akashi seijuro – Mel's Universe

Hi Welcome to June OWLS Tour!

In this new edition, we will talk about a topic that touch everyone.

But before jumping into the subject, let’s take a look at what is OWLS.

OWLS stand for Otaku Warrior for Liberty and Self-Respect, we are a group of blogger and vlogger who promote the acceptance of everyone regardless of the ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability. You can read more about OWLS here .

Each month, Lyn (Something about LynLyn),our awesome Chief Creative Officer, come with a new prompt and we have to explore the monthly topic using the pop culture as support. It can be the latest Blockbuster, a book or any other series or video game.

For the June tour, Lyn give us “Pride” as prompt,

“ In honor of “Pride Month,” we will be discussing the word, “Pride” and its meaning. We will be exploring pop culture characters’ most satisfying and joyful achievements or skills that they possessed and whether or not these qualities could be seen as a positive or negative aspect in their personal lives and/or society.”

Soon as I saw the June prompt, I knew what I would talk about, I knew which series I would pick.

Kuroko no Basuke, I know I already used it back in December 2017 for the “Warmth” tour, but when I saw June prompt, I thought I could somehow like the two posts together, since one of the reason why Kuroko lost his precious smile was become some character(s) had too much pride.

Kuroko no Basuke (Kuroko’s Basketball) is a manga series written and illustrated by Fujimaki Tadatoshi, the manga was published in the magazine Weekly Shounen Jump from December 2008 to September 2014. In April 2012, the series got adapted by Production IG and count 3 season.

The story follow Kuroko and the basketball team of Seirin High School through their journey in basketball competition. Their journey wasn’t easy since they had to face five talented individuals dubbed as the Generation of Miracle.

Kuroko know the Generation of Miracle very well since he used to play with them when he was in middle-school, he was their shadow, he was that force directing any pass toward them. Being part of the first string, Kuroko saw the talent of five teammates, blooming he also witness their pride swallowing them and become an obstacle to the team spirit.

More their talent was blooming, more prideful they became, some even decide to skip practice, what was the point of practicing when they were already far above the other player of the same age of them?

They all had their pride and they were the pride of their school, the school who should have corrected them, guide them, let them free , let them do what they wanted.

They all had their pride, however one of them had more pride than the four others and this pride lead the team to forget what team play really means.

Akashi Seijuro come from a rich family, his father always pushed him to have good result, never acknowledging that defeat and fails can be a good thing, can be helpful when it come time to learn to never give up.

Akashi never failed, he always had good result, being the top student of his school, unbeaten in shogi, he became vice-captain of the team soon as he was part of it for later becoming the team captain.

Akashi never knew the concept of losing, he doesn’t know what it mean to fail. Therefore, when he face a situation where he would lose,pushed against the wall, his pride took over and became a second personality.

He was playing one-one-one with Murasakibara Atsushi, if Murasakibara was winning against Akashi by 5 points , the tall purple-haired center could just walk away and skip practice. Akashi was losing 4 – 0,only one point and Akashi would have lost the game. Only one point and and he would have taste of the defeat for the first time, this is where Akashi prideful personality came into play. By letting his pride leading the game, Akashi won the game. This was a turning point in the team dynamic, this is where everything start to fell apart. Akashi wasn’t the same anymore, he wasn’t as respectful and was looking people around him from above. He was like an emperor his order were absolute.

Prideful Akashi leading the team, soon an I in Team appear, they weren’t playing together as one anymore, they were only playing for themselves, having competitions about who will mark the most point. They didn’t care about the team, as long as they were winning everything was okay.

Pride can become your worst enemy, it can blind you to the point where can’t see when you are wrong anymore.

When you can see when you are wrong this is when you have to swallow your pride and let the other win. This is where Akashi was wrong, if only he could have realized that sooner, the effort made by the previous captain to build a strong team that know the meaning of team play wouldn’t have be sent in the abyss. Sadly he didn’t and his acts push Kuroko to come to dislike a sport he loved.

However in the same times, being prideful is okay, it can help you sometimes, pride can push you to achieve your goal, then it become you ally.

Kuroko also had his pride, his pride as the shadow of the strongest team, his pride helped him to set his goal, it help him to prove to his former teammate they were wrong to think that playing in team and not in a team give nothing but trouble.

I also had my prideful moment, moment where I was too proud to say “Hey I need help for that”, too proud to call sick cause my back was killing, I was too proud to show I could be weak sometimes. Now where I was to set my limit, I know when I have to call for help to avoid any injuries, but it’s not always easy, there is still time where I might have ask for help but didn’t. Learning to say “I might not me able to do it by myself” is not a sign of weakness, it’s just show that you are human and as every human you have your limit.

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This was my June post for the OWLS Tour, don’t forget to check out Matt (Matt-in-the-Hat) entry about Black Clover, that was posted before mine, while waiting for Zoe entry scheduled for the 12th

~ Thank you for Reading ~

We are now that the last part of my Top 20 of song sang my anime characters, but before going with the five lat position let take a look at the fifteen other position.

You can read the post here: Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3

20 – Honey Bee by Aoi Kentaro (Prince of Tennis)
19 – Ao no Kanata by Nanase Haruka (Free!)
18 – Shalala Goes On by Kise Ryota (Kuroko no Basuke)
17 – Crafty by Oshitari Yuushi (Prince of Tennis)
16 – Realize by Echizen Ryouma (Prince of Tennis)
15 – I Beg Your Hate by Fushimi Saruhiko (K-Project)
14 – Even if Your Voice Fades, This Song of Oath Shall Reach You by Sebastian Michaelis (Kuroshitsuji)
13 – Answer by Akashi Seijuro ft Kuroko Tetsuya (Kuroko no Basuke)
12 – For You to be the Light by Kuroko Tetsuya (Kuroko no Basuke)
11 – Dive and Fly by Ryugazaki Rei (Free!)
10 – Kōto no Uede Korekara mo by Midorima Shintarou and Kuroko Tetsuya (Kuroko no Basuke)
09 – Different Minds by Kuroko Tetsuya and Murasakibara Atsushi (Kuroko no Basuke)
08 – Jump by Momoshiro Takeshi (Prince of Tennis)
07 – Cross With You by Atobe Keigo (Prince of Tennis)
06 – Ryuusen no Yukue by Tachibana Makoto (Free!)