Opinion: Full Dive RPG Anime and Behind the Desire to Get Things Done
Ever wonder why can’t I get things done on time or accordingly? Here’s a brief analysis from Kyuukyoku Shinka Shita Full Dive RPG ga Genjitsu Yorimo Kuso-Gee Dattara anime
Starting something is easy, as well as if you want to end it. I often experience this when I want to do productive things or play games. With so many games being released all the time, often playing a game on your own can feel like your own job. When the game doesn’t live up to expectations, I often just leave or sell the game.
Then why do I talk about this issue in this article? After watching the anime adaptation of Kyuukyoku Shinka Shita Full Dive RPG ga Genjitsu Yorimo Kuso-Gee Dattara or also known as Full Dive in spring 2021, I realized one thing. I am a person who is easy to discontinue what I have set in the beginning when the “fire of maker” has been extinguished. Because of that I became curious why sometimes we want to finish something we started? And from here I want to see an example of one of the anime characters who cringe which I think is a good parable of why we have to finish something even though we hate it.
But before continuing, I will first describe the scenario for when to use the “elevator pitch” technique. Imagine if you are someone with an interesting idea, but you lack the financial and human resources. On the way home, you are using the elevator alone and suddenly an important person enters the same elevator as you. What will you do? Are you just going to be silent to miss this golden opportunity? Or jump right into the topic of conversation? Normally you would try to start a conversation, but as an important person, he/she also has little time to talk with someone he/she just met.
In the Full Dive anime, the audience is introduced to a protagonist named Hiro Yuuki. A high school student who is escaping from his past by playing a Virtual Reality game. Unfortunately his latest dream failed. Instead of buying the game he had been waiting for, he was tricked into buying a 10 year old game called Kiwame Quest. Even though he was deceived and suffered while playing it, he still played it, day after day. He didn’t end it or just say “he lost 10 thousand Yen” and would immediately sell it at a loss or even forget about the game. For me personally or maybe just normal people, if they feel cheated and don’t like the game, then they will definitely stop playing.
But why did Hiro decide not to stop? Even though he had the choice not to continue, he still re-login to this online game for the second time and even so. So why does he still want to play a game that he doesn’t even like?
In his book Peter Hollins (2018) “Finish What You Start”, it is said that we can have the will and motivation when starting something. But the fire of will can be extinguished over time, so we need to understand also what makes the fire extinguished and make a good plan in order to complete the will that we started.
Understanding Your Reason
To understand the reason, we need to understand why Hiro could be at this point and what made him like this?
Starting the first episode of Full Dive, the audience was presented with various problems that Hiro encountered when playing this game. Whether it’s from the reality of this game so that he can feel the pain and bad experiences he gets before and after playing it. The action of killing his childhood friend in this game gives him a unique title called “Best Friend Killer” and a beautiful girl who always accompanies him on his journey in the game. Even though this is just a game, if he dies here, his console will be damaged instantly. If he wanted to start all over again he would have to buy a console too. But why does he still want to play this game? At least he could just keep the game in his closet and forget about it.
Normally normal people would immediately quit a game like this so as not to waste any more of their time. From here, we need to understand also why people sometimes won’t continue what they started.
Psychological Barriers
The most common reason for barriers is psychological barriers. Both with undisciplined self until he is not aware of his abilities. We sometimes want to do things that are absolutely perfect and are afraid of making mistakes. The sense of failing to do something also encourages not to continue with the goals that have been made, especially when they realize the level of difficulty. Hiro is a good example to illustrate this error. Use this technique when you want to draw people’s attention to you. So Basically this technique can be used almost any time and place.
His lack of understanding makes Hiro take too long and fast in acting because of that he always finds new challenges in achieving his goals. But at the same time, psychological barriers are not a bad impact. Rather, it is a way for Hiro to realize his mistakes and problems so that he can act better.
But the next problem is the reason why people usually don’t continue to get things done.
Missteps
Next is a misstep that will have an impact on the drain of energy and time that we have given to something. Normally this error can be:
- Wrong goals: Of course if we want to get something done we need a clear goal. But sometimes the goals that we set are too abstract or even too high so that they cannot be completed. We can see this mistake made by Hiro by only wanting to play the game he wanted to escape the world.
- Always procrastinate: One thing most people do is put off work until near the end of submission. One of these delays can be seen in Hiro’s past who had “wetting the bed” during the competition and this had a strong psychological impact on Hiro’s way of life. If only Hiro didn’t delay what he had to do. then he will not be burdened by problems when the final destination has arrived.
- Temptations / distractions: When we want to get something done, there will always be obstacles that make us want to delay the goal until ending it immediately. Since obstacles are common, they are not the main fault. But we do not understand how to overcome these obstacles. Here Hiro always solves this obstacle in the fastest way without thinking about the long impact it will experience in the future. Like he wasted money for goods that have no effect.
Hiro often makes the above mistakes during episodes 1–6 of Full Dive, either by assuming that the game he plays will definitely be the same as any other game he has tried. Until he was disturbed by his past “wetting the bed” during the match. However, the above is commonplace (except for wetting the bed) and this misstep can be encountered at any time, but that does not mean that this error is a bad impact in achieving the final goal. But for Hiro, the above is a process for him to see his own identity and abilities.
Your External Motivation
Understanding the reason why Hiro in Full Dive keeps playing is the main background. Then also understanding what mistakes he has made so that he often wants to stop playing this game is also a sufficient answer. However, we also need to understand another strong reason why he still wants to play this game.
