BINBOUGAMI GA!: A DEEPER LOOK
This is not your
typical anime. Although it only spun for 12 wonderful episodes, it will surely
leave you an impression.
The main
protagonist in the anime is Ichiko Sakura. She had been blessed with the
inherent gift of being extremely lucky and she is also able to absorb the luck
of the people around her causing the gods to send Momiji Binboda to restore the
energy balance on Earth by stealing the Fortune Energy of Ichiko.
This anime shows
us the severe level of difficulty in putting other people’s need before ours.
Humans are naturally self-centered. I think that it is one of the main traits
that are actually needed by us humans to survive. People in the history grew in
power because of this trait and secured their future and their next generation’s
future. It is as natural as the feeling of annoyance you get when you bring
food for yourself and your friends, even the people you’re not close to, ask to
have a share of your food. If you think about it, being self-centered isn’t
really quite as bad as it sounds but that also does not mean that it is a good
quality to develop either.
My point is, in my perspective, this anime
really captured our unique feature; our selfishness and our compassion.
The
reason why we still give our friends our food despite feeling annoyed is
because of this. We know how aggravating it is to feel hungry and not being
able to eat and of course, as a friend (and a human) you wouldn’t want them to
suffer but in the back of our mind, we have that faint whisper of our inner
fiend just telling us to say ‘NO’ and just prioritize ourselves.
With Ichijoji as
the personification of both these traits, we can see/relate to her struggle as a
human being who wants to be in an advantageous position in life by keeping all of
her fortune by herlself (just like any normal human beings would normally do)
but also having the desire to help the other people (needless to say, that road
is quite a long road for Ichijo but as the story progressed, you can see her
occasionally showing her kindness although it is immediately followed by her
nasty personality).
These human
struggles are hilariously portrayed which honestly causes most or maybe some
audiences to take the story lightly but my opinion above may just be me putting
too much emphasis/importance of this animated work.