#was because of the relationship between Mob and Reigen

[kagilagilalas]

"I've always known from the very beginning, what my master really is..."

[sallymew4]

kids when they hear that their dad is back in town VS. kids when theyre hanging out with a conman that accidentally stole their wallet once

im not even joking btw

bonus heres me being crazy about them in dms ^^^

[scribefindegil]

From the start . . .

[daisyachain]

The microtrope of characters who meet and develop an intense and important friendship between each other that doesn’t match up with the actual structure of their relationship, with the vacuum between what they are to each other and what they act like to each other causing difficulty. Specifically, friendships between two characters who want to be peers, think of each other as peers, act like peers, but do have some imbalance of age and power between them that means that it can’t work like just a normal friendship. One of them can/will always pull the seniority/juniority card, putting the relationship in a quantum state where the hierarchy is always present if it isn’t acting.

Like Anakin and his master/apprentice! Anakin wants to just be buddies with Obi-Wan and Ahsoka. He treats them as peers and friends even though Obi-Wan raised him for half his life and Ahsoka is a kid relying on him for survival in a warzone every day of her life. He’s emotionally immature and leans on his lineage for the same equal sort of support that he wants from Padme. He doesn’t want to be a guide and responsible mentor to Ahsoka, he wants to sneak out of the house and go joyriding with her. He doesn’t want to be Obi-Wan’s charge who must get him to sign his forms for sleepaway camp, he just wants to hang out at the bar with him.

The imbalance between how Anakin treats those relationships and the power structure of them turns out badly. Sheev aside (good old Sheev), in a good world both of these friendships end awkwardly.

When Ahsoka experiences a trauma that she chooses to recover from alone, Anakin treats it like she’s letting down the side. Even if he knows he needs to support her, he takes her independence like it’s personal. How dare his bestie ghost him like that? He waits for her and he resents that he has to.

Then Obi-Wan tries to give Anakin advice as his teacher and guardian, responsible for and in charge of his learning, Anakin treats it like it’s some buddy of his is sticking his nose in his business. Obi-Wan’s actions aren’t a breach of mentor-apprentice etiquette but they are overbearing as between friends. No matter how good the relationships are, Anakin’s refusal to acknowledge the structure in which they exist only causes problems and drives them apart

[hey-its-rpb]

Yes! A few times in the show we see that Mob isn’t paid very well; I think it’s easy for the audience to make the quick assumption that this is deliberate on Reigen’s part and that he’s keeping the bulk of his earnings for himself. But looking at the moments OP included here - Mob’s small paychecks are not a result of Reigen skimping on his pay out of greed so much as a result of the job not being lucrative as Reigen says on the tv.

Sure, he may “keep” a significant portion of the earnings they do get compared to how much Mob receives at the end of the day - but I don’t think Reigen is paying himself all of that. That money is likely going towards the office’s rent, electricity, licensing, website service, email/messaging service, advertising... etc. I think Reigen probably takes home necessities + spending money when he can (I mean, he also has to pay his rent, electric, transit, etc).

That said, there’s a memorable character-establishing bit in episode 1, during the outro, where Reigen takes Mob out for ramen and specifically tells him not to overdo it on the toppings - then it cuts to their bowls and we see Reigen got the full toppings for himself (this comically also shows “Progress Towards Mob’s Explosion” tick up by 3% once he notices the discrepancy). 

Because of that scene, one of the audience’s first interactions with Reigen’s character is one which displays his potential for self-indulgence/ hypocrisy. But importantly - it’s at the START of the show. And isn’t moving away from those tendencies his whole arc throughout the series? He also started out with a skewed disregard for Mob’s time (calling him up with no warning for a job) and clear callousness in referring to Mob’s then-lack of social life & peer relationships. 

All of these behaviors make our first impressions unfavorable (which is fair!) - but that’s the point of Reigen changing and learning as the show progresses! A lot of his season 1 growth is moving away from interpersonal self-serving tendencies and figuring out what a mutually respectful relationship with Mob might look like, imo.

All in all Reigen might’ve fumbled sometimes in the process of finding his purpose in life (don’t we all) and aligning his behavior to what his values are - and the audience is allowed to see that! But like Op said, we should also understand that he’s never been fundamentally motivated to swindle folks or pay Mob pennies in order to get himself ahead.

oh me? i’m just dreaming of a day when this fandom stops characterizing reigen as someone who’s greedy and selfish and primarily motivated by accumulating wealth beyond what he needs to make ends meet.

reigen’s motivated by a desire to find a purpose in life and he used mob to accomplish that goal, not to… get rich quick. 

[bug-slappy]

What Serizawa lore and dialogue in the manga that got cut from the anime are you talking about specifically I'm curious /gen

THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME A REASON TO GO HAM!!! any adaptation is gonna have its cutbacks due to time restraints, but i feel like so many of serizawas lines/important moments got totally butchered or cut completely just to be replaced with cute moments that never happen in the manga.

!! MP100 SPOILERS HEAD obvi !!

First case: In the manga, when serizawa finally stands up to toichiro, things pan out COMPLETELY differently!

I feel like this is a really important moment for serizawa. whatever false idea of friendship serizawa had left is ripped away from him. its unnerving to see how brutal and ruthless toichiro is, finally showing his true colours to serizawa after manipulating him for 3 years. I feel like its also a really important moment for reigen to bare witness to. serizawa and toichiros relationship serves as an exaggerated parallel to mob and reigens. A powerful and persuasive man using a naïve esper for their powers under the false promise of learning to control their powers, whether it helps them for better or for worse. big difference is that reigen does help mob in the style of important life lessons and guiding him towards being a good person. after the separation arc, reigen realizes how manipulative he's been to mob, he becomes a better person because of it. but i feel like after the TOICHIRO fight specifically is where we see a very clear difference in how reigen treats mob. he becomes a lot more patient and less controlling. it bums me out that this interaction was cut completely from the anime. I think it must have been for time because they also cut ekubos moments.

