Reg
INFJ
Functional order: Ni - Fe - Ti - Se
Spoiler warning
This article will cover Reg analysis with spoilers and references from the first anime season. We’ll avoid talking about the manga, so if you haven’t read that yet, this article is safe for you!
Perceiving Functional Axis
Introverted Intuition (Ni) / Extroverted Sensing (Se)
Even if Reg’s true nature is still unknown, no one is willing to discover what lies behind it (besides Riko, but the topic is a little more complicated than that.) Reg, however, deeply cares about his identity. This needs a clarification first: talking about identity doesn’t always imply high Fi. Why? Because Reg isn’t trying to unravel what he truly is as a way to pinpoint his sense of self, he’s rather searching for meaning. This is a perceiving, abstract method aimed to gather information and patterns, merging them together in a subjective interpretation of reality. Then, Ni looks at it as a guideline, strategizing a realistic course of action to take in order to reach a meaningful goal.
Reg is surely young (if we can talk about age referring to what seems a robotic being), affected by amnesia and unsure about who or what he really is, so it’s reasonable to see only the first stages of Ni development: Reg is still trying to figure out his true nature and, even if he’s a J, he seems open to new possibilities and interpretations, since he knows little about the Abyss, its treasures and secrets, but is willing to learn more and more.
Reg, as a young Ni dom, shows some of its negative traits: he possesses a daydreamer attitude, not in a stereotypical way, but rather as a general approach to his and Riko’s journey: Reg is constantly quiet, silent and he clearly needs Riko’s proactiveness (which is often recklessness, too) to proceed.
Those elements are all tied to his inferior Se: Reg is unable to react quickly to problems, issues and dangerous beings that he and Riko face traversing the Abyss - Ozen clearly points this out, and the story shows it in more than one situation. When Reg takes action he either acts too late, causing troubles, or he makes mistakes far worse than mere inaction (for example in the brawl with Ozen, or against the Orb Piercer). We don’t know yet how Reg’s Se works with his Ni in an abstract evaluation of a pattern, but it’s clear how this function is still underdeveloped. This is also one of the reasons behind Reg and Riko’s chemistry: Reg’s inferior Se balances Riko’s dominant one by being more cautious and taking time to plan, and vice-versa.
Judging Functional Axis
Extroverted Feeling (Fe) / Introverted Thinking (Ti)
Reg has a well developed auxiliary Fe: when he meets Riko and her friends he quickly becomes part of the group and it’s appreciated by all of its members. Reg understands the rules behind social interaction and, even if he still can’t bind them as he wants (something even more mature high Fe users can’t do properly), he’s still able to respect them. So, despite not even being a human, Reg instinctively learns social norms and how they apply in different contexts. This is also true for the emotional environment: Reg easily blends in groups, he respects the status quo and knows well what’s going on.
Auxiliary Fe implies an external focus on people’s emotions and this, in younger INFJs, may lead to a lack of sense of self. This is a treacherous topic since Reg’s identity issues are more complicated than that: his true nature is unknown and this goes far behind the discovery of one’s true self. However, Reg shows signs of high Fe: he never takes action going against the group or his friends/allies, he prefers to respect social rules rather than breaking them and he adapts to the emotional environment.
Reg’s Fe is balanced by its tertiary Ti. Even if he may not be human, Reg appears and acts like a child, so it’s reasonable to see a Ti less obvious than Riko’s one, who’s an ESTP.
Reg shows signs of Ti regarding his attitude towards patterns and ideas: he always tries to put them together in a way he finds logical and coherent but, as a young INFJ with an underdeveloped Ti, he’s more prone to overthinking and losing contact with reality while trying to match all of those elements in the abstract perception of his dominant Ni.
On a final note, we want to reaffirm how Reg’s analysis must take into account his hidden and probably not human nature at first, and then how he still is, function-wise, an INFJ if we consider him as a being with the cognition of a child/pre-teen.