#teru and mob had a big fight when they were young where mob hurt teru and they never made up.

[audoodle]

something has been on my mind as I look through mp100 age swap content. there's a lot of really good concepts that I like a lot but a lot of these concepts feel kind of unlike how I picture a young reigen and especially an older mob?

the thing about mob psycho as it exists in canon is that we have no real picture of reigen's childhood. he has family but we don't know really anything about them, the history section of the wiki really only has the sports day to fall back on for him (it's a wikia so good chance they're missing something. I may be missing something too). but reigen lived a seemingly uneventful life before the events of the series. his story is about someone later on in life finding his people and his place and I think that's why serizawa and reigen and reigen and 7th division claw as a dynamic works so well because it's about how adults actually do have the freedom to reinvent themselves and find new paths.

I feel like older shigeo in an age swap is often written with this kind of dynamic (sometimes he is literally a serizawa style shut in) and I don't wish to say that is inherently bad a lot of that stuff I really enjoy reading and looking at! and I totally understand the value of it because you get to set a lot of your events in the current day which is what the audience is here for. but also it kind of feels like you've put mob into a time bubble? which feels like there's a lot of missed potential in that.

unlike reigen we know a lot about mob's childhood. obviously that's what the series is about. so if someone is making an age swap I think making a story that plays with that and plays with the expectations that while yes a lot of things were different in his life this still was a kid who went to salt middle and he must have met a lot of the same people right? I think working with that "baggage" could end up being really fun.

like I said I get why fic writers don't do that it means to fill out their story they need to not have characters like reigen and serizawa in the present of their work and fill things out through flashback or implications. you also worry about blowing your exciting stuff before your story technically "begins." (you're essentially doing a no reigen au and an age swap at once it's kind of weird) despite these clear issues I do have a lot of interest in making stories like this. reigen is introduced to a circle of people he does not know and has to piece together a history he was not there for. like I'm imagining him learning about a time shigeo went 100% as a kid and it being like learning your dad got arrested when they were 17. it feels like a concept with a lot of potential to focus on the history of shigeo's life and how it leads to where he is in current day ageswap.

#ideas i had based on this that I'm hiding in tags #mob tome inukawa and takenaka still go to see aliens every year. they take reigen who is so so convinced they aren't real #teru and mob had a big fight when they were young where mob hurt teru and they never made up. #teru is now a tv psychic who wants mob on his show and reigen keeps begging mob to take the invite but mob is too scared to face teru again #tsubomi rejects mob obviously but they end up being friends after. they still talk and meet up for coffee/tea every few months #everyone assumes the two of them never talked after she moved but they're just good friends still #ritsu never got powers but he runs the awakening lab in an attempt to create a group of psychics who can stand up to mob. just in case :) #shou runs claw but its more like canon awakening lab. he grew up not knowing espers and wants a better environment and friends for his son #mp100 #age swap #ageswap #i have so many ideas it is kind of embarrassing

[strawbrymilkshake]

i just watched the first six episodes of the mp100 netflix show for no good reason other than that i apparently hate myself, so to not put my pain to waste here’s a half-review half-rant thing

i guess ill start with the good and make my way to the shit i hated about this show, but as you can probably guess there’s hardly any good

tome was fun, i guess. she’s got that same chaotic™ energy and had some of the only lines i genuinely laughed at, but also she’s the only member of the telepathy club for some reason? and they merged her character with mezato’s, so i guess she’s got more to do. but judging by the sfx i doubt they had the budget for even one (1) more actor, so ig i can forgive them for that. overall probably the only adaptation that both wasn’t painful to watch and actually warranted the changes they made

teru (from the little i saw of him) was also pretty good. the fight had some....changes, but on his own i thought he was fine, pretty harmless adaptation overall. i stopped watching once i realised that they weren’t gonna go all in and give him the cactus hair so points deducted for that

and the last thing i liked about this show: ritsu! they got a young actor who was good and i didn’t have many issues with him. there was one interaction he had with tome that i liked when she introduced herself and he said ‘oh! tome’s my grandma’s name!’ and tome was like ‘...yeah you and mob are definitely brothers.’ the reason why he’s lower than tome and teru is because. for whatever fucking reason. he is in every. goddamn. scene. like even when it doesn’t make any sense. when mob joins the body improvement club? he’s there. when mob is taking down the lol cult? he’s there. the teru fight? he’s there. i lost count of how many times i was asking myself ‘why the fuck is ritsu here?’ he was inescapable. his presence in those scenes didn’t even add anything to the story. also he’s friends with tsubomi for some reason....i guess to give him more things that mob can be envious of?

