Starting tomorrow (August 1), lolikitsune and I will begin an experiment based on Aria’s Akari Mizunashi.
Akari Mizunashi… how do you describe her in words? She’s kindness, care, love, beauty, cheerfulness, friendliness, all bundled up in one mysterious girl. Akari is a most wonderful girl that has many unique talents and attributes, the most notable being her ability to hold conversations with complete strangers and make friends easily. She’s innocent and sweet; one of the nicest girls I’ve ever seen in anime.
No matter what the situation is, she sees the good in everything (you know, unless a headless ghost lady wants to kill her). She’ll usually find something nice (and embarrassing) to say, and even find joy in the most boring of tasks like cleaning her gondola. Even her fellow undines have acknowledged her oddness; in episode 10 of Aria the Natural, Akari’s friends Aika and Alice follow her when she is on a shopping trip. They witness her ability to easily talk with strangers and make new friends.
People like her rarely exist in real life. People tend to be colder and less open, myself included.
Last week I saw this tweet in gerjomarty’s Twitter. Then I thought about myself and how I acted with others. In real life, I’m not that kind hearted. I’m totally for eliminating human slavery, the sex trade, and poverty but I don’t act compassionate toward the people around me or online (but hey, it’s the Internet!). After watching another episode of Aria the Natural, I contacted the lovely lolikitsune of notdotq about an idea I had. What about acting like Akari Mizunashi for a week?
Of course I don’t mean cosplaying and all that. I’m talking about how she is as a person: kind, caring, and a wonderful friend. She’s optimistic and cheerful, even to people she has never met before.
I want to record my internal thoughts and my struggles; I thought it was an interesting post idea as well as a potential positive change (even if temporary) for me. It will be interesting to document what irritates me and what causes me to be “un-wonderful.” After some discussion, lolikit and I decided to make it a month and created some guidelines for us to follow during this experiment.
Guidelines:
1. document un-wonderful behavior
If, during this experiment, you do something that irritates someone else or yourself, record it in a blog post (I’ll be doing daily updates when possible). If applicable, investigate why your behavior was abrasive, and how you might act differently in the future.
2. document close calls
If, during this experiment, you think negative thoughts or catch yourself right before yelling at someone etc., record it in a blog post. If applicable, investigate why you were upset, and how you might avoid becoming such in the future.
3. don’t give up if you do something mean or un-wonderful
This experiment is not a competition. The point isn’t to see how far you can get. The point is to be the best you can. If you do something un-wonderful, record it a la Guideline #1, and attempt to avoid it in the future. You’re still “in the game”—one failure is not a reason to give up on kindness.
4. avoid debates and arguments
Even the most civil arguments are, at their cores, conflicts. While these are unavoidable from time to time, you don’t really need to butt into that one “most moe character of summer 2008″ forum thread, do you? Avoid conflict where you can. Having strong opinions is one thing and expressing them is another; only do the latter if it won’t bug others.
5. greet people
If you walk by someone on a sidewalk, smile and say hi. Greeting others is a basic courtesy that few practice these days. By acknowledging others’ existences and importances in your own life, you make yourself more important to them. This is how Akari makes her friends (see: Episode 10 of the Natural). If you smile at someone, they might not smile back—but they might smile at someone else later, or at you if you ever see them again.
6. make wonderful observations
A minimum of once per day, note that something is wonderful or lovely. This can be a thought to yourself or a remark to someone nearby. “The world is wonderful in the eyes of wonderful people,” says Alicia (Aria the Animation, Episode 6).
lolikit thought of more rather ridiculous guidelines, but this is what we settled on =P
I’ll post as often as I can (maybe I can think of blogging as writing letters to Ai-chan), but realistically expect updates every few days. This experiment will run from August 1 to August 31.
Feel free to join us for this; it’s nothing exclusive and everyone is welcome to try. You don’t have to follow our guidelines, feel free to modify them or make up your own, but remember to keep the spirit of this in mind.
Loading ...
This sounds interesting, but the thing that bothers me is the one about avoiding debates and conflicts. This is how processes are improved, so debates are important. Perhaps it should be amended to not take the issue personally and to avoid conflicts if you cannot approach the debate in a professional manner.
The general sentiment of the rule is to avoid unnecessary conflict. If you need to argue in favor or against something, you need to do it. The point isn’t to stamp out discussion.
So basically, if I pick a fight with you during the month of August, I’m guaranteed to win?
Saw loli’s post earlier, and I’ll probably give it a go. My single dilema is that debates/conflicts with external forces are just as impressive as internal, so I’m not sure how I can proceed with this. Also, this would be really easy to tweet, rather than have to find a computer to blog from.
I agree with Kabitzin, make sure you’re not just unnecessarily avoiding conflict because there really is a lot of good that can come out of debates and arguments.
That said, I do know someone who’s a “real-life Akari” in some ways, though he’s male and Chinese — #5 is a big one for him, and he further clarifies it.
Everyone you meet is a potential friend, even if they are only filling a particular role at the time you meet them (waiter, cab driver, guy on the street, dickhead, whatever). We tend to think of people only in that single context, but imagine them as a friend instead. What would you say then? That has been something great to keep in mind when meeting people, or even passing them randomly.
@Baka-Raptor: we certainly won’t white devil our way out of it.
@Ryan A: tweeting is fine, too. Anything is fine, too. :)
@otou-san: interesting, possibly a good guideline. I’ll keep it in mind as I proceed through my day tomorrow.
@Kabitzin: I just don’t want to enter a conflict in which I will not be able to maintain my cheerfulness, such as a political debate with a few of my friends.
@Baka-Raptor: Not so sure of that, but probably =]
@Ryan A: I plan to Twitter much of my day and experiences too.
@otou-san: Thanks for the tip!
So….This is to try and be as pacifistic as possible?
[56] Itoshiki Mode…
↩[55]
Icystorm and Lolikit have taken it upon themselves to overlook the DESPAIR of the world focus on its “good points”. Too bad there aren’t any. Pretty much, the matriarchal dominance established by The Cult of Aria has hypnotized two poor …
I bid you good luck
i’m ready to try this.
[...] on Friday, August 1st, in conjunction with Minimum Tempo’s icystorm, I will begin an [...]
[...] to this, IcyStorm of Minimum Tempo and lolikitsune of notdotq recently conducted an experiment to try and act recklessly nice like Akari herself. In this cut-throat world of [...]