they don't come back, that nobody else has to suffer the way that
he and his sister did.
And like when I said, he'll be willing to go to any length is because he is, when he's
destroying these stone statues, he's actually killing people.
Right?
Yeah, that's, that's the, that's what he's doing is not just him destroying a fine piece
of art.
You know, these are people's lives that he's ending because he's so fixated on his quote
unquote ideal world that he's willing to just destroy anything that has anything to do with
the past.
Again, personally, I can't really speak to this aspect from a personal standpoint, but
I have known people who that based on their living conditions, you know, the way they
grew up and how their parents grew up and things like that, they want to basically just
do a complete one 80 from their situation and just in, in doing so, just reject everything
else that just came before them because they don't want to go back to how they were living
beforehand.
Which I mean, I get, and I completely understand in that aspect, you always want to do better
than even those who came before you.
Right?
We, I mean, I think even as parents, they want their kids to do better than they have
and then then even what they're doing now.
Right?
And so that is fine.
I get that.
When you get so caught up in just trying to do better and be better and you don't take
stock of the past, like you don't learn from whether it is your own mistakes or the mistakes
and the trials that the people who came before you that they've gone through with your parents,
your grandparents, your teachers, your mentors, your the old guy at the bus station, you know,
whoever, if you just reject the past completely, then you, you can be hard pressed to even
get to the future that you're envisioning because you're not going to be equipped for
it.
Right?
You're just not.
And, and, but the, the key, kind of key part I want to dive into is that, you know, in
the case with Sukasa is that, you know, his methods are very extreme, just way out there.
His intention just resonates with the concept of going back to a simpler and more morally
upright state.
So it, it's kind of like, like Thanos from, you know, from the MCU, right?
What he sought to do inherently wasn't a bad idea.
You know, basically stabilize the world because of me, the, the universe is running out of
resources and things like that.
So he sought to rectify that in some, some form of fashion, right?
It was going to be the, to get more resources or whatever, however, just to basically allow
people to survive.
Right?
But how he went about it was all wrong.
It was completely and utterly just wrong.
And the same thing with Sukasa here, him wanting to create a morally pure world, a world that's
free of corruption or as free as it can be and where people don't have to suffer the
way that he did.
That's, I mean, that's, that's a genuine real goal that I think we should strive for, you
know, in our own world, in our own society.
Right?
But the methods that he used isn't, aren't the way to go about it.
And kind of just kind of the question I want to pose to you guys while you're listening
to this is just because you don't like how something turned out, does that mean that
nothing positive can come out of it?
So just think about it for a second.
So if something that, if something doesn't turn out the way that you wanted it to, like
you, let's say you didn't get the promotion, you didn't get the girl or the guy, right?
They rejected you, whatever the case may be.
Does that mean nothing positive came out of it?
Because sometimes, in all honesty, the best thing we can get is a no, because now that
puts us on a path that for even better opportunity later down the road, right?
Or it may not, you know, nothing, nothing is, is for certain, but just to have the opportunity
to have a better outcome on the other side of a no.
I mean, I think me personally, this is kind of outlook I have on life now is just that,
okay, hearing no or being rejected isn't the end of the world and whatever scenario it
may be.
It just means you've got to go back to the drawing board and you got to pivot, you know,
back to the whole thing of being flexible.
And again, there was this whole season about is going back to the basics, just going back,
taking stock of what you have and say, okay, how can I move forward with the knowledge
that I just, with the new knowledge that I just got and how can I apply it?
Right?
That's kind of how this whole thing just ties in.
And Tsukasa was missing that piece of seeing the good in what modern, what modern day society
had to offer, which is, you know, essentially everything else that Senku was doing, right?
Senku was bringing back the science and the modern day inventions to make, that made life
easier for the humans back then.
But Tsukasa in his narrow view, wanted to reject that as well.
He wanted to reject the good with the bad instead of just rejecting the bad.
And I don't want you to get to that point.
I don't want you to get so narrow minded that you just reject everything that was or that
can possibly be a benefit to you because it just happens to be with something else.
You know?
So this leads to what's known as the stone war and Dr. Stone because of Senku and Tsukasa's
warring ideals, right?
Senku who embraced the past, embraced the modern day technology and inventions that
he wants to revive and bring back.
And Tsukasa who wants to reject everything that has to do with modern day society.
Those two went at odds.
And this clash of ideologies essentially forces us to consider the balance between preserving
valuable aspects of the past while embracing necessary advancements.
And it essentially raises this question.
So how can we integrate the wisdom of the past into our future endeavors?
How can we bridge the gap?
How can we bridge the gap between tradition and innovation?
What can we do to combine both aspects?
Because I've talked about it a couple of times before about the whole idea of the older generations
over the people who came before us, our parents, grandparents, things like that.
And the younger generation are the ones who are coming up, like my generation or even
those who are younger still who are coming up.
How can we bridge the gap between the two so that we can learn from each other and just
help society as a whole kind of grow, right?
From a personal standpoint and as a community, as a society, as a people, how can we bridge
that gap and just grow together?
Because again, not everything from the past was glamorous and glorious, but there are
things that are of benefit today.
And a lot of things set the foundation for the things that we're doing today.
And not everything new is coming up is crazy or stupid.
A lot of it is.
I'll be honest, let's be honest.
A lot of it is.
But there are some things that are coming up that are going to change the world 10 times
over in less than half the time than some of the inventions from before.
And it's really just about just sharing that knowledge, sharing that wisdom and being open
and listening to each other, listening to both sides of the argument and seeing if there's
a middle ground and if there is, how can we get there?
Because I'm just a big believer, a big advocate of finding that middle ground.
And it's just when you can.