speaking of tsubomi.....god. not to be like ‘they didn’t understand the source material!!1!!11!1!!!’ but like. please. it hurt. i get that they were probably trying to lean into the ‘guy gets the girl/high school romance’ type show more but uhh....way to horribly misunderstand the source material, guys. the problem with her is that she is in it so much that it almost entirely defeats the point of her character & what she’s supposed to mean to mob. they interact like every other scene! she’s a pretty close friend to ritsu, so that means they interact even more! she’s their next door neighbour ffs! i only watched the first six episodes and i think i still saw more of her than her entire screen time in the anime put together

and apart from her being so close to mob that it completely destroys the point of him idolising her, it also meant that the writers had to come up with a full personality for her and an actual dynamic for her and mob. and hoo boy they really went and decided that the two of them would have the most awkward, unappealing dynamic ever, huh. like there’s this running gag where she always messes up the words to common phrases, and mob has to correct her, and it’s painful every time. which, i guess (????) makes sense for what their relationship is in the manga & anime, where they’re not close anymore and mob doesn’t even know what she’s like/what he likes about her, but in this show, they were trying to push them together to lean into the romance tropes, so their uncomfortable dynamic doesn’t make sense anyway??

the stageplay got it fuckin RIGHT when they went and cast NO ONE for tsubomi. like. the legend jumped out. they got mob pining for a silhouette. chef’s kiss

holy shit this got long fast. ok the rest is under the cut

i guess im just going character by character now so: dimple. weird guy. the cgi was awful, but you knew that already. but he was just....so weird. and by that i mean he was awkwardly,, never there? when teru exorcises him it’s supposed have at least some impact, but in this show he had like three (3) scenes before it (rather than a couple episodes leading up to it) (and also they cut a shit ton out of the middle of the lol cult arc for...whatever reason) so when he gets exorcised here it’s like...oh no.....that guy...........did mob even speak to him more than once.....

speaking of the pacing of this show: it’s horrendous!! good lord i hate it!! the pacing is shit awful, and it feels like they’re just throwing in ‘’’’’’’’interesting’’’’’’’’ scenes that should take place later in the story bc they know that the audience isn’t going to want to stay around for the atrocious writing! case in point: we see the flashback of mob and reigen meeting in the second episode. the second fucking episode. the reason why it’s delayed so much in the anime (and even more in the manga) has a lot to do with the unfolding of reigen’s character depth and they just?? throw it in so early?? it feels like they’re just going ‘oh by the way, he’s good, or whatever. yeah, he’s totally complex and interesting. just trust us, okay, keep watching the show’ and the pacing of that completely throws off reigen’s character arc

i can’t really remember which episode(s) this was in but they also have this weird subplot with reigen going to the bar alone (yknow..like....s2 scenes...) and lowkey being friends with the bartender guy?? i gotta be honest i wasn’t paying much attention during these scenes but suffice it to say: god i hated reigen. like sure, he’s a sleazy character, but they just made him disgusting. netflix reigen does not drink his respect women juice, and that’s all i wanna say about that

also why is he like 40 years old

anyways back to the pacing, apart from throwing in scenes from wayyy later in the plot, this show also tried to have like four or five plot threads going at once. the place that this hurt the most was probably the teru fight, where the anime spends like two episodes entirely on it and nothing else, but in this show it keeps cutting to the start of the big clean up arc (probably just so they could keep showing ritsu) and reigen’s weird subplot 

and there’s other stuff like that, where they kept cutting to the awakening lab & the scars doing psychic stuff or whatever, i guess trying to entice the audience like ‘we swear there’s plot stuff!! it’s not just slice of life!! there’s evil™ people!!’ and i guess they were gonna pull the ol’ switcheroo™ where the audience thinks the awakening lab and the scars are working together but oh no!! only the scars are evil!! the awakening lab was actually on our side!! but i can’t be bothered to watch that far

