The Good News of The Manslayer
Netflix (or its functional equivalent) binge-watching is not the most productive thing you can do in your spiritual life. Binge anything is usually bad. In order to highlight their partiality to moderation Amharic speakers say, "even poison becomes medicine in moderation." But, my training in university-sponsored debate has given me the prowess to try and argue for and against almost any position and/or principle. Let me give binge-watching a whirl.
I have recently been binge-watching one of my old favorite cartoons/anime. I'm near the end of Season 2 of 3 seasons. It's called Rurouni Kenshin. As a child, I used to watch this show out of order and so I now appreciate the story better in chronological order and old fragments of my memory have been filling in the gaps. Anyhoo, Rurouni Kenshin is the story of a samurai (swordsman with an earthly master) turned ronin (swordsman without an earthly master). The English translators often refer to his past life as that of a battousai (manslayer) and his current life as that of a wanderer.
The contextual religions of the setting are Buddhism and Shintoism. Nevertheless, I see some elements of Christianity throughout the series. Himura Kenshin (the main character) has given up killing people for ten years and plans not to take another soul for the rest of his days. This ronin/wanderer may not have an earthly master, but it appears that he is serving a heavenly master. A renowned blacksmith gifts him a reverse-blade sword that can still hurt people and knock them out but is too dull to kill - unlike standard Japanese katana. Many people, "heroes" and "villains", try to commit suicide, and Kenshin stops them. His reasoning is that if they take their lives away, there will be no time for repentance. And so like John the Forerunner and Baptizer, and later Jesus of Nazareth, Kenshin preaches repentance.
Repentance is not just a confession that we have done something wrong. Because you could confess something is wrong but still do it again and again. True repentance is the active, conscious, and intentional stopping of harm that we do to our neighbors and thus God and His kingdom. Kenshin preaches love. Better yet, he practices it too.
Lest you accuse me of appreciating this literature too much and forgetting the biblical literature, here is a portion of Scripture from the wisdom literature.
He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. (Proverbs 28:13 RSV)