#justice for ritsu

[doctorsiren]

I drew Mob Psycho 100 characters as Ace Attorney ones in my last post , so here’s the reverse of that! (The explanation can be found on that linked post ^^)

[russenoire]

hi @eshithepetty. hope you don't mind if i join you again... i have words about this boy.

ritsu also wears the Smart™ label. this automatically makes him unrelatable or intimidating or offputting to a great many people.

i don't love it either, but that's often true IRL too; it's why the protagonists of most films and TV series aren't 'geniuses' or bookish, and why so-called nerds were subject to so much cultural stigma and bullying (at least in the US) until relatively recently. no one likes feeling stupid or inadequate by comparison.

trauma or mental illness or crippling neurodivergence in kids labeled as gifted often isn't taken seriously either.

i hate to say it, but the envy-laced 'you're smart so you should be able to figure <insert any problem, really, here> out' crap some adults and peers fill gifted kids' heads with from childhood means they can end up struggling alone with their problems. sometimes they internalize the voices who tell them such things and beat themselves bloody in their own mental back alleys for... not being able to just THINK their way out of shit.

*sighs*

so here we have ritsu, who almost died at his brother's unaware hand. who has NO IDEA what set the boy off and basically lives in terror, forever waiting for the other shoe to drop. who dearly loves his brother still but cannot trust him. who subsumes all of this into a classic fawn-fight response of resentment and bullying and solicitousness sealed with a stepford smile; ritsu's resentment is so strong it bends his brother's spoons at dinner.

but wrap all that emotional turmoil up in a very real, skillfully-drawn package of 'people keep praising me to the skies for shit that comes easily to me and i'm not comfortable with this' AND increasing awareness of the pressure -- societal, familial, and otherwise -- that being Smart™ entails? (because his brother is such a disappointment to her and she's vocal about it, ritsu knows he carries his mother's hopes and dreams for both her sons. he doesn't want this, either.)

that renders his pain invisible... or maybe just not worth examining? to some watchers.

for that reason alone, ritsu kageyama is indeed the most misunderstood character in this story. but i don't think there's no support in canon for his over-the-top overprotectiveness of shigeo.

his first impulse when he happens across high-schoolers trying to mug his older brother is attempted murder by strangulation. if ekubo can come up with a nonviolent solution, but not ritsu...?

he starts off the big cleanup arc with a plan to rid salt middle school of delinquents to make the place more comfortable for shigeo after grossly misreading onigawara's shouty apology to him. granted, kamuro twisted his plan into something far nastier, but the cleanup was his idea (this is clearer in the manga, IMHO).

he's so vehement about this overprotectiveness because he's trying to ward off anything that might make his brother explode; it's partially out of a sense of self-preservation.

there's also sufficient canonical evidence for his massive resentment outright hatred grudging tolerance of reigen:

the manga contains at least one omake in which he subs for shigeo at spirits and such and actively tries to get the man injured. for the lulz.

the anime addresses this animosity by having reigen be the only person he unleashes all that mental snark on. at this point in the story, he does indeed hate reigen with a seething passion for holding that much of shigeo's admiration and for taking advantage of him; it does mellow out some in subsequent seasons.

i've said before that ONE was only hinting at the darkness swirling round inside ritsu. those who describe him as 'edgy' or 'emo' for no reason irk the shit out of me too.

with all the above said: the big cleanup arc could have used a little more screentime, and i felt that way as an anime-only. unlike those who don't like this arc, i didn't find ritsu's slide into infamy and despair jarring, exactly; he just didn't feel established quite enough as a character yet for me. the arc had to do double duty as a second establishment of character and character development for him, and it doesn't begin to justify his choices until later. another half an episode would have done it, i think.

i need to rewatch this arc... my few criticisms of it may feel like nitpicks after a closer look. thanks for giving me a great excuse to, OP!

Having ritsu feelings today

The fandom does him so dirty 😔

Like he doesn't have that much fan content and the content he does get is often micharacterized/flanderized, too. I feel like...

