(Partly for Rana, when he grows up :-) )
Finally Rana became an ordinary Japanese child. No, we didn’t
turn his nationality to Japanese :-), we said so just because he started to
like Anpanman :-). I remember when Farah was expecting Rana, Matsuda-san give us
baby’s record book bag portraying characters from Anpanman series, and she said
that every Japanese babies grew up to like Anpanman. I’ve seen a lot of kids’
merchandise with Anpanman character on them which basically support that
assertion, however, even though I’ve seen the anime myself couple of times, I
still couldn’t understand why the anime so popular with the children. The
characters’ drawing was doraemon-level simple and the story was even more
simpler - but maybe it was the simplicity that make it a hit among children. Anyway,
now with Rana adored it, and Farah said that she couldn’t get the Anpaman theme
song out of her head (she accompanied Rana watching it :-) ), I got a real life
evidences about how enchanting Anpanman is.
While I watched Rana sang along the closing theme of
Anpanman - only partly - with his often out of tune cute voice (I think he
inherited my tone deafness :-) ), I started to realized that he preferred
Baikinman - the villain - rather than Anpanman himself. Like, he was able to
sing Baikinman’s part in the song before the Anpanman’s part. Moreover, he
looked more excited while watching Baikinman on action rather than Anpanman.
Well, I and Farah didn’t mind at all about that, since we ourselves often fall
for the villain rather than the hero of a story (like, if you take Harry Potter
for example, I already liked Snape before it was known that he was innocent,
and Farah was also always rooting for Malfoy :-) ). And as I also often got
stuck in front of the TV when the Anpanman show was aired (and yes, I couldn’t
get the theme song out of my head now :-) ), I started to know the story, and I
also started to learn the other side of Baikinman character.
The relation of Baikinman to Anpanman was more or less
similar to the relation between Lex Luthor and Superman. Like Superman, Anpanman
is the mightiest man (cake? :-) ) in his universe, well beyond Baikinman,
and of course like any other classic superhero, he used it for the good. On the
other hand, Baikinman knew that only with his power he wouldn’t be able to win
against Anpanman, so he did all he could to be able to beat Anpanman. He
devised some machine, schemed some strategy - all to beat Anpanman, and of
course he always failed in the end. I knew Baikinman is a bad guy, but seeing
how hard he tried, actually I started to feel that he was too good to always
end up in failure. Moreover, seeing how he constructed his machinery, he must
be a great engineer - and for someone who got engineering background like me,
it was easy to fall for him :-).
I wish I can said that Rana liked Baikinman because of his hard
work, or because of his engineering prowess, but it would be a lie (I think he
liked him because he was a bit mischievous, or even simpler, just because of his
color :-) ). But that’s okay. One day when he grow up and look back and find
that he once like Baikinman, instead of turn to hate him, I hope he will be
able to focus on his good traits and learn from them. Anyway, in some of the
episodes, it was revealed that Baikinman sometimes helped others when Anpanman
was not around, and even turned down an invitation of a princess that accidentally being helped by him by saying “I’m the villain here, I cannot accept it.”
(Really cool line indeed. Specially when you consider that it came from an
anime intended for toddlers :-) )
All in all, maybe sometimes it is easier to be a villain. As
a hero, there will be a lot of expectation from around you, some sort of decorum
that would bind your behavior. On the other hand, there are no rules for
villain, you can do as you please, even helping others like what a hero
supposes to do. The difference is that people around you won’t care about the
good that you did. But that’s should be okay, isn’t it? For we do the good
deeds because they need to be done, not just to please those who try to judge
us.