Serizawa not knowing what getting arrested is:

Calling the Yokai hunter out on his bluff:

they replaced this with the awesome fight scene but still an awesome line i wish they kept it was so bad ass lol:

But the most shocking thing that they cut from the finale was this scene, after mob goes to reigen and serizawa for advice on asking out tsubomi:

not only is it fruity,,... but more importantly its a super important moment!!! seeing reigen open up like this in front of another person is something we havent seen up until this point!! mob and reigen have impacted each other so much, and its a FANTASTIC segway into the final chapter! absolutely crazy to me that they would cut such a deep personal moment especially considering how much BONES loves reigen.. it gets "implied" through a quick silent moment between reigen and serizawa (all they show in the anime is serizawa looking surprised at him)

not only that, but its so interesting how easily reigen opens up around serizawa. he doesn't do that around anyone else (probably because serizawa is the only person near his age playing an active role in his life bro has no friends)

and its incredible how well serizawa can already read reigen after such a short time working at S&S. serizawa tends to be quiet and hang in the background, but in the manga it has a purpose; hes observing the world around him. when he does have something to say it has importance and is carefully thought out.

in the anime so much of that important dialogue is cut and replaced with his moe salaryman moments which sure its cute, but when you know what he was really supposed to be saying its such a major let down. I feel like the writers didnt know about serizawas huge fan following hes had since his premier, so they didn't really care about him. thats my best guess as to why so many good moments got cut

also this:

serizawa mentioned during his fight with mob that hes accidentally sent his mother flying before with his powers,,, exactly like mobs traumatic moment when he sent ritsu flying and injured him when they were kids... as i mentioned earlier, serizawa has always been a very clear parallel to mob (i can talk more about that in another post if someone asks). I was really hoping theyd go deeper into this moment in the anime but it GOT CUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RAAUGH!!!!

and this page right after.. MAN:

BROTHER.... to me, i feel like this is the moment that made serizawa certain reigen doesnt have powers. not only does he have a talent for reading people, but he has to know by now. if he thought reigen had powers to protect himself, he wouldn't be saving his ass all the time like he does.

he knows reigen wont be fine on his own. he knows that reigen has something hugely important to tell him, important enough that reigen is willing to die to run out there and tell him

WHICH BY THE WAY THE MOST DISRESPECTFUL BUTCHERING OF A SCENE OF ALL TIME:

from what ive researched it seems like a common occurrence in japanese culture to remove your shoes before attempting suicide. this is such an intense and impactful moment for reigen to be removing his shoes. looking around and seeing the situation hes in, but still throwing himself into harms way so he can protect mob like hes done so many times before, but in this scene hes making the concious decision to go in, knowing the risk involved. INSANE THAT IN THE ANIME they made removing his shoes some sort of way to get better grip to run. obviously, running barefoot in rubble and destruction is not going to give you better foot grip.. I think they did that to make the scene more lighthearted but it just feels like poor taste.

i feel like the style choices combined with the dialogue cuts in S3 seriously take away from the intense impact of the manga. ONE has such a talent for writing characters to be fleshed out human beings as well as interpersonal relationships. season 1 and 2 did such a good job of showing that even when there had to be scene cuts.

if you havent already, I think you should for sure read the manga. its even more life changing to me than the anime already is, and ONE has a beautiful art style and can convey strong emotions better than anything else ive ever seen. I have more good serizawa moments than this that were cut, and a lot of dialoue between mob and ??? was removed too, but i don't want to spoil every funny joke or character building moment.

this is why i think everyone should read the manga and the REIGEN spin off book :) thank you for reading through this!

ps: devastated when this got cut

[rainyorca]

You're So Handsome When I'm All Over Your Mouth 𓇼 Reigen Arataka X Reader

Content warnings: F!reader, nsfw, cunnilingus, p n v, slight voyeurism, sick!reader, established relationship, smut.

Word count: 2,716

𓆉︎ ☼ 𓇼 ☼ ꩜𓆉︎ ☼ 𓇼 ☼ ꩜𓆉︎ ☼ 𓇼 ☼ ꩜𓆉︎ ☼ 𓇼 ☼ ꩜𓆉︎ ☼ 𓇼 ☼

Reigen isn’t at all a careless lover. He’s very attentive, observant, and careful. Not once has he hurt you, on purpose at least. Sometimes the grip he has on your thighs is enough to bruise but of course he never truly means to do that. He gets excited fairly easily, years of abstinence makes it a bit hard for him to stay still. Especially when there’s such a lovely prize standing in front of him. 

You're half asleep, worn out from the sickness you had recently caught. It was a simple cold but eventually led into something that made you stay home from work and here you are, 6 pm on a Tuesday bedridden and just waking up from a short nap. You're sprawled out on the soft blankets of your bed, legs open slightly and arms slightly above your head. You're in your panties and one of Reigen’s t-shirts that you stole from his closet a few months ago. 

He’s standing at the end of the bed, staring at you with a flushed face as if he’s never seen you like this before. You rub your sleepy eyes, sitting up slightly to look at him. “Hey Reigen,” you mumble, your throat dry and voice raspy. You try to sit up but he stops you, getting on the bed and hovering above you slightly. He gently pushes your shoulder down and then feels your forehead with the back of his hand. “Do you feel hot? Is that why you’re laying on top of the blankets instead of under them?” He questions with a rather serious face. “Nooo,” you hum, “I just woke up.” 

