#mp100 manga analysis

[exilepurify]

“Shut Up and Eat” yakiniku omake — original Japanese dialogue analysis and translation

The 3rd installment of the four-part yakiniku omake series in Mob Psycho 100 involves a bit of clever wordplay to make Mob’s slurring make sense, which means that the translation had to play around with the words a little bit to make it work in English. So, what did Mob actually say in Japanese?

I got the raws from the Manga One app in the Japanese iTunes app store.

I would like to preface this by saying that the most popular translated version, where Mob says the infamous “Shut up and eat” line, is the best translated version in my opinion, because Mob actually slurring that is a totally feasible thing. I’ll explain more about that in the translation notes below, but this version I translated isn’t reworked to match the syllables and make the slurring believable, but rather to try and represent the Japanese meaning.

Reigen: モブ。— Mob.

それもう焼けてるぞ。— It’s about to burn!

Mob: ………

Reigen: モブ… —Mob…

それもう焼けてるぞ。(二回目) — It’s about to burn. (A second time)

なぁ… — Hey…

Mob: このくらい…よく火を通した方が好きなんで。— It’s good like this. I like the heat to spread evenly throughout.

Reigen: 焼き過ぎだ。それだと肉本来の味が消えてしまう。—It’s cooking too much. It’s going to completely lose the original flavor.

Mob: いや、おいしいです。— No, it’s tasty.

Reigen: いや、それはベストのおいしさではない。— No, that’s not the best taste.

焼き過ぎな上にタレも付け過ぎだ。タレの味しかしないだろう。— It’s overcooked and you put too much sauce on top.

Mob: いや、おいしいです。— No, it’s tasty.

Reigen: また！それも焼き過ぎだぞ。— Again! That one’s also cooking too much.

ちょっと焦げてんじゃねーか。— It’s a bit scorched, isn’t it?

あ、ほらそっちの肉もあと4秒くらいで… — Ah, look—that piece of meat, in about four seconds…

「師匠は肉にうるさいなぁ…」と言おうとしたが、口に入れた肉が予想以上に熱くて舌が上手くまわらず… — “Shishou is picky about meat, huh…” is what Mob tried to say, but when he put the meat in his mouth, it was hotter than expected and his tongue couldn’t articulate well.

Mob: チッ… うるせぇな。— Tch… Shut the hell up.

Reigen: ………..

霊幻は静かに肉を焼いた。— Reigen cooked his meat in silence.

——————————

Notes:

- Mob: このくらい…よく火を通した方が好きなんで。— It’s good like this. I like the heat to spread evenly throughout.

「このくらい…」　actually directly translates to “This much…” (in regards to how much he’s cooking the meat over the grill). It employs the Japanese technique of “only say half the sentence and let the rest be unspoken”, but that wouldn’t make a lot of sense in English and kind of sticks out translated strictly like that. So I just finished the sentence.

- Mob: チッ… うるせぇな。— Tch… Shut the hell up.

So, this whole thing is a joke about the many uses of the word 「うるさい」　(urusai). 「うるさい 」　can be used to mean “loud/noisy”, “annoying/bothersome”, “picky/fussy/particular”, and “shut up!” when shouted as an interjection. I’ve been in a class in Tokyo where we were all yelled at for talking by our professor, who kept saying 「うるさいだよ！」. In Mob’s originally-intended sentence—「師匠は肉にうるさいなぁ…」—he was using うるさい to mean “picky/fussy”, since Reigen truly would not relax and leave him alone over that meat. But because the meat burned his mouth, he ended up clicking his tongue and slurring 「うるせぇな。」　He dropped the “Shishou” and “about meat” parts entirely, his hurt tongue not moving fast enough and holding out an “e” vowel throughout the latter half of the word instead of raising up into an “ai” sound. This… makes the word very rude. And since all other parts of the sentence were dropped, it also makes it an interjection— a rude and harsh version of “Shut up!”, which I’ve chosen to represent by making Mob curse. (Turning rude conjugation forms into English cursing is a pretty common practice in Japanese translation, as they have more expressive conjugation forms than us and we have no other real way to express that inherent hostility/brashness.)

