#mp100 character analysis

[synapticfoe]

reigen’s suit as a symbol of unhealthy boundaries/distance that gets taken off and torn to shreds when he’s finally honest with mob and, most importantly, himself

+

serizawa’s suit as a symbol of healthy boundaries/distance that gets put on for the first time when he leaves behind toichiro’s influence and learns how to be independent

or something

[babovens]

Mob/Teru/Ritsu/Shou who out of this group is your favorite and why

Personally I feel like mob is literally the man, like he’s that guy. But something about Teru strikes a chord with me

Oh god I have to CHOOSE ONE KIDDO!?!

(I apologize in advance. This is gonna be looooong).

So my favorite characters in any fandom tend to be the ones I can find bits and pieces of myself in. The ones I can connect with. That’s what’s special about MP100. I’ve found little bits and pieces of my self in almost all the characters.

I connected with Ritsu’s dilemma of never feeling good enough, that even though he is so talented at so many things, he never feels fulfilled because the one thing he wants to excel in, he can’t. No matter how hard he tries.

I connected with Shou and how responsible he is, even too much so. He took on a huuuuge load he shouldn’t have had to (defeating his dad) and ended up hurting himself in the process. He is very self sacrificing (even though, although funny, fanon Shou is often portrayed as the meme kid who wants to watch the world burn).

But then there’s Teru and Mob. The ones who’s characters hit me the hardest.

I love Mob because what he’s going through are things I’m currently struggling with. Mob is going through a really hard time in his life where he doesn’t know what to do. He’s not lazy, but he doesn’t have self-motivation. The things he does are things others have told him to do. Reigen may tell Mob he doesn’t have to use his powers, but we still see how often Reigen uses them for his own benefit. Tome tells Mob to join the telepathy club or they will disband and she’ll be sad. Using his powers and joining a club surrounding psychic powers are both things he doesn’t want to do, but almost does simply because he was told it was the “right choice.”

But that’s not what he wants. He’s very talented in the psychic power category, yes, but that’s not his passion. That’s not what makes him happy. He finally does find that with the Body Improvement club. That was his choice, not something someone else told him was “good” for him.

I’m still searching for that. What I truly want in my life. Is my goal to have a good career? To own a nice house in the woods? To have kids? To be financially stable enough to support my hobbies? I’m still figuring that one out (and there are answers to this in Mob’s character arc, but that’s a S3 spoiler, so I’ll skip for now).

And then there’s TERU. Ohhhhhhh Teru. We love to make fun of his fashion, of his bald head, and his enemies to friends arc. But what myself and many others love about him is the subtle character traits he has that makes you raise an eyebrow. Like in S1 when Dimple asks why he’s living in a one bedroom apartment and Teru decides to not elaborate on why he, a 14 year old child, is living by himself with no parents in sight. Since the series is technically from Mob’s POV (for the most part), Mob doesn’t ask so Teru doesn’t tell. Therefore, we don’t really know.

And that’s what intrigues me.

There is so much both unknown yet implied about Teru that makes his character fantastic to unbox. He has so many quirks and oddities that make you go “what happened that made him like this? Why was he so desperate for attention? Why was his first instinct to fight when seeing another esper?”

And that’s how I connect with Teru. I haven’t really done any looking back on my childhood until recently, mostly because my opinion on life was “whelp, I’m not dead so I guess I turned out okay and was treated right.”

But looking back, there are some events in my life that have contributed to the way I am today. Especially the many parts of myself that I don’t like. It wasn’t until I started asking myself “why do I feel the need to get perfect grades? Why was I so obsessed with people acknowledging me when I was younger?” (Which is honestly similar to pre-Mob Teru. Just more subtle and less, uh, violent.)

So that’s a really long answer to: If I really had to choose I’d say it’s a tie between Teru and Mob? I GUESS?!?

[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