Media Blog
Picture by hbieser
The 7 Shapes — Reflected in the Stories We Love
Not only in the magical world of Esperia, but right here on our beautiful planet Earth, we can also find echoes of the 7 Shapes—hidden in plain sight.
While we may not possess the magical powers of the Espers, we carry within us a human equivalent of their StarDust:
our incredible brain.
What if we looked at the world around us with greater awareness?
What if the stories we read, the movies we watch, the anime, manga, and books we cherish…
were more than just entertainment?
Each post below explores the presence of wisdom, balance, willpower, empathy, and more—through the lens of popular culture.
Let’s rediscover what inspires us, one tale at a time.
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Nirvana: A Band That Highlighted the Issues of Our Society
Nirvana was an American rock band formed by guitarist and singer Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in 1987. Dave Grohl (later of Foo Fighters) would eventually join the band, finalizing the lineup as their drummer. The band became one of the most influential of its generation, popularizing a new genre and shifting the musical
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How the Rush Hour series successfully breaks prejudiced concepts and promotes unity
The Rush Hour movies are a trilogy released in 1998, 2001, and 2007, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. The narrative follows an unlikely duo—an inspector from Hong Kong and a Black detective from the LAPD—teaming up to solve complex investigations. Through humor and fast-paced action, the films confront cultural stereotypes head-on, using comedy as
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Sakuran: Can a society built on both matriarchal and patriarchal balance be the key to a better world?
Sakuran is a live-action film released in Japan in 2007. It is an adaptation of a manga series written by Moyoco Anno. The narrative follows the story of a young girl who rises through the complex hierarchy of the red-light district of Yoshiwara and eventually becomes an oiran—the highest-ranking courtesan. The film’s rich atmosphere is
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Breath of Fire 2: How Can This Masterpiece Teach Us About Embracing Differences Instead of Creating Fake Enemies?
Breath of Fire 2 is a role-playing video game developed and published by Capcom, released in 1994. It is the second opus in the Breath of Fire series, yet it was the first I played—giving it a special place in my memory. The game offers deep mechanics in team development, numerous side quests, and even
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La Haine: How extreme points of view are not the solution to solve issues at their core
La Haine is a 1995 French social thriller film written, co-edited, and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. The film chronicles a day and night in the lives of three friends from a poor immigrant neighbourhood in the suburbs of Paris. The concept that “hatred breeds hatred” lies at the core of this movie, and it can,
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Thermae Romae: How Mixing Different Cultures Can Bring New Ideas to Life
Thermae Romae is a 2012 live-action film adaptation of the Japanese manga by Mari Yamazaki. It is a comedy that tells the improbable story of Lucius, an ancient Roman architect struggling with inspiration, who discovers a passage leading to a modern Japanese bathhouse. The mangaka’s experiences living in various countries, including Italy, clearly influenced the
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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind — a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the world beyond the narrow confines of individual experience.
We are one humankind sharing one planet. This book, written by Yuval Noah Harari, is based on a series of lectures he gave at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It was first released in Hebrew in 2011 and later in English in 2014. I discovered it during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when many of
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The Simpsons Movie: If Homer Can Change and Become More Conscious, Then So Can We All!
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the iconic Fox sitcom The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening. The show has been running since 1989 and has accumulated more than 800 episodes! To be honest, I haven’t seen them all—and that’s precisely one of the reasons I chose to focus a