“I can see that,” he backs up, standing back on the ground. “What’re you even doing here,” you say, it comes out more like a statement than a question. “Just came to see how you were feeling,” he responds, sitting at the edge of the bed, “and you told me to come by whether I felt like it, that’s why you gave me the spare key remember?” You nod slowly, trying to recall that conversation from months ago. You watch him loosen his tie and let it drape around his neck. For some reason you start to feel hot not just in your face but between your legs too. He takes off his jacket and then unbuttons his shirt just a little so you can see his collar bones. To distract yourself, you start asking about him so he could do his usual rambling. 

“How was your day?” You ask, watching his expression change a bit at your question. “It was good, there were a lot of evil spirits today. Mob and Serizawa did an excellent job today,” he responds, “as did I of course.” 

“I expect nothing less from the greatest psychic of the modern age,” you tease and he narrows his eyes at you. You know his little secret, you always have. You are incredibly hard to lie to after all. “Let’s not forget who’s bedridden and currently pantless in front of her boss,” he pinches the skin of your calf, “completely unprofessional.” 

“And yet my boss broke into my house, came into my room, which happens to be the place I change and sleep mind you, hence no pants, and watched me wake woke up,” you shoot back, “you wanna talk about unprofessional because I got a whole list of things that HR would deem as unprofessional.” 

He’s silent for a moment and then lets out a breathy chuckle. “Good to see you still have a sense of humor even when you're all gross and sick,” he says, patting your leg. “If I was gross you wouldn’t be looking at me like that,” you respond, letting your head fall back on your pillow. You can feel his eyes on you. His fingers trail up to your thigh, rubbing the soft flesh as he tries to make you feel better by his warm touches. “I’ll make you some tea,” he says, squeezing your thigh before getting up. 

You feel that pit in your stomach form, the feeling you always get upon your arousal. You close your legs, rubbing your thighs together as you try to get rid of the feeling. The image of him standing over you has been seared in your mind and you can’t get it out, it only adds to heat between your legs. You clamp your eyes shut, slowly trailing your hand down into your panties. You can hear him in the kitchen, humming a little tune as he brews your tea. 

A hiss escapes your lips when your fingers brush over your sensitive clit. You slowly rub circles, focusing on the mental image of your boyfriend. It’s risky, doing something like this with him here but you know he won’t mind it. You continue to run circles on your clit, picking up in pace until you can feel your panties are practically soaked. Soft moans fall off your lips as you try to force yourself to your release as quickly as possible. 

You keep this up for as long as you can, trying to get one out before he comes back but if you’re being honest, you want him to walk in on you. That’s when you hear rustling by the door. You open your eyes slightly to see if Reigen is standing there and to your enjoyment, he is. You stop for a moment but keep your hand in your panties. “Reigen,” you sigh, a little raspy. He has your tea in one hand and a bowl of grapes in the other. He must’ve known that you hadn’t eaten today. He has a slight pout on his face, it was more of a frown actually. Your eyes travel down to his pants where you can see a visible bulge and a small stain of precum seeping through his gray pants. 

“Reigen,” you repeat a bit more happily this time. “I leave you alone for a few minutes and this is what you spend your time doing,” he sighs, walking over and putting your tea and grapes down on the nightstand. “Sorry,” you apologize, sheepish. “I told you earlier today I would take care of you,” he says, slowly crawling into bed with you, “and you’re not letting me do that by doing this on your own.” 

You suddenly feel nervous, which was weird. Maybe it was because of the way he slowly moved down between your legs, his eyes never leaving yours. He kisses your thighs, his hands rubbing the sides of them and pushing them together. He scoots down a little further, laying on his stomach. He closes his eyes as he sucks small reddish-purple marks on your skin. He hovers about your cunt, opening his eyes to watch you. He moves your panties to the side, maintaining eye contact as he sticks his tongue out and presses it against your sensitive bud. You swear your brain just short circuited at the way he was looking at you but you kept your composure. He continues with his open mouth act, rolling his tongue around your clit but never closing his lips down on you. 

It’s the fact that he looks so servile while doing this. His eyebrows are arched and his eyes are lidded and innocent. He’s already making quiet noises that hit you deep in your soul. He finally closes his mouth around your clit, sucking and rolling his tongue over your sensitive bud. He still looks up at you with those innocent eyes. You throw your head back with a whine, not being able to handle looking at him or you’ll cum way sooner than you want to. 

He slides down to your entrance, sucking at you until he slips his tongue in. You let out a satisfied sigh, a lazy smile on your face as he eats you out like your the best dessert he’s ever had. Your hands find their way to his head, running through his dirty blonde hair to grab a handful. You're not a head pusher, you just like to keep your hands on a somewhat stable surface. You can feel the bed moving as he rubs himself against the blankets, the feeling causing his eyes to tear up. “Rei,” you whimper, feeling him move up to your clit again. His hands are on both your thighs, pushing them open for better access. You grind your hips against his face slightly, already feeling yourself teetering on the edge. 

He just looks so perfect down there, he’s focused and determined to make you feel better and it’s certainly working. Your hands fly up to grip your pillows when that coil in your stomach starts to unravel. Pleasure prickles down your spine and you dig your nails into the soft flesh of your pillows. He pushes two fingers into you, earning a little whine of surprise from you. It’s perfect, everything about this moment is perfect. He's moaning quietly into your cunt, making you vibrate in anticipation as you try to delay your own orgasm. 

Your back arches off the bed as your orgasm washes over you. He closes his eyes and focuses on really pulling it out of you. You whine his name like a prayer except it’s much sweeter and more beautiful to him. He puts his mouth back at your entrance to collect your release, pulling away from you slowly with his mouth open in a quiet pant. 

