You know, in my first proper rewatch in 10 years of Mob Psycho, I'm finding the themes hitting even harder than they did on my first watch. And I don't think it's that I understood the messages less the first time. But I think the circumstances have changed.
When mp100 season 1 aired in the summer of 2016, Trump was a joke who wasn't going to win anything. Legalization of gay marriage had happened pretty recently, with what felt like a lot of momentum and support. "Manosphere influencers" had no foothold and were relegated to incel forums that received much derision. Covid hadn't happened. Q-anon hadn't happened. The economy was "good" insofar as it was pre-inflation, and you could get a job if you focused on the "right" degree, and the whole market wasn't hung on the clothesline of AI.
It wasn't perfect of course, by no means. And the seeds of most things I listed above did exist. But the snowball of things which have mounted since then has been... horrific, honestly.
"Hey Chrissy wasn't this post about Mob Psycho 100?" It is, and it's actually about narratives of young men lost in life trying to figure out how to grow up "right." Between 2016 and now, I've probably seen glimpses of a hundred forgettable anime where the young male protagonist learns how to achieve this--and learns how to do it by becoming strong, by becoming strong enough to crush the enemies that threaten your loved ones (which enemies? who is an enemy? never mind that. there is an enemy. they want to crush what belongs to you. you are a protector.) It's about becoming Powerful Enough to hurt evil, and Powerful Enough to protect your woman, and Powerful Enough to harm harm harm (the correct target).
And that narrative is not new either, of course!!! But that narrative just has gotten stronger, and more salient, and more commonplace in such a reactionary cultural time. More individualistic. More fearful. More distrusting. You have Enemies!! We have so many Enemies who are trying to Take What Belongs To You! And you stop that by becoming Strong; a Man Becomes Strong, A Man Destroys Enemies, A Man Protects.
And it feels so... heartening. So nice. To pick up Mob Psycho 100 again 10 years down the road with our typical coming-of-age young man protagonist. And he's a loser, and girls don't notice him, but he's secretly powerful. He's so powerful he could crush all his enemies in his grip.
And with every single breath the narrative takes it says, "No, he won't harm people with his powers. Because powers are like knives, and you don't point those at people." It says "He refuses to believe his powers make him special. He wants to grow as a person in other ways, and specifically in ways that challenge him, and ways he's not good at, because he refuses to take his gift as a carte-blanche pass for being important." It says "Even if you have powerful and violent abilities, you alone can't manufacture any of the things you use in your daily life. We all rely on everyone else to make our world work."
And there IS real kindness in the world, in the places Mob looks for it and chooses to believe in it. Even as a loser in school, his classmates aren't cruel and terrible. They're nice to him when they interact! They're just people living their own lives. The Body Improvement Club are the strongest boys in school, but they adhere to their code stronger than anyone. Their muscles aren't for fighting. They don't leave members behind. They adore Mob, no mind at all for the fact that he started at the bottom. And this is masculinity! This is what a man should be. Strong, sure, but mindful, compassionate, principled, cooperative, disciplined, and upstanding.
The con-man who is using Mob for his powers is also the one who set Mob on the path of trusting he doesn't have to hurt people. Usually you'd expect the message to be that a young man has to step up and fight and protect his loved ones, but No, Actually, It's Okay To Run Away.
Let an adult help. Share your burdens. Believe you are important but don't believe you're more important than others. Believe that people can change. Believe you can change. Don't be goaded into violence. Don't get taken by hatred. You are the protagonist of your own life, and so is everyone else, remember that.
annaxmalina
dailybridgerton
prguitarman
origamiaround
yousharknotpass
