#kaidou get out of my brain dude I can't write an essay about you get out of here this is about Reigen

[hellolulu]

Oh no I tripped and fell and want to talk about Reigen again?!

Anyway I was thinking about the way the fandom views him, and I want to say it helps put Reigen into more context if you remember that he is very very normal. Like. The most normal person ever.

[Warning: Long Post]

Reigen, when we meet him, is in the middle of his quarter life crisis. He was living a normal, bland existence; raised by normal parents, going to school without doing anything of note, and funneling into an office job after finishing education. The most normal life a person can expect. Coasting on constant average. We know this much about his backstory because he's talked about it - he was living a normal, boring existence and he wasn't all that bothered by it. Then suddenly at the tender age of (insert an early-mid twenties age) he flipped. Some part of him thought "I remember wanting to be someone," so he quit his job, got a tiny apartment to live in, and on a whim started a job that looked like something fun to pass time with. Something unique and interesting and definitely not boring: being a psychic.

Now, Reigen's quarter-life crisis is, essentially, getting a bad case of middle schooler disease. He invents a new personality, it's over the top and dramatic, and while he knows it isn't real, it makes him feel special for the first time in his life. People come to his office for this and that, and sure he thinks they're mostly irritating, but they see him as someone unlike other people, they respect and look up to him. Especially due to the larger-than-life attitude he portrays himself with. And so, he's getting what he wants - he feels special and important, and he thrives!

But before long it's not enough, he starts thinking "this is kind of dumb, so maybe it's time to find something else" (again, he tells us this himself), but that's when Shigeo comes along and re-ignites that feeling of being special. Someone in his life looks up to him and thinks he's cool and dependable, someone with actual mind-blowing powers - and if I know anything about middle school disease, it's that if someone feeds into it, it'll intensify; especially if that person has some credibility.

From this point on, he's picking up more and more superpowered people who look up to him and feed into his need for attention, and he's getting more and more tangled into his lies. He even goes so far as to go and talk branch 7 of claw out of being bad guys with the reasoning that they're stuck in their middle school mindsets, while he himself is literally also in one. He just sees his mindset as different because he's self aware; he knows he isn't causing any trouble - he uses his conman skills to help people and do good more than anything. He's not like Claw, because to him the whole psychic powers thing is just an act - but they're adults who actually cause harm by acting that way, they're the ones with the actual power. And regardless of the outcome, middle school disease still is what it is; a desire to be more than you actually are. It won't go away until you accept yourself. He forces them all to accept themselves while... diverting attention from himself? Being the bigger person? Making excuses? Who knows. I don't think he does.

His birthday comes along and his mother emails him to wish him well, to recommend getting a less shady Real Job - because for all intents and purposes she knows Reigen isn't a psychic - she tells him he's getting older and she's worried that he hasn't settled down, all perfectly normal things for a mother to worry about. And yet, because by this point he's become so disconnected from the truth (that he's literally just some guy), he's quick to reject the entire message. He doesn't need to settle down, because he's living an exciting life right now, and he doesn't need a Real Job because this job is giving him everything he needs for his personal satisfaction. People with real powers look up to him, they're essentially a group of people he considers as friends and family. And, most important of all, he doesn't want to be normal. So he rejects the extension of her hand in favour of the life he lives, and goes on as he is.

Then, a little later, when he gets destroyed by the media, his mother reaches out once more - to give him an apology speech that he can use at his press conference, apparently giving him all the talking points he needs to cover in order for the ordeal to calm down. Maybe it seems a bit rude of her to assume he won't know how, but actually it seems more likely that she knows her son is in a pinch, that he's kind of a rascal who's in over his head, and that she genuinely wants to help him get out of trouble. And this time, he's more receptive; he let Shigeo down, and that crushed him. Shigeo made him believe that he actually was special, as opposed to the fake-specialness that he felt before taking him in as an apprentice. Mob stuck around to hear Reigen's advice as a person, much more often than as an esper, and deep down he knows Shigeo must know he isn't one. He seems to fall a little from his delusions during the separation period due to this loss of specialness, and because of this, when Shigeo comes back, they share their first real connection beyond being a teacher and student, and actually that moment ("my master is a good guy") shows him that Shigeo honestly sees him as a friend.

[There are manga spoilers from here on! Just a warning!]

And so, as the story continues through the last few arcs, Reigen changes a lot. He still believes in his core principles (ie. children shouldn't handle adult's problems / people with power should be more responsible over themselves / it's your responsibility to fix your mistakes / etc) because those are his true ideals, those are his authentic thoughts - but he's a lot less self-hating and cruel about himself. He seems to be realising that regardless of his actual abilities, people like him, especially as Serizawa comes to work for him, genuine and honest and enthralled to have someone good to look up to (not to mention he also has a fairly large group of espers that respect the work he's done and also look up to him). But despite this growth, he's just not ready to drop the act yet - he still gets something enriching out of it. He still wants to hang onto what he has, and so continues his lie until the last moment he needs it.

All this to say: his story cultivates in him accepting his normal-ness. He tearfully, painfully says to Mob's face that he has no powers, that he's just a guy, and that he doesn't expect Shigeo to accept him or want to be around him any more. It's the most honest we ever see him (besides whenever he's like "you've grown up so much" which are very authentic moments) but because he's spent so much time in his lies, he genuinely expects Shigeo to be hurt by the truth and hate him for it. He expects to be left behind once he pulls back the curtain to reveal his true self.

But Shigeo has pretty much always known Reigen was normal, and has always valued him for the friendship and kindness he's shared with him - he's always looked to Reigen for advice and comfort. So yes, Reigen is normal, but he has inherent value, just as much as Shigeo is abnormal, yet also has inherent value - they are each others' opposite. One wants to be mundane, the other spectacular, but they've both always been influencing each other to be both at the same time.

So, as I said, it's best to view Reigen as your local theatre kid with middle school disease, hanging out with superheroes, and driven to save the world because of it.

#talking about msd so much makes me think of kaidou #kaidou get out of my brain dude I can't write an essay about you get out of here this is about Reigen #this ended up being WAY longer than I expected I'm so sorry #I just love to analyse this dang thing #mp100 #mob psycho 100 #mp100 spoilers #reigen #reigen arataka #arataka reigen #shigeo #mob #kageyama shigeo #mp100 analysis #lulu on the mic #positive reigen posting