The next reason is the environment. The environment can create a strong motivation for why we should get things done. Because of that Hiro was able to keep going even if it was just a whimper of unreasonable incitement and seduction. Seeing this reason, motivation will be divided into 2, namely:
External Motivation
External referred to here is the surrounding environment. Basically as humans we don’t want negative things from outside to influence the purpose why we want to do this. Therefore, some things that can be done to avoid this negative thing are:
- Friends/relatives: In receiving input and encouragement, friends to closest relatives can encourage us to continue to complete our goals. Because we don’t want to disappoint those who have supported us from the start. This is one of the strengthening of the fire of will in a person. And this is why Hiro still wants to finish Kiwame Quest, with the encouragement of a beautiful girl like Reona Kisaragi who even promises to marry him when he finishes the game, making Hiro to try his best especially he also doesn’t want to disappoint his sister again.
- Financial/energy output: Another motivation why we want to accomplish our goals is the investment or time we have put into getting to this point. Of course we don’t want to see our money go to waste without a clear result. Likewise with Hiro, although he does have the opportunity to get his money back such as selling the game, but with a console that will be idle later it seems he doesn’t want it especially what he intends to do is escape to the game world.
Broadly speaking, this external motivation is to create a motivational space that is free from various negative things around. Having positive energy and an investment that has been put into us makes us want to get it done, because no one wants to feel guilty and ashamed about this. In terms of Hiro himself, since he wanted to at least escape into the game world and finish one game on his own then he didn’t want to do this half-heartedly especially with his surrounding relatives supporting him.
Internal Motivation
If external motivation will create a comfortable space for us to step up to complete goals, will internal motivation further strengthen the reason why we wanted to do this before? What can we get after this? Will anything change?
Tanyalah berbagai pertanyaan itu untuk mendapatkan alasan konkrit agar tujuan tersebut dapat selesai dengan baik. Dorongan motivasi internal ini semakin diperkuat pada episode 6 ke atas, di mana Hiro ingin bertekad secara terus terang menyelesaikan setidaknya satu hal agar dapat diakui dan melepaskan masa lalu yang ia alami.
The existence of external and internal motivation makes Hiro understand what has been spent to achieve this goal. Many things have been sacrificed both financially and in action, but this has also made him more motivated and made his determination to complete the Kiwame Quest.
Set Your Rules
By understanding his reasons and encouragement, we can understand why Hiro still wants to play this game he hates. He is determined to finish this game, this is also proven in his free time where he will spend his free time to continue Kiwame Quest at least every day. Even though he understands this is very uncomfortable, especially when there are 2 girls who want to kill and torture him. At least he believes that this will be an irreplaceable experience (although in the end he always feels unpleasant things). But also quoting the mindset of Peter Hollins’ book, “Be comfortable with discomfort”.
Getting used to being comfortable in uncomfortable conditions may seem difficult at first, but this will become normal over time. This can be seen in Hiro’s interactions in the game which he doesn’t like. In the beginning he hated it so much and wanted to quit over and over again. But as he got used to the inconvenience of the game, he accessed the game more and more often. Because the more we get used to the discomfort of something, the more comfortable we become with it. In addition, in this process we are also increasingly learning from mistakes due to the discomfort we experience and starting to get used to ourselves.
Conclusion: Finish What You Start
Looking at Hiro’s case in Full Dive, we immediately see that the meaning he keeps playing this game is for the sake of escaping himself from the past and his surroundings. But apart from knowing the true meaning, we also understand Hiro’s attitude as well. Hiro is a person who will run away from problems when the problem gets more difficult. But even though he wants to escape from his surroundings, he is also a person who is easily provoked by his surroundings. This gave him a special reason in life. At least he wanted to finish one thing he could be proud of. Playing games is one of his goals, because the feeling of getting things done especially in Virtual Reality is what he wants to get. Unfortunately fate said otherwise. He was forced to play the game Kiwame Quest. On the other hand, he knows that during these 10 years, this VRMMORPG game has only been completed by 1 person and no one has made it to the last line. Therefore, driven by curiosity and the desire to finish at least one thing, he continues to play it even though he hates it very much.Be available at all times. Because the opportunity will come every time, just like with gacha, it is not certain to get SSR, but the opportunity to get it will always be there. Prepare yourself to get a new job, new investment, new clients, to new acquaintances to broaden your understanding.
Hiro’s figure here is the perfect description of how we get used to being comfortable with the inconveniences given by the surrounding environment. The existence of a strong drive and reason that is getting stronger, makes us even more eager to finish this so that we can proudly say “I succeeded” (although this seems to be going on for a very long time in this anime). Don’t forget the fire of will that is within you. Make the fire more and more burning and don’t go out until it reaches its final destination. Because it is this will that drives you to keep going and complete the goals one by one.
An additional note, if I were in Hiro’s position then I would of course sell and stop playing the game. Yes, if it’s drab and doesn’t match my expectations, it’s better to sell it and replace it with another game or just collect it.
Written by Cakra Bhirawa | The Writer is a Computer Engineering Undergraduate and this article is intended to express the writer opinion regarding finishing something in Full Dive RPG Anime| This article is a translation from a previous Indonesian article published in KAORI Nusantara titled “Opini: Full Dive dan di Balik Keinginan Menyelesaikan Sesuatu”.
Reference:
- Thomas Frank. (1 July 2020). Youtube. How to Finish What You Start [seen 12 June 2021]
- Cherry, Kenda. (27 April 2020). What Is Motivation? Diambil dari Verywell mind: What Is Motivation? [seen 12 June 2021].
- Kyuukyoku Shinka shita Full Dive RPG ga Genjitsu yori mo Kusoge Dattara (2021).
- Hollins, Peter (2018). Finish What You Start: The Art of Following Through, Taking Action, Executing, & Self-Discipline. PH Learning Inc.
