This is a very self-indulgent post, but it's his birthday today and I wanted to compile all the things about Reigen that make me see him as a fellow ace.
Please don't take this list too seriously! None of these are This Is Canon signs and some of them are just jokes. Also, it's pretty hard to find evidence of asexuality barring a character explicitly saying "hey i never feel sexual attraction" so bear with ne here.
1. That Scene With Dimple
Yeah, we all know the scene.
"But does love always have to come with sexual desires?" -Reigen Arataka
This is what almost asexual person asks at some point. It's just such an asexual quote. Society often conflates the two things as inherently hand-in-hand, but that's not true for everyone!
2. He never shows attraction to anyone
Now of course, the story is not primarily focused on him, and he's usually with Mob so he probably wouldn't be flirting in front of him. But there aren't even MOMENTS of him showing a smidge of attraction to other people, even when we see his life without Mob's presence. It really stands out in comparison to other goofy mentor figures in manga/anime who are commonly portrayed as hopeless flirts.
3. He's never been in a relationship before
When asked about his past romantic experiences in the official fanbook, he pretends he's had plenty of passionate romances and then describes a scene from Titanic before saying "Marriage is one of the countless types of lifestyles you can choose. It's best if everyone does whatever they want." So basically, despite being 29 years old at the time of the fanbook, he has had no significant romantic experiences and doesn't see himself getting married. (Even if he might be interested, as I'll explain in the next point.)
This is not exclusive to asexuality of course but it's a very common sentiment for ace people imo
4. He doesn't think he can be in a relationship
In Confession Arc, he has no idea how to ask someone out and has to cheat while giving advice to Mob. He also tells Serizawa afterward that if anyone saw him for who he really was, they'd turn him down right away.
But then, at least in the manga, he says that he hopes he can be in a relationship where he and his partner "can exist without distorting each other". So I think he does want to be in a relationship, he's just way too insecure about himself for many, many reasons.
I like to think one of these reasons is because he is asexual. It's a struggle for allo aces to find someone whose sexual preferences are compatible with ours, and yet it remains important to maintain our boundaries (aka not distort ourselves).
5. His anime outfit has ace flag colors
I mean. Gray, white, pink purple...
6. His reaction to a porn virus
Look at the face of this poor asexual man who spent an entire night trying and failing to get rid of a porn virus...
This is such a great post, and I agree with everything you said. There’s only one thing that does somewhat contradict canon and it’s that you mentioned he has never shown interest in anybody sexually, even in small scenes.
Unfortunately there is one scene in the summer omake where Reigen has this exchange with Mob, Ritsu, and Teru:
However, I’m not going to argue towards this scene proving Reigen is not asexual. Quite the opposite!
First, I’m going to point out that none of the kids even attempted to fulfill this request. We know they didn’t because at every other “exorcism” Reigen takes them to in this omake, they attempt to do as he asks.
But for this “exorcism,” we only see scenes of them spending the time quietly contemplating on the sand or having fun together. This could imply a few different things.
1. All the kids collectively decided Reigen’s request was stupid and not worth the effort. This is a likely scenario as they are all pretty respectful children and Reigen’s request is pretty obviously disgusting. Even if someone tried to argue Mob would believe the exorcism ruse (which would be a disservice to his character, Mob is not a fool), Ritsu and Teru definitely wouldn’t.
2. The kids recognized Reigen was not being serious and disregarded the “request.”
From the beginning, it was clear Reigen’s motivations for this omake were to entertain Teru, who was lonely for the summer without his family, and he was doing this by pretending to take all the kids on exorcism jobs.
Reigen has difficulty being honest about his intentions, even when they are well-meaning (like this one). This is something we know from just reading the actual story. He likes to use coverups, often the excuse of an "exorcism," when he's helping people. This is obviously another one of those times.
And of course, Teru knows that.
Everyone knows.
Reigen's "find me a big titty ghost i can 'exorcise'" was a distasteful joke-slash-excuse to get the kids to relax on the beach.
Plus, look at his face when he says it.
To me, this is not the face of a man who wants his kids to find him a woman to grope. This is the face of a haunted individual who is disgusted at what he's saying but couldn't think of any better excuse. He pulled this shit out of his ass because he feels like this is something he SHOULD say. Reigen has only ever shown decency and respect towards women up until this point. Remember the time he wrestled a man to the ground for using astral projection to spy on his female neighbor? Or the time he taught Mob that men who hit women are huge losers? Or the many times he gave women (and men) massages to help them feel youthful again and never once made any sexual comments? Low bar, but I feel like if he were a huge pervert, the narrative would have used one of those scenes to show it.
Anyway, take what you will from this, but I just wanted to address this scene since it could technically be used to prove Reigen has shown sexual interest. And like, as an asexual person myself, I understand as well that asexuality is a spectrum and sometimes ace people feel horny and/or enjoy sex, and so this one scene really doesn't prove much of anything, given that. However, I am of the express opinion that this scene has much more nuance than one could notice at first glance, and I like talking about Mob Psycho lol so here you all go
Can it be considered fanart if it involves the collective effort of 4 almost-uni-students spending 1.5h at a local mcdonalds cutting up nori, arranging fries and artfully using ketchup packets to recreate the faces of mp100 characters?
Further info on our reasoning behind the type of food used for each character:
(All in good fun, we were just goofing around with our food)
Mob is a double cheeseburger while Ritsu is a normal cheeseburger - this is due to Ritsu's feelings of inferiority
Haystack Teru gets some nice fries for his hair for that golden crispy look
Reigen is the plumpest juiciest burger with the nicest bun because. You know.
Shou... I'm so sorry Shou you deserved better (ignore how it looks like a crime scene)
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