It is unfortunate that humans tend to value each other by their talents , capabilities, and potential, rather than on the simple fact that they are fellow human beings.
Certainly, there is an extent to which we must evaluate the actions of other people so we know whether we can trust them or not; nothing wrong with making sure a potential friend isn’t really a serial killer waiting to murder you in your sleep. But at a certain point, the evaluations we make for other people stop being for the protection of our own boundaries and start trespassing on others’ boundaries.
This kind of trespass—and the reactions to those being trespassed on—can be seen in a couple of recent episodes of this season’s anime. In Servant x Service, we have Yutaka Hasebe, a civil servant and one of the main characters, and his old friend Jouji Tanaka, who has had a very one-sided competitive relationship with him. Jouji had unsuccessfully tried to beat Yutaka at anything, and resentful of how Yutaka is better than him at everything, gives a drunken rant to Lucy about how much of a waste it is that Yutaka is only working as a mere civil servant.
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And for hitting on a "plain girl" like Lucy, insulting two people for the price of one! (Art by ねぎた) |
Meanwhile, in Silver Spoon, we have Shingo Hachiken, the older brother of the protagonist Yuugo Hachiken. Shingo is an incredibly smart and talented brother who was accepted into Tokyo University (which is the top university in Japan, requiring the highest scores on the nationwide college entrance exam for acceptance), and whom Yuugo unfortunately lives under the shadow of. However, Shingo ended up quitting the university to pursue a job as… a ramen chef (and without much success). A phone conversation later reveals that his getting into Tokyo University was entirely because his parents pressured him to get into a good school, and that as soon as he was no longer under parental control, he quit the university “to piss them off”.
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| Shingo, trolling over-controlling parents like a boss. (Art by BlackFoxes) |
Being told that their life is a waste and being forced by others to walk a certain path in life: both are significant trespasses of personal boundaries, the first trespassing on self-worth, and the second trespassing on self-responsibility. Both are related in that when these trespasses happen, it is frequently because the person trespassed on is being valued for their talents, capabilities, and potential than for being a human.
