The Reigen Arataka Deranged NormalMan Review

I made an analysis breaking down the S3 MP100 OP! Thank you @russenoire for the translation and guiding me with them, I can’t thank you enough.

Also, please keep in mind that I am in no way a professional at this, I’m just a kid who likes mob psycho. It’s around 15 pages long and includes insight into the lyrics and visuals, though it might be a bit messy.

But anyways, please enjoy! This was super fun to make.

Google Docs

MP100 season 3 OP analysis-breakdown

MP100 S3 OP Analysis-breakdown Before we start, I’d like to give a big thank you to @russenoire for the translation of the season three OP

The choice is yours.

Emi’s short story — A translation

So, what was Emi’s story about in S2E1? I only got decipherable screenshots of the first page, and there’s about three words that were too obscured/blurry to decipher, but I’ve put together a translation of the first page of Emi’s short story, “Adventure”, for your reading pleasure.

Translation below the cut!

“Adventure” by Emi Takada

If an extremely honest acquaintance, with whom you normally don’t interact much, suddenly begins putting together words that sound insanely good, would it not feel like a last will and testament?

At the garbage dump behind the school, while carefully piecing together her words, the girl turned to me and began to speak discreetly. “Every day, I fill my diary bit by bit with lies like that. And then someday, when I’ve lost my memory, I will surely read the diary, and undoubtedly, from that moment on, I will start living a life that isn’t mine.” Because of her staring at her feet and stuttering out this story, I truly couldn’t imagine her in the classroom at all. When and how the incident of this deceitful daily life first occurred, and how she had so elaborately put it into words, I thought it sounded like a villain monologuing in a novel… I remembered lining up for school lunch with a full head, trying to decipher these things.

————————

It’s got some really interesting connotations for how Emi was feeling at the time of writing, specifically how Emi probably felt having to hide her true interests and nature around her “friends”. If she keeps hiding herself bit-by-bit, eventually she will be living a life that isn’t hers.

Me: goes to the Fullmetal Alchemist exhibition once Also me: (shhh, I know this scene could never have happened. It’s a metaphor)

Looks like someone needs to call in "???" to school

And this right here is why we stan Reigen. He’s the best Master. And this is character development.

Best Master, not a failure:

No one thought Reigen should go up the tower. He has no powers and -after ep07- he knows that Mob knows, so there’s no excuse to expect that. Not only that, but for once Mob went out of his way to tell everyone to stay out of it, that they’d be in the way.

It wasn’t Reigen’s fight, or his fault for not going.

But he doesn’t see it that way.

He doesn’t treat Mob like an overpowered gun at his disposal, he treats him like the child he is, and sees it as a failure when he forgets to treat Mob as such. 

(He let Mob take the decision of what to do instead helping him through a plan as the adult he is, and now Mob is on the ground with his face all swollen and boy does Reigen regret it.)

He’s the best because when he realized his mistake, he didn’t hesitate to rush to the top to save him even though it’s obvious anything that beats Mob is likely not going to lose to some punches and an esper gun, but he has to try.

And he tried while making sure it’s clear to Mob that whatever happens next -his possible death- and whatever happened until now -Mob losing- is not Mob’s fault at all but his own. 

It was Mob who insisted everyone stay behind, but Reigen rewrites it like he was the one that allowed it to happen. He even goes as far as to praise Mob for what he’s done up to now, despite, again, anyone looking at the scene thinking Mob failed, and then tries to reassure him by promising they’d go eat like normal later.

And of course, the whole dialogue fight between Mob and Serizawa was a conflict of Masters, and Mob winning the way he did was proof of Reigen’s success as a Master (and a comparison to Toichiro’s shit exploitation of people)

(But Reigen doesn’t know about that and likely never will)

Character Development: 

Reigen said he made a mistake and called himself a bad Master. 

While that’s not a good development for his issues of self worth, it shows development in his willingness to be more forthcoming and sincere with Mob. 

He could have tried to make up an excuse where Mob isn’t at fault for the current state of affairs but neither is he. Instead he chose to admit his belief that’s he’s failed as a Master (even though his worst fear is Mob not needing him anymore, and between him knowing Reigen has no powers, and reigen failing to protect him, the chances of him leaving Reigen are higher, in Reigen’s mind)

It just kinda sunk in that separation arc happens right after the Mogami incident. Do you think Reigen’s words landed twice as hard because of that? “Your friends aren’t really your friends, they’re just having fun mocking someone as wimpy as you.” I can see that being a very sore spot for Mob after the six months of bullying and torment he endured. Mob’s having fun with his friends after being alone and in pain for so long and now Reigen’s suggesting that it’s all a lie and that Mogami’s words are actually real, albeit completely unintentionally. Because Mob got very serious in that moment. He should have and had every right to, but you can tell he double-meant it because he purposefully missed Reigen’s birthday.

MP100 Theory: Mob’s Power

(This post only uses manga caps for convenience’s sake,)

One of the main plot points of MP100 is Mob’s aversion to using his powers. This was due to a number of things, but that main two being Tsubomi and a tragic event where he accidentally hurt his brother.

This, of course, eventually leads to Mob’s explosions or “100%.” But in theory, these explosions wouldn’t be nearly as bad if Mob wasn’t as powerful. Which begs the question - where did all of Mob’s psychic power come from? 

We know he’s a natural born psychic. He’s had his powers since he was young - Ritsu confirmed as much.

But obviously being able to float dogs since birth doesn’t give you godly powers. There are at least four other natural born psychics in the show, and their abilities all differ.

We also already know that Mob hasn’t been “training” his powers or anything. He’s avoided using them at all cost. So why the strength if he’s not even training? Well, the answer is simple.

Holding back his emotions.

We already know from Dimple that emotions can affect your psychic powers, and from Ritsu’s “experiments,” we know it can increase said power.

So it’s safe to say that after years of stress and other floods of emotions (that Mob has been holding back,) his power naturally increased because of all his turmoil. However, this wouldn’t be bad if he were also using his powers freely like Ritsu did. But since Mob is still too afraid to do such, he was accidentally saving energy.

Saving energy is something that we know is possible due to both of the Suzukis doing it. You can still use part of your energy and save the rest. Kind of like eating one slice of pizza instead of the entire thing.

These two things are what makes Mob so overpowered. Whenever Mob goes 100%, he is using part of 10+ years of held back emotions.

But keep in mind that this energy isn’t being immediately replaced. When you eat a slice of pizza, another one doesn’t magically take it’s place. You either have to cook more or buy another slice. Both of which takes time.

So when Mob goes 100%, he is depleting part of the energy he has saved for so long.

This leads you to believe “Wouldn’t Mob eventually run out of stored energy?”

Yes, but when he uses ???%, this energy is replaced.

During his fight with Teruki, he absorbed the other’s power. (Along with everything else in the atmosphere.)

Luckily, ???% is much rarer than 100%, otherwise Mob would eventually take in more energy than he got rid of.

TLDR: Mob’s power is due to him holding in his emotions and if not for his 100% explosions, he could eventually kill us with a sneeze.

Reigen just fucking died

I love teru

doesnt everyone