Shownotes
What if the stories we watch are quietly helping us heal? In this episode of Inner Peace, Better Health hosted by Nazish, guest Maison Collawn shares how anime, media, and storytelling shaped his emotional and spiritual journey.
This conversation is for anyone who has ever felt comfort in fictional worlds, found strength through characters, or used storytelling to navigate loneliness, identity, and hope. From Pokémon and Naruto to Bleach and Haikyuu, Maison explores how media can become a tool for connection, reflection, and inner growth.
About the Guest:
Maison Collawn is the host of the MC Anime Podcast and a mass communication graduate who explores storytelling, anime culture, spirituality, and emotional growth through media conversations.
Episode Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to healing through media
03:15 Pokémon and Ash’s lasting impact
08:40 Anime as emotional connection and community
15:05 Spiritual themes in Naruto and Bleach
21:10 Storytelling, identity, and self-discovery
26:18 Mental wellness through relatable characters
32:02 Finding hope, growth, and belonging through anime
Key Takeaways:
- Stories can create emotional healing and belonging
- Anime often reflects resilience, discipline, and hope
- Characters’ failures can teach emotional recovery
- Media can support mental wellness when consumed intentionally
- Shared fandoms build meaningful human connection
How to Connect With the Guest:
Maison Collawn can be found through the MC Anime Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, YouTube Music, Facebook, and PodMatch.
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Transcripts
00:00:00 Nazish: We are told healing happens in therapy rooms and meditation cushions. But what if it is also happening in the middle of an anime episode? What if a story you watched alone in your room and was quietly doing the work your heart needed the most? So today we are exploring something beautiful. The idea that media we love actually might be the
00:00:23 Nazish: medicine. So let's get into it.
00:00:33 Nazish: Welcome to Inner Peace. Better health. I am your host, Nasir, and this is a space where we talk about healing in all forms. It actually takes not just the one that looks good on the wellness podcast, a poster. My guest today is a creator and the host of MC Anime podcast, a storyteller, a mass communication graduate who has built a deeply personal and spiritual relationship in with the media and turn that into a part of healing, identity and emotional growth. Mason, I welcome you to the show and I'm really glad to have you here.
00:01:10 Maison Collawn: How are you doing today? How you doing?
00:01:13 Nazish: Wonderful. And your listeners, before we go ahead, some statements reflect personal belief and experiences and are all presented as individual views, not medical advice. So listeners should consult a qualified professional
00:01:31 Nazish: Yeah. So, Mason, you know, uh, I want to ask you, like, not with the big themes. Like, is there a show, film or character or a single scene that you can point to and say that this is the one that stayed with me, the one that changed something in you?
00:01:49 Maison Collawn: Um, I guess was, uh, the twenty fifth anniversary, uh, the character I fell in love with at such a young age. Ash from Pokemon finally actually got a major victory and a major league for a Pokemon league in the recent one in the recent seasons before he ended it. So I think that's going to stick with me for a long time.
00:02:12 Nazish: Yeah, I mean, ash is someone who we have all watched since we were like little children, I believe. Yeah, we have all seen Ash and Pikachu and this beautiful story come to a beautiful, you know, show us a beautiful journey. And that had a lot of teaching moments for all of us.
00:02:32 Maison Collawn: Yeah. Because when he won the Gold Galarian League and actually was able to not only pull out the victory, but use his team across multiple seasons to do it, it actually felt very refreshing to see.
00:02:48 Nazish: Absolutely. So, you know, when most people talk about media, especially anime or pop culture, there's this tendency to dismiss it as escapism, like just entertainment, something you do when you want to switch off, But what you are saying that it was something much more active for you. So what do most people miss when they reduce media to just entertainment?
00:03:13 Maison Collawn: Well, I mean, media can be used for entertainment to be a pastime, which is fine. You can feel when you catch your favorite show. But I mean, the thing that becomes more about, I guess a meaning that's deeper is just the fandom. When the fandom builds the community, you feel involved. So if you watch it with someone else and you every single week, the entirety of the show, you watched it alongside when it was live and the anticipation builds up and then the end of the season, like, you know, the end of Game of Thrones was so big because so many people watched it for so many years, and it continues to drive the fandom even more. So it creates a special moment When you're building with the character, you're building with the story and you're really just connecting to the media itself. And for me, media is not just more entertainment, it is a form of escapism. Since nineteen twenty, since the movies came out, that was the first form of escapism in visual media. So before that you had books and the introduction of radio. But like, uh, the form of escapism wasn't as linear and expressive as you can get into video and have audio and video mixed in together.