also in the teru fight, they got most of the message across (don’t use your psychic powers against other people....mob and teru are the same...) but because they kept cutting away from it they lost the dramatic impact of all of it. the choreography and sfx weren’t as bad as they could have been i guess, but they definitely showed the budget. it also didn’t take place in a school (which...fine, whatever) but it led to something i actually did like: teru attacked mob with glass shards instead of knives, and although i do like the knife metaphor + imagery, you could also argue something about the destructive nature of his power use coming back to hurt him in the shards of glass, and also something about reflections or...something. i just thought it was neat, although i don’t know why they changed the setting from the school in the first place

also in the teru fight: it was raining and ???% stopped the rain katara-style mid air, and even though the cgi still wasn’t all that good, i thought that was a rad concept. but then he just made a tornado instead of ripping buildings apart and you get the idea not a lot of it was good

back to things i hate because i don’t have a good segue!! the writing!! bad!!

i see the writers of this show engaged in the age old storytelling practice of ‘tell, don’t show’

when reigen tells mob to be a good person: “ok, i won’t show off my powers or use them against other people. i’ll become a good person”

when mob loses control of his powers and hurts ritsu as a kid: “these powers are awful and cause nothing but trouble. i’m not going to be using them again”

god i wish i was exaggerating

and, going back to the lol cult, for whatever fucking reason they decided to have that latter line of dialogue to be the full explanation of mob’s complex. like i get that there’s a time for exposition and a time for subtly, but take some cues from the original author and maybe fucking explain the main plot device of the show and not the protagonist’s sad vague backstory rather than the other way around. want to confuse and alienate your audience? good fucking job!! you’ve done it!!

and just because this was my favourite episode in the anime and im fucking bitter!! they cut out so much of dimple’s monologue and just had mob get to 100% pretty much after all dimple says is ‘get a clue.’ like. he puts the mask on, it doesn’t work, ‘get a clue,’ 100%. yeah im totally gonna care when this character comes back to try and manipulate mob later.

also....mob...........

i havent talked about him that much here, have i?

okay specifically w the lol cult first, the whole thing where they put the mask on and he’s not smiling is completely devoid of any impact because!! he’s full on emoting throughout the rest of the show!! like he’ll look worried, embarrassed, he’ll cringe or smile or whatever, and the most it looks like is that he’s just slightly uninterested, but otherwise has a pretty good grip on his emotions. unlike the anime + stageplay where it’s clear that he’s (seemingly) completely unemotional. the reason why i bring up the stageplay is bc, while i know that setsuo ito is 10ish years older than the guy that plays mob in the netflix show, i kinda wish that they just....cast him anyway.....bc they clearly didn’t have any hangups on casting adults for all the other middle schoolers, and ito did such a good job in the stageplay. he’s the only guy who is mob to me lmao (kyle mccarley is on thin ice but he can stay)

i mean mob just straight up showing emotions through the show could have been down to the directing as well. also i’m pretty sure a majority of it is bc he’s constantly around tsubomi, so. stupid decisions lead to stupid outcomes!

and that’s basically it for my weird review/rant on this show. the writing’s bad, the pacing’s bad, they didn’t care at all about the source material, i’m not entirely sure if they cared about the audience either, there was maybe two (2) changes i liked, if that, and everyone should go watch the stageplay. there were probably way more points that i wanted to bring up but i think my brain is already repressing the memory of it for my own safety

if i ever try to watch the rest of this show, shoot me

#not to bring up the netflix adaptation of mp100 on main but #also as the episodes went on it kind of just went from bad in an infuriating way to bad in a boring way #mp100 #gonna be honest idk who i was aiming this at

[fireflysummers]

CHIASMUS:  

a rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures in order to produce an artistic effect (x)

|| Part 1 ||  Part 2 ||

Reigen

Reigen is the first to find Mob. 

He faces the figure in the center of the whirlwind, eyeing the figure of a boy--no, Reigen corrects himself, a young man. A heartbeat passes. Then another.

