How being perfect is never enough

#12DaysOfAnime – As the textbooks might tell you, people have always tried to do every thing in the most perfect way possible. From how machines work to how we all physically look, the concept of “perfection” has always plagued our minds and thus we strive to achieve “perfection.” But being “perfect” isn’t always enough and here’s why…

No matter how much we mold ourselves into “perfection,” it will never be enough to every single individual around us. There’s always that personal opinion, or “taste,” when it comes to determining what we find pleasing to see, hear, smell, feel, and say.

Anime has portrayed how characters within their stories tackle the idea of “perfection” and how it made or broke them as a whole. Here are some examples to give you an idea:

In the anime series The Irregular at Magic High School, the main character has a stoic personality and is almost emotionless in every topic possible with the exception of his own little sister. Thus, there has always been this lingering possibility that the series was implying some form of incest – which all depends on how people view it.

The show reveals that the main character has been experimented on and thus altering his personality to be rid of emotions in exchange for being one of the most powerful weapons in a world where magic exists as a technology.

He is deemed as the perfect killing machine or weapon by those who have created him or witnessed his capabilities. However, even if he has reached this level of “perfection,” the burdens of maintaining a normal life as a high school is very hard.

Everywhere he goes, there is an air of intrigue about his capabilities to kill and the like. In the end, even if he willed to live normally, he couldn’t do so and thus that’s a huge pain for him and his sister to deal with. Most especially his sister, a girl who wants to hog her older brother for herself.

Though, I might have taken my own symbolic liberties into this aspect of the show.

More examples arise in Light Yagami from Death Note where he tries to create a perfect world by exterminating the criminals and those society has deemed scum. As well as in the Monogatari series where one of the female characters, Hanekawa Tsubasa, is rejected by the one she loves despite bearing all the qualities of a model female high school student.

There are so much more situations presented in anime that, in the end, perfection seems to be an unattainable goal that may corrupt someone as they try to grasp it. Perfection is never enough but the struggle of achieving that has its own merits.

These examples can be found in the characters of Hikigaya Hachiman from Oregairu where he tries to create the perfect relationship with someone no matter how impossible and selfish that might be. Or, in the person of Moritaka Mashiro from Bakuman where he tries to create the perfect manga worthy of an anime adaptation.

Perfection, despite unattainable, can be used as a sort of thrust to propel ourselves to our intended goal.

People have accomplished so much in the pursuit of creating the “perfect” thing. We have made machines, ideas, and concepts that, not only benefit us, but every individual in our society.

In the quest of creating the perfect cure, doctors have contributed to the advancement of medicine to make our lives more longer and easier. We have made computers to make all of our work easier in pursuit of making perfect time to meet deadlines.

Perfection is never enough. Or rather, we can never deem something as “enough” and be satisfied by labeling that thing as such. The trick here is to improve as much as you can and by the end or heights of our journey, we can truly be somewhat satisfied with what we have accomplished.

Dream big, work hard at it, and do as many things as you can. We can never be satisfied but, at least, we can do a pretty good job at feeling like we have done it. Dream for bigger and better things to come in the next year and make those dreams come true.

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Thanks for reading the second entry for this year’s twelve days of anime. Be sure to check out stuff related to this ani-blogging challenge by searching #12DaysOfAnime on Twitter. Make sure to share your thoughts on this article and I will try to respond.

While I am at it, try reading some entries from my pals from OWLS. For the month of December, we are discussing about the portrayal of warmth in our favorite titles so be sure to check them out!