#also clicking to the next page and seeing the aliens is maybe the hardest ive ever laughed reading a manga

[shigayokagayama]

ok all the people saying that they felt like the alien arc ruined the flow of the ending is kind of fascinating because to me to always felt like kind of the perfect set up for the confession arc?

like on top of being lighthearted and low stakes compared to the arcs surrounding it (can you really imagine the emotional turmoil of going right from the broccoli arc to the confession arc???) the character arcs that takenaka and tome go through directly mirror what mob has been going through.

takenaka realizing his powers arent a burden and can be useful is a realization that mob has already come to and tome realizing that SHES not a burden and her friends like and support her for who she is and shes allowed to have her own wants and needs is the journey that mob is just about to make

also them actually meeting aliens is kind of important for a less obvious reason but one you come to after rereading/rewatching this series waaaaaay too many times

every main character gets what ive been referring to in my head as a “want vs need” arc: teru with his introduction, ritsu with the big cleanup arc, reigen with the separation arc, dimple with the broccoli arc, tome with the alien arc, shigeo with the confession arc. all of these arcs, to some extent, take a character and give them what they THINK they want to see what they really want.

teru’s is a bit of a deviation because he has what he thinks he wants from the beginning: popularity, people respecting and fearing him. but through his breakdown you see what he really wants, what he really needs is self confidence. and then every arc follows that same sort of pattern: ritsu wants powers, but he really wants his relationship with his brother to go back to how it was. reigen wants to be someone (popular, famous), but what he really wants is to be something to someone. dimple wants to be a god, but what he really wants is to be acknowledged.

and then we get to tome. tome wants to meet aliens so damn bad. she thinks that all of her time with the telepathy club has been wasted, that they dont really care about her or her interests and have just been using her to laze around and goof off and shes running out of time to get what she wants. when her friends invite her to summon aliens with her, she thinks that theyre messing with her, or shes tricked them into going along with her delusions, or theyre doing this out of pity, or anything to convince herself that what she wants isnt important and she should just give up and go back to not acting on her wants for the sake of everyone elses comfort.

and learning takenaka is actually a telepath through him reading her mind dispels some of that, sure, and if they hadnt met aliens it wouldnt have been a waste of time because it was something they all did together which is what counts. but them actually meeting aliens and going on a ufo and then doing the exact same thing theyve always done together, laze around and eat snacks and play games, was what she needed to realize that none of their time was wasted. she wanted to meet aliens, and like every other characters arc before her she got that, and through getting it she realized what she really wanted was to spend time with her friends before she graduated and didnt get to see them as much.