In the most popularized English translation of this scene, the translators did something very clever to make Mob’s slurring possible, since we don’t have “rude” verb forms in English. What Mob originally wanted to say was, “Shishou sure likes to talk about meat…”, which gets slurred into “Shut up and eat.” The syllables specifically from “shishou” and “about meat” can be slurred into something phonetically resembling “shut up and eat”. I think this is extremely clever and fantastic translation work.

Anyway. Reigen deserved that.

[tomezatos]

so like basically in the REIGEN manga tome tries so desperately to throw herself into the center of this literal Superhuman world she sees and play the role of the eager young protagonist and its so endearing but in the end reigen has to come clean and she can’t keep using the spiritual premise as a crutch. not because she was wrong to have her whimsical interests, but because the fantasy of specialness can often be an escape from the isolation a person feels due to being unable to live up to societal ideals of normalcy, and yet in the end the fantasy can itself end up feeding directly into the isolation by obscuring your view of the other people in your life. you cannot prioritize the idea of being unique or special alone and that is the reason that the power structures in the story (as represented by roshuuto in REIGEN) so frequently fail short; because actually EVERYONE is a Pathetic Freak Weirdo Nerd Loser, from the handsome, popular rich boy, to the pretentious Dark!Reigen foil who takes himself too seriously, to all of the mundane teenage girls who the audience is initially tricked into dismissing as shallow, but also by the same token EVERYONE deserves to be loved and feel supported. 

because actually bonds with other people are the most important thing, and centrally this is also why REIGEN relies so heavily on bonds with others as something to create horror. the evil spirit mimics the voices of the ones you love and lures you in and when you’re at your most lost and scared and in need, that’s when you turn around and the face of the person you trust betrays you. tome only contracts the fatal curse in the first place because she cared about reigen and went back to make amends with him. because that’s the most horrifying, most terrifying thing, the thing that renders you absolutely helpless, isn’t it? it’s letting yourself rely on others and trust them to the point that it leaves you vulnerable, isn’t it? but you have to do it, if you want to achieve true connection then you can’t continue keeping up a veneer of Specialness and posturing as someone you’re not no matter how afraid you are of being seen as your true self. that’s the idea that really connects tome and reigen above all else. you have to be who you really are and you have to trust that you’ll be loved for it. and that’s horrifying! that’s an unimaginable, Forbidden terror! but it’s necessary. 

and also I think it’s so clever how REIGEN conveys this by only bringing in shigeo kageyama, the protagonist and most recognizable character who the reader has so many preconceived notions of, in at the last moment as a terrifying ghost who is impersonating him. I mean also it’s partially because shigeo can easily be made to look scary lol, because let’s be real, he can be pretty goddamn scary /hj BUT MOSTLY it’s to have him in his uniform, in his most recognizable and iconic form that the reader will cling to, and then have it be blown away by the post-canon shigeo, the real shigeo, the shigeo who has grown and changed and is no longer stuck in the role he once was. because to be vulnerable with others you have to grow and change and do away with old pretenses and dynamics that you’ve become dependent on. it can be scary to stop playing roles after you’ve grown use to them for so long, but you don’t need them - your most honest self will be the most loved. and also I love how just like tome could tell that it was the real reigen bcause he immediately ran into a spiderweb and yelled, you can tell that it’s the real shigeo because he’s immediately rude as fuck and he and reigen literally instantly go into their mean pithy little affectionate banter lol ok sorry anyway.

and also because you cannot really be any more or less special than anyone else and you need bonds with others, it’s true both that you have to rely on other people, but also that you owe it to them to be kind. reigen is literally a normal person working in the spirit business, so he has to rely on other people with the necessary abilities, such as dimple the spirit and serizawa the psychic, yes, but he also does his part to take care of the people who matter to him. roshuuto is so focused on appearances and power - as shown by how he goes on and on about connections - but when it comes down to it, he was not willing to save others (leaving hoshido in Reliance), and so nobody bothered trying to save him in turn. he only abandoned, and was abandoned. this is shown most acutely in the end by how roshuuto “has no other option” but to pass his curse on to someone else to save himself, while reigen “has no other option” to take on a curse to save someone else. reigen and serizawa accepting their responsibility as adults to protect the children around them is an extension of the idea that you are equal to everyone and are obligated to be kind to your loved ones and recieve kindness in turn. anyway mutual trust and communication is all that matters and tome kurata is The protagonist of all time Sorry,