Your slick and release is all over his mouth and chin, he’s panting quietly but has a satisfied look in his eyes. “You’re so handsome when I’m all over your face,” you huff, taking in the sight. He smiles at you, wiping his mouth with his sleeve and sitting up. He’s still positioned between your legs and you can see the outline of his cock in his pants. He stares down at you, his shoulders rising and falling with every breath he takes. “Feeling any better?” He asks, leaning in so he can press his forehead against yours, “need a drink really quick?” 

You reach behind him and push on his ass so his hips meet yours. He lets out a little noise of surprise before laughing a bit. “Okay, okay,” he hums, sitting back again and fiddling with his belt, “yes ma’am.” You lay your head back on your pillow at that simple word that just makes you want him even more. He finally undoes his belt and drops it on the floor, pulling his pants down just enough so he had some room. “Where do you want me?” He asks, brushing his hair back with his hand. You love how messy his hair looks like that, and seeing his face without the bangs makes you really realize just how pretty he is. “Everywhere, all at once,” you respond jokingly. “I wish I could,” he sighs, leaning down and pressing his cock against your folds. 

He rubs against you a bit to get himself prepped and then he gets back on his knees again and grabs your hips. He lifts your lower half off the bed, your upper back still on the bed. You let your arms fall limp above your head as he holds you at kinda an upside down angle, but your head is still resting you on pillows. He uses a free hand to press his cock into you, sliding into your entrance with ease. A noise of satisfaction from you echoes in his ears and he holds you there for a few seconds before slowly pulling out and then pushing back in. 

Not even a few minutes in and he’s already a mess, he’s practically drooling at this point. The only sounds that fill the air of your room are skin against skin and a mixture of his louder, whiny moans and your quieter ones. He’s always been a little more vocal than you. His thrusts are at a decent pace, not too slow or too fast. It’s a bit hard for you to breathe since your nose is stuffy so you keep your mouth open. “You feel so good—-haah,” he groans, “so so good.” You reach down to rub your fingers over your clit, matching your pace with his thrusts. “I love it when you do that,” he slurs out, digging his nails into your hips. He picks up his pace a little, closing his eyes and furrowing his brows as he focuses on getting a decent quick pace. He swallows, trying to keep himself from getting sloppy. 

You clench down on him like a vice, causing him to let out a little strangled moan. He’s gentle with you, because he knows your body is probably already aching. This is why he’s such a good lover, his attention to details, to everything. The sting from his nails in your skin contributes to your overall pleasure though and he knows that. He knows what you like and how you like it. The specific words he says and how he says them. You’re most sensitive parts of your body, he knew everything really. He only learned this much about you because of all his times watching you while you pleasured yourself. He was the one with the idea and you’ll  never regret telling him yes because now he knows you so well especially only after a few months of dating. 

He ignores the ache in his legs from being in this position too long and instead focuses on your face. “You’re so pretty—-fuckk,” he whines when he feels you clench around him again. “Reigen,” you whimper his name, moving your fingers against your clit with more vigor. “I’m gonna cum,” you huff, clenching your free hand around your pillow. “Me too,” he breathes, sounding more fucked out than you. His over sensitivity always gets the best of him. “Wanna fill you up so bad,” he grunts, letting his head fall a little. He usually likes cumming on your stomach, seeing how pretty your skin looks with his release sticking to it. Today he’s definitely gonna have a hard time pulling out. “Fuck I’m gonna cum inside you,” he groans out, sounding more apologetic. 

Your body tightens as your release starts to approach, you continue your efforts on your clit, just a little more sloppy now. He’s first to cum, his body tenses up and shakes as he reaches his climax. He lets out the most beautiful sound you’ve heard from him in a while. It was like a sob mixed with a moan, whiney and a little long. He throws his head back, eyes rolling back as he continues to fuck you through his orgasm. During that time you hit your release, letting it wash over you. Your toes curl and your back arches even more off the bed. You just wanna pull him in and kiss him but he’s still holding onto you tightly. He thrusts a few more times into you before holding himself inside you. He stays there for just a few moments, catching his breath before pulling out with a sigh. He drops your hips, letting you rest comfortably on the bed now. 

He leans down, putting his hands on either side of you. You can feel his sweat dripping into your skin. He slowly lays down letting his head rest on your upper stomach while the rest of his body is slotted between your legs. “I don’t know if that’ll necessarily make me feel better,” you sigh, finally being able to breathe, “but at least I got what I wanted after being alone all day.” You lift a hand to run your fingers through his hair, carefully feeling the dirty blonde strands. “Reigen,” you say, raising a brow. You can feel his chest rise and fall slowly on your stomach. “Reigen?” You question again, lifting your head to see if he was watching you. 

You let out a sigh when you realize he’s fast asleep. His eyes shut softly and his lips parted as he took in shallow breaths. “Aren’t I supposed to fall asleep on you,” you mumble to yourself, “I’m the sick one after all.” You brush some strands of  hair out of his face and even though you're slightly irritated, his sleeping state makes you smile.

