i know i have a new meta damn near every week after a new ep comes out, but i really wanted to talk about one of my favorite scenes in this whole arc
this scene took me by surprise because it’s not in the manga. reigen never receives a second email from his mom. this is all bones, shedding a little more light on reigen’s upbringing and his relationship with his parents, and i can’t get over how needed this was for reigen’s character.
from what we know of reigen’s mom, she seems kind of overbearing and her concerns center mainly around reigen’s career choices and his future. that’s not to say she’s uncaring about reigen’s emotions or his wellbeing, but from the 2 times we’ve heard from her, she comes off a bit…cold. the overly-polite way she phrases things is very detached, as if she’s talking to an acquaintance, a coworker, a client. not her own son.
and from that one little glimmer of insight she gave us about reigen’s father, it can be assumed that he was never very open with reigen. cared about him, of course, but wasn’t one to outwardly express it.
overall, my theory is that reigen’s family was the type to never say “i love you” out loud, never allow themselves to show genuine emotions, never cry in front of others. i firmly believe this is why reigen himself bottles up his emotions, why putting on a facade comes so naturally to him. sure, working at a call center certainly helped shape his public persona into the loud, eccentric caricature it is, but i think his home life was the main contributor.
his reaction to this formal, criticizing email from his mother is one of resignation. this behavior from his parents is nothing new. always criticizing, always so concerned. they want him to settle down. they want him to get a reputable job, a “real” job. they want to hold a family meeting, something reigen has probably been through many times before. he’s not doing anything right. he’s disappointing his parents, as usual.
and when he was following his parents’ will? when he was a young salaryman doing everything he was supposed to? he was miserable. he was depressed. he had a meltdown in the form of abruptly quitting his stable job and renting out an office without even having a plan.
it’s all of this context that makes this scene all the more powerful:
look at his fucking face. how long has he been waiting to hear this? not from a client, not from his bar “friends”, not from somebody insincere, someone trying to get something out of him. but from someone who genuinely cares about him, someone he admires and looks up to? this arc isn’t just about how reigen became lonely, depressed, and borderline self-loathing since mob ditched him, it’s something he’s been feeling for long, long time.
mob is, and always has been, the splash of color in reigen’s otherwise monochromatic world. and it’s not until this kid, who’s working hard every single day to better himself–to control his dangerous powers, get more physically fit, stand up for himself, make friends and socialize—this kid who’s grown up so much since the first time he stumbled into reigen’s office, says that reigen is a good person, that he finally allows himself to tear up and start believing it for himself.
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