[fuyuu-suru-uzuki]

the seven manga panels in mob psycho 100's confession arc where shigeo and mob's argument can be heard from the outside have taken up residence in my head... to the point where they're charging me rent. this is the sixth one.

here, shigeo gently chides mob for trusting his mentor reigen, who is treading carefully over wrecked pavement some distance behind him. in keeping with shigeo's deliberate othering of the man (he refuses to refer to reigen by name), i rendered him in monochrome.

this panel's art was not adapted for the anime, but its text was condensed as dialogue over a flashback. it reads:

｢あの人は…　僕を…　利用しようとしてるだけだよ…」 ano hito wa... boku wo... riyou shiyou to shiteru dake da yo... 'that man... only wants... to use me...'

a timelapse for this piece:

and ONE's original panel:

この一連の他の絵 kono ichiren no hoka no e other drawings in this series panel 2｜panel 3｜panel 5｜panel 7

[eudikot]

It's all coming together

[russenoire]

by the time shigeo is fourteen he can tell whether someone else is an esper on sight (and says so), but i do wonder how he got there. i doubt he would have had much exposure to other espers over the 3 years he spends exorcising for reigen, besides what we see in the story.

This is my favorite omake/4panel strip:

a) It canonically confirms Mob did not know Reigen was a fraud from the very beginning, but found out some other time (since here he thinks the smoke rings are a power)

b) Reigen as usual being a good dad person by deciding to quit something because he doesn’t want a kid around smoke (and then finding out a financial reason why this is a good idea)

c) Cute 11yo Mob thinking smoke rings are psychic power and being awed

[exilepurify]

Reigen’s confession scene: original Japanese manga text analysis and translation

I had a ton of fun translating the Japanese text from the “no one will save me” Mob headspace scene and it’s fantastic practice, so I decided to personally translate the raws from Reigen’s confession scene and analyze that a bit.

More under the cut! (Very long :0)

Reigen: なんの力も無いんだ！— I dont have any powers!

持ってないんだよ！— None at all!

Reigen: 嘘… — A lie…

最初から嘘だったんだ… — From the start, it was a lie.

Reigen: ちょっと失礼。— Excuse me for a moment.

花粉症かな? — Hay fever, right?

俺はよく嘘をつく。— I lie all the time.

客にも… — To my clients…

Reigen: お前にもな… — and to you…

初めてお前が事務所に来た日… — That day, when you came to my office for the first time…

俺は嘘をついた。— I lied to you.

お前の悩みを知った気で相談に乗った。— I advised you as if I understood your struggles.

お前は俺を簡単に信じた。だから… — And you believed me easily. So…

お前を騙して仕事をやらせた。— I tricked you into working for me.

あの日から今日まで… — From that day, up until now…

Reigen: ずっと… — The entire time…

ずっと利用し続けてたんだ... — I continued to use you the entire time…

俺… — I…

本当は何も知らねぇんだ。— I honestly don’t know shit

Reigen: 超能力のこと… — about psychic powers…

Reigen: これが俺の正体だ… — This is my true self.

今まで師匠面してすまなかったな… — I’m sorry for acting like your master up until now.

だけど最後なんだ。もう少し言わせてくれ。— But this is the last time. So hear me out just a little longer.

Reigen: お前だけが特別な���じゃない。— You’re not the only one who’s special.

ニ面性なんて誰にでもある。— Everyone has a second side to them.

これは今でも本当に思うことだ。— This is what I truly believe, even now.

皆お前と同じだ。俺も… — You are the same are everyone else. The same as me, too…

だからそんなに悩むな。— So you don’t have to worry so much.

いや… 悩むんでもいいか… — No… worrying is fine, too.

それもまた当たり前のことだ。— That is also a natural thing to do.

ここだけの話… 俺は隠してる自分の本当の姿が大嫌いなんだが… — Just between you and me… I absolutely despise the true nature of my secret self.

それとは別として相談所での日々は嫌いじゃなかった。— Despite this, I didn’t hate those days we spent at the consultation office.

俺には「嘘」があったからお前と知り合えた訳だし… — Because I had “lies”, I got to get to know you…

モブにもその「力」があったから… 今のお前があるんじゃないか。— Because you have your “powers”… you are the person you are today, right?