00:04:41 Nazish: That is, that is a beautiful point to put. And you know, what you are describing is that is something really tender because it is it is a kind, it is a kind of a recognition, like seeing yourself reflected somewhere or finding a voice for something you hadn't been able to say yet.
00:05:01 Maison Collawn: Yeah, exactly.
00:05:03 Nazish: These. Yeah. And these characters give us different level of hope. I remember myself watching Naruto and then getting that weird sense of hope that no matter how many things are going wrong in my life, but there will be a day when I will get the power and I will get through things. And it is. It is something that kept me going for for all that five hundred seven hundred episodes all together.
00:05:31 Maison Collawn: Yeah, that was interesting because not one of those shows that I read the show, the dub, the manga, and the sub all at the same time. It was weird because when I watched the dub, it was like fifty episodes of the old Naruto anime before Naruto Shippuden. Then I watched watching the sub watch all the sub, then got into Shippuden, start watching the sub. Then I ran out of sub content because I start reading the manga. So I started reading the manga. But then when the episode came out, that manga chapter I read weeks ago, before the episode came out, I rewatched the show in the sub. So it's weird because I read. I skipped so much ahead, but then went back. So we watched it again, which in my opinion, sometimes conforming, consuming media like that is enjoyable. It is. Especially when it's in live update, because not a lot of times you can have that. It's usually only one form of the media. It's not like I was introduced late to it and had the dub, the anime sub, then the manga, and then went back to the sub and then read the manga again. But all those updates was happening simultaneously at different points. And that's how it was actually interesting to read back on it.
00:06:57 Nazish: Absolutely. And this is something which is happening with me for JJK right now.
00:07:02 Speaker 3: Ah, yes.
00:07:04 Maison Collawn: Pretty good.
00:07:05 Nazish: Yeah. It is, it is pretty good. And even I, I can I mean solo leveling.
00:07:10 Maison Collawn: Mhm.
00:07:11 Nazish: Solo. Yeah, exactly. And so it is happening. They're going going to read manga. And then coming back to the animation and then watching the subs that I can relate with it now.
00:07:24 Maison Collawn: Yeah. I like, um, in the storylines. I like seeing like the characters growth, the determination to do stronger. And then sometimes, uh, they don't always have spirituality, but they have spirituality elements that kind of like, huh, the visual, the visual storytelling here is really interesting. This reminds me of this type of media. Like they have a natural landscape and, uh, one show that really hit and like spirituality that I didn't necessarily think was two Soul Eater and Noragami. Those hit really hard and like the universe set up the mythos. Uh, even though it wasn't in line with my Christian background faith, it still felt organic. It still felt like it had a story to tell. And the, and the individual characters find their own journey and their own beliefs, especially noragami.
00:08:31 Nazish: Absolutely. So what does it mean for you for a media to be spiritual experience?
00:08:39 Speaker 4: I guess a media can be a spiritual experience.
00:08:42 Maison Collawn: If the conduct in which the character is focusing like G, like a meditation or like Naruto, they'll have that. They're not as spiritual, but it's more like, uh, meaningful practice like chakra. So they have, you know, they practice the chakra control. But not only do they do that, they have a system in which they do it to hone those skills, and that's the discipline they get themselves into. Also martial arts, uh, a lot of fighting styles have different techniques that the character use for like breathing, meditation, focusing different training arcs. So you really get into like the discipline for them mostly.
00:09:30 Nazish: That is, that is such an important thing for all the people listening in right now to know, because I think so many people experience meaning through stories, through art and through films. Yes. And don't have a framework to call it what it is. And you know, what you are offering is such a beautiful framework. And that is making that that meaning found in a story is still a mean.
00:09:56 Maison Collawn: Well, it's interesting because there's spiritual elements across eastern culture. You know, China has Qi. That's an entire practice where you have energy build up. Uh, most shows use Qi as a basis for their energy. Uh, Hunter X Hunter they don't have Qi. They have a system called nen. So they, they use nen to power up abilities. But then when you get into like, uh, uh, bleach, you get into spiritual pressure. So like you have Reiki and all that measuring of how they turn spiritual energy into a weapon.
00:10:37 Nazish: Absolutely. So out of one hundred Hunter X Hunter and bleach, which one is your personal favorite?
00:10:43 Maison Collawn: Uh, I think the symbolism in bleach is very interesting. The soul society as a whole represents, uh, not only the Shinigami, but like what the Soul Reapers represent in life outside of the mortal plane. Um, so society is like heaven. Then they have their hell, but then they have, like Duku Mondo, which is like the Iran cause and, uh, the ghastly creatures that humans can turn into if the soul is corrupted and they have different dimensions like that, they have a different they have a balance. The soul society leans to keep to maintain that balance, bring the souls to them so they can live in their afterlife. And you know how. Hats off to the balance. They take down the the tainted souls that are basically doomed to that that to that reality. And the ones that are like a misguided ghost, they also kind of represent like bad spirits being after other human spirits. So it's, it's interesting in how that all plays out.
