watched all of S1 and most of S2 of Mob Psycho 100 and I am losing my MINDDDDDDDD legitimately I see why u love it so much now. It’s so. It’s so compelling. In the best way. I love it so much. It’s making all the wheels in my brain go brrrrrrrrrrr.
Do u have any MP100 fic recs or fandom posts/blogs you rly enjoy? Or personal head anons or analyses about MP100 u wanna talk abt? I’m really enjoying the show and I hope to finish it next time I get access to Netflix/Crunchyroll but that’s weeks away lol.
YAYYYYYYYY RIGHT????? IT'S SO GOOD OUGH ok SO I'll keep my rambling about mp100 and headcanons and analyses to our dms, but I'll build you a big list of links to my absolute favorite mp100 analysis and fics and so on, and hopefully it's not too overwhelming!!
my tumblr analysis posts:
In-depth breakdown of the "I'm the worst" moment
The color red in the anime
if you want more analysis, my tag #mob meta will lead you to all the analysis posts about mp100 that I've made or (more often) reblogged! #Mob Art 🖤🤍🖤 is my mp100 art tag. beware major spoilers for the entire story in both of these tags, though!
amvs:
I don't know if you like amvs but the mp100 fandom has a million of them, testaments to how beautiful the animation is and how deeply the story emotionally resonates with people. my favorites are:
Children's Work, THE defining Mob and Ritsu brotherhood amv, I have watched it so many times and it always makes me emo
(S1 only) Try to Change, an amv about Mob and ???%, waugh
Jealousy Jealousy, a very short very catchy Ritsu edit that punches SO HARD for being only 29 seconds long
(SPOILERS FOR S2) Karma (are you angry about how Mob is treated? guess what! so is he!)
(SPOILERS FOR S3) Love Like You, an amv about how Mob impacts those around him and the theme of isolation vs connection in mp100
(SPOILERS FOR S3) all of the amvs by @exilepurify but especially the heartbreaking world-changing You're In Ruins. Blue, you specifically will probably enjoy the Ritsu-centric I Sit By You On The Curb, but warning for s3 spoilers!
this one's an animation, not an amv, and it's so silly and fun and I love it: Hello Hello Hello!
and finally, extremely silly Reigen edit :]
My absolute favorite fics:
(warning for zombie-typical gore) my friend @quirkle2's zombie au, a MP100 AU where zombie-hood is a reversible disease that gives you (among other things) intense brain fog rather than something that truly removes your humanity. makes me CRAZYYYYY
A Breach of Trust, a massive longfic AU where Mob gets kidnapped by Mogami at age 10 to be his living psychic power source. It's gritty, it's sweet, it changed my entire brain chemistry, it changed my relationship with food for the better. read this incredible fanart comic of A Breach of Trust too—it's what got me into ABoT, which finally got me to watch mp100 all the way through!
Temporary Accommodations, a 14-chapter alternate ending to the story written before the manga finished! Reigen is forced to play host to Mob's soul, and he's not meant to have psychic powers, so he starts breaking down. Really REALLY good Reigen characterization.
Won't Repeat, a post-canon oneshot where Ritsu accidentally hurts Mob with his powers and has to deal with the fallout. very sweet yet so so real
(SPOILERS FOR S2) The Real World, a short fic about the catharsis of Mob returning to the real world from Mogami's nightmare land
(SPOILERS FOR S2) Petal-Patterned Reunions, a short post-canon fic about an adult Mob running into Minori again!
(SPOILERS FOR S3) schrodinger, a fascinating little 2nd-person POV of Shou Suzuki dealing with issues about his father.
(SPOILERS FOR S3) Childlike Wonder, In The Palm of Our Hands, a 1-chapter post-canon fic about Shigeo and Ritsu collaborating to really, truly test the limits of his powers. so so precious to me
oh yeah (edit) also, I wrote a mp100 fic!! Mrs. Kageyama Reaches ???%, a fic that retells all of canon and a little beyond from Shigeo's mom's perspective, with a twist headcanon that she's more Like Shigeo than it may seem :)
10: if you made an amv about this, what song would you set it to?