Reigen: えーと… Um…

要するにだ… — In short…

お前は… — You…

そのままでいい。— are fine the way you are.

もう俺がいなくても大丈夫だ。— You will be okay even if I’m not here anymore.

大丈夫。— You will be okay.

そろそろ受け入れてやれ。自分を！— Accept it a little at a time. Accept yourself!

お前なら… モブならそれができるって事を…俺は知ってる！！— Because it’s you…. Because you’re you, Mob, you can do it. I know you can!!

—————————

Notes:

- なんの力も無いんだ! — I dont have any powers!

Reigen uses a widely-unused kanji here, 「無い」 or “nai”. A.K.A, Japanese negation. It’s almost always written with kana (興味がない、続けない、etc). I imagine the kanji was included here for greater emphasis. Reigen does actually use another unused kanji later in this conversation though (事 instead of こと) so I also think there’s a case to be made for it being an intentional decision made to make Reigen’s speech patterns seem eccentric, but I would need to look at much more of his manga dialogue to confirm that.

- 本当は何も知らねぇんだ。— I honestly don’t know shit

Okay. He doesn’t actually use the shit word here, but cursing is a bit strange in Japanese because of how tone can be subtly indicated by verb form, something we can’t really do in English. Reigen uses a very casual, rude form of 「知らない」 that I think is most faithfully represented by a curse word. He’s obviously trying to put negative emphasis. The Crunchyroll sub put it as “I don’t know a damn thing”. I chose “I honestly don’t know shit” because it’s a bit less of a deviation from the raw dialogue.

- 今まで師匠面してすまなかったな… — I’m sorry for acting like your master up until now.

I thought the use of 「師匠面して」 was interesting. 「師匠」 is “Shishou/Master”, which is straightforward, but 「面」 is a kanji that means “mask, face, surface” and it’s basic readings are “メン/men”, “おもて/omote” and “つら/tsura”. Reigen uses a lesser-known reading and meaning of this kanji, so much so that ONE included furigana over the kanji to clarify the reading. 「面」 here is read as 「づら」and is used as a suffix to mean “looking like a…, acting as if a….”.

お前だけが特別な訳じゃない。— You’re not the only one who’s special.

「訳」 (wake) is my mortal enemy, because it’s a word in Japanese that’s so close to being a particle but isn’t a particle. It’s a word indicating a conclusion reached from personal reasoning or evidence, or circumstance, or meaning related to a situation. It’s abstract, so it can be a bit tricky deciding how best to translate a sentence it’s used in. Sometimes it is not directly translated at all, which is what I did here, taking it more as a subtextual indicator of context than as a word in the text itself. However, this is out of personal preference, and I would totally accept it being translated more overtly as “You’re not the only one with special circumstances.”

- ここだけの話… 俺は隠してる自分の本当の姿が大嫌いなんだが… — Just between you and me… I absolutely despise the true nature of my secret self.

Two notes about this one:

「ここだけの話」 is a phrase that directly translates to “this is a discussion for only right here”, but that would sound kind of weird to say in English, and it means the exact same thing as “just between you and me”.

「隠してる自分の本当の姿」 is a DOOZY. It’s a little clunky, but I think it fits for Reigen to be a bit dramatic with it. I sort of played around with it a little bit, but strictly translated, it means “my hidden self’s true form”.

- 大丈夫だよ。行こう。— I will be okay. Let’s go.

This happens in the scene where Mob and Shigeo accept each other (not a part of Reigen’s confession), but I included it for a good reason. This isn’t so much a translation note as it is a commentary on the manga, but I think I like the manga version of the scene just a little better than the anime, just for the “大丈夫” thing between Reigen and Mob. Mob’s referencing Reigen’s previous words, 「もう俺がいなくても大丈夫だ。大丈夫。」 — “You will be okay even if I’m not here anymore. You will be okay”, which are beautifully enhanced by the sudden panel of Reigen watching Mob in that moment with a small smile, silently reassuring him that it’s true. It’s such a small detail but it means so much to me, and I’m a little sad it wasn’t fully preserved in the anime. But, yknow how it is. Not everything can make it in.