00:11:58 Nazish: Absolutely. And, you know, again, I'm going to say a bleach itself gives so much hope to so many people and it makes them grow stronger. I mean, I remember watching it when I was, uh, in, I guess sixteen, sixteen, seventeen years old. And it was a completely different experience for me. Like I remember binge watching it throughout the day and night.
00:12:24 Maison Collawn: It's kind of fun to do it.
00:12:26 Nazish: Yeah. You know, identity is at the heart of like heart of so much of your story, the search of who you are, especially when the world around you doesn't offer a clear mirror. So how did storytelling, the stories you consumed and the ones you eventually started creating, how did those help you understand yourself clearly?
00:12:48 Maison Collawn: Well, I guess from my standpoint, it helped me understand that basically the basic concept of good versus bad, that the good in people and the striving to protect good matters, the ones who are warped from that reality and think that they are good. But when their evil intentions or misguided are the ones that have the ethics of the world. So this is a good action. This is not a good action. It's not good to create a perfect society where a villain deems that humanity either need to be wiped clean, mass destruction, or controlled, or then gain power. So they influence the world to change it, how they see it. No one should have that power to decide how you should live. That's why the main protagonist is fighting against that.
00:13:47 Nazish: Absolutely. That is such a beautiful way to put it. And, you know, it reframes the search itself as a part of healing. Like you don't have to, you don't have to have arrived somewhere to be on a meaningful path.
00:14:03 Maison Collawn: Yes.
00:14:05 Nazish: Yeah.
00:14:05 Maison Collawn: And that's probably what storytelling can give an audience. It can give a form of connection members that connect and network within the group, but also it can grow you because maybe one moment is impactful than another moment. And it's impacted my spiritual journey because it's d me. How can people have different interpretations for different stories? But how can that relate to the real world? You know, I'm not just myself in this. Other people are going through it. It's always a test of faith and how you actually want to perceive someone else around you. I use storytelling to bridge that gap, to understand narratives that otherwise I would not understand myself.
00:15:03 Nazish: Yeah, I completely agree. And I think that is what your podcast does as well. It keeps people company while they are still figuring it out.
00:15:12 Maison Collawn: Yes, it accompanies the viewer along the way watching the show, and they form their own experiences based on what they see. And if they take that real life experience outside of the show and use it in a way that is even small, can still impact the world.
00:15:32 Nazish: Oh, absolutely. You know, you describe media as a tool for mental wellness and that that that's a pretty intentional word, like a tool, not just a tool, not just comfort, not just distraction, but something you can use with intention behind it. So what does that, what does that look like practically?
00:15:55 Maison Collawn: Well, mental wellness is the practice to which.
00:16:00 Speaker 4: You.
00:16:01 Maison Collawn: Perceive yourself in a state of mind that calms you down. While a show might not seem like it. It can actually really trigger the endorphins to calm you down in a way that something else might not do. The impact of the story, watching it, and actually impacting it for the first time in real time is the way you impact it. Like, for example, uh, when you have like a Spice of Life show, though, just going through life, they there's not a lot of plot. They're just living their life. Well, you can relate to the characters and you can take the time to watch it relate to that character. Just like, um, say example, high school setting in shows that use high school as a metaphor to a setting. And that's a relatable sentiment that everyone has at some point in their life, and it's just showing them going in and out of their life and like extracurricular activities that can spark an interest with you and that can bring you into wellness better. And it also can bring up, uh, simple like mental health. It can dabble in character stories, why they are who they are, their drive to be better, or they'll drive, you know, just for a journey along their own storyline that they had to find within their own character development.
00:17:39 Nazish: Yeah. That is, that is absolutely true. And, you know, I think it is such a useful and honest distinction because I think we've all we've all been in both the places sometimes in the evening and learning to notice which one of you are doing. So that awareness itself is a kind of kind of wellness practice.
00:18:03 Maison Collawn: Yeah. I mean, it portrays people to think differently. And for example, if I watch haiku and I see a character playing volleyball at the sports genre, but like, I see the drive, you see the, the achievement of them going ten feet up in the air to do an ace spike right above the net. You feel a moment of achievement when you see that accomplishment by that character. You get driven by who they are, their drive to do well in the sport and overcome the vertical. Challenge them as a short character, jumping to a high feet taller than most other characters.
