Auras

When I was younger, I did not have as many opportunists to be exposed to the culture of my generation. A lot of my friends listened to rap music with heavy cursing, watched shows like MTV, and were able to go over to people’s houses and play shooter games. My parents, well, namely my mom, was pretty strict on these activities and thought that if I were to participate in them, that I would be “corrupt” or “impure” in some way. Even the most basic TV show for kids, Pokemon, is something I couldn’t watch as they supported the idea of evolution. My mom, being a firm believer in Christianity, didn’t want me exposed to that idea set. With my number of shows and activities severely limited, there wasn’t much that I can look towards to attach myself to.

Some of the things that my family allowed my brother and I to compromise on are Beyblade, Dragon Ball Z, and Yu-Gi-Oh! Oddly enough, it was okay for me to summon literal demons and gods from trading cards but heaven forbid me watching Ash fight Paul for 5 minutes. From there, we branched out slowly and calculatedly. I was 17 when I first owned my first Pokemon game, and I had gotten it behind my mother’s back when we were on a vacation.

That isn’t to say that I wasn’t satisfied with my roots. Beyblade and Dragon Ball Z helped me open my world up to anime. Both shows I binged watched multiple times, and the lessons and ideas that the shows preached are mixed into my bleached soul, with taking ideas of life lessons, interpretations of books, and the few music groups I could listen to up until Junior year. Around Junior year, I found the anime Hunter X Hunter through my cousin introducing us to the first episode. All three of those shows changed my life and how I perceive life in the first place.

One of the common ideas all three of the shows express is aura. Aura is, according to Google’s definition, the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place. That definition isn’t too far off, but it can be more specific. Aura, to me, my brother, and my cousin, is the energy in which the user expresses their emotional or mental desire physically portrayed. The user, much like the Google definition, can be a person, thing, or place. The reason why I use “user” here is that it is a conscious decision to show or brandish one’s aura. What makes aura unique, however, is how people portray it.

Beyblade uses aura when they are feeling an intense will overcome them to succeed, or bringing up a deeper, dormant power inside oneself. Aura was always a concept in the show, but they developed it later in the series. In the Beyblade Metal Series, which started around 2008-2013 featuring Gingka Hagane as the main protagonist for 3 of the 4 seasons, aura was the Beyblader or “blader” channeling the power held within a Beyblade or “bey” and syncing with it, allowing any of their special moves to be enhanced in destructive force or overall stats raise significantly.

Here’s an example of Beyblade aura: https://youtu.be/_oCR2ZVs7kk?t=201

Auras were seen here and there in the series, usually enveloping a blader in this fiery smoke, respective to the color that the character was wearing or that the beyblade’s color scheme matched. The will to achieve more is expressed in a blader’s aura being manifested physically, in which we can see a noticeable difference in expression and personality adjustment to fit the situation. The example I use here is my favorite character in the series, Sora, using his aura to surpass the obstacle course log. When using his aura, his mind is more calm and his overall energy around him changes as he goes from being a more slightly comedic person to a serious one.

Dragon Ball Z uses aura to show the reserves of power or energy being expressed, basically going into their pool of stamina and using more of their power. Dragon Ball is famous for having overly dramatic fights, but I like the way they express power in the show. Power is shown through one’s Ki, or life energy. Ki, in this respect, is inside of everyone, but only some can express that energy that they have. Those who know how to use ki have put limits on how much escapes their bodies, as they can blow up cities with a simple sneeze if they are not careful, which is why we do not always see the energy around them. When typical Dragon Ball fighters want to power up to fight a difficult foe, they will go into their ki reserves and bring out more energy.

Here is a link to the Dragon Ball example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svG9C31Y6A8

Goku, in the white and red outfit, transforms into a Super Saiyan, having the yellow aura around him radiate out as at this point in time, cannot control the extent of his powers. Whenever the user summons up a power that they have put a limit on, it causes a burst of energy around them. In this scene, you don’t see it as they are not using their energy to fight, but just to increase their overall power level. In more deadly fights, transformations and restraint releases like these causes nearby structures, such as mountains and buildings to crumble due to the sudden energy release creating shock waves in the air. I like the idea of putting personal limits onto oneself, so we do not over exhaust oneself and can store energy for when we really need it.

Hunter X Hunter uses aura to express their personal characteristics or their abilities, sort of a mix of Beyblade and Dragon Ball Z. In this series, aura is the literal product of one’s awareness of their mental, spiritual, and emotional state. Aura is the amount of energy inside of one’s body that is allowed to flow outward. It has multiple uses, as it can be used as a buffer to protect oneself from damaging attacks, it can be used to hide one’s presence completely by sealing off their aura pores on their bodies, it can be used to sense things by creating a circle around them with their energy, allowing them to see and analyze anything that enters their space, or as a means to express their power. This clip right here shows how it can be used.

Here’s the link to the Hunter X Hunter clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9m_jTpY4JA

However, what I see is a mix of all three. I see aura in a way of performance, much like roles in society. I do believe that people generally have auras, but they choose to express as much as they want in any given moment. Much like Hunter X Hunter, their aura has multiple uses, as a means of disallowing people to come within range of them by tempering ones aura with malicious intent or expressing care by radiating a calming aura. Beyblade’s presence in my perception of aura shows how strong the aura is based off what circumstance you are in. If you really want to win in a contest, your overall energy you will emit will magnify greatly, making people around you notice it. Dragon Ball Z’s influence shows that there are different limits of how much aura that can be displayed. Many people often keep it at the minimal level, to not over-exhaust themselves.

I perceive life through the lens of aura. I have my own aura, as you may have felt it when reading my writing on here and on Feeling Drives Work. Everyone has aura and it can be expressed however they choose it.

I write about this to establish this idea for you all and to give context to posts such as “Space” and “Space, Part 2.”

I will write more about this topic later, but this is an introduction post. I hope you all get a better understanding of it now.

– J.E.