Lessons learnt from Fullmetal Alchemist

Lessons Learnt from Fullmetal Alchemist

The story follows two young alchemists, Edward and Alphonse Elric. When their mother passes away, the boys attempt to bring her back to life by performing human transmutation, a forbidden technique in alchemy. The two boys pay a terrible price for their actions: Edward loses his leg and Alphonse loses his physical body. Luckily, Edward is at least able to transplant Alphonse’s soul into a suit of armor by giving up his own arm, making them a mangled metal pair. The story follows the boys in their journey to acquire a philosopher’s stone, which would bypass the limitations of alchemy and allow Alphonse to get his body back.



The Law Of Equivalent Exchange

One main principle that is repeatedly brought up throughout the series is the 'Law of Equivalent Exchange'. This principle states that 'Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost first.' Although this series takes this principle to a whole another level that involves life and death. However, I think that this saying can be applied as a way of life in our daily lives. Nothing can be attained without giving up something in return, whether it be time, money, or health. The value that we place on these things differs, but each is extremely important and can have adverse effects on our lives. Therefore when I feel inferior about a particular task or to someone else, it reminds me that I have not yet sacrificed an equal amount of time and effort into the task, hence I need to work harder to achieve the results I hope for.



Thank you for reading!

Lessons learnt from Hunter x Hunter

Lessons learnt from Hunter x Hunter

This anime series follows an 11-year-old boy named Gon and his adventures as a hunter. A hunter in the world of Hunter x Hunter is a special occupation that is only obtainable through successfully completing an arduous physical and mental examination called the Hunter exam. Once certified, a hunter is able to perform tasks that regular humans are either forbidden from doing or are unqualified. Gon successfully obtains his permit to be a hunter and sets off on his adventure.

One conflict he faces in his adventures is the Chimera ants. The Chimera Ants are a previously unidentified species of monsters with one particularly defining characteristic: the Queen Ant is able to consume living beings and give birth to ants with the consumed beings’ intelligence and physical attributes. The Queen Ant is surprised by the existence of humans and realizes that she can create the perfect being by consuming a large number of humans and that perfect being would wound up being the Chimera Ant King.

Don't judge a book by its cover. 

 As the Chimera Ant King came to life and was learning about the world around it, he developed a relationship with a blind, uneducated and clumsy girl called Komugi. What immediately stands out is the remarkable difference between the two individuals. One is a creature born into the world as the “Perfect Being” and the other is a human who admits that she cannot “do things even a baby can do”.  The two individuals meet because the King took an interest in challenging board games such as Shogi (Japanese chess game). So the King sought out professionals in order to prove that he is more intelligent than humans. After defeating several game masters, he meets Komugi, whom he repeatedly loses to and eventually wonders how a repulsive, unintelligent, blind girl was able to come up with strategies so beautiful. This highlights the wonder of human potential and how people who ostensibly appear to be talentless can possess a great talent. The king is dumbfounded that a human such as Komugi, who is incapable of fending for herself due to her blindness and low intelligence, is able to possess a talent that far surpasses his own.

After watching the whole interaction between these 2 characters, it has reminded me of the saying of 'Don't judge a book by its cover.' No matter how a person may look like on the surface, that person would always be better at doing something than you. Therefore instead of judging others, everyone should take the time and actually learn from each other to improve themselves. 

Thank you for reading. See you on the next post!

Lessons learnt from One Piece

Lessons Learnt from One Piece

One Piece is a story about a boy named Luffy who has a dream of becoming the Pirate King. He sets off on a journey from the East Blue Sea to find the famed treasure One Piece. Although starting off the journey solo, he eventually meets and gathers his pirate crew from different parts of the world. 

You can't bring back what is lost, you can only focus on what you have

At one point in the series, Luffy's brother Ace was captured by the World Government and was facing a public execution for all the pirate activities that he had participated in. Despite the danger, Luffy rushed into the battlefield without any hesitation in an attempt to save his precious older brother. While nearly succeeding, all of Luffy's efforts were lost as he watches his brother die right in front of him. Ace protected Luffy from a killing blow from one of the Admirals of the World Government. At that point Luffy was devastated like anyone would be when they experience a sudden loss of a loved one.

After the events of his brother's death, Luffy was really struggling to accept the fact that his precious brother was taken away from him on that day. He resorted to self-harm and various other methods to distract himself from the pain he had from losing his brother. But one of Luffy's good friends stopped him and told Luffy to snap out of it and focus on what he still has in the present. Luffy eventually came to his senses and realise what has happened cannot be undone and there are still people around him that he deeply cares about so has to push forward. 

This was personally a powerful moment for me as I often catch myself mulling over the past quite often. I always felt that I could have done more to prevent the loss of something whether it be a simple basketball game, a past relationship or even when a family member passes away.  But this moment would often remind me that what is lost cant return and the only thing I can do is to move forward. I am sure everyone in this world has experienced the loss of a loved one. It is perfectly fine to grieve and feel sad when someone important in your life is gone, however I think that people should also accept the fact that everyone would eventually leave this world when they pass away and resorting to extreme measures to numb the pain you felt at that time of the loss is really unnecessary. I learned that thinking about things that still really matter to me helps with the process and pushes me to cherish the people I care about even more. 

Thank you, stay tuned for my next blog!

