Self-awareness isn't really a one and done type of thing.
It's a skill that we develop more and more over time, and it's something that challenges
us to really improve ourselves.
And today's character is someone who I honestly did not expect much from in the beginning
of the series, but he proved himself to be a character that is reliable, caring, and
someone that we can even model ourselves after.
Well, to an extent.
And of course, that is the self-proclaimed greatest psychic of the 21st century, Reigen
Arataka.
Hey, what's going on, guys?
My name is Nate, and you're listening to the Ataku Liberation, a show where we help you
break the chains that hold you back in your life by connecting biblical principles with
themes for your favorite anime.
And without further ado, let's get into it.
And today's verse that kind of really highlights this episode is Proverbs chapter 28, verse
13.
And it says, the one who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and
renounces them will find mercy.
And basically what that means is if you don't confront your sins, if you don't address them,
then they'll address you.
And you don't want that.
And really, you just have to be willing and open enough to admit your flaws, admit the
things that aren't really your best qualities, and do what you can to change that.
Of course, when it comes to our sins, things like that, we confess to God and we repent
for him, which means to turn away so we're not going to keep doing the same things over
and over and over again.
But to get to that point, it takes a certain level of maturity and again, the self-awareness
to be aware of those things and then to take it a step further and to renounce them.
And like I said in the intro, Reagan was one of those characters I wasn't sure was ever
going to get there to the point that I just honestly just thought he was going to be a
trickster the entire series.
And I will say I was pleasantly surprised that that wasn't the case.
I mean, I love Reagan as a character, even when he was just a trickster the whole time.
He was pretty entertaining.
But they really get the whole story, right?
It's kind of just break it down into some of Reagan's biggest traits, I guess.
And the first one being not such a good one, that's him being manipulative.
And like I said, he's a trickster.
He's kind of like a showman.
And basically, Reagan claims to be the greatest psychic in the 21st century.
The only problem is he's not psychic.
He doesn't have any psychic powers at all.
He can't see, well, I think he can see certain spheres and things like that, but he can't
do anything with them.
And the funny thing is he started his business just off of a whim.
He got fed up living, I mean, working at his corporate job and just really going nowhere.
So he wanted to do something just different with his life.
So he quit his job and decided to open up a psychic business.
And yeah, he just really didn't know what he was doing.
And he was actually about to close the business down when he first met Mob.
And at first Reagan was just going to turn him away, you know, because at that point
Mob was a little kid, you know, maybe first grade or something along those lines.
And Mob was looking for somebody who understood him because Mob already knew he had psychic
powers and things like that.
He's been living with him his whole life at that point.
And he didn't know that Reagan wasn't a psychic and Reagan gave him basically some generic
self-help type thing, you know, to believe in himself and just trust his and his abilities
and something along those lines.
Right.
And Mob just ate it up.
And once Reagan realized that Mob was a real psychic, then he decided to use Mob as a quote
unquote intern to or assistant rather to help him with his business.
Now I know he's exploiting a child for his own benefit, which is terrible.
It's really, really terrible.
Like I said, Reagan, Reagan is not the best, best dude at the beginning of the series,
but I mean, he does get better.
But until then, this is, this is who he is.
And and is again, the manipulation, right?
So he's reliant on Mob for anything regarding spirits and the thing and things like that.
He's constantly calling Mob out of the blue, you know, whether Mob is at school or if he's
hanging out with some could be potential friends or things like that.
If Reagan calls him, Mob drops everything and goes and just goes, which it eventually
does anger Mob to the point that he quits for a time.
Right.
I mean, that's how far this this goes, but it takes a while for Mob to even get to that
point.
And and honestly, it was during this time that Mob separated himself from Reagan.
Like when he finally was enough with his his crap and just said, you know what, you can
do it yourself.
And Reagan finally realized something about himself.
You know, he at first it was just a kind of like a transactional type of relationship
where Reagan would give Mob hope, essentially for his abilities and basically tell him that
he's not he's not weird or anything like that.
And Reagan got somebody who can essentially do his job for him, because again, he can't
do anything with these spirits.
But it was during Mob's absence that Reagan realized that he always wanted Mob around
because Mob was Reagan's first friend.
Yeah, he was the first person who didn't expect much from Reagan.
He didn't expect him to do these big things.
He just enjoyed he enjoyed working with him, enjoyed being around him, and they bonded
in just in that friendship type of role.
And I mean, that mentor mentee type of relationship.
And Reagan didn't realize that because he was just so blinded by his his his greed and
the way the business was running.
And of course, Mob was bonded by that, too, by his own naivety.
But when they had the time apart and they actually had time to reflect about why they
were partners in the first place, they both realized this is the reason.
And it wasn't it wasn't the easiest thing for Reagan to even come to terms with.
I mean, he really didn't understand it until he had his birthday during the time that Mob
was away.
And he realized that the people and the people didn't.
It's a sorry.
The people in his life didn't really care about him as a person.
