What We All Can Learn About Gratitude from this One Anime
As a show of gratitude for all of you readers, I’m going to be writing about gratitude here. More specifically, about a character from a beloved anime. Hunter x Hunter has a lot of fascinating characters. My favorite is arguably Netero.
Isaac Netero is one of the most powerful nen users in the series as trained every day even into his seniority, and he became the 12th chairman of the Hunter Association. As he plateaued in his capabilities, he came up with a new form of training: offering a prayer of gratitude and throwing a single punch, 10,000 times a day. This ritual took him 18 hours to complete when he started. He practiced this through snow and rain, even in drought, but his love and gratitude for martial arts exceed his own stamina, leaving him to collapse following the harsh training, only to begin anew the following morning.
After years of this practice, Netero perfected his ritual of esteemed love; as a result, he gained unimaginable power. Though this exercise originally took him almost an entire day to complete, after he turned 50 years old, this same practice took him only one hour.
We’ve all seen many rigorous, aggressive training scenes like in Dragonball Z. This was a refreshing take on martial arts training, and more writers could benefit in studying this scene and adopting some of its elements. Not only that, but Netero’s character throughout the show was quite mischievous and often juvenile, and this provides a refreshing palate cleanse to his overall character.
The most inspiring part of Netero’s journey is his resilience in upholding his deep gratitude for the strength and wisdom he accrued through his journey. Day in and day out, he was able to quell any resenting thoughts and negative feelings consistently for years, even when facing extreme weather and facing the threat of wild beasts. So many forces fight against him to sunder his positive feelings, yet he persisted. It takes a masterful level of patience to perfect such a ritual, and it reminds us viewers how fragile our positivity can be.
You could have won a thousand dollars, find true love, or received a new job offer. A great day can be quickly turned sour after one rude customer, one belligerent neighbor, or even a stubbed toe. There are many challenges our world brings us to test our will, and for us average folk, we aren’t always going to feel on top of our game. If our gratitude and positivity aren’t always fragile, they sure are fleeting. In a similar fashion, the stubbed toe may ruin one day, yet wouldn’t ruin another.
What can we learn from Netero? One of the problems I see facing the media industry in general is this lack of love for their industry, and the people who consume their content. Seldom now do we find video games, movies, books, and shows that are catered with love and appreciation. Us as consumers are frequently treated with vileness by these corporations. They see us as prisoners meant to devour whatever “slop” they try to force feed us. They insult our intelligence and mutilate our beloved franchises, and do so with the mask of “diversity, equality, and inclusion”. I’ve written relentlessly calling out the shoddy quality in our media.
Every writer here on Substack has a unique opportunity to completely revolutionize and refurbish the disingenuous nature of our media landscape. We do not have to put up with horrendous writing and disgusting character designs. We don’t have to accept the virtue signaling crap. We all have a capability to change the industry as a whole, without the greedy monopoly of Hollywood infesting and influencing our communities and hobbies. All we need is to give love and appreciation to all of those who read our content, and acknowledge the time they elect to take from their busy lives to read and consider the words we write for them.
The level of wisdom to acquire esteemed heights of gratitude is a feat in itself. Only a few can argue they’ve mastered it. Even those who received the word of God throughout the Bible frequently fell short. I certainly envy those who can achieve such a deep, everlasting level of grace like Netero. The tests I receive by the world feel more and more rigorous, and I know some of you out there face even more treacherous trials. We are often tempted to sway away from this level of thankfulness due to the myriad of problems we encounter in our daily lives. We may express our frustrations through our writing and allow our viewers to empathize with our plights, likewise as we empathize with them.
This journey of growth may feel slow to me, and I often am plagued with impatience and doubt. I may even vent privately my vitriol over my situations, and even people who frustrate me. As well, I may not always communicate my appreciation to others.
I am thankful for all the inspiring content other creators have produced. I have appreciation for all the games, anime, shows, and books that helped me brew so many countless universes, and I hold all of you who join me here in the highest level of regard I am capable of expressing.