mob psycho + ‘changed for good’
in this final arc of mob psycho, we are about to see the culmination of each character’s development upon meeting mob and getting to know him over the series. and actually, for all of season 3, everyone is getting their moment + closure, starting with dimple, then tome, then teru, and now suzuki fam + ritsu this week. each character gets a fitting conclusion that all ties back to how emotional connections in community, specifically with shigeo, change you for the better.
ONE said mp100 began with the idea of “what would happen if a powerful esper was going through the woes of adolescence?” and BOY i have never seen anyone explore that theme as uniquely and hilariously as ONE has done. let’s take a look at the characters and where they were at in the beginning of the series.
like most good stories, we get to know mob out of order, with his past trauma with ritsu introduced slightly later in the early stages of the manga. instead we meet mob when he’s already working for reigen, at an age where puberty and psychosocial development starts to challenge shigeo and really shake his steely determination to keep a tight lid on ???%. here, we are immediately introduced to reigen, who’s obviously a fraud, dimple, who wants to be a god, & tsubomi, who seems to be the symbol of mob’s unattainable distant dream. this is the beginning of mob starting to lose control after a few years of trying to contain the storm inside him (yes, he and ritsu are TOTALLY like elsa and anna, but way more interesting).
for the first half of the series, as we mob continues to meet new people in this phase of his life, it becomes clear that everyone he encounters has an Opinion on how he should use his powers (except body improvement club lol, and tsubomi). some, like reigen and dimple (and to some milder extent, mezato and tome). reigen’s is obvious from the start: he’s been using mob to help him get more customers. dimple wants to use shigeo’s powers to become a god. tome wants to find aliens. mezato wants to make mob the god. teru, mogami, shou, & suzuki the older & co all had strong Opinions on how powers as strong as mob’s should be used, too.
ritsu, as his lil bro, is a bit of a special case. he’s certainly always had Opinions on how those powers should be used, and he envied mob for it, developing an inferiority complex along the way. this is multiplied tenfold by the tension that stemmed from the traumatic event they shared. mob started withdrawing and trying to contain himself so he’ll never hurt ritsu again (elsa without locking herself up & speaking with no one lol) and ritsu Felt that. ritsu is an intuitive boy, he knows mob holds everything inside out of care and it’s hard to deal with because he can never be there for mob or interact with him like normal brothers who might occasionally have little fights. he definitely has a bit of a growth arc in s1, and today’s episode shows more of how that development has been actualized (more on that later.)
in this entire final season, we see the culmination of where their development has led them now that they’ve all been impacted by mob. we see everyone recognize mob’s power for what it really is.
1) dimple gets his deepest ambition fulfilled and seizes his god moment but once he starts to grow more powerful, he realizes how important shigeo has become to him & that all along, he just wanted friends. he also recognizes mob’s powers more fully than before and acknowledges that it’s SO much to hold, and that being a god with that much is actually pretty costly!
(spoiler alert but this is also what shou and his dad realize too!)
2) tome was serious about starting telepathy club to find supernatural beings but she also feared disappointment & felt bad for dragging others along. she convinced mob to stick around the telepathy club (sorta), dragged him out a couple times to find other espers, but given how her friends sometimes still don’t take her seriously, she had some underlying fears about wasting everyone’s time. in the end, for her, she got to have her exploration day and learned through that adventure that it was about the friends she made along the way— right before her wish to meet aliens actually came true.
3) teru started out as an arrogant prick whose confidence was built on his powers & he never really saw harm in using them to subdue others because he also enjoyed the social power/control it came with. mob exposed the insecurities beneath all that and pinpointed teru’s overcompensation due to his fear of being weaker than others. through that first battle, mob taught him that he’s no more special than anyone else, and to accept himself without powers. that was a huge growth arc of course, but during the middle of the series, he still saw himself as inferior and wanted to reach mob’s level and be worthy of calling him a rival. teru recognized his weakness in comparison to mob, but therefore it seemed like he kinda idolized mob for that sheer power (that “you’re amazing” line even when brainwashed :’) lol.) the reason he said “i win this time” after facing ???% & getting his ass kicked is bc he won philosophically. last time, mob’s moral ground of not hurting others & not relying on psychic powers for self-worth won by a landslide. for teru, acknowledging his commoner-ness was humiliating defeat. this time though, with the same hilarious conditions of fighting mob until he’s naked & bald, teru’s determination to not harm others stayed strong, even making sure to put barriers around the citizens. (funnily enough, he also adds the line that “it’s okay if people laugh at you” LMAO. rip teru always getting humiliated.) he thus truly recognizes mob’s commoner-ness too, in parallel with mob’s sheer power, & ends the series content that he can call mob his rival.
4) RITSU and his inferiority complex. as mentioned before, ritsu always struggled with living under the shadow of his extremely powerful brother. he never felt like he could compete or even BE THERE to understand mob and his burdens. secretly, despite everything he said in his lil rebellious arc, he’s always wanted to be strong enough to shoulder the weight of that overwhelming power with mob. now that he’s gotten powers and has been using/practicing them, his big culmination of his arc gets realized when he is able to face, without fear, the ???% side of mob that has been repressed this whole time: “I was seeking psychic powers for the sake of this moment.” this moment being that he is now unafraid to compete with mob and listen to him, which means he finally has the capacity to use his power to help shoulder his brother’s emotions.
5) REIGEN. now this one deserves its own post. even if mob has a lot of important people in his life as a character, as far as mob psycho 100 AS A SERIES goes, reigen is definitely the deuteragonist and the second most important development of this entire manga, so there is A LOT to say about his arc, as the whole story basically is about reigen’s and mob’s influence on each other. but. for now i will keep it brief.
why is reigen always the last line of defense for mob? after everyone got brainwashed, mob didn’t fully go Dark until reigen also got affected. at the end of fighting ritsu, ???% says that NOTHING can stop him, followed by a shot of reigen pulling up. when we think back to the beginning of mp100, the whole story of mob’s growth into adolescence starts with him being used by reigen. as much as reigen cares about his success + money, he finds himself deeply impacted by mob and his pure earnestness to be a good person. all along, reigen’s hated his real self, knowing he’s got a terrible character (and ironically, as reflected in his own fears, is kind of cockroach-like).
when he finally sees everything mob’s been holding inside, how all that destruction is basically caused by HIS OWN LIES, it’s a huge wake up call that his treatment of mob has real consequences, and he needs to take responsibility for it. over the course of the series, we’ve seen him grow into caring for mob and putting his own selfish desires aside to spare mob from any further harm. but this lie, the first one he started their mentorship with, is the most dangerous one he needs to make right.
so he goes after mob, despite not having any powers. he lets himself get buffeted and pushed around by ???% (and ironically, since he doesn’t have psychic powers, ???% can’t absorb them from him lol).
and finally, FINALLY. HE TELLS MOB THE FULL TRUTH.
and the most beautiful thing after seeing how much reigen despises himself, is that he finally comes clean to mob and becomes utterly vulnerable at his wake.
THIS IS THE REAL ME.
and at long last he tells mob that regardless of all of that, he has the freedom to accept himself. he doesn’t need reigen at all anymore.
and although ???% came out due to his overwhelming desire to confess to tsubomi in the wake of shigeo going unconscious, the ultimate thing that he wanted was to be accepted - not by tsubomi, but by mob himself. reigen assumes responsibility and forcibly removes it from mob’s shoulders, allowing mob and ???% to be able to merge peacefully together.
