#goddammit one

[synapticfoe]

how the fuck did ONE write mob psycho in his twenties. i feel like i don’t know anything and you’re telling me he was out here writing lessons into art on how to be a good person, live a good life, and make the most of your time here?? get the fuck out of hereeeeeeee

[synapticfoe]

i just finished a rewatch of mob psycho 100 for the first time since it finished airing in 2022, and i just have so many feelings about the messaging of the show, especially now.

disclaimer: i have not read any discourse yet, i haven’t even done that deep a dive into lore/lyrics/etc. so i’m probably repeating points that have already been made years ago. at this point i think i might just be gratuitously word vomiting to get my thoughts out, but here goes.

mp100 is a coming of age story, right? but not just for mob, for all of the characters in their respective places in life, coming to terms with human nature: good people, even half-decent people, destroy. lash out. hurt each other. speak without honesty. do things without considering consequences - considering other’s feelings - even considering their own feelings. people do things, sometimes, without even understanding why. it makes being vulnerable, being real, hard. being a person sucks sometimes. a tale as old as time: people are imperfect and imprecise, impossible to completely predict or understand.

and yet, we still want to connect, don’t we?

mob brushed against this lesson so early. how could he hurt someone he loves? what does that make him? good or bad? what does that make being human? having feelings? good or bad?

his takeaway: it’s bad. he might be bad. but maybe he could be good, as long as he doesn’t make that same mistake again - of being human, messy, emotional. he can’t be vulnerable.

but this is inherently contradictory to the experience of living. we cannot eliminate conflict, or prevent hitting our limits, or shut ourselves away. his conclusion is wrong, and he knows it deep down, because he still wants to connect with others. so, naturally, he looks for anyone that’s found the answer to this predicament of being human.

enter reigen. the issue being, of course, that there is no answer, and reigen, of all people, would not have it. why? because even as a adult, reigen doesn’t know how to be vulnerable either. he’s not sure of the kind of life he wants to live either. he doesn’t know how he feels: about himself, the world, and his place in it. as much as mob came to him for advice and truth, the first thing that came to mind was an ideal that reigen himself had no idea how to fulfill. be a good person? be just like everyone else? reigen doesn’t even know what that means for him now, as a morally-gray conman - and at some point when he was younger, he didn’t want to be like everyone else - he wanted to be someone - and he still longs for that fame and recognition (see: season 2) even as he advises mob otherwise.

my theory is that this is basis for reigen having no psychic powers as a plot point. not because he doesn’t have any emotions, but because he’s approached his life in a way that makes him out of touch with with how he feels - he’s incapable of harnessing his emotions to use them. when he meets mob for the first time, he doesn’t know who he is. he doesn’t know what he wants. he doesn’t know how he feels. and it’s apparent in his complete lack of meaningful connections, a life without vulnerability. but he’s gotten this far because he’s resourceful, he’s flexible, he’s trying, and because time marches on.

so what do you do when you’re fucking lost and someone looks up to you and asks, how do i do this? how do i live? i think equally normal responses would be to 1.) withdraw, say “good luck, kid” or 2.) to reach out, connect, try, even as you know in your heart that you don’t have the answers either. maybe reigen didn’t have anyone there to be the latter, which is how he ends up where he is. importantly, though, he chooses the former.

it serves as an extremely important, repeated underlying message that connection - trying to be there for others, showing up, giving it a true shot - is our best antidote to making mistakes as people. but this doesn’t “fix” the situation. mob’s questions are answerless. and so, mob continues to explode when facing the cruel, confusing, unfair pressures of the world, because he doesn’t yet understand that there is no “fixing” his feelings or “ugly side”, only acceptance, something his Shishou has not been able to put into practice either, despite putting on airs of confidence.

reigen isn’t perfect, he’s human, and so becomes a veiled example of the hypocrisy of human nature, of good people doing dumb things and failing to be vulnerable and honest. mob’s questions (“how could he hurt someone he loves? what does that make him? good or bad? what does that make being human? having feelings? good or bad?”) only grow in complexity as reigen becomes part of the confusion.

“why is my role model the way he is? why does he do the things he does? why does he say one thing and act another way? can i trust him? can i still live the way he told me to live?”

of course, when put under immense stress, this culminates in a total rejection of everything and everyone in season 3. ???/mob/shigeo is fed up. it’s hard being a person, but it’s even worse to minimize yourself to nothing, to be nobody. overwhelmed and tired of the consistent frustration, denial, confusion, repression that comes with growing into yourself, he lashes out. ???/mob/shigeo pushes away everyone that was ever close to him, and starts to lose sight of himself.

his existential struggle and suffering only end when he is able to finally hear the truth, and accept it - that there was no answer, no ideal, no perfect role model with a perfect plan, no way to get around being an imperfect person - because of a moment of sheer, genuine, ugly, imperfect vulnerability from the adult in his life that he still trusts in spite of everything. the genuine connection and knowledge of who reigen (and all of his loved ones) is enough. mob decides for himself that he accepts this contradictory life and his contradictory self. and in doing so, he takes a huge step towards becoming an adult. reigen also starts off on his journey of realizing that those are the same lessons he needed to learn too - the realization that had been creeping up even before mob walked into his office all those years ago.

i think it’s a fascinating approach to the developmental “divide” and dynamic between child and adult - children, who are deeply curious, capable, whole individuals scooting through life, whose feelings and struggles are often underestimated by adults, and who have faith that things will make more sense with time - and adults, either survivorship bias, realizing that they are still, in fact, winging it, stuck in an impossible situation, yet knowing that that realization already means they have a duty to those younger than them. genuine connection brings this dynamic full circle when children grow to be adults. a lack of connection drives the divide farther - adults become grown children, unable to move forward or pave a path (i.e., claw), and children come to hold contempt for adults (like sho).

the reason why it was all a lie from the beginning is the answers we search for don’t exist, and neither does the perfect version of ourselves that we all want to become. but that isn’t sufficient - not for us as adults, and certainly not us as children, who dream big and have to figure out how to navigate the world anyway. so, if we choose to move forward anything, we choose the only thing we can do - connect with others and move through life anyway, as we are.

goddammit ONE

[terrademon]

One: What about Adam?

Hilde: I’ve got to bail him out of jail, too? Where’s his father?

Adam: One used my call to vote for X Factor.