And not in the sense that he, you know, like they didn't think anything of him or things
like that, it's just that they liked Reagan because of the stuff that he could do for
them.
And it just mirrors his own relationship with Mob for the longest time.
But when he had to basically celebrate his birthday alone, he just realized, you know,
hey, this kid means more to me than I even do, even I realized.
So in this kind of bring back this whole thing is, you know, the manipulative side of of
Reagan is something he kind of developed as a self-defense mechanism, something to get
him through the days.
So my question to you is what dark side of your personality do you keep hidden from others?
You know, what is that quality of yourself that you may not be very proud of and not
many other people even know?
And how would you change it if you could?
I mean, let's just pretend for a moment we all have the amazing superpower of hyper self
awareness and we can just change who we are, change aspects of ourselves on a dime.
What is what is something about yourself that you would want to change or to improve?
I mean, not maybe not change completely, but just get better at or not do as much.
For me, it was a long time, a very sarcastic type of humor, and that doesn't always translate
well when I'm talking to people who don't or who don't get it right.
And as I've gotten older, I've kind of realized who I can joke with in that type of way, who
I can't.
But before it was like that all the time.
I was pretty much always sarcastic.
You know, and just that type of way, except with my parents, obviously, because I don't
I don't want the smack down, but when I'm with my friends and other people like that,
it's when you know, it came it came out.
But as I got older, I realized not everyone gets that and everyone finds that funny.
Not everyone appreciates that in that type of way.
So I had to learn how to just tone it down.
You know, you can be serious and in just straightforward at a time.
And then there's time for the other thing.
Right.
You got to not super extreme, not super bad, but it's all in the context.
So what what is that for you?
What is that that you want to improve in?
Now the next aspect of kind of rain that can make them this whole the whole character that
he is his social skills.
This man has charisma maxed out to 100 percent.
I kid you not.
That's part of the reason why his business is so successful that he can talk his way
into and out of any situation.
And it's honestly funny.
It's funny to watch.
And this actually has some really cool applications just beyond his trickery.
Right.
Can be Reagan's able to read a person within minutes of meeting them due to his very observant
nature.
Right.
Most of that is due to because, again, he's a trickster.
He knows how to how to not really get at people's weaknesses, but he knows how to navigate a
conversation to go the way he wants it to go.
And the probably one of the biggest flexes of his charisma is that this man infiltrated
an evil organization because they all the grunts thought that Reagan was their top boss,
which is hilarious because man, just think about it.
It just makes me laugh because, again, Reagan's incredible charisma.
He gets on anyone's good side or at the very least gets them to lower their guard.
So the evil organization Claw, you know, I think I spoke a little bit about it in previous
episodes.
They're trying to make these psychic soldiers more or less to take over the world and then
show psychic supremacy.
All that typical, typical anime stuff.
Right.
So the the soldiers at Claw, the low ranking officers, thought Reagan was the big boss
just by the way he carried himself, just the way that he commanded the room, the way he
commanded the presence, the audience.
And in that couple with the fact that the grunts have never seen the big boss, they
don't know what he looks like or even sounds like.
So those two things together just made it so he Reagan literally walked in to this highly
secure enemy facility, found mob and the rest of the guys and then almost just walked out.
It was it was hilarious.
But here's the kicker is even after being revealed to be a fraud, Reagan still had the
respect of the soldiers because of his kind and well spoken nature.
So this I kind of want to touch on here because again, just like how we're not all not everything
is good, not everything is bad about who we are, who we are as people.
We have our flaws, we have our insecurities, the things that we're not really proud of.
But on the other side, we have skills and abilities like this that show and just shines
who we are.
This charisma that he has, that he's able to put people at ease.
That end of itself is a gift to be able to walk in and just have command over over a
room of people, right?
Or to barely just have the respect of the people in the room, whether they like you
or not, that's a different thing.
But just to have that type of respect.
So just like I asked you before, what is something that you could change?
You could.
Now, what's something that you know you're proud of?
What is something that other people have said about you that really, you know, one, lift
your spirits up, obviously, but just really speaks to who you are as a person.
You know, is it that you know that you're smart, that you're that you're funny, that
you're charismatic, that you're just friendly, right?
You're just a good person to be around and your support.
I mean, what are these things?
What do you think that people say about you?
And the reason why I say that people say about you because oftentimes it's hard for us to
see these things in ourselves because we are quick to put ourselves down.
We're quick to see the negative in the thing that we want to change, the thing that we
want to fix and things like that.
So oftentimes it's good to get an outside perspective on the good qualities that you
have because you do.
You have some we all do.
You know, I mean, I'd be good to everybody, but I'd argue that the vast majority of people
just just love you, right?
They just love you for being you.
So what is it that makes you you?
What is it that that when people walk in the room, they say, hey, that's my guy or hey,
that's my girl.
You know, what is it?
What is it that they say?
And once you find that out, or maybe you already do really take that to heart, take it to heart
and just realize that, hey, not everything's doom and gloom and everything's not sunshine
and rainbows either.