00:18:46 Nazish: Yes, the animation in that was absolutely beautiful. I remember watching it and the crows breaking the cage. Yeah, it is something that makes you feel so internally relieved that you can also break the barriers that are holding you. You can get more stronger and you can do better. You, you, you don't. You just have to stop doubting yourself.
00:19:13 Maison Collawn: Well, yeah, it's not, you know, it always dealt with self-doubt, the fear to actually do better. If you can overcome that fear, you can drive yourself to anything. You can be that ace jumping ten feet in the air and then deliver that winning spike that's going to win the game for the volleyball team. Like, I mean, it's not as silly as it sounds, but that is something everyone can do in their life.
00:19:38 Nazish: Yes. And you know, one of the things that I like most about anime is that they just don't show the, the main character or the they just don't show them. Always victorious. They show their doubts, they show their lows and they, they, we see how even after trying so much, there are times when they lose. So they show us to grow from, grow back from that lowest point of your life to a much higher point in your life.
00:20:11 Maison Collawn: Well, yeah, I mean, the highs and lows. It's watching the characters as the journey unfolds. I mean, Dragon Ball, guess what? In the you see young Goku growing up throughout the entire franchise, forming a family. Get married, keep fighting the bad guys, whatever ridiculous scenes that come out with it. But you see him grow up. That's why it's so nostalgic for people. When they watched it, they saw the young version to the Vegeta, to the son trunks and the son, you know, Son of Goku and all the other stuff. But then they realize he's developing as a character. He's not just this powerful MC, he's literally forming a community within the show, and this community is fighting to protect the ideals that he represents.
00:21:04 Nazish: Absolutely. And you grow with that character watching, like when you're watching one episode a day, you are actually waiting endlessly for those scenes and that cliffhangers. It is a different sort of just different sort of relief in you.
00:21:22 Maison Collawn: Yeah. You, you're anticipating what's going to happen next. You don't know until it actually happens. Even if you do know and spoil it ahead of time, you still want to watch it, see it. The sequence is coming on the screen and actually happening in that time period.
00:21:38 Nazish: Absolutely. So, um, so for anyone listening right now, before we close, I want to ask you for anyone who has felt who has always felt like they're the odd one out who found comfort in fictional world because the real one felt too loud, too confusing, and too unkind. What would you want them to hear right now?
00:22:01 Maison Collawn: Well, I want to hear about this minus piece for better health is my practice of using storytelling to convey a message to understand the world around me. My faith as a Christian compels me to not only understand people, those who I am not going to understand, but use a culture, background, and setting to understand many demographics of people. That is the key for me. Meet as many people as possible, but also connect with them and feel for them in any small way. I can understand potentially a small aspect of what they're going through that is more power than anything else. Because now I have the realization to, you know, have the understanding that I need for them, but for myself.
00:22:59 Nazish: It is so such a beautiful thing to say. And you know, the stories that saved you when were not a distraction from your healing. I believe they were a part of it. And the fact that keep kept us going back to them. Was our soul doing exactly what it needed to do?
00:23:19 Maison Collawn: Yes, we were meant to heal. Meant to convey. Meant to see the development and grow as we grow and our transition into which, hey, you know what? Come on down. Do an activity. It doesn't have to be much, but we can do it together.
00:23:40 Nazish: Absolutely. I couldn't agree more with you. And Mason, this is this is such a rich, gentle conversation. And, you know, this is this is one of those conversations when I was fully involved. I'm excited about it and I loved it. And so, you know, just like me, there might be many people who would want to connect with you, follow your work, find MC anime podcast. So where can our listeners do that?
00:24:08 Maison Collawn: But yes, you can find me. Uh, my landing page is at Podmatch MC anime podcast. It has a description of the show. You can, you can be booked on the podcast or booked me as a guest either way and has a link to Apple podcasts directly. Uh, so you can find me at blog MC anime as my call to action on Facebook. That's my main source of web posting and interviews and videos. And you can find us on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio and YouTube music.
00:24:45 Nazish: Perfect. I am going to include these details into the show notes, so that a lot of people can listen to your podcast and reach out to you. Thank you so much, Mason. Genuinely, this was such a beautiful conversation.
00:24:58 Speaker 4: Thank you for having me.
00:24:59 Maison Collawn: It was very nice to have you.
00:25:01 Nazish: Wonderful. And to everyone who listened today, I hope something in this conversation gave you permission to take seriously the things that have quietly been holding you together. Inner peace doesn't always look the way we expect. Sometimes it shows you it. It's like a show you have watched fifteen times because it makes you feel less alone. Honor that. We will see you next time. Take care of yourself and each other.