Then a greasy, familiar grin splits across Reigen’s face.

“Nice try, my apprentice,” he says, striding forward. He covers the distance between them in two steps, but he doesn’t stop when he reaches Mob’s side. “You’ve learned well from your old master, but it’ll still take a little more than that to out-con a con artist.”

“What are you talking about,” Mob responds, his monotone almost broken by curiosity and...panic.

“Maybe I should be scared of you,” Reigen replies, “But Mob? Never. Because you aren’t him.”

He steps out into the swirling gusts, which to his relief part before him. The debris being flung by the psychic outburst swerve out of their collision path with him.

There, where his vision had been obscured before, stands another. Reigen feels something tug at his heartstrings--nostalgia, perhaps--at the sight of a child, small for his age, dressed in the soft blue fabric of a local elementary school.  His shoulders are hunched over, black hair falling into his eyes so that he does not have to look up to see his master calling.

“Mob-kun, what are you doing in a place like this?” Reigen asks, crouching down to look the child in his eyes. The boy says nothing at first, but gives a telling sniff instead.

“Come on, it’s time to go home.”

“You weren’t supposed to find me here,” Mob says in a small voice. “You’re supposed to be afraid. I broke the rule. I used them, my psychic powers, against another person.”

Very gently, Reigen places a hand on Mob’s shoulder, swears he can feel the rapid heartbeat just under the tensing muscles.

“Do you know why I made that rule?” he asks.

“To protect people from me,” Mob answers immediately, with no hesitation and no small amount of shame.

“No.” Reigen’s smile has long ago dropped the greasy confidence of a man in his element. Instead there is something sad there, but incredibly kind. “It was for you. It was because, even at the beginning, I knew that you never wanted to hurt anybody, and that it would tear you apart if you ever did, even in self defense. I made that rule because I never wanted you to have that burden. And because...I thought that I could be there to protect you.”

“I’m the one that failed here, Mob, not you. I couldn’t protect you this time. I’m sorry.”

Suddenly his arms are full of small child, trembling so hard against him he can feel his heart breaking heat again. There are no tears, even here in this space created by Mob himself, but Reigen can feel the sorrow and the regret. 

Reigen scoops the child up in his arms, painfully aware that it has been years since Mob was small enough for that treatment.

“Let’s go home,” he says, “the others are worried about you.”

“I’m not the real one, you know.” The boy sniffs, still clinging tightly to the ratty gray jacket that Reigen has worn religiously for over a decade.

“I figured as much,” his master replies, “Just another piece of him floating around in this mindscape. But he can hear me now, can’t he?”

The child in his arms nods slowly.

“All right then, Mob. If you’re listening, it’s time to come back.  You’re late for work.”

Shou

Shou is forgetting something. Even as he weaves desperately through the air, through the debris, he can feel it nagging at the back of his mind. 

Mob is still laughing, on occasion, high peels of hysteria. They send chills down Shou’s spine, as he tries again and again to counterattack, knowing even now that it’s in vain. He’d seen the raw scale of his opponent’s power, when he’d faced off against his old man.  Known that there was hope of ever throttling it, reigning it in, or even reasoning it.

But he’s still forgetting something.

Something important, from when he’d fought his father.

“Shou-kun, stop!” 

And there it is, hurtling out of nowhere to snag Mob out of the air. 

Never forget about Serizawa.

The one who is always there, in the background. The one who always steps in in the nick of time. The one who had learned that a shield is for the protection of others, rather than a shell to hide behind.

It’s an important rule, to never forget. Shou doesn’t know if Serizawa has just arrived, or if he has been watching the entire time. He supposes it doesn’t matter.

Serizawa wraps his arms around the small boy’s middle, holding tightly as a man drowning. To Shou’s surprise, Mob does not turn to attack the new opponent. 

“Don’t you remember? Kageyama-senpai is nothing like the president! He’s like me!” Serizawa’s voice, which so often was mild and unassuming, trumpet out in an anguished plea. 

Even though the words are addressed to Shou, it seems that Mob is listening.

