“It’s only a gameshow”. Big Brother contestants sang it to themselves on one of the seasons back in the 00s. My colleagues and I did the same during a rough patch at a former company I worked for.
I like it because it’s a reminder that things can seem immovably important until you remove yourself from the context of that situation and assess it from the outside.
It is a space anime with characters living quick and dangerous, but due to the way it is written, hand-animated, detailed, and grounded to a heavy extent, this one anime hits different as I age. It is itself targeting an older audience compared other blockbuster animes, but nevertheless it is one that keeps some aspects with you through the rewatches, but can also have substantial new feelings as you gain different life experiences. All of the main characters themselves have some kind of a past that is weighing them down through their current affairs, but their power to go on can be mostly summarized to living a life in limbo all the while trying to cope with it via simple tough-guy acts of trying to be indifferent to it.
It is not a good mantra that can be maintained for long. It is rather something that helps delaying the immediate feelings before the acceptance comes.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
This resonated a lot with me during the pandemic shutdown.
But not in a super depressivt way, just when I’m super bored or waiting for something or in a tight spot working on an issue I just kinda zone out and imagine myself looking back on this while relaxing.
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