Finding Warmth in the Greatest of Gifts|OWLS Warmth

-Warmth-

It’s the season of joy, thankfulness, and love. This month’s topic is “Warmth.” Whether it is spending time with family members during the holiday season or with that special someone during New Year’s, we will discuss moments in anime and pop culture media that convey a feeling of happiness in our hearts. During times of struggles, we look towards the things that matter to us as a source of strength, hope, and happiness. We hope you enjoy this round of posts and that you will have a wonderful holiday season!

Here we go again it’s another OWLS Blog Tour post and I must say this month’s topic of warmth was so much easier to write for than last month’s topic and I think some of the other bloggers can agree with me on that. If this is you first time checking out an OWLS post welcome and if not welcome too! OWLS is a group of otaku bloggers who promote acceptance of all individuals no matter your race, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disability or gender. If you are following along with this months blog tour I hope you have already checked out Let’s Talk Anime‘s post earlier this week and at the end of this post I will let you know who is next in the tour!

As soon as I saw what the theme for this month would be, well I knew exactly what anime would be perfect for this theme. An anime I have wanted to talk about for ages on Yaoi Playground, Antique Bakery. A series that I think perfectly shows how one can find the warmth in life and a quick spoiler warning is needed for the character of Chikage as he is the focus of this post because he best represents the theme of this month!

Chikage Kobayakawa is one of the sweetest most adorable characters I have ever seen in anime, and I must confess now this post will be a lot of me gushing over this amazing man. A childhood friend of Antique’s owner Keiichirou Tachibana and a man in debt to the Tachibana family who raised him after his mother, the family’s housekeeper passed away. He is a clumsy man and a little slow on the uptake so it takes him a while to sometimes understand what is going on around him. Because of these factors he has a hard time finding work and just ended up staying by Keiichirou’s side to look after him. No matter how tough things seem to get for this man he just keeps moving forward and if he makes a mistake, well he apologizes profusely for his own stuff ups which in some characters can be annoying but with Chikage it comes across as endearing.

This positive attitude is something a lot of people can learn from and not just at this time of the year. Showing kindness to others without wanting anything in return seems to be something this world is lacking. Which is quite sad when you think about it. One of Chikage’s greatest moments of kindness is revealed in episode 8 of the series. A young girl by the name of Deko arrives at the bakery in absolute tears looking for ‘Chi-Chan’. Chikage immediately to the surprise to everyone except Keiichirou pulls the crying girl into his arms and comforts her. It is later revealed that the naive and clumsy Chiaki is this girls father! And that the girls mother is a famous author named Sakurako. The woman it seems approached Chikage at nearly the age of forty and asked him if he wuld father a child with her because she wanted to be a mother before it was too late. Chikage agreed just to bring her joy.

Chikage gave Sakurako a gift that no one else could give her without a second thought. If a gift of something as precious as a child does not represent the warmth of the season then I don’t know what is.

I hope you enjoyed my post for this months owls. I am looking forward to reading more wonderful posts throughout this month and if you are following along with the blog tour next up we have Andrea who’s post will be about one of my favorite anime this season!

Till next time I am Mistress of Yaoi and I say love what you love and share the love this festive season!