Because sometimes there's just, there can be some arguments that, you know, hey, you
got your one side, you got the other side and there's really no ground to be made in
the middle, right?
You're just, you're either you're for or against.
But for the vast majority of concepts and things that I believe, there's a middle ground.
We can come to a solution, an agreement that is just going to benefit everybody.
Because again, what this whole podcast is about is about us just bettering ourselves
and bettering each other.
So let's not fight.
You know, let's not fight over just the nonsense and over different things.
You can believe what you believe.
I can believe what I believe.
But at the end of the day, we're both just trying to get through this life, right?
So let's just come together and really just just willing, willing to hear each other out.
And that's exactly what Sukasa and Senku did.
Because Sukasa was willing to have a truce after being offered a chance at reviving his
sister, which, you know, she was his reason for fighting in the first place.
And the chance for revival is because Senku had recaptured the cave with the revival fluid.
And he made a deal with Sukasa, say, hey, you know, let's have a ceasefire until I can
revive.
If I can revive your sister, then, you know, we're going to have a ceasefire ambient and
have a truce.
And Sukasa agreed because again, his whole reason for doing all of this to try to create
this ideal world was for his sister, essentially, or the memory of her because he wasn't sure
she was still alive at this point or not.
And that is what drove him.
So now he's being offered a chance to essentially reconnect with her, to revive her and have
her there with him in this in this new world without all the nonsense that the modern day
world brings.
I mean, he jumped for he jumped right on it.
And it was after Mirai, Sukasa's sister, after her revival, that his perspective actually
begins to change.
He still believes in having a morally pure world that doesn't exploit the innocent, but
he no longer feels as if killing all the adults and not advancing society is the answer.
He's not an extremist anymore when it comes to he still believes in what he believes in.
But now he is open to other avenues of thinking.
And it's kind of draws a parallel to some other favorite characters I've already covered
on the podcast before, Vegeta and Baro.
Both of them are very prideful characters, right?
And Sukasa not so much, but they both are very prideful characters and who had very
strong beliefs in themselves and of their own abilities.
And they had the mindset that if anybody who wasn't them was just less than right.
But after they were humbled by their respective protagonist, they they were able to grow in
the sense that they held on to their ideas or ideals.
Excuse me.
They know that they believe that they still believe that they are the best, but they don't
look down on other people anymore.
And they are open to the idea that other people are just as good as them.
So that means they have to work harder to still claim to be the best type thing.
Right.
It's a subtle shift, but it's a big one because just like just like with Sukasa, they still
believe in what they believe in.
Right.
But they don't take it to the extreme.
They are willing to at least entertain other people's opinions and ideas.
And that's kind of the key thing I want us to kind of take from this from this point
of, you know, reformation is to just because you entertain someone else's idea doesn't
mean to make sure it's invalid.
It doesn't mean it makes you less than or things like that.
And doesn't even mean that they're trying to change your opinion.
Because they're just voicing their own and in today's world, we're voicing your own
opinion is very taboo.
You get canceled quickly by just having a different opinion than the mass is.
I think we just need more.
We need more tolerance in the sense that we can have a conversation, you know, like just
because I don't believe in what you believe in doesn't mean I'm attacking it.
Doesn't mean I'm attacking you is just it's just not for me.
Right.
And we can agree to disagree or we can, like I said earlier, find that middle ground where
we can agree on this.
But it all stems from just being open enough to entertain the other ideas.
It again goes back to Sarkaz's whole thing of being able to entertain the good things
that modern society brings with the technology and the advancements that it has while still
believing in his ideal world of being morally pure in that where the innocent aren't exploited.
So it's all from full circle.
It's all about being flexible, just being flexible.
And as I say here, Sarkaz embraces the ideas of the past while embracing his own beliefs
on how the future should be.
So he doesn't completely reject it anymore, but he still wants to pursue his own his own
thing.
And it just helps helps to remind us that embracing the lessons and experiences of the
past can simply just shape our faith and path going forward, even as we strive for improvement.
Right.
Because everything that's happened for a reason is you can learn from your previous trials
or previous seasons in your life and see what you can bring into the next one.
So overall, Sarkaz's journey in Dr. Stone highlights the complexities that come with
going back to the basics, explores the tension between rejecting certain aspects of the past
while also embracing the wisdom that it can potentially hold.
So it helps us to examine our own values, consider the consequences of our choices and
actions and try to find a balance between preserving what is valuable in the past while
helping shape our future that's aligned with our own vision and goals.
And also just take it all in stride.
Take it, join it, find a way to bridge it.
And yeah, just really just don't be a psychopath that goes around killing people.
I guess it's the moral of this story.
No, I'm kidding.
But seriously, is, you know, whatever you believe in, the things that you hold dear,
the values that you have, right, continue to believe in it, continue to strive into
them, but in doing so, don't reject everything that doesn't align with that.
And in the sense that, you know, just in the sense that saying everything that doesn't
align with that is bad, you just have to be able to discern which ones are worth considering.
And that's on a personal, person by person basis.
Only you can figure that out.
And I just encourage you to take the time to reflect on it.
So hey, this marks the end of season five, man.
Man, I can't believe it's been that long already.
I just want to thank you all for tuning into each week to each week to hear me talk about,
you know, anime and God and life, random stuff, you know, again, thank you guys so much and
come back for next season because I'm going to cover a series that it really highlights
the internal struggle that I think we all go through when it comes to our personal growth
and what that means and what it looks like.
And that anime is Mob Psycho 100.
So again, thank you guys for tuning in to today's episode.
I pray that you got what you needed out of it and hopefully you learned something new
about yourself.
Feel free to subscribe to the podcast, leave a review.
And as always, remember, you are the main character of your story and that story doesn't
end until he says so.
All right, be blessed.