[cowardlybean]

ok so

beyond being gross and weird I think there’s something to be said about the lack of literary analysis in proshipping (this post is about mp100 in particular but this can apply elsewhere)

there’s two points I’m getting at here: lack of understanding of the characters being interpreted, and intent of author

first of all, the common rebuttal to “he would not fucking say that” is “it’s just fiction and for fun” (which is just a really common rebuttal for everything but that’s beside my point). But that point lacks acknowledgement that their interpretation isn’t based on the source material. For example: Reigen, the guy who notoriously stood up against a terrorist organization to keep kids from being in danger, being interpreted as a pedophile (there’s no soft way to put it). It’s going directly against what is set up in a (in my opinion) disrespectful way. Also there’s a point to be made about trampling over platonic relationships for the sake of shipping and how that applies to proship but i digress!

There are methods to have characters act in ways they would not normally. In fact, most of my favorite fics across all of my fandoms do this!! What they all have in common is an understanding of that character that explains what pushed them to the point of deconstructing their own morals and values. “Wouldn’t it be fucked up if this happened?” works so much better when you can see how it led to that point. And even then I’d venture to say there are some lines that shouldn’t be crossed, knowing these characters do in fact belong to the author, but me drawing lines in the sand isn’t going to be accurate to everyone’s view. It’s always going to be a nuanced topic!

Second of all is the importance of authors intent when reading. Rather than applying this to the base media, however, I’m pivoting focus onto those creating proship content. What is their intent while writing? Through unfortunate exposure in Multiple fandoms I see these common reasons: fluffy content with or without acknowledging the ship being (for lack of a better word. i wish i knew a better one) problematic, dark content such as gore or rape, or (there’s no way to put this lightly) jackoff material. Keep in mind these are generalizations, but im also not giving some of these people the time of day to add defenses.

The “fluffy” content I can sometimes see as the author of the content not understanding the consequence of the ship itself (incest and pedophilia bad) due to a multitude of factors, and I genuinely do think there are learning experiences for them in non negative or aggressive ways. Dark content I can make a case that this is a form of self harm whether intentional or unintentional, however for some this gets looped into the last category. Finally, it’s pretty obvious some people just yank their shit to incest and pedophilia and I REALLY don’t think I need to explain why that’s bad. Point is, it’s important to consider proshippers intent, and how it’s more complex than just gross people who are intentionally malicious. I think there’s learning experiences here for every proshipper, however those who refuse to acknowledge that their actions have consequences (entirely different post to make there about how proshipping can in fact have real life repercussions) I hold a special vendetta against.

To conclude I’ll say I’m not someone who calls myself an “Anti”. Do I hate proshipping? Yes, absolutely I do. But I also enjoy fiction with darker topics that are handled in a critical manner!! Think Oyasumi Punpun. Good manga btw, absolutely horrifying though. I don’t think dark subjects should be kept out of fiction but I do think they should be handled with care.

[carlyraejepsans]

Out of everything you have read/watched (e.g ORV, Homestuck, I think you saw Mob Phsyco, etc) in the past year or two, what would you say your most recommended is (and even your favourite if you can decide one?)

ORVVVV ORV ORV ORV (< sound of me imitating a seal)

lol seriously though orv is straight up undertale levels of "metanarrative that fucks your entire life sideways". i cannot recommend it enough to at least give it a try. another thing that orv does like UT is that it filters its own audience so that its story has maximum impact. ie: you won't replay the same game dozens of times with minimal changes to the gameplay unless you 1) really love the characters and 2) want to absorb every crumb and bite that the game has to offer -> flowey's story will hit like a truck. in much the same way, orv develops a narrative crafted to emotionally devastate people who dedicate their heart and souls to stories and fiction (especially as a coping mechanism), which... you kinda have to be if you're willing to read a novel so fucking long HAHAHAHA. so hmmmm preeetttty please :pleading: give it a shot? you don't have to read much if it doesn't hook you in but i promise it is SO much better than you can possibly imagine

okay orv screaming fit over. i haven't watched mp100 yet but i HAVE read the manga! which i wholeheartedly recommend. i don't have a good way to express it but the way the plot unravels is so... light? not as in fluffy, but as in it doesn't weight you down. it's FUN to read, and while it definitely has characters that will rattle around your head forever, it doesn't exhaust you with it.