Lessons learnt from Naruto

 Lessons learnt from watching Naruto

Naruto is a story about a boy, who lost his parents ever since he was born and was ostracized by his own village because he was the vessel for the demonic Nine-Tailed Fox. However, throughout the series, Naruto strives hard to achieve recognition in his own village by vowing to himself to become the next Hokage (village leader). 

The audience would often find Naruto sadly sitting on a rope swing alone as the adults and children from the village showered him with cold, hateful looks. No matter how hard he tried to fit in and prove himself,  nobody really gave him a chance. He grew up without receiving any love from the people around him until the age of 12 where his first teacher gave him a chance and acknowledged him. I remember I started to watch this anime when I was around 8 years old. Cartoon Network would always broadcast Naruto around the time school was finished. At that age, my friends and I were just obsessed with the cool and dazzling battle scenes in the show. But as I grew up with the show, I began to realise that Naruto is much more than a show about ninjas fighting each other.

No Short Cuts in Life

The majority of the people that grew up in Naruto's situation would have ended up in a dark place where they would have hated the world around them which would stray them from the path of achieving something positive and meaningful in their lives. But Naruto gave himself a purpose in life at a very young age which helped him through all the hardships he had to face. By striving to become the Hokage, he knew that there were no short cuts in life and all he had to do was keep working harder and harder until his dreams become a reality. If you want to become a doctor, actor, lawyer, engineer or anything in life, just maintain your vision and BELIEVE IT! (A classic Naruto punchline for those who didn't know). Even when no one around you believes in you, as long as you believe in yourself, your efforts will eventually pay off.

Friendships: Quality over Quantity.

The other protagonist of the series is Sasuke. Sasuke is Naruto's best friend and rival. However, throughout the series, Sasuke abandoned the village and joined the dark side to achieve greater power. Although they had their rough times, Naruto never abandoned his best friend and spent years chasing Sasuke in hopes of bringing him home. In their final battle, they both fought to the point where they both lost an arm and despite the immense pain of seeing his best friend committing evil crimes and abandoning their friendship, Naruto never gave up on him and always saw a chance to pull Sasuke out of this darkness.

Their relationship has taught me that having one friend that truly cares about you and your happiness is far more valuable than having a large group of 'friends' that could care less about you. I use to think that it was important to have as many friends as I could, so I that it felt like I was doing the right thing and I was accepted by the people around me. But after the tough times were over, it was clear to me who were the ones that actually cared and mattered to me. Therefore, to those who are reading this, please do not take your true friends for granted and try to give back the kindness of their friendship to others in need. Now I hold this small group of individuals dear to my heart and I am glad to call them my friends for life.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for my next post.

Lessons Learnt from the Pokemon Anime

"Isn't anime just Asian cartoons?"

"Why are you still watching anime? Aren't you a bit too old to watch that?"

Hi, my name is Pang and I am writing this blog about the life lessons I learnt from watching anime for my university marketing assignment, but I would genuinely like to share the few life lessons that I have learnt through anime with the readers in hopes that they would have something meaningful to take away after reading this blog.

The questions above have been directed at me countless times when I mention that I like watching anime to people I meet. At first, I always felt embarrassed when I told people that I enjoy watching anime as I know people would judge me as being 'childish', 'nerdy', 'geeky' and a new term used to describe anime lovers nowadays - 'weeb'. However, after finishing so many series, I realized that anime is so much more than just a 'cartoon', the stories in each series often carry a meaningful message that the writers are trying to convey to the audience.

I am sure that most of you have seen this iconic duo at some point in your life (If you have no clue at all, you are either really old or you've been living under a gigantic rock your whole life). I am talking about Ash Ketchum and his trusty partner, Pikachu. This was the first ever anime I can recall watching when I was just a small, clueless kid. At the time, I was just fascinated with the world of Pokemon and fantasized living in the same world as Ash (who wouldn't, am I right?). As I grew older, I slowly realized that Ash was actually a bad ass and I began to respect him even more as a character.



Don't give up when you lose
We all know that Ash sets out his journey to become the Pokemon Master from the very beginning. In order to do so, he had to face many challenging battles and enter the Pokemon league to have his shot at becoming the champion of the region. Throughout the years and years of battles with his Pokemon, the title of champion has always been within arm's reach. Although it was sad at the moment he lost, he would always quickly pick himself back up and move on to face the next challenge with his head held high.


This particular trait of his has always stuck with me throughout my whole life. Whenever I didn't do well in a exam or lose a basketball match, I would always try and tell myself to move on from the losses and think of ways to improve myself when the next challenge arrives. Sure, it hurts when you put so much effort in something and the outcome does not meet your expectations, but wasting time feeling sorry for yourself would not improve the situation in any way. Just keep pushing forward and eventually you would get to the destination you set out for.




After 22 years of losing and getting back up, all his efforts finally paid off when he finally won the Alolan Pokemon League this summer! Ash was in disbelief as well when he finally became champion, as if a giant boulder was lifted off his shoulders for the very first time. This moment really touched the hearts of all the Pokemon fans around the world as we get to see our hero accomplish his dream for the very first time in 22 years. This just goes to show that losing is just a process that allows victory to taste much sweeter. I learnt that as long as you never give up on yourself, you will eventually succeed no matter how hard the task may seem. You can only rely on others for help so much, but in the end only you can help yourself to get to where you want to be.


Thank you for even reading this, my next post will be about the Lessons I Learnt from Naruto.