𓆉︎ ☼ 𓇼 ☼ ꩜𓆉︎ ☼ 𓇼 ☼ ꩜𓆉︎ ☼ 𓇼 ☼ ꩜𓆉︎ ☼ 𓇼 ☼ ꩜𓆉︎ ☼ 𓇼 ☼

[shigayokagayama]

obviously this isnt about people headcanoning mob as having DID/OSDD because god knows representation for neurodivergencies that arent anxiety, depression, or the movie version of ptsd are lacking in media and being able to project aspects of yourself that you see in characters is really fun (god knows i love ocd blasting characters i relate to) but people treating mob and shigeo as two totally separate characters with two separate personalities is sorta starting to feel like it's missing the entire point of the confession arc.

like, "mob" is not the version of mob who does good things and "shigeo" is not the version of him who does scary evil things and hates everyone mob loves for no reason. theyre the same person. the conversation between them in the confession arc isnt a literal conversation taking place, it's a representations of his two desires which he has convinced himself are irreconcilable. "mob" represents his desire to keep his relationships with his loved ones- which he has convinced himself comes at the cost of repressing every aspect of his true self- and "shigeo" represents his desire to live freely and express himself as he wishes- which he has convinced himself means pushing everyone but tsubomi away before they reject him because he is absolutely certain that she is the only person in the world who will accept and love him for who he truly is. the friends he fights- teru, the body improvement club, reigen- are all people he's convinced only like the fake him and would hate the real him, and now they're trying to get in the way of the only thing he can even remember wanting because of how long he's squashed down and hidden away his own desires for other people's convenience.

if your friends, if the people you trusted, said this to you the first time you were exercising your own free will for the first time in years, wouldnt you snap a little too?

[candyskiez]

Another thing I've realized because I am, as per usual, always thinking about confession arc but is probably very obvious to everyone whoops:

???%'s behavior so so SO closely mirrors all of Mobs main three relationships (Teru, Ritsu, and Reigen) at their worst. Ohhh my god.

Him being extremely focused only on his own goals with no real care to collateral damage, just taking what he wants because who'd ever wanna give it to him? The complete disregard for other people's consequences or feelings because why should he deny himself this? Teru.

Him wanting to act on all his worst desires and trying to act awful just in a desperate attempt to break out of the mold he was forced into, literally saying hes been freed, just this complete feeling of being trapped and acting as bad as possible to free himself? Ritsu.

The conflict between two sides of himself? The lying? The emotional repression? Reigen.

And the best part of all this is that it lends itself so well to resolving all four of their character arcs, by having Teru, Ritsu, and Reigen all have to confront who they used to be and even their current flaws to be able to help him. Teru's forced to realize even the best people have flaws and is finally able to accept this and take down the pedestals, and via accepting Mob he finally accepts that everyone has worth even if they're flawed and there is no such thing as special. Ritsu is able to confront the reason he started acting like that and sees his own worth, sees his own good qualities and what he can give, realizes they aren't just a delusion and he can help his brother. And Reigen is finally honest. Reigen finally takes off the mask and shows him the other side of himself so he can realize that he's not the only one.

This is messily written because I'm a lil sick but! I love this show I love these characters they are EVERYTHING to me guys you don't understand

[laithraihan]

I was looking at your art with Minori and I just can't help but wonder what makes her have so much affection for Reigen? Does he act in a special way towards her? How does he return the affection? This is stirring all my braincells and I'm curious of your headcanons

(I'll preface this by saying: Please keep in mind that my answer is not meant to reflect canon at all and it's 100% just me making up stuff in my head because it's fun, and I'm writing this with the help of a translator so if my sentences sound weird then that's probably why)

I'd say her behavior towards Reigen would begin as hostile ("adult = intimidating authority figure, and I hate everyone who has power over me"), then it gradually transforms into playful rudeness probably after realizing Reigen does not place any importance in asserting his dominance or anything like that. Reigen is her punching bag that she uses whenever she has a bad day and needs to let out her anger, at the same time she wants to befriend him because she's not the type of person who can tolerate being on bad terms with someone. By being playfully rude, it makes the relationship between them less intimidating for Minori and puts both of them on equal ground. She'd only know Reigen as a reliable mentor (from her conversations with Mob) which is why she'd be somewhat scared of him at first.

As for Reigen's POV, he sees her as Mob's friend and wants her to feel welcome. He'd show a lot of enthusiasm, her responses wouldn't match his energy, and he'll notice that. So as time goes on, he'll speak to her less to respect whatever boundary she might have. Minori would interpret this as Reigen disliking her, and she can't cope with anybody disliking her regardless of who it is, so she fights back by showing affection. In Minori's eyes, this is done with the intent of bothering him. In Reigen's eyes, this is a very confusing act, so he'll either play along or be annoyed depending on what she's doing to him (both reactions will make Minori satisfied, just as long as he doesn't ignore her presence). I think Reigen would feel awkward showing affection until he figures out what goes on in Minori's head, because he wouldn't really know if it's okay for him to do that.

[melissa-titanium]

uh violence ask game

12

ok . ok. i'm gonna talk about my two current faves right now because imFucking deranged

khan. im so serious .he is so fucking interesting i honest to god havent rewatched md in a hot second but if you think about his concepts & how he acts in ep 7 AND HONESTLY EVERY SINGLE EPISODE THAT HE'S IN . he's just. hes just so interesting??? i don't see people talking about him alot for reasons that are totally justifiable but just once i wish to see character analysis that isnt about n or uzi..

i want to know about his dynamic with nori. i want to watch his descent into depression (?) after she died & i really, REALLY want to see his redemption. because he does care. everyone is capable of change, and even if he's had a few hiccups in his appearances in the show, i really think he can improve. he DOES care. even if he's forgotten how to show it. i find the conflict between him and uzi very interesting esp involving n. because i think he understands n's a good friend for uzi but there's that innate fear he's immortalized in his brain after having to put down his wife who was attacked by the very creature uzi's new friend is.

the guy's clearly traumatized. he lost his wife, he's emotionally distanced from his child, he's clearly poured himself into his work. and this is from the . like. ten minutes of screentime he's gotten. like COME ON. even if you have no interest in him you have to admit there's a lot there to unpack. even if you have no interest in HIM, you have to admit it's fucking hilarious that his pringles logo ass pulled NORI of all drones. come on. i'm also very curious because he seemed to be a drone that came from before the core collapsed... assuming he and nori were similar ages, he must have had personal run ins with humans. i wonder what that was like

i can completely understand where people are coming from when they say they dislike him because he reminds them of their dad. but i guess i have a different opinion on him cause of how My dad was? i don't know i don't want to get super personal about fictional robots but to put it bluntly i don't have a relationship with him. a lot of factors in my life that weren't directly his fault lead him to being pretty absent in my life and i guess i connect alot to khan because i kind of. wish. he w as . my dad ? i dont know. khan is like an exact parallel of my dad if he Cared. so like. yes :) i have a weird affinity for khan haha. mr uzi!