also utena. no cap, no kidding, if more people watched this series it would dramatically improve the reading comprehension of this entire website. nothing, and i mean NOTHING, has sharpened my literary analysis skills quite as much as the symbolism in rgu. one of those few pieces of art where i looked at it, experienced it, and it made me go "i want to create something that affects people in the same way this has affected me"

homestuck was also fun! it eventually lost me when the troll saga was fully integrated into the main plotline, too many characters introduced at once and too little time to care about them enough to keep track (at least for me). i would still recommend it. the early story is still incredibly solid, the sburb reveal is fun, and it plays with its own medium in some genuinely incredible ways. also it is quite funny. alas.

also. read ted chiang's sci-fi short stories collection. one of my favorite authors alive

[melissa-titanium]

OC QUESTION!! :D

which kind of stories do your ocs like? (can be any oc) like, how we read books and watch shows, which kind of stories would your ocs like?

OMG HI AZ. HI HI HI HI fuck ok that is a very good question.

oryx because i've been thinking about him lately... he's a doctor, so very analytical and has similar interests to mel (though he LOATHES that fact.) often reads nonfiction, usually factual things like studies of the brain and soul magic. despite being a physical doctor, he reads a LOT about mental disorders & the like. if you asked him what stories he liked, in terms of fictional ones... he'd probably like something like evangelion. he'd definitely watch house md, and find the medical practices funny. though again, humans don't really exist in this era so house md wouldnt.,... like.,......happen . eva either. but like HYPOTHETICALLY. you know.

mel will read anything and everything. stories, anatomical reference books, automotive mechanic books, pre-koboreal invasion literature, fucking give him a 600 page book on cleaning bathroom floor tiles he Will Read It. he wants to KNOW shit. he fucking HATES movies, but because he's a contrarian there are some instances where he'll watch them. he can't sit still long enough to watch entire hour long movies/episodes etc but if you give him something to do while listening in the bg he'll be set for life. he's ME so he'd watch what i watch, mp100, dunmeshi, murder drones (he would LOVE murder drones. ep 4 would make him hungry for oil, which is dangerous because he works as a mechanic on occasion LOL) you could never get him to admit it but he's probably watched twilight. he's a vampire and he LOVES wolves. (i... don't share this trait. i haven't watched twilight. mel would NEVER watch true crime/horror movies. not because he's scared of them or anything similar, because he much prefers when the violence is actually happening in front of him, ESPECIALLY when he's the one doing it. don't forget he is a mass murderer & a cannibal who enjoys violence.

draco is illiterate. she's not stupid, but she, similarly to me, struggles in investing herself in a story unless she really clicks with it/its characters or story. she probably likes MAKING stories more than reading them, honestly... the issue with that though is that she can't write because of her claws. she's too insecure about her own opinions to think too hard about characters & stories and even MORE so to even share them, but maybe at some point she read with magmivit, & they helped her write! you gotta consider she was living away from civilization with nothing & no one but her freak ass of a mom & crazy bitch dad out in the woods, she never had stories, so she really likes them. she'd much rather cozy up and struggle to read a book than go out and do something on her own, unless the "doing something" involved being useful for others. stories that are more blunt & obvious in their delivery but still handle mature themes would be good for her... atla, mlp, guardians of gahoole would be good for her. i think she'd like warrior cats if it didn't make her sad.

TROUT! manga reader. anime watcher. she's kind of a weeb... DEFINITELY WATCHES RWBY & AMPHIBIA & HOMESTUCK my main inspos for her were ruby, marcy & june after all . haha. she watches eva because of oryx, when your weird adoptive cat uncle/past life recommends you a show you HAVE to watch it. she doesn't *read* a lot, she likes picture books & comics more than big walls of text because of how easily she's bored. action movies would be something she likes. she's museful, but likes to shut her brain off sometimes. not very character-analysis-y, prefers when characters are easy to read & relatable.

