The Blackberry Walk

[[ THIS POST CONTAINS SOME PRETTY BIG SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST SEASON, don't read if you haven't seen most of the show]] Soul projection, as Jung described it, is to project the image of one's inner self, their soul, onto another. The soul can be imagined as the unconscious elements of one's personality which bubble up as emotions into consciousness. The most vital of these emotions, the experience of awe and fascination, drive us to follow the paths we do, such as having a drive to watch anime. A projection, simply put, is to overlay unconscious associations onto objects and people in the real world. It is the meaning we assign to things. In a sense we project our self onto other people when we empathise since we overlay an understanding of ourselves onto someone else. When you watch a masterpiece, it touches you on a deeper level you can't quite understand. Why does a great anime grab your heart and mind? That would be because you project your soul onto it - the characters and story explain to you a part of yourself you don't understand or haven't been able to fruitfully incorporate into your personality. On to Ashita no Joe. A masterpiece from 1970 about a boxer named Joe and his arch-rival Rikiishi. After 50 episodes of anticipation, watching Joe's rise to prominence in the boxing world, the two face off in the ring. Joe lost his match and graciously accepted defeat. A sense of contentment seemed to wash over him as the dispute came to a satisfying conclusion. Yet as Joe went to shake Rikiishi's hand, he collapsed and soon after died from a brain haemorrhage. Joe's passion and fascination with boxing was imbued in Rikiishi. Before his rivalry with Rikiishi began, Joe had no interest in boxing in the slightest. Yet once Joe set his sights, his inner flame drove him to train. Note the relation of fire to the soul - a common verbal slight of hand which is seen in religions across the world across time. Joe had projected his soul onto Rikiishi. His passion for boxing purely stemmed from him, or more specifically the unconscious contents which he projected onto him: the meaning of the rivalry. Rikiishi's death was devastating for Joe. He roamed the streets depressed for 3 months aimlessly. The dissolution of the projection is a devastating thing; when all the meaning in your life is bundled up into one person or one thing, the loss can be world breaking. The psychic scaffolding which held together the ever growing construction project of the mind disintegrates and everything comes tumbling down. You can no longer see colour in the world; merely different shades of grey. After all, the soul projection is responsible for giving value and meaning to the world's many components and if you experience no awe for life then you will do nothing but ruminate. But rumination is wombination. One must be strong and break free from the vice grip that the ego has on the psyche. The ordered ego wants to suppress the chaotic soul since the unpredictability is where danger lies. When your Rikiishi dies, the ego takes that as its 9/11 to pass through its Patriot Act and take full control over the psyche creating a totalitarian state without any danger nor fun. However you're destined to roam the streets like a Yokai who needs to end their grudge before they can move on into the other world just like Joe. Danger and fun are many colours which grow out of chaos in contrast to the grey of order and hence only by staring danger in the eyes can you have fun once again. Only when Joe accepts himself for what he did to Rikiishi can he once more experience awe in all of its flavours of awesome and awful and he'll no longer hear the ego's endless chattering monologue. Only then can he truly live.