If you’ve been reading my articles so far (or know me in person), you know that anime is pretty much all I watch nowadays; other shows (most others, anyway) just don’t seem that interesting to me. One reason I watch so much anime is for the lessons taught through various characters. Here’s a list of lessons I’ve learned/was reminded of in the almost two years of watching anime. (And just a head’s up, this article will contain spoilers.)

1. Our words carry more weight than we may realize: Marco Bodt

Marco is one of my favorite characters in "Attack on Titan" for several reasons. He’s friendly, diligent, and supportive. One of the characters he’s closest to is Jean Kirschtein, a hot-tempered, abrasive, insecure teenager about the same age as him. During a battle in the middle of the first arc of the anime, titans have overrun the city, and the cadets need to return to headquarters in order to refuel the tanks for their mobility gear. At one point, Jean becomes the leader of a group when the other squad leaders are gone. He doesn’t see himself as a leader, but despite his self-doubt, he still manages to lead most of his group back to headquarters. As they're running back, Marco catches up with Jean and takes the time to tell him that he’s a good leader and that he really came through for the other cadets. Jean tells him not to get ahead of himself since they hadn’t make it back to HQ yet. After they arrive and start refueling, however, Jean tells Marco not to say anything like that again. Marco, instead of being offended, smiles and tells him that he thinks Jean's a “good leader because [he knows] what it’s like to be weak" and that "it makes [him] alert, sympathetic.” It is this conversation that Jean remembers later in the series that encourages him to join the Survey Corps, the branch of the military that goes out to fight the titans directly, and further exercise his leadership skills. This demonstrates that our words have more power than we realize or even remember; our words can either help shape someone’s future or destroy it.

2. Never abandon hope: Makoto Naegi

Naegi is definitely my favorite in "Daganrompa." In this anime, 15 students are trapped in Hope's Peak Academy. The only way out? Get away with murdering the other 14…yea, it’s that kind of anime. In spite of seeing some of his classmates deceased and others murdered in front of him, he never abandons hope that the surviving students will find a way out together. He and four other remaining students eventually discover how they all came to be at that school to begin with and that the outside world is essentially a toxic, barren wasteland, Naegi still continues to hope that they’ll be able to survive outside, and his words encourage the others to believe it, too. He shows that hope is not only good to have in desperate situations, but it’s also worth fighting for and may even be the only thing we have left to hold onto.

3. Keep moving forward: the Elric Brothers

This pair is probably one of the more iconic ones as far as anime goes, coming from "Fullmetal Alchemist" and "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood." (For those who don’t know, they’re both based on the same manga; Brotherhood just follows the manga storyline more closely). The brothers, Edward and Alphonse, learn alchemy- the science of understanding, deconstructing, then reconstructing matter- from books in their father’s study. Their father leaves them with their mother when they’re toddlers, and a few years later, their mother becomes very ill and passes away. Alphonse, the younger brother, wonders how they'll now survive; Edward, however, has a solution: they’re going to bring their mother back using human transmutation, the forbidden alchemic practice of bringing a deceased person back to life. There is a law governing alchemy in this anime known as equivalent exchange, which states that “to obtain, something of equal value must be lost.” Human transmutation is forbidden because, as the brothers realize, you cannot exchange anything for the human soul. Regardless, the price is still high. When the boys try to bring their mother back, Edward loses his left leg, and Alphonse loses his entire body. Desperate to get his brother back, Ed performs human transmutation again to bond Al’s soul to an abandoned suit of armor and this time loses his right arm. The brothers also see that they have not brought back their mother, but have rather created a grotesque creature instead. After taking some time to recuperate, the brothers then resolve to get their bodies back to their original forms using the Philosopher’s Stone, believed to be able to bypass the law of equivalent exchange. Regardless of having the weight of their mistake on them, losing their mother, and encountering more pain, losses, and other horrifying experiences, they continue to move forward and work towards their goal. They demonstrate that no matter how badly life gets, you have to keep moving forward so your life can improve and your dreams can become real.

4. Who you’re related to doesn’t define who you are: the Okumura Brothers

What if I told you these brothers were actually the sons of Satan? Yep, that’s a thing in "Blue Exorcist." Viewers discover later in the series that a woman, an exorcist, has an encounter with Satan as he’s looking for a human vessel to allow him to freely roam the earth. The other exorcists she is with all perish after combusting into blue flames when Satan tries to possess them, but she doesn’t. Instead of trying to exercise him, she learns to coexist with and has twins…with him, but she perishes shortly after giving birth. Anywho, 15 years later, Rin, the older brother, learns who his father really is from his adoptive father, the paladin Shiro, who explains that the reason Rin has begun seeing demons, some that even try to attack him, is because Satan is trying to use him to reenter the human world. Satan tries to bring Rin to the demon world by possessing Shiro and opening up a portal leading to the demon world. However, Rin refuses to go with him and destroys the portal to send Satan back and to save Shiro, but he realizes too late that Shiro killed himself so that Satan wouldn’t be able to use him to take Rin. After that night, he enrolls in a school in which he learns to be become an exorcist, discovering later that his brother Yukio is not only an exorcist, but also the instructor for his class. Despite being the sons of Satan, these boys choose their own path and determine the kind of people they wish to be: protectors of the people and world they love. They demonstrate that no matter who your parents/family are, you still have the power to decide what kind of person you wish to be; family doesn’t equal fate.

5. Don’t assume you know someone just by appearance: Korosensei

If every teacher was like this one, even more lives would be changed for the better. In "Assassination Classroom," there are not only students and their teacher, but also assassins and their target. Korosensei, a tentacle monster (it’s not that kind of anime, promise), has threatened to blow up the earth by the time the students graduate middle school; his threat is pretty credible seeing as he did the same to the moon, leaving it a permanent crescent in the sky. Korosensei specifically requested to teach this class, and the government saw an opportunity to kill him: teach the students to assassinate and have them eliminate Korosensei by March. You would think that a being who’s threatened to destroy the planet would be more intimidating, but the students come to respect and even care for him all while trying to kill him. However, no one can figure out why he’s taking such pride in and care for his students when he’s threatened to kill them all if they don’t kill him first. This is kinda getting into the manga beyond the end of the anime's first season, but let’s just say that Korosensei didn’t make that threat because he’s sadistic; he has a reason, one that causes the students to change their entire view of him. He’s no longer seen as a monster in their eyes, but rather a creature with a tragic circumstance. This anime reminds us that every person has a story, and sometimes we need to know that to understand them in the present. We can’t assume we know everything about a person just from a glance or even a few interactions; sometimes, we need to spend more time with someone to fully understand them.