THJANK UOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING ME THIS I LIOVE QUESTINS ABOUT MY; OCS. *DIES

[brown-little-robin]

ROBIN ROBIN ROBIN

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 :)

[russenoire]

for @doctortv:

[image ID: a small japanese boy in a raincoat with a bowl-cut stands under an umbrella topped with a little frog. it is raining, but he is generating a bubble-shaped barrier with his ESP to push back the rain… which prompts onlookers to speculate about why he's bothering with the umbrella in the first place. text reads: ｢傘の意味ある…？｣ ｢汚したくないんだろうな…｣]

日本語で「モブサイコ100」単行本13巻、183ページから絵です。「お気に入り」というおまけからです。 image is from tankōbon (volume) 13 of mob psycho 100 in japanese, page 183. it's from an omake called 'his favorite'. thanks to @luciferstit / @exilepurify for the post that helped me find it!

its text reads: ｢傘の意味ある…？｣ 'what's the point of the umbrella... ?'

｢汚したくないんだろうな…｣ 'i guess he doesn't want it to get wet...' (lit. dirty, soiled)

also, from the tags:

#It could also be that hes too focused on finding dimple that he forgot to use a barrier (from @yaraneechan)

i buy it and feel it dovetails neatly with 'after ???%'s first emergence, this boy only resorts to using his ESP for solving problems under duress.' getting devastatingly wet doesn't count as duress...

#tw death mention (from @sentariana)

apologies; i have tagged the post appropriately. if you need me to tag any other meta in future, please let me know! as i often write about this series from a trauma-based lens, i'll be discussing dark shit frequently.

that scene in season 1 where teruki hanazawa exorcises ekubo mid-sentence... and shigeo's eyes widen in shock?

i really want to talk about it, specifically the explosion meter accompanying it.

normally, when the teenager's emotions aren't obvious to the audience, that meter relays to us a sense of what he is actually feeling. but we cannot trust the meter here. we see it jump up a few points at teru's 'psycho wave' sending the sleazy ghost to the shadow realms, and remain steady at 50% upon shigeo's recollections of the spirit's unsavory nature. the boy outright tells teru that he isn't bothered. and it's funny!

but shigeo isn't being honest with himself here either.

his face briefly gives his feelings away before resettling into its normal flat affect. (to be fair, what he's really feeling isn't teru's business. this kid is trying to provoke a fight out of him, after all.) after he's basically tortured into exploding, shigeo spends three hours in the pouring rain, searching everywhere for ekubo.

three. hours.

these are not the actions of someone who isn't bothered. letting himself get drenched to the point of sickness,

ALT

ALT

even though he literally holds the power to shield himself from it,

ALT

reads to me like unconscious self-punishment for allowing all this to happen.

after a large chunk of his short life spent denying and fearing them for good reason, shigeo's first impulse is often not to use his psychic powers -- even after his integration at the story's end. i wish this was discussed more, because many watchers cannot fathom why this boy with world-breaking psychic abilities would ever refuse to use them.

also: the explosion meter lying to us / representing shigeo's detachment from his own emotions alexithymia may occur elsewhere in the series as well, especially when he's not close to an explosion; i'm reminded of the tiny dent ritsu's provocation of him makes in it a few episodes later.

[candyskiez]

2, 12, 21, 22, and 25 from this ask game

2. The dungeon meshi manga, the locked tomb series. I'm gonna get the manga from rhe library and I already have Gideon the ninth but the headmate that wanted it hasn't been around very much latepy

12. Milkshake

21. I really wanna learn to animate, ever since I was a kid, but I kept not being good at it immediately so I gave up 😭

22. I wanna see the other movies in cartoon saloons Irish folklore trilogy, Lego monkey kid, black sails, a lot of things! I just keep not getting around to it. Oh oh I'm watching Hannibal but taking forever with it. Sorry.

25. I love character analysis! I love love love when every characters line and action is chosen very specifically to Mean Something. I love when shows actually care about their characters and want to make them feel alive I love when everything in a show means something I love when someone clearly put so much effort into making somrthing!!! I love it!!! (This is propaganda for you to watch mp100)

[luciferstit]

hiiii im really curious to know how many time have you rewatched mp100. it seems like you did a lot of analysis that need a lot of rewatch especially the one with mob kanji literacy

Hellooo! I think as far as formal rewatches go, like starting from the beginning and going to the end, maybe like four times for s1 and s2 and twice for s3, and I’ve read the manga through three times.