ok. mob psycho. other than my absolute faves who are hilarious & underrated , inukawa, goda, mezato and TOME <3333 ... my absolute fave has to be tsubomi motherfucking takane. i have not read the reigen spinoff, but i'm REALLY fucking hoping we get to see more of her in the spinoff. because. she's so interesting. she's so fucking interesting.

the entire series presents her as this unobtainable thing of goodness, the end-all of mob's goals. this is ESPECIALLY emphasized in the show which makes her (in the words of ONE i think) more heroic in appearance... and by that i mean they gave her yaoiful eyes. like they made her really pretty in the show to emphasize how mob's looking at her through rose tinted glasses, which is such a cool detail because as the story progresses we see her with her original comic design as mob realizes she's just a person like him! she's literally the driving force of the entire narrative, but barely gets ANY screentime... in the moments we do see of her, she shows a lot of interesting traits. but BESIDES her interactions with mob, there's so much more i find interesting about her. i've only been into mp100 for a month and ive only watched it maybe 6 times so please forgive me if my information is skewed.

in the divine tree arc... dimple points out how she's very openly honest about her wants and is not afraid to deny someone, no matter how forceful. she's literally the only fucking person next to teru who was described as being able to withstand the mind control. not even fucking reigen could.

she rejects a shit ton of people in one of the arcs i can't remember. but literally the fact that someone asks her "why :(?!" when she rejects them and she's like. oh do you really want to know? and goes out of her way to ROAST THE FUCK out of this random ass guy.

in the confession arc, mezato talks to mob about the things she's learned about tsubomi (which is gay as hell btw. i know she's a reporter but god damn) about the fact that she appears to feel strongly about maintaining her image. she's very polite upfront with friends she talks with, but when she's alone/away from other people seems to drop that facade into something more disinterested/distant... which sort of tracks, considering a lot of people only want to connect with her because of her looks/the popularity she can give them by interacting with them. that gets exhausting, i can sympathize lol. she also seems to have trouble trusting others / feels like she's constantly got to be on guard. maybe her place in the school's hierarchy is really the only thing she has? i don't know, but her reaction to literally. sneezing in front of other people was so overblown it really seemed she thought her life would be ruined if her friends saw her needing a tissue which is so interesting to me.

EVEN RITSU DESCRIBES HOW DISINTERESTED SHE SEEMED IN OTHER PEOPLE when she left them playing hide & seek as a kid LOL. like she's in her own little world. my takeaway from her scenes is that she's constantly keeping everyone else at arm's length because she doesn't trust anyone. to her, everyone just wants to get close to her because they want the positives coming from being near her, not because they want to get to know her. everyone seems to know her behind her mask... which i know i said i wouldn't compare her to mob (and i'm not! i just find this comparison interesting, she's incredible on her own) but they have this in common from my understanding. mob has also hidden himself away from the world via insane suppression & masking because he had an experience that taught him that expressing himself was dangerous. tsubomi hides herself away from the world with masking I Think because she believes it's dangerous/can cause unnecessary grief to get close to other people because they'll always fuck with her in the end (hence the fucking. sneezing scene IDK WHAT TO CALL THAT SCENE HAHA)

so like. mob's infatuation with her is like him grasping at a life that's out of his reach... when in reality, she's not on a higher level than him -- she's just like him. i don't know i'm thinking about this now. okay. i really like tsubomi.

[waitineedaname]

I don't know how to make this thought coherent, so bear with me people, but. I think ritsu calling shou "suzuki" instead of "suzuki-kun" says a lot about their relationship. ritsu is extremely consistent and polite with his use of honorifics, even with people he doesn't like that much (reigen is always reigen-san, for example)

but shou is always "suzuki," he never gets his proper honorific. this might be a stretch, but I think it fits into what I've thought about their relationship in the past, which is that shou gives ritsu the opportunity to drop the perfect kid act. him using everyone's polite honorifics might be good etiquette, but it also might be him creating distance between himself and others while wearing a polite mask. with shou, he doesn't need to bother with that. they met by beating the hell out of each other for fuck's sake, etiquette is out the window here

but while him dropping honorifics might be rude in other cases (the "NO HONORIFIC??" bit with hoshino in that one omake comes to mind) I don't think it is here. I'd forgotten until doing this reread, but ritsu refers to shou as his friend really easily. like, they've known each other for maybe a full day, and they were enemies before that, but when looking up at the cultural tower, he tells mob "my friend is up there!"

so I think him just calling him suzuki is actually a sign of him being close with shou. no bullshit, no using honorifics to maintain a polite image or to intimidate or to impress. he's just being direct with him, because shou isn't someone he has to put up a front around

[jascurka]

this is purely out of curiosity and i don't want to send hate your way, but do you ship mob and reigen? and if so, why?

I do, yeah. An ex-friend of mine asked me the exact same question (just more... harshly I think and with what I assumed was prejudice) before they decided to part our ways and I could never properly answer them because I was so stressed by the situation, it was hard to gather my thoughts. So I'll do my best to explain here, hopefully to make myself understood better.

Sorry if this gets lenghty >_< I'll just put a readmore right here.