Probably The Crow by Dessa. "That old crow came back today / Sitting in my window like a prophet / Out on the fire escape, to say / "Anger is just love, left out, gone to vinegar".... you won't truly Get this unless you've experienced the Mogami arc, but a repeating motif in mp100 is crows representing a kind of suffocating isolation, social judgement, and cruelty. And one response mp100 gives to the problems presented by "crows" (social isolation, cruelty, bullying, nihilism) is refusal: to look them in the face, acknowledge evil, and REFUSE. straight up refusal to let the world be entirely cruel just because some parts of it are cruel. just. YEAH.
13: tell me an out-of-context piece of worldbuilding or lore!
psychic powers can make plants grow to full size and bloom and produce fruit in seconds, but the fruit will be tasteless and without any nutritional or caloric value.
8: what questions are or were you most excited to learn the answers to while experiencing the story for the first time?
I REALLY wanted to know if Mob would ever find out that his employer Reigen was lying to his face the entire time and whether he had any suspicions that Reigen wasn't what he claimed he was. I was so scared that the story would just be about "haha funny gullible boy gets totally scammed!!". I was on the edge of my SEAT for the Big Reveal About Reigen
9: give the most UNHELPFUL and/or SILLY summary possible.
The most powerful psychic in the world—a Japanese middle-school kid who is so unobtrusive that his nickname, "Mob", basically means "wallflower"—learns the power of standing up for himself from upstanding influences including 1) his terrible con man of a fake psychic employer, 2) a literal self-described evil spirit who haunts him, 3) all the psychics and ghosts who repeatedly try to kill him for the crime of not being cheerful enough, and 4) a lot of the most 13-year-old 13-year-olds ever—which is to say, a lot of absolute weirdos.
Top five aspects of mp100 that you wish had been further expounded upon/developed?
oooh, excellent question! I actually have very few questions about mp100, at least not ones that I want answered. One of the biggest strengths of the mob psycho 100 story is how much it leaves underexplained, I think. But here goes:
What happens with Shou after World Domination arc! PLEASE, I WANT TO KNOW WHO HE LIVES WITH. I might find this out from the fanbook, but it's in Japanese, I'm still a very beginner, and I haven't gotten to translating Shou's page. But regardless of the fanbook, I wish that we had confirmation of Shou's living situation within mp100 canon!
Mezato outside of the LOL cult! I know we only see her from Mob's perspective and the LOL cult is the thing that connects them, but I wish we'd had a second person's perspective on her at least once—like how we learn about Tsubomi's independent spirit from Dimple and Ritsu. Does she have siblings? What's her life like??
The different types of ghosts and spirits out there. They seem to mostly follow Buddhist and Shinto rules, underlying the central concept of "modern internet-inspired paranormal culture". Is the tunnel spirit a kami? By the end, is Dimple's existence sustained by whatever mysterious forces cause a human soul to linger on Earth (unfulfillment?), or is he now a being who is created by human belief, like the urban legends such as the Dragger? What about Matsuo's pet spirits, were THEY human? could they be healedsomehow? or are they doomed to the spiral? It doesn't matter and it's better not explained but I WANT to know. praying hands emoji.
Okay, and I thought about this a lot, but I can't think of anything else I want to be further developed?? I think mp100 was pretty well paced, honestly, and the mysteries are a big draw for me! So I shall now list three things that are huge mysteries that I do NOT want to know more about:
Teru. I think Teru has the perfect amount of development. We know EXACTLY enough about him to guess about the rest. Teru is the shell of a star containing a black hole of information and that's how I like it.
Minori's future. I'm glad we don't know what happens with Minori. Because she parallels Minegishi—they're the two people who do horrible things and get forgiven and released to do their own changing... or not. We know Minegishi got an honest job and seems to be trying his best. Minori? Unknown. (at least in canon proper. again, I haven't read most of the fanbook yet). she could be regressing. I like to imagine that she does regress into being mean because it's the only way she knows how to be, and that she only really ends up changing in her young-adulthood.
Future careers!!! I love that we don't know where any of the main crew ends up in their future. I love that the furthest ahead of the canon wrap-up we see is six months. I don't want to know Mob's career, or Ritsu's or Tome's or Teru's or Shou's. I don't know!! I like that it's open to speculate!!!
