We are inextricably linked to anime in many ways. Through our thoughts and feelings. Since anime is a creation of the mind, we naturally share traits with the characters. We may have a common birthday, similar zodiac signs, and similar ideals. Maybe we even have a common personality.
Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about psychology and personality types. The aspect that fascinates me the most is Myers-Briggs Type Indicator;A test to check the way you think. Its main goal is to assist in the development and establishment of psychological understanding.
At first, this test may be unpleasant. It may feel strange to summarize it in just a few letters, and some may find it hard to believe. The point of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is not to categorize and limit people, but to reveal ways of thinking, and most importantly, the way you think.
This is accomplished through the use of a four-letter system. Each letter is ranked similarly to an RPG character creator, with levels for psychological and emotional traits. The first one consists of E and I, which are extroversion and introversion respectively. The second letter combination is S and N, which stands for perception and intuition. Here are the T’s and F’s; Thinking and Feelings. This type ends with P and J (perception and judgment).
Once you figure out your preference, you’ll end up with a four-letter set, such as INTJ. This is your personality type. The system is not entirely black and white, with every aspect expressed in percentages. You can be a little extroverted or very extroverted; you are definitely not limited to binary categories.
So what does this have to do with animation, you might ask? The MBTI also extends to media figures. This may sound weird since they technically can’t be assessed, but they definitely can be typed.
I won’t delve too deeply into this, but this metric comes into play when observing other people and their actions, as well as their thinking. We generally know the characters’ reasoning and actions, so it’s not too difficult to follow the function of the genre to figure out the rest. Functions are basically an extension of typing letters and delving deeper into thought processes and patterns.
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| Similar charts can be seen everywhere in different anime! Source here |
After taking the quiz, I ended up being the ENFP type. What really sold me on this test were the characters that I shared a common type with. I discovered characters like Naruto Uzumaki, Honoka Kousaka, etc. Love the sceneJaden Yuki Yu-Gi-Oh GXand even from “Avatar: The Last Airbender”. They’re usually typed the same way I am (because there’s room for error) and are characters I’m inspired by or closely related to.
That’s when I realized there was a little bit of truth to the whole MBTI thing, and of course it became even more obvious when I applied these realizations to my own actions. I started using tests to look at the way I think from an outside perspective and worked on improving it.
Speaking of anime, MBTI is another way to talk about characters, and it’s really fun to look for genres and their habits. You can also meet other people who are in the same type or similar and enjoy what you do! I think that by taking this metric seriously, but not too seriously, you can definitely benefit from its results.
As a parting gift, I’d like to leave you with some links to take the test and find personality MBTI types. I hope you enjoy them and if you have any questions please let me know in the comments!
MBTI link
As always, thank you for reading!