I think the biggest reason for why I like them is their canon relationship that has been explored in the series already quite thoroughly - that they have changed eachother, helped eachother grow and one wouldn't be the person they are without the other. I think most of us understand the depth of it. Reigen is Mob's teacher and friend, someone like an older brother. There surely is a strong bond between them and they've seen each other at their best and worst and still acknowledged and accepted eachother's flaws. They trust eachother, they would give their life for eachother even (at least Reigen would, he almost did in the finale after all). And I do think that they love eachother but in a way that isn't actually romantic in canon. I'm perfectly capable of realizing that and I value it a lot both in the series and in fanworks (one of my fav works of fanfiction is about exactly that).

It was my curiosity that made me search up a ship fic of them, I was just confused why people ship them in the first place and whether it can be good and I found myself enjoying it a lot (to my surprise). It was set into the future, and dealt with some serious topics like loss and acceptance, it was kind of bittersweet. Then I felt that maybe it was just slightly ooc because all of the serirei fics I was busy reading depicted Reigen slightly different. Nontheless, I had the other ship on my mind then so I never really dived into Mob/Reigen, but it changed my perspective on them a lot.

And at some point into all this I realized, why not? Why can't I haz 2 cookies? (god im sorry that was terrible sfjgsdkj). What I mean is that the buildup canon offers can be taken further - more of their relationship can be explored in terms of new tropes, sometimes romantic too.

On a personal note I'll just add that I'm rather picky about them and tend to stick to fluff, hurt/comfort and slow slow burns. And I like them most post-canon, a few years into the future. It turns out that it all depends on how they're portrayed for me to like them anyways. I talked on here recently about a work that really had it all and portrayed their relationship in a very satisfying and mature way, with all the complicated feelings, it felt very realistic, especially on Reigen's side. So if anyone wants, here's a rec from me again -> in my dreams (I seem to be more honest) on ao3, just because I think it has all that I like about the ship.

I think that this is the whole point of fanworks - to kind of look further and have fun with it, to see "what if?". Even if it's something sort of.. taboo I guess? Because you get to take it apart in a fictional dimension (if that makes sense). And I completely understand if this is something that can ick some people out or that someone doesn't want to ruin their perception of the characters' relationship. That's totally fine by me and I'm not going to force anyone into liking the ship of course. And there are definitely tropes and tags I really don't want to look into - not everything is for me either.

And I think this goes without saying but I'll add it here anyways: what I like to see in fiction doesn't mean I would like or encourage anyone to do the same thing in real life! It's just interesting to explore from a safe distance where no one can get hurt.

[scribefindegil]

Rewatched Confession Arc recently because I love crying and also feeling all the weird calcified emotions around my heart shatter in real time and I found myself really focusing on Toichiro's line, "I just need to do what he did for me last time." The actual thing he says this about (turning himself into a vessel to absorb Mob's energy) doesn't happen, but the concept, the idea that everything people do for Mob during this arc is a reflection of what he's done for them, is I think a really crucial component of the narrative.

Mob tells Teru that he's just an average person (and sees through the "protagonist of the world" fantasy to recognize the insecure part of himself he's subsumed), and later Teru tells ???% that he's just an average person (and sees through his rampage to recognize that "Mob" is still in there, which is what wakes him up). Mob sees Ritsu reject their entire relationship after getting carried away with his powers but unflinchingly affirms that they're brothers and he loves him, and later Ritsu is the first one to accept that ???% is truly his brother and not a separate entity. Mob refuses to let Toichiro escape the consequences of his actions by dying, and then Toichiro does the same to him. Mob looks at Reigen on the bridge in Separation Arc and knows the best and worst of him and accepts him for who he is--but not completely.

That's the thing about all of them; what Mob did for them wasn't enough at first. There's this block that keeps it from being resolved until they're able to turn around and offer it back to him. Teru couldn't help but put Mob on a pedestal, which kept them from truly connecting. Ritsu couldn't communicate with Mob in the way he needed to in order to resolve their traumatic history. Toichiro still thought that the best way to make up for what he'd done was to sacrifice himself. Reigen couldn't come clean about his lies, so as much as Mob tried to accept him, all the hurt was repressed instead of resolved, and it didn't do anything to help Mob accept himself.

That can only happen at the end, when everyone takes turns reflecting back what Mob had given them in a way that lets them finally reach apotheosis--and gives Mob the tools he needs to resolve his own character arc.

Teru knocks him down from the pedestal, realizes that he's average and tells him so, and although ???% can't accept that yet, it's true. He's just another person like everyone else. His powers don't make him a god or a monster. And Teru also wakes "Mob" up, recognizing that trapped part of him and fighting tooth and nail to reach him.

Ritsu finally faces his trauma and accepts that it was his brother that hurt him way back then, refuses to let himself be hurt again, and vows that they'll stop avoiding their problems out of fear. And it's this that finally makes Mob face the fact that ???% is a part of himself.

Toichiro chooses not to sacrifice himself to stop Mob, forcing both of them to continue to live despite the hurt they've caused instead of taking the easy way out.

And Reigen tells the truth.

Reigen breaks open the huge unspoken gulf between them and tells Shigeo the same thing everyone else has been saying: You're just like me. This isn't unique; this doesn't make you special or monstrous or divine. This is what every single human has to deal with. We are all made of contradictions, and we all try to hide from them, but that's no way to live. You just need to accept yourself. So he does. And he accepts Reigen too.

[weareallgonnaliveforawhile]

WOOO! Saiki losing it

A large part of Saiki's development in this AU is learning to be around Reigen. Not for found family reasons but because Reigen thinks (and says) things that Saiki doesn't wanna hear. He thinks that Saiki is close with Teruhashi despite his nonchalant demeanor, he says (to Mob but in front of Saiki) that being psychic doesn't make you special, it's just a skill. It's just a tool.

