More and more parents and educators are recognizing the benefits of employing learning aids for children. Such aids engage young learners’ attention and develop creativity, critical thinking, imagination, and other skills. They are also convenient tools that can be used at home and at school, and they cost little to nothing. Relatively new examples of such aids are anime videos. The uses of anime for education are equally impressive as its use for recreation. One of such uses is for creating role-playing situations. Children are fascinated with anime characters—their appearances, clothes, mannerisms, personalities, speeches, etc.—that they naturally become interested in mimicking their attributes and actions. Thus, anime can be used to help children understand the concept behind roles and develop skills important in role-playing. Another use is for instilling values and gauging values formation. The diversity of plotlines in anime enables children to see a myriad of realities that they can associate with real life. Hypothetical situations embedded in plotlines provide children with chances to make hypothetical decisions, with the acceptability of such decisions being confirmed by how characters respond to the situations and make actions that can affirm or reject children’s hypothetical responses. Additionally, anime storylines can include the tackling of moral issues, and the presentation of which engages children to realize the importance of cultivating moral values. One more educational use of anime is for developing communication skills. Catchy lines delivered by characters stick to children’s mind; thus, children can resort to mimicking such lines. To mimic such lines, a careful listening is required, thereby enabling them to improve their communication skills every time they mimic the said lines. Even the elocution of the lines helps children in honing their speech. Anime is also used in fostering appreciation for arts, crafts, and sports. To illustrate, anime series and movies that showcase love for music, cooking, tennis, and basketball can be used to engage children in developing interest for each activity. When they watch anime, they can start to think about pursuing a hobby featured in the anime of their choice. Consequently, they can act on their interests and reflect on how anime characters pursued things similarly. Finally, anime is used to bridge imagination and reality. Children need to experience for themselves the separation of reality from fiction and vice versa, and this is made possible by anime because it serves as a mirror that reflects reality even if it is fictional. When children realize that there are bits of truth in fiction, they begin to see that they live in a world different from anime videos. With all the educational uses of anime, it is not surprising why children, parents, and teachers marvel at how fun learning can be.
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