But as far as more casual, informal watches go, I really like watching analyses and seeing people’s thoughts on episodes, and I used to really enjoy watching people, either irl friends or internet people, watch MP100 and react to it lol.

So if we include watching other people watch MP100 (where the video would also be shown on screen), I genuinely may have seen each episode like 10 or more times. For some of my favorite arcs, like Mogami and Confession, this may be closer to 15.

With stuff like amvs and the Mob kanji literacy post and screenshot detail analyses and stuff, I have all of the dub episodes and ovas downloaded on my phone for ease of access, so a lot of the time I’ll be skimming through the episodes frame-by-frame to get the info I need or to find cool shots.

I tend to get really fixated on one thing for a long time, and season 3 was both long-awaited and really really good, so I’ve been trapped here on Mob Psycho island lmao

[that-was-anticlimactic]

no but guys. had a breakdown over mp100 last night and the started mentally creating lesson plans for how i’d teach a unit on character analysis with the mp100 manga like i even have the final paper for the unit planned out girl help--

[russenoire]

in koyama's defense, the awakening lab's database was wrong. ritsu's data was in it under his ani's name...

but yeah, that whole confrontation happened because the dumb muscle couldn't follow directions. which were literally to find the strongest esper kids and kidnap those. if you're sent to steal a boy and his brother beats the snot and piss out of you? you take his brother, no matter what your picture tells you. it's not rocket science.

Number of times Ritsu's name was said aloud in the alleyway: 14

Number of times Ritsu calls Mob "Nii-san": 19

Number of times Koyama checks to make sure he has the right kid: 1

AND HE STILL GOT IT WRONG

[walkman-cat]

happy sts !!!!!!!

are your ocs readers? and if so, which genres/stories do they enjoy? is there any genre they despise but that still read?

wribtlr: @vsnotresponding

happy sts! i'll answer this ask with the undiscovered country lads!

arsenoë elefterakis: BIG reader, spends most of her time at school reading. mostly reads sherlock holmes, but'll read any detective fiction and any books about harry houdini, magic, or escapology. is difficult to convince to read anything else. she WILL read greek childrens books though :)

jack conan ong: also a big reader. is willing to read pretty much anything except romance (books that contain romance are fine), and will annotate anything they read. likes reading literary fiction, classics (especially late 19th and 20th century), shakespeare, certain manga (dcmk, kamen rider manga adaptations, nge, mp100, etc.), discworld, and books about asian diaspora and historical fiction set where their parents/grandparents are from (vietnam, malaysia/singapore). they'll also read essays and criticism for funsies (big fan of ursula k le guin). they started reading more detective fiction after befriending noë (though they 'd already read some because dcmk recommends a Bunch of authors), and like christie (poirot), chandler (marlowe), ranpo (akechi kogoro), and doyle (holmes). ALSO likes reading queer books.

markos elefterakis: wasn't a big reader before his major depressive episode, isn't much of a reader in the present either (but is trying to read a bit more). his favourite books growing up were calvin and hobbes, the corfu trilogy, and the bartimaeus trilogy, but after he's recommended catcher in the rye it quickly reaches very high up his list (he relates a little too much to holden). i think he likes shakespeare but prefers reading it in the context of performance rather than analysis, and he definitely likes reading plays and comics.

peter elefterakis: likes sci-fi and fantasy (but especially sci-fi) (favourite authors include ursula k le guin, douglas adams, arthur c clarke, martha wells, philip reeve) and will read space-related non-fiction. will also read comics if he feels so inclined (he and markos grew up on calvin and hobbes, and comics translated into greek-- ie. asterix, lucky luke, iznogoud).

deb ong: reads a lot of those greek myth retellings (silence of the girls, the song of achilles, etc etc. they're everywhere). has also read the iliad and odyssey and all the percy jackson novels. (pete ribs her a little for it). she also likes reading classics, fantasy, historical fiction, and ursula k le guin novels. she also reads a Lot of manga (favourites including bungou stray dogs, toilet bound hanako-kun, chainsaw man, assassination classroom). she also reads bl and gl, but doesn't tell anyone (apart from jc) (i think she cried over given).

phyl marlowe: she Loves horror. is willing to read any kind of Weird and Horrifying fiction. also loves fluffy slice-of-lifey romances (both she and deb watched/read heartstopper together).