People often make him too angry and emo and overprotective, usually because they take those qualities as surface level funnies. Like hes definitely a little hater to an extent, but you dont get itttht hes not just edgy, he has layers, and hes not just mean to everyone all the time, hes actually quite polite towards people a lot of the time because he grew up as the smart good kid, and I hate HATE how overprotective they often make him of mob, like, hes certainly protective to an extent, and its an important part of him because its literally part of his issues™, but people take it too far, especially in ship fics, like - for example, its apparent in how they make him hate teru for no reason so often, even though!! That literally has no canon evidence!!! Like he even looks up to teru in canon a tiny bit i feel like! And of course once they get to know each other better theres a good chance hell clash with teru to an extent, because terus just extra and ridiculous and ritsu doesnt bode with people like that too well (as evidenced by reigen), and actually, on topic of reigen, he definitely is wary of him, but like 😭 calm down, he doesn't actually want to kill reigen, hes not that big of a hater. But what i find most disappointing is how many people just. Dont get him. Like ive heard so many people say that they dont understand the big clean up arc or that ritsu was just being edgy for no reason or that they even dislike that arc and im....

hghrhrg i am beating my pillow i love that arc, i love young characters struggling to understand their feelings, i love traumatised characters taking out their bottled feelings in unhealthy and messy ways, i love characters who get it wrong, i love characters who put themselves into narratives of good and evil to make their life make sense, i love characters who only slip deeper and deeper into despair until they are pulled back, i love the arc for how well paced it is and how well it transitioned from one story beat to the next and how gradually it revealed more about the characters and the world and its still one of my favorite arcs ever and the one i think the anime did the most justice like I LOVE YOU BIG CLEAN UP ARC AND I LOVE YOU RITSU!!!!!

sorry

[luxiaosh]

well well look at this ? it is a birthday celebration card in tarot cards ? ! kaito like the fool ! !

furthermore, the fool represents new beginnings, unpredictability, and the possibility of growth. it symbolizes stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing change and adventure. the fool card often indicates when it’s time to take risks and trust your instincts.

the fool is often depicted as a young man jumping off a cliff, symbolizing a leap into the unknown . A small dog at his feet represents loyalty and protection, begging for attention. the sun shining overhead indicates optimism, and the white rose in the fool’s hand indicates purity and possibility. the bag slung over his shoulder symbolizes past experiences, and the mountains behind represent the challenges that lie ahead.

[gumy-shark]

sorry can’t im busy. yeah im thinking about baby ritsu being the most violent kid on the playground and fistfighting other kids for their real or perceived crimes towards him or mob. yeah it’s gonna be all night sorry

[ripupupu]

Sketching main esper boys

Some close up under the cut

[da-janela-lateral]

I changed my mind about Serizawa's Brazilian voice actor. What were they thinking when they made Felipe Zilse voice Teruki???????

Why is his voice so deep. Puberty hit him like a train

[tinnchan]

Jack o' Frost (2023) - Ep. 1

"Oh...All of these things are related to me."

[hyacinthicgrove]

shibito magire side character doodles

[telebi]

did you fall for someone else? someone else? see, i think this is another specialty of mine.

The End of the World With You | Episode 01

[cowardlybean]

Hey. The Times They Are A Changin’ by @bandtrees and @tigsbitties amiright (muffled face down on the floor)

more (some unsettling things) beneath the cut :3

(Image 3 is my favorite sequence from an animation for TTTAAAC I’ve been working on, so here it is just in case I never finish </3, image 4 is me thinking about Mob’s house. If. That makes sense.)

OH MAN. OH MAN OH MAN. this fic has altered my brain chemistry in a way that has doctors baffled and leaves tragedy in its wake!!!!!!!!! Absolutely a masterpiece I’ve reread it 3 times now and every time I notice a new detail, there’s just SO MUCH CARE put into it. I think I could write an essay about every page of this fic LMAO it honestly blows me away, huge kudos to everyone who was a part of the project!!!!

Especially the multimedia aspects, they were so much fun to find and in some cases decode (Scared the SHIT outta myself with Breathe I think it’s one of my favorites). the youtube videos were so cool as well

Realizing a third of the way in that things will never get better was such a gut wrenching experience, and by the time I realized just how deep the hole Mob dug himself into was it was absolutely too late for anything to happen (the end of act 1 was horrific in the most amazing way. So many things stuck with me: the state Reigen was left in compared to how he was, Ritsu’s “surgery”, Dimple losing his best friend, Shou’s report to the police, Minori’s conversation (if you can call it that) with Mob?? Bone. Chilling.

