One Thing I Feel Like (disappointingly) Wasn't Elaborated On Enough In Mp100 Is Reigen's Own Loneliness.

one thing i feel like (disappointingly) wasn't elaborated on enough in mp100 is reigen's own loneliness.

sure, we got that whole episode with the separation arc, but that never really resolves reigen's loneliness. that doesn't change the fact that even down to the end, he has only one adult friend and the rest of them are a gaggle of teenagers that like to hang out around him. and sure, that's not inherently a bad thing necessarily, it's probably the most friends he's had his entire life and that's why he cries when they get him a birthday cake.

but i feel like he's the kind of guy who does actually want adult friends to talk about adult things with. someone at the same stages of life that he's at, or even older.

reigen is so used to helping other people and giving other people advice that i feel like HE needs someone to be there for him, to give HIM advice. someone to scratch HIS back for once.

but another thing is that i feel like part of him thinks he doesn't deserve it, because of all the lying he does.

there is not a doubt in my mind that reigen has so much guilt stockpiled inside himself about all the lying, and (in my own personal headcannon) part of the reason he can so easily jump into danger at times is because he quietly hopes that maybe if he punishes himself enough with enough injury, or even with death, that'll somehow make up for it.

obviously that's not how it works, and reigen is a good person because regardless of the lying, he is still on some level helping people with their very normal problems by giving them very normal solutions, and is just attributing everything to spirits and exorcisms. not to mention everything he has done for mob (despite initially using him for his buisiness). he's a lot more of a grey person than he thinks he is.

i think he really needs some good adult friends, but he just can't really get ahold of any because deep down, as much as he gets on mob for being socially awkward, i think he's just as socially awkward, deep down.

i mean, the guy had to google how to ask someone out to help mob figure out how to talk to tsubomi. i don't think he's as great with people in a social context as he thinks he is. in a business context, sure, he knows exactly what to say because he has all the scripts and all the excuses in the world, but in a personal, social context, i think he can be quite clueless.

he doesn't really know how to talk to people or where to find friends as an adult, so his only friends are any coworkers he potentially has, and half the time he didn't even want to be friends with his coworkers (hence no mention of friends in his previous office job). it's different at spirits and such though, because he has mob, and later, serizawa.

i think for a long time, he considers mob "enough" of a friend, even though he still understands his role as the adult in the relationship and thus can't *actually* discuss adult things with him or treat him like an adult friend, as it would probably be inappropriate. he considers mob a friend even though he's more his student, because mob is one of the only people he sees on a regular basis until serizawa starts working there, and that's when things get a little different.

he realizes that he doesn't have to treat serizawa the same way that he treats mob, because serizawa is an adult, even if he's an extremely, openly awkward one who doesn't know how to socialize very well. but that's okay, because reigen can work with that, he's also very awkward deep down, even if he won't admit it. not to mention that mob, reigen's other friend, is also socially awkward, and reigen successfully navigates conversations with him all the time.

i think once reigen realizes that he doesn't have to hold back as much as he normally does around mob, he finally understands that his best friends can't all just be a million still developing teenagers who aren't on his level with life, and it gives him a kind of emotional release to finally have an adult friend.

serizawa also feels the same way, having only had exactly one friend in the past like fifteen years, and it was his previous boss, who was evil, and told him to attack and kill people. now he has a boss that is his friend, and has him helping people, and frankly i think it gives him much more peace of mind.

anyway i think they're besties.

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A Becky Centric Post Because She's Adorable And I Love Her

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one of the many themes of mp100 is that both selfishness and generosity are important. rage and temperance. confidence and humility. fear and courage. happiness and sadness. you have to find the balance! and sometimes other people who are wildly different from you are that balance

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I really love how much mp100 stands out against other shows of its genre with its finale. there isn't some final boss, there's no grand fight between good and evil. it is, like the show has always been, about emotions and self acceptance. the finale barely involves fight scenes in the traditional sense, like I wouldn't call the encounters with teru and ritsu fight scenes since neither of them intend to hurt him, and even the fight with the suzukis ends not with someone being defeated but rather with an emotional break through. the final conflict is resolved not with violence and defeat. it's resolved with honesty and compassion and self-love. I can't get over how deeply kind this series is

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doodlenorth

2 years ago

i lied the compliments are very nice too and im in love with you

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doodlenorth

2 years ago

Sometime post-series, Reigen takes Mob out for one of their semi-monthly ramen nights and the kid seems more distracted than usual. After he bends his spoon for the second time (and the ceramic ones are much more fiddly to fix), Reigen’s finally like “Okay, Mob. What’s bothering you?”

Mob: Oh. Well. I … realized that I have feelings for Hanazawa. Reigen, clapping him on the back: Hey, that’s great, Mob! Mob: But I don’t think I can tell him Reigen, immediately shifting into Business Mode: Why not? Mob: *stares wordlessly into his soup* Reigen: Now Mob, you shouldn’t be afraid of rejection! I know things got a little … hairy with Tsubomi, but in the end you handled it like a champ! Mob: No, it isn’t that. Reigen: Of course it isn’t! He’s not, uh, dating someone else, is he? Mob: No. A lot of girls have confessed to him, but he says he isn’t interested in any of them. Reigen: Well, that sounds like great news for you, right? Mob: *continues fixing his spoon* Reigen, internally: shit, is someone giving him trouble for liking boys? is he afraid of how people will react? are society’s judgements preventing him from following his dreams? Reigen: *deep breath* Reigen: *launches into a long and heartfelt speech about how it doesn’t matter what other people think of you and you should always be true to yourself and pursue what makes you happy, and being different isn’t bad, in fact it’s beautiful, and how no matter who he loves Mob will always, always have his support. By the end he’s crying a little and so are half the other people in the ramen bar* Mob: Oh. Mob: Thank you. Mob: But it’s not that either, Master. Reigen, giving up: What is it, then? Mob, wringing his hands: When you ask someone out, it’s polite to pay for their food. But Hanazawa’s appetite is so large and I don’t have a lot of money. There’s no way I can afford to date him! Reigen, suddenly haunted by the Ghost Of Restaurant Bills Past: … Ah.

(and that’s the story of how Reigen ended up sponsoring their first date)

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doodlenorth

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mop

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2 years ago

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doodlenorth

2 years ago

now that aromantic awareness week is over it’s time for aromantic unawareness week BRING OUT REIGEN ARATAKA

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doodlenorth

2 years ago

He's literally me

ritsu is so funny to me. he says shit like "I'm a completely normal middle schooler, I'm the utmost case of plain and simple" which is clearly something normal people say. he keeps a spoon in his pencil cup. and in his pocket. he got up in the middle of the night and did weird poses around the sink to try to make water float. he's a rude and judgy bitch but only in his head. when asked if he has friends, he responded with "I talk about the weather with pretty much anyone, so don't worry about me." he canonically doesn't listen to music. his brother thinks of him as his calm and collected little brother who always knows what to do, when in reality he's the most neurotic kid on the planet. he saw teru wearing a giant wig and thought "wow his brain must be so big." when he and shou first met, they beat the shit out of each other until he was knocked unconscious, and then when they met the second time, it was when shou came to his house unannounced and was like "hey do you want to help me kill my dad" and ritsu was like "okay. btw I think we have similar family trauma." he tried to zap a bug with psychic powers and then screamed for his brother's help when he couldn't get it. he used to cry as a child about spoons. his first instinct when seeing a spirit for the first time was to slam it repeatedly into his knee. he is the thirteen year old of all time.

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