Saiki runs away from Reigen because he's terrified of the idea that Reigen's thoughts could be true. He can't harm Reigen because of his own morals (mainly because of Teruhashi. He makes her happy and Saiki wouldn't be able to live with himself if he hurt one of the few adults who saw her as a human being).

What does it mean when a man says that it's fine if you have friends when you've spent so long refusing to let anyone close?

What does it mean when you're told that the thing you've feared and resented your entire life isn't special?

Kuuske's general existence didn't help either. But over the course of the AU, Saiki gets more and more worried about confronting the things he previously refused to believe, making progress before it's all dumped down the drain. It hits a head sometime between the Separation Arc and the World Domination Arc.

But overall? Saiki, like the other characters in the show, is a kid. He's a teenager who doesn't like hearing people talk about aspects of himself that he doesn't wanna admit.

Part of me that adores their dynamic wants to say that Teruhashi helps this internal conflict, but she only makes it escalate more. Her finding out about his powers makes him worry even more and that worry only gets worse when she's completely fine with it. She's calm, she helps him hide it if it comes to that, and she's extremely nonchalant about it. Their relationship shifts with the weight of a secret like that and Saiki is fucking spiraling.

[reitziluz]

so, while idly wondering what reigen’s major might have been, i got inspired to sort out my thoughts on it properly.

first, let’s lay down some straightforward facts from the manga, anime, and fan book:

he must be suffering from impostor syndrome or something similar, based on how he talks about his ”true self”

he was a humanities major (mentioned in the spinoff as the reason he can’t help mob with math which is. so real.)

he’s extremely confident in his argument skills, is good at reading people, and is competent and comfortable discussing things like the relationship between individuals and society, the meaning of life, and what makes a self

he is also knowledgeable about laws and deals with things like insurance companies with confidence

in the separation arc press conference, his narration stated that he had expected to have gotten bored with spirits and such ”within a year, too”, so assuming he had ran it for up to a year before meeting mob, he was around 24 back then

"within a year, too” implies he worked at the water cooler telemarketing job for up to a year, so, since he was around 23

on the same page, he refers to that time in his life as when he could easily get the gist of anything, but couldn’t get into anything more deeply than being curious about it (this is very often translated very, very badly.)

he quit his previous job because he had grown sick of it, and rented the office space before he had even come up with what kind of business he wanted to start

when wondering about why he is working as a psychic, one of the points against it is that it’s not profitable

his father is a local government employee, and as someone who’s very serious about things, thinks reigen is unemployed

his mother is a housewife, and as someone who’s very serious about things, thinks someone has tricked him into doing his current job

his sister works at a bank, thinks he’s a total fraud and that he should turn himself in, the earlier the better

it’s also reasonable to assume that:

he started working at the water cooler job immediately after getting his bachelor’s, as bachelor’s degrees are four to six years long in japan, which fits perfectly between being 18 when graduating high school to being 23~24 while he worked there

he probably finished his degree, because dropping out would have been a massive contradiction to how he said everything had come to him pretty easily – he was thinking back to himself when that was stated and was being pretty harsh about his own fickleness, so it’s safe to assume he wasn’t lying about that

with reigen’s lack of focus and tendency to pick up things that seem interesting on a whim, his degree is likely a mishmash of things instead of something that would railroad him into a specific career

his major was on the artsier or more theoretical side, as graduating and ending up in a job that has nothing to do with your degree because you need to work somewhere and it crushing your dreams and soul is a bit of a trope for those majors (he could have been talking from experience when telling the 7th div folks that they need to live in reality and that society doesn’t care about their fanciful ideas)

his family is likely well-off and at least a bit conservative

he would have received financial aid of some kind or taken a loan to be able to quit and up and rent an office on a whim just two years after graduating, even if he had been working while studying

his parents likely wanted him to get a good, serious job, like his sister going into banking

his father specifically might have wanted his son to follow in his footsteps – and he might have had his best interest in mind, because based on what the japanese career counseling website i used as reference said about ”local government employee”, it would have been a perfect fit – lots of change, working with people, solving problems, needing broad knowledge/skills etc (i’ve lost my mind over this before, there’s so many delicious family dynamics to explore in this)

he could have gone to university because he didn’t have any better ideas and tried to just get a degree that would satisfy his parents while also letting him explore ways to ”become someone”, as in have importance and make a difference

taking all that in, and acknowledging that i do not know enough about how japanese degrees work so i’m basing this somewhat in my own experience with academic freedom, i’m leaning towards reigen having been a political science major who kept taking classes outside his major. psychology, philosophy, maybe some folkloristics or other fun things like that? it would fit with his personality, current skills and knowledge base, and with trying to please his parents while doing whatever he wants to. picking political science might have been a compromise – his parents might have wanted him to study something like law instead of arts, and leveraged paying for his to have a say on his pick

that’s a nifty little hypothesis, right? perfectly reasonable. not much reaching, fits in the themes and narrative aims of canon. doesn’t require any wild leaps of logic. a good point to stop.

…

so hey, you know how when starting a business it’s pretty common to take a loan? and his sister, who works in banking, thinks he’s a fraud? and his father thinks he’s unemployed, lying about working but instead living on money other than his own income? and his mother thinks he’s been tricked and exploited? and in the fan book, reigen says he hasn’t been home in years but thinks he probably should drop by to clear a misunderstanding between them?

does the misunderstanding have something to do with, oh i don’t know, his family backing his loan or otherwise being involved with it and him seemingly fucking off to waste the money on weird shit with no sign that he was going to pay it back??

reigen, reigen please, what have you done, i know you self-sabotage and get into fucked up shenanigans to avoid having to be vulnerable and then you DO fix things in the end but reigen, it’s your family, what have you --