I’ve been reading Kingdom. It is a manga that takes place during the time of the The Seven Waring States of China (Wikipedia). That’s a whole new thing I am learning about through this series. Anyway, it’s about a slave who saves the young soon-to-be King of Qin, one of the states of China. This slave has the goal of becoming the “Greatest General under the Heavens” and the King has the goal of unifying China. As the plot progresses, the characters face challenge after challenge, some that seem nearly impossible to overcome, and yet they continue to struggle. They believe in themselves so much that they have no other option but to succeed. That’s not to say they won’t have failures, but they don’t lose sight of their goals and continue to move forward.
They reminded me of two series that I dearly love. Berserk and Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan. Both showcase main characters that continue to struggle against all odds. The title of this post is one of my favourite quotes from Gurren Lagaan, “Believe in the you that believes in yourself”, meaning that even if you don’t believe in yourself, you must believe in a version of yourself that believes in yourself. That’s not to say a future version of yourself (call back to another post), but an alternative, present-day version of yourself that does believe, because that does exist, it is inside of yourself.
It’s funny, all of this stemmed from watching Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse today. Miles taking the leap and believing in himself made me make connections to other pieces of media, connecting their messages together.
No matter how many times I fail, I must continue to believe in myself.