Youth & Anime – Using Anime as a Teaching Tool

Anime Teaching you Things?!?

Over the weekend I started collecting information for something that I will likely be trying in the near future. Just what may that be? Using anime to teach valuable life lessons, promote discussion, and encourage the exploration of different ideas/cultures that people may not have considered otherwise. This all started when Mrs. K, a friend of mine who I help run the Youth Group with at my church, suggested we watch some anime with the kids sometime. Today I’ll be sharing my discussion with people on Reddit while asking you, what anime would you suggest to a kid to watch and why?

First, I wanted to get some feedback from people about the idea and posed a similar question that I just did for you. I turned to Reddit for that and made this post. You should definitely give it a look over because the response was incredible! So many supportive voices and suggestions for a project like this. Even those who aren’t religious or interested in that topic engaged in a serious discussion about how anime could be used to promote both religious and general lessons. There were a few jokers in the thread, but by-and-large it was an overwhelmingly positive discussion.

In my post I explain a bit about myself, my church, and what I plan to do. Initially, I thought we should start out with Your Lie in April. It is very friendly to new anime watchers and explores some themes we have been discussing at the Youth Group such as pursuing your passions, depression, and illness. While it may not be the best show for this, it is one that will resonate with our group strongly.

From there I gathered a huge list of other anime for consideration ranging from FMA:  Brotherhood to Silver Spoon. Some people even provided me with actual lesson plans or offered to help write one with me! Absolutely incredible.

While the community has been supportive of this, that is only part of the process. Next I’ll have to review titles and put together a schedule to watch said anime. Lesson plans will be needed with discussion guidelines. When that’s done, I have to propose this plan to a committee to get it approved.

If this does get approved, then this’ll be added to one of the more unusual church activities we have. Right up there with D&D and board game conventions. Still, I’m excited to see if this might work out.

I’ll be supervising an overnight event at the church soon and we’ll bring the idea up with the kids. They should support this, of that I’m sure. We’ll start watching Your Lie in April most likely and go from there (we can get away with a one-time deal, but if we want it to keep going we need committee approval). So wish me luck on that front!

Turning things over to you now, what kind of anime would you recommend? We have an emphasis on practical life lessons with religious discussion being a bonus. Do you have any experience using anime to teach? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas so please be sure to share!

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That’s it for today, just a short article about this cool idea that I’m hoping works out. Be sure to discuss in the comments! If you enjoyed this article and would like to support the site, please consider becoming a patron of mine. For full details, just click the button below. As always, thanks for reading and I hope to see you back here at Jon Spencer Reviews again soon!