“He saved me. He saved you. He wouldn’t leave us behind.” There’s determination there, beyond anything that Shou would have once thought the man capable of. “We have to save him too!!”

Around them, the battle halts, the three of them hanging in mid-air, trying to process what has just happened. The ecstasy on Mob’s face has vanished, evaporated with the manic laughter.

There are clouds coalescing around them now. Mob curls into himself, as best he can with Serizawa still wrapped around his waist. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Shou can see tears now, can feel the guilt and shame swarming in the very air around them.

“It’s okay,” Serizawa replies reassuringly. “I understand. You’re afraid of yourself, and you want to be alone. But that’s not going to help anybody. I promise, it’ll be okay, Kageyama-senpai, because we’re not going to leave you.”

Teru

It’s difficult for Teru to think while strangling the panic that threatens to overcome him. 

A deep breath. A step forward, towards the figure standing ominously silhouetted against the broken window. Lightning flashes from beyond, freeze-framing the terrifying seconds as Teru makes his way through the shattered room.

There are still words, buzzing just on the edge of perception. Except now, Teru can really hear them--their frantic, desperate sadness intruding on every thought and action. 

“Kageyama-kun,” he says, placing a trembling hand on his friend’s shoulder once more. The other boy does not move, motionless against the psychic waves that lift his hair and clothing against gravity itself. “I know you’re awake in there. I heard you speak.”

Still no reply, but Teru is becoming more confident with the confirmation of this little theory.

Slowly, with hesitation, he finds himself wrapping his arms around Mob’s stiff frame, holding him close until he can feel both their juddering heartbeats. Another deep breath.

“Stop it, Kageyama-kun,” he says, voice almost playful, almost scolding, but unable to keep out the edge of desperate sadness. “You’re trying to be dramatic, but your’e a terrible liar, even to yourself.”

In his arms, he swears he can feel the tension in Mob’s body beginning to drain away. He finds himself holding his breath, too scared to even hope yet.

“You give everybody else another chance. Show yourself some mercy too.”

He can feel Mob shifting, the other boy slowly twisting. At first Teru thinks he’s trying to break from their grip, but instead his arms wind around Teru, locking them both into the embrace.  In response, Teru only holds him tighter.

“You know people can change,” he says, almost a whisper, “For better and for worse. I know what it’s like for it to feel like there’s so much bad that you don’t know what to start fixing first. I know what it’s like to slip back, and make the same mistakes. But...I changed...am changing, I hope. Because of you. Because you were strong enough to try.”

“And I know that you’re strong enough to try again too.”

Ritsu

Ritsu doesn’t turn from the scene before him. He can feel the terror knotting up his insides, as he searches for words.

“Ritsu?” the young version of his brother breaks the silence that has fallen on the both of them.  He seems to be waiting on Ritsu to say something--a decision, a condemnation, something.

“No.” The word comes out harsh and jagged as a cactus spike. It seems to startle them both, but Ritsu knows immediately that it isn’t wrong.

“No,” he repeats, a little more certainly this time. “I wouldn’t be happier.”

He turns to face Mob now, and suddenly they’re nearly the same height. Instead of his uniform, he’s dressed in his grade school uniform, a soft hoodie pulled over to keep him warm against the new year chill. 

“It’s true,” Ritsu says, startled a little at the sound of his own voice, grating and childlike. “I was afraid of you for a long time but...growing up, I think we both made lots of mistakes. But you always forgave me.”

Unbidden, he feels his small, pudgy hands balling themselves into fists, trembling by a sudden onslaught of emotion that threatens to choke out his voice entirely. He fights against it, refusing to feel shame for the tears that begin trickling down his face.

“I can’t imagine a future without you as my big brother,” he chokes out. “Please. I need you Nii-san.”

The words hang there for a moment, and then there is a sound like glass splintering. The world around them seems to fracture into a million shards, falling away. 

The only thing left is his brother, watching with a sad smile.

“Okay,” he says finally, “Let’s go home.”

100% Hope

Mob woke up.

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #mp 100 #kageyama shigeo #kageyama ritsu #reigen arataka #serizawa katsuya #suzuki shou #hanazawa teruki #my art #my fanfiction