You don’t run alone: Run with the Wind

Recently I was thinking of watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and I seriously did that. Mostly I decided on this because of the intense amount of reviews, appreciation and ratings on myanimelist. But sadly, the anime is a little odd, and after watching a bunch of 10 to 12 episodes, I got bored by it. It just seems like one of those shonen animes that are good to watch when you have spare time and want a good amount of laugh and suspense at the same time.

Although some might argue with my idea because most of the people believe that this anime is close to perfection in terms of overall quality. I seriously don’t know how the anime performs in the later episodes, I might like it, but for now I decided I should move to a better anime that I can complete fast and has a good story too. In the pursuit, I found a beautiful anime called “Run with the Wind”.

Run with the wind, is not just a sports anime where a bunch of college students are trying to win a marathon race, but it is something else. In fact there are certain things that this anime portrays brilliantly, to the point that it even surpasses certain animes like Haikyuu. And on a personal note, this anime is better than Haikyuu. There are certain reasons for that, and one of the factors is the “age-group” of the characters. So this post is going to be different because I would like to break down this into several points so that it becomes easier to point out important things from the anime.

Become a better version of yourself

There is no doubt that this anime clearly tries to explain this through its storytelling and execution. Running is something that most of us like, but due to some reasons like lack of opportunities, bad health, and environmental factors we are unable to understand the true meaning behind running. On top of that, people feel ashamed/doubtful/self-conscious while running on the streets/parks. And this is quite obvious and natural in the first place and this is not confined to just to running. We always have that “desired image” for everything which is not always possible to achieve.

There are certain things that we like and are expert in that, but back-off because there is no “ultimate” achievement in it. We always want to get compliment/assurance/support from others in order to keep moving forward, otherwise we just stop. On top of that, criticism can even hit harder. Why do we always keep asking each other for things that we like to do and can do? Partly this is because of what we see around us. If there is no success in terms of money/fame/stability, we just stop things that we like.

This anime clearly describes this situation, and thereby tries to explain that even a simple task like running by yourself in a park is important, if you like it. It is just like taking a walk with your family and children in a park/garden. Things like these has its own value, which can only be measured by yourself. Self-value is something which we keep ignoring until we start getting frustrated.

Anything external that you see in this world is subject to change, with a bit of uncertainty as well. But your own self cannot change until you want. You can easily measure yourself and see the progress, and nobody can measure your progress besides you. This is what this anime shows us with the use of its oddly special characters and story.

Being your own leader

People who are capable of leading others are mostly those people who have a firm belief upon their own abilities and interests and can pass on the same belief upon others. People who are self-assured and understand the consequences of their actions are the ones who understand other people’s positions too. Trying to lead your own self is more important in its own way.

Such people know that everyone has a certain kind of ability or capability and ways that one can improve on that. There is no fixed way to achieve that, and everybody will have their own ways and speed to do that, which is again uncertain because of external factors. Most importantly, there should be a strong purpose behind why someone would invest time on their own abilities. Haiji is shown to be having effective leadership skills, but these skills are not confined to just running only. To be able to change the old perspective of others is something a true leader can only do.

I cannot dive deeper into this topic, because of spoilers. But one thing I can definitely say that the change which leaders want, is not just superficial, but it is something that is close to their heart and personal growth.

Collective Improvement

Why do self-help books never work? Why any type of motivational video gives only an hour of motivation or so, but after that we again start to doubt ourselves? This is because we think that we are the only ones doing certain things alone. However the reality is that there are a lot of people in this world working on the same thing. Accept that. Yes our ways, abilities and interests are a little bit different but we all are human beings.

When you interact with people/friends or anyone who is working the same way as you, you can get to know a lot of things, things that you may not have understood if you had done it alone. They might be suffering to do things that you find quite easy or vice-verse.

The anime focuses on collective improvement where different characters with different abilities are trying to run a marathon where only the top athletes run. However, each character contributes equally to the race, even though they have different capabilities .Whatever your current capabilities are, you have to understand that you do have a certain kind of value and job to do. Comparison is out of the question. Knowing others helps in being grateful to whatever you have, and improve on that.

I know this was a very indirect type of review, but this is something that I wanted to post. Thank you for reading

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