Every Character In Mob Psycho Is So Lonely At The Beginning Of The Series, But They All Express It In

If ??? are Mob's supressed emotions and desires, when he talks about Reigen those could be his intrusive thoughts? Deep down Mob already knew the deal with Reigen but he denied it/didn't want to think about it. Like he refused to believe that his master could be that type of person after everything he's done for Mob.

Deep down Mob did already know the truth about Reigen, while also knowing he's a 'good person' at heart too. (The Separation Arc showed this.) But ???% takes that to those raw, unfiltered extremes of thinking, like 'that person treats me the most different out of everyone; he only lies and uses me for my powers, he never actually cared for me.' Which is pretty whoa (Mob would rationalize how all of that can't be true), so in a way yes, they are some of his most negative opinions + repressed intrusive thoughts. Especially when Reigen himself does what ???% doesn't expect, by showing how much he truly cares for him as a person and honestly coming clean to him about everything. :')

Translation: “Ah, that reminds me, Shishou. Happy birthday.”

I was reading through my copy of the mp100 manga with the separation arc, and I saw that this was included on the very last page of the book, after all of the omake pages.

The version I read online never included this (this was probably added for the print version, there’s some other slight differences from what I read online). It always made me sad thinking that even though everything was resolved, Mob never wished Reigen happy birthday, but he did!

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.

[id: part of the reigen spinoff manga. first panel shows roshuuto walking while on the phone with rusty-sama attached to his body. photos of jodo and his other connections are in the background. second panel shows only his phone and says "no one else would help me. all of my personal connections were for naught." end id]

something something uhh people need other people

idol worship

didn't in make it in time for tsubomi day, so mezato day it is!

reigen and manga translations: so what is the truth?

so for a while now i’ve been thinking about dialogue in the mob psycho 100 manga vs the anime. obviously it’s disappointing when something significant is changed or cut out, but in two specific cases, i couldn’t help but wonder if it was an actual dialogue change or just a mistranslation on the manga’s part, considering there’s basically only one online translation. one of the most important things to remember when it comes to consuming non-romance-language media is that our languages are fundamentally different in terms of structure and word meaning. there is never a true one-to-one translation and trying to do a literal translation is rarely a good idea. that means that in a lot of cases, the exact meaning can be up to interpretation. considering this, having only one translation means it’s only one person’s take. i find looking at these differences to be really interesting, so i went to reddit (i KNOW i know) to ask for help because i couldn’t find manga raws for these particular lines or any alternate translations (also i don’t know japanese lol). here’s what i found out (a HUGE thank you to reddit user NostalgiaWitch for all the info!):

scene 1: chapter 65.1/s2e5 - reigen and trust here’s a comparison:

pretty different, right? there’s a post from a little while ago i liked analyzing these differences; you can read it here. here’s what i found out on reddit:

so in this case, it’s really up to interpretation. the anime seems to go with the former, portraying reigen as disinterested in the situation, while the manga seems to frame it more as the latter, especially considering that later on, in the separation arc, reigen says that he doesn’t trust anyone but himself. personally i prefer the latter because it seems more in-character, but like i said, it’s up to interpretation.

scene 2: chapter 73/s2e7 - reigen and curiosity a side-by-side comparison:

these two translations are literal opposites. here’s what i found out on reddit:

in this case it’s definitely an error on the manga translator’s part (no shade to them though; they’ve done so much). in my opinion it has a huge impact on reigen’s whole mindset before starting his business. it wasn’t just boredom that drove him to make the change, it was that inner desire to be someone important bursting through. 

- reigen arataka, 2008 over time, he fell into depression and lost that drive. however we still see moments of that curiosity coming through sometimes, like in the urban legends mini-arc, when he’s suddenly super excited about the dragger:

he also has an innate compulsion to find out the truth and often does extensive research to help his clients (learning about farming, running background checks, etc.), so we can see how even if it lay dormant, that desire to do well and follow through kept him going, even through his complacency and depression.

wow i got ranty. anyway like i said i just find this sort of thing really interesting because by hearing multiple opinions you get to form your own conclusions. i hope people see this and are also inspired to look into these differences! again, a huge thanks to reddit user NostalgiaWitch.

i'm down for giving reigen baggage but only in moderation and not in that really angsty fanon way. reigen has abusive parents -> reigen's parents are mid and have expectations that he doesn't fulfill leading to a bit of distance between them; reigen wants to kill himself -> reigen struggles with self-loathing but not overwhelmingly so and still tries his best to make something out of his life; reigen is tormented by his disciple's little brother look everyone look at this brat who hates his bro's savior for no reason -> lol this man is getting bullied by a middle schooler like the pathetic wet dog he is

mobdonalds (more below the cut)

Can it be considered fanart if it involves the collective effort of 4 almost-uni-students spending 1.5h at a local mcdonalds cutting up nori, arranging fries and artfully using ketchup packets to recreate the faces of mp100 characters?

Further info on our reasoning behind the type of food used for each character:

(All in good fun, we were just goofing around with our food)

Mob is a double cheeseburger while Ritsu is a normal cheeseburger - this is due to Ritsu's feelings of inferiority

Haystack Teru gets some nice fries for his hair for that golden crispy look

Reigen is the plumpest juiciest burger with the nicest bun because. You know.

Shou... I'm so sorry Shou you deserved better (ignore how it looks like a crime scene)

This is not a fully formed thought but. Considering the ways in which one of the big tensions of Mob Psycho is "Do you see other people as people or do you see them as tools?" and how in World Domination it's revealed that despite building this huge organization Toichiro views everyone around him as literal power sources (and how the ground troops think he's doing everything for them and the Scars think 'Well *those* people are useless but he's doing it for *us*' and Shimazaki tells the Scars 'Well *you're* useless but the Super Five are *actually* important' and then manga Toichiro says that he only keeps the Super Five around as spare batteries), and conversely how in Divine Tree Dimple realizes that even though he's been using all these people as power sources it's not accomplishing what he wants because he's actually desperate for someone to see him as a person. And considering how Psycho Helmet is the purest and most terrifying incarnation of "people are only worth what power I can extract from them" because it was created from those predatory impulses and nothing else.

I need a minute