not only is the shimazaki defeat scene an absolutely fucking hilarious example of subversive humor but it also makes total sense in the narrative. the story spends so much time building up his skills and how difficult it would be to take him down, culminating in a chaotic battle between him and like 10 other people simultaneously - with said other people being the ones to struggle and fight for their lives for most of it - and then reigen, the one major character who has zero psychic abilities, is the one to take him down.
and again it makes total sense with the story's themes! in a more conventional shounen he would likely have been defeated by mob, but that wouldn't have gone together well with what mp100 is trying to say. out of all of the super 5, shimazaki appears to be the one after suzuki himself to really subscribe to the whole "being a psychic makes me better than u" rhetoric, so having reigen be the one to get him to back down is a much better choice.
he activates mind's eye when he finally starts losing to teru and co., a move that sacrifices his ability to see anyone that isn't a psychic, but to him it isn't really a sacrifice because what can someone who isn't a psychic really do to someone as powerful as him? walk right up to him and punch him obviously, but this seemingly straightforward scenario never even crosses his mind. even when it does end up happening, he still doesn't consider, let alone realize, that he left himself wide open for someone like reigen to attack, instead opting to believe the much less plausible scenario that a psychic who can hide their aura is who defeated him.
but to him, it's the one that actually makes sense.

