One of the parts that has been sitting in my gut is Reigen’s fall, where he starts to ramble through fragments of old times. I genuinely thought he was calling out to Mob until just as the same time Mob did I recognized the words and it hit me like a HAMMER. I don’t know how to put it into words but Reigen rambling on like a broken record tore me apart, and then it gets WORSE. I only realized on my second read that the intro of the fic. (Correct me if I’m wrong) IS REIGENS PERSPECTIVE OF MOB SEVERING HIS TENDONS???? Holy fuck. Holy FUCK. The vague semblance of consciousness written there is so deeply unsettling I’m absolutely OBSESSED with it. ESPECIALLY THE FACT THAT EVEN IN THAT STATE HE STILL WANTS MOB TO BE HAPPY (the cheer ^^ mob bit) and idk if I’m interpreting right (this is gonna be so embarrassing if I’m not) but him recognizing the filthy jacket as well. Taking me OUT. AND. AND THE FACT REIGEN NEVER SPEAKS AGAIN AFTER THAT?????? (I could be wrong oops)

The mental states of every character in the fic are written so chillingly well. I can understand how Mob spirals, the anger and grief Tome feels, Shou's spite and anger, Teruki's conflict, Dimple's loss of his best friend, Serizawa's waning optimism, I can't name every character in this fic but they are ALL characterized so well. There's no needless conflict that make them OOC, there's a reason behind every little tragedy building upon themselves and creating a giant disaster that deeply affects the entire cast. Not to mention how its not just the loss of Reigen and Ritsu, but the loss of Mob too. If they were to have died on impact, its unsettling to think that things may have turned out better than this.

There’s a lot of things I wanna say that would basically be restating the fic (dimple losing his best friend, teru shaving, and the irony of ritsu’s powers being taken away by mob) so instead of writing 20 more paragraphs I’ll ask some questions I’ve been mulling over (ofc yall don’t have to answer if it’s revealing too much or smth)

Does Mob actually end up getting investigated or arrested? The formatting of the social media posts and texts makes them seem as if they're evidence and so does the ongoing "interview?" with Shou throughout the fic

In the party, is Reigen saying he doesn't like citrus a reference to the lemon sour :eyes:

I'm probably missing something but im curious about the metaphor around Reigen and a stray cat (hair clinging to Mob's clothes, comparing him to a stray cat finding a place to die, comparing him to a cat outside Serizawa's door)

If I'm not wrong and the "glitchy" sections at the beginning and end of the fic are Reigen and Ritsu's povs respectively, is their mind constantly like that or is it just in the specific circumstances where they have a small burst of consciousness?

last (thats a lie im definitely drawing more fanart in the future) but not least, some notes from when I was re-reading

[reisakumaproducer]

I just realised that Happyele is hyping up a Rei event in the middle of a Ritsu one? That’s the wildest thing this game has ever done EVEN IN REAL LIFE RITSU IS BEING OVERSHADOWED BY HIS BROTHER?

[doctorsiren]

Y’know what? Yeah okay. Ace Attorneys your Mob Psycho 100

Reigen is Phoenix (master bluffer, serial adopter) and so Serizawa would naturally be Miles (which is funny because Edgeworth hates small spaces, while Serizawa loves them). Mob is Apollo but I don’t even think I need to explain why. Tome is Trucy because I think stage magician fits her personality and also it fits with the father-daughter dynamic Reigen and Tome definitely have at the end. Sho is Franziska because Suzuki would be MVK (which fits really well, considering that Serizawa is Miles and there was that manipulation factor…). Ritsu is Maya because of Sho being Fran, but also, it just fits. Teru is definitely Klavier, and I don’t think I need to explain that one either. Takenaka is Athena because of Hearing(TM) and also they’re both pretty sporty.

the reverse of these can be found on this post!

[whats-it-mean]

so im drawing ritsu and hear me out what if i have him a really slutty waist

[spoontastic]

Justice

[someone-online]

follow up doodles to this

[hitsuyou-fukaketsu]

i think if. knights (enstars) were actual knights they would be so bad at it (affectionate)

I think ritsu is the one failing the knight test ngl but the rest should be fine i think