YES IT'S QUIRKLE2'S ZOMBIE AU FULL STOP. it's not everyone's cup of tea, but what can I say, it hit me at exactly the right time and in the right way for me to become obsessed. taking a premise as bleak as "zombie apocalypse" and adding hope and humanity and getting into the nitty-gritty details of what survival and even recovery look like is my favorite thing ever, and @quirkle2 must be tired of me tagging her by now but. it's my favorite!! it's my favorite mp100 au!! it's so brilliantly written and thought out, too, and the focus on Ritsu is So Fun. his reaction to stress is so practical and yet it's so damaging to him to be put under stress for a long time. studying zombie au Ritsu like a bug. ALSO THE ART. SCREAMS.
and allow me to talk about my zombie au for a minute—I love working on my own zombie au. I'm over here painstakingly turning every canon arc into zombie versions with the sheer delight of a kid drawing with a stick. Mogami is a zombie, Teru is half a zombie, Dimple is a zombie whisperer, Reigen wears a gas mask, Ritsu catches zombie disease later... >:D
3: Who’s your favorite esper kid?
I mean, out of the espers, my favorite character is Shigeo. But as an esper, I really enjoy Teru, honestly <3 I'm simply fascinated with how fast he learns new powers and his weird relationship with his own abilities. he nearly burned to death and then he used pyrokinesis in self-defense. the resilience the denial the sheer. comedy of it. also Teru as a character is just incredibly endearing to me. he's very much my "usual type" of character to get attached to—a villain who learns his life is empty and immediately flips his entire worldview upside down while fundamentally remaining the same person..... YEAH.
13: Are there any specific MP 100 artists/writers you admire?
It's gotta be Mob. No other series does this to me, but the main character of mob psycho 100 is my favorite. Although..... right now, I'm. majorly obsessed with Dimple (Mob's ghost friend). his role in the story is so weird. he's a mentor, but he's a terrible mentor. he's often mob's narrative foil, which is true of a lot of characters but especially of Dimple. he literally follows mob around to express bewilderment about Mob's choices. it's fantastic. I eat it up. you start the story hating him because he was mean to Mob and you end it going "oh Dimple is human?? he's a human being?? he's actually a good friend????". ANYWAY
7: What’s the most hilarious moment to you?
when Dimple gets exorcised by Teru, there's this flashback compilation of Dimple MomentsTM set to sad music, but all the Moments are things like him asking to take over Mob's body "just for a second". alsdkfjalksdfjlksdfj grabs Dimple like a dog toy and shakes him around
13: Are there any specific MP 100 artists/writers you admire?
YES. MANY. I'm picky, though, and I will absolutely forget some, so don't take this as everyone I admire; I'm just going to list the ones who have been especially on my mind lately. @quirkle2 does really deliciously textured art and also writes my current favorite au (zombie au my BELOVED). also @/phantomrose96 of A Breach of Trust fame, a writer I admire a lot, and @russenoire for the meta and the writing AND the art. also!! @/scribefindegil for the writing and the quilt (the QUILT). YEAHHHH
This one. Mob's compassion and resignation... it's a good moment but it's also eerie. he went in here not knowing if he was going to return or not. it was a moment of absolute faith in his choices. I admire him so much for this and similar moments
7: What’s the most hilarious moment to you?
there's so many..... but I gotta say, Dimple's vindicated "You finally see how freaky he is?!" never fails to make me snort-laugh out loud
8: Favorite and least favorite arc?
Already answered, but favorite is Mogami Arc (anime) and Confession Arc (manga)! My least favorite is the build-up to the Divine Tree arc.
16: What would be your first or basic psychic skill (telekinesis, pyrokinesis, hydrokinesis, ect)?
probably like Matsuo, spirit communication/control! I could see that being my first skill and the one I'd put most effort into. I like working things out through other beings; that's writing, after all. also, I'm used to seeing things that other people don't; that aspect of mob psycho 100 has always just Made Sense to me.
19: Would you hone your basic psychic skill or try to learn different ones?
probably hone my basic skill! I tend to focus on improving what I already feel good at rather than submitting myself to the indignity of becoming incompetent in a new area on purpose. I'm trying to challenge that in myself, but I'm definitely not a Teru! If I learned a new skill, I'd only practice it in private until I got non-embarrassing. I guess I'm like Ritsu that way :p