Let's let's make the most of what we have and let's see how we can just kind of minimize
minimize the bad and maximize the good.
I mean, Ozzy, that's pretty much what life is.
This is just trying to do what we can when we can the best we can.
And this last point I want to go over with Reagan is just the fact that he honestly is
a genuine person.
Even though he's a con man, again, he's a pretty bad con man.
He is actually a genuine person that does care about the well-being of other people
because even though he's essentially finessing his clients out of their money because he's
a fake psychic, they always leave refreshed and encouraged even if the help they got wasn't
exactly what they asked for because Reagan goes above and beyond to to serve his clients.
Now they may be asking for some actual real spirit to be dealt with or maybe not.
Maybe they think it's a real spirit.
He just says, yeah, yeah, yep.
I think I see the spirit right there.
Let me massage your shoulders a little bit.
And with some special spiritual technique or whatever it is, he tells them.
And though that's wrong, it's wrong, it's still he still makes sure that the customer
satisfied when they leave.
And I think that thing that speaks volumes to who he is, because it's not just the customers.
He does this with mob constantly.
He constantly encourages mob to just live the life that that he wants, one where he
doesn't have to rely on his powers and that he can live a normal life if that's what he
wants to do.
Reagan has never been one to encourage mob to do something that he doesn't want to do
or to really stand in the way of something that mob does want to do.
I mean, Reagan even Reagan even went so far as to help mob train for this marathon that
he wanted to run at his school, knowing mob's physical ability is way below average.
This man struggles on the track, but and Reagan did too, because he just doesn't work out.
But even still, he he not only encouraged mob to do it, he actually went out there and
ran part of the race with him and just gave that that uplift and encouragement that that
true friends would do for each other.
And it just again, it doesn't mitigate all the the heinous stuff that Reagan does sometimes,
especially to mob.
Right.
Reagan has been manipulating this kid for for years at this point, but it does show
that it's not all bad.
Right.
It's not it's not all bad and deep, not deep down, but just he is a good person.
So I can just kind of want to really, really let that sink in is that we all all of us
have parts that we aren't really proud of.
Let's be honest with just certain things about myself that I'm not really proud of.
But those parts are all that defines us, defines us.
We are all just a mixed bag of, you know, again, the good and the bad.
And part of this superpower that is self-awareness is being one aware of those things, of the
good and the bad.
And then we are choosing to improve the good and do what we can to to adjust the bad and
not being held down by a particular label or something like that from either side, because
it is one thing to to say not don't let the negativity go to get to you or anything like
that.
Don't put yourself down.
But it's equally as important to not get a big head either from any accolades or, you
know, or things like that.
People is pumping you up because too much of a good thing can turn into a bad thing.
So we have to find the balance where, you know, hey, I know I'm not just a terrible
person, but I also have to realize I'm not all that either.
I'm not I'm not better than anyone else.
You know, we're different.
We're all unique, but we're not above.
No one's above each other because at the end of the day, we were all born and we're all
going to die.
There are deaths.
Those are the two facts of life, man.
Like we were here, so we were born and one day we're not going to be here.
And to me, that's the greatest equalizer.
So it's important that we remember to stay humble and not to get so much into our own
head on either side of the spectrum and just really do our best to honestly just be more
like Reagan, right?
To be a more genuine person.
Just be real.
You know, take the good, the bad and the ugly and just put it out there.
Right.
Yeah, because in the day and age of social media, people put literally everything out
there.
But oftentimes it's just the highlights, just the good, just the best parts.
But I say, hey, if you're going to do it, then you can just do it.
Do it all the way.
Do it 100 percent.
Right.
The good, the bad and the ugly.
Right.
And then now that doesn't mean just go start posting everything and about everyone.
And all that fun stuff.
But I just encourage you to be more mindful of your interactions, be more mindful of the
things that you do and just to make sure that not one thing is defining you, but the culmination
of who you are is just on full display for everyone to see.
So again, just kind of summarize this whole spiel.
I just did Reagan's growth and self-awareness.
Ozzy is best seen in his evolving relationship with mob, his ability to read people accurately.
And honestly, he's just as genuine care for others.
And it is his personal journey of self-awareness helps recognize his own shortcomings, understanding
the impact of his own actions on others and just striving to be authentic and empathetic
to other people around him.
And just to keep moving forward and never stop growing.
So hey, if you like what you heard today and you want to take a deeper look into today's
episode, head on over to the otaku liberation dot net where you'll find a blog article that
covers today's episode in more detail.
And you'll also find a link to our YouTube channel.
That's right.
We're on YouTube now, guys.
And well, hey, that's the end of season six.
Man, one just one season after another.
Man, but hey, tune in next week for a special episode where I'm going to cover an anime
movie that showed me honestly what it means to grow up and to move into new seasons of
life.
And that movie is Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kazuna.
And all right, guys, always remember, you are the main character of your story and that
story doesn't end until he says so.
All right.
Be blessed.