I Love How Mob Psycho 100 Has Absolutely Zero Time For That Your 'i Love Violence Twisted Fucking Cyclepath'

I love how mob psycho 100 has absolutely zero time for that your 'i love violence twisted fucking cyclepath' types, your 'i want to destroy everything because i CAN' type villains, and just stawartly refuses to portray them as mysterious or compelling as other shounen action anime does, refusing to present it as anything but dumb and pathetic and quite frankly, extremely childish. like they are called out quite explicitly by its protagonists, by reigen in s1 and then mob in s2 (testament to mob's character growth tbh that he can do this by s2) for never maturing past the logic of middle schooler. like the central philospphy of the show is that to grow as people you have to recognise the worth and value of others & your bonds with them, and for that reason so many of the antagonists come across as stunted children and immature adults. like even the antagonists that quickly heel turn towards joining the main cast (e.g. teru, dimple to some extent) have these most ridiculous god complexes that are defeated partially by being revealed as at core as ridiculous and are thus ridiculed to learn a degree of humility (dimple becomes a little snot gremlin spirit, teru has his hair journehy) before they can grow. often this ridicule is achieved by a character saying 'why the fuck are you fighting a middle schooler. you're a grown adult. this is ridiculous loser behaviour' but sometimes it's way more visible, e.g. the 7th division leader getting their mask pulled off to reveal an aged adult (far older than the kid we expected, from their voice) who then has a literal *tantrum* about how the world shoild be theirs, it's mine it's mine it's mine, where the discrepancy between their age and behaviour is striking. like this egoistic mindset is ultimately a child's mindset - little children are self-centred, still see the world in terms of 'me me me', and while we allow little children this to a degree because they're still learning about the world, in an adult it is truly just pathetic. they are losers! and it's not afraid of saying it!!

what's interesting is that mob psycho actually adds nuance to this perspective outlined in season 1 during the mogami arc where mob gets to experience a version of life where he is isolated, and lonely, and has no one to turn to, and there is sympathy for why middle schoolers might develop a certain misanthrophic outlook where they want to see the whole world burn, to resort to violence and to prioritise selfish desires - but it is still ultimately *wrong*, and mob just has to be reminded of the existence of kindness to believe so. that experience if anything allows mob to develop his compassion for others and confidence in his convinctions (rather than repeating reigen's teachings - good teachings, mind - about not using powers against others as he did in s1) than before, and he tries to grow from that painful experience, eventually reaching a level where the villains by the end of s2 appear less emotionally mature and grounded then the teenage protagonist. they're still pathetic, but it's less a site of ridicule and more a site of pity now, a shift from comedy to drama.

anyway. it's philosophy towards villains and refusal to like, let them be cool because they like hurting people (wtf) or want to destroy the world (wtf) for some unhinged reason and just calls them out for being total losers is SO refreshing in a genre which likes to go 'oooh look at my fucked up creepy antagonist who likes pain'. it's a breath of fresh air.