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katyatalks · 4 years

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MP100 Character Guidebook - ONE & Director Tachikawa’s Character Comments

Here’s ONE & Director Tachikawa’s comments on the main five (Mob, Reigen, Dimple, Ritsu, Teru) from the character guidebook! Each character gets two paragraphs.

KAGEYAMA SHIGEO

-ONE’s comment-

There were two things I kept in mind when designing his appearance; the first was making sure he’s easy to draw since he’s the main character, and the second, making him kinda uncool. Since it looks really cool when uncool people do cool things.

However, shortly after Mob Psycho 100 started serialisation I heard that people thought of him as ‘cute’. It was unexpected, that he could stir up this protective desire in others. I wanted him to have a purity that I myself don’t have, so until his character solidified I tried my best to avoid any gags that would spoil him or make him less human. That being said, in chapter 1 of the manga he does say ‘Do you really have any powers?’ to Reigen in a rude way.

-Tachikawa’s comment-

Honestly, I think he’s the hardest character to portray correctly. To give an example, if you raise the corners of his mouth too high when he smiles then he looks like he’s smirking, which isn’t Mob-like. By being just a tiny bit playful with his expressions, his vibe basically goes up in the air. His character changes bit by bit from season 1 to season 2, but I tried to make sure that his kindness toward others - the thing that makes him Mob - didn’t change. At first, his personality had parts to it that I found irritating, but overall I do really love it.

REIGEN ARATAKA

-ONE’s comment-

He’s the easiest to draw, and his character is easy to play with. I created a one-off with Reigen as the main character to submit for a manga award, and gratefully accepted the serialisation offer that was presented to me. His presence is strong, being very relatable to readers while he uses the main character, Mob. Mid-serialisation, it was pointed out to me that his character is a little hard to place, but one of the themes MP100 deals with is that fact that human beings influence and change one another. Thus, I decided to not make any changes and carry on as I’d planned, with the thought in my head that a difficult-to-place-nature is just another thing that makes us human.

-Tachikawa’s comment-

I have a special emotional attachment to Reigen… You see him in the spotlight a lot in season 1, but back then he was shrouded in mystery and it was difficult to know his true heart… and then we get S2E6-7, where we see the man behind the mask. Looking at him in those episodes was so heartbreaking… I was moved. A particular favourite scene of mine is from episode 7, when Reigen, trying to quickly send a primary-school-age Mob away from the office, says ‘Be a good person. That’s all!’. Those words were halfhearted, but they saved Mob, and later on Reigen is also saved by them. It’s fate. Drawing Reigen’s expressions for that episode was incredibly fulfilling.

DIMPLE

-ONE’s comment-

When it comes to Mob, Dimple is to spirits as Reigen is to humanity. I thought that monologues composed of inner-turmoil descriptions from a pretty silent Mob would be too stiff, so I had him cling to Mob as a conversation partner. He speaks a lot and yet nobody but Mob can hear him, so he can say as many sleazy things as he pleases - that’s why I loved writing his lines. However, he and his lines change as a result of Mob’s influence - the tension and atmosphere of their conversations change little by little. I jumped for joy when I found out that Ootsuka Akio-san would be playing Dimple.

-Tachikawa’s comment-

Dimple is a popular one with the animators, since his facial expressions change a lot and you can play around with him freely. Truth is, for season 2, I thought it might be good to just reuse all the Dimples we’d drawn up to that point rather than drawing up new ones, but character designer Kameda-kun was severely opposed to that (laughs). In season 1 you still get the sense that he’s an evil spirit, but with season 2 he feels more like Mob Psycho 100’s mascot character. Moreover, there’s this feeling that he’s completely become one of Mob’s friends, but taking into account what happens next in the manga, we tried to make sure that he wasn’t entirely at the ‘I’m not thinking of bad things at all’ end of the spectrum.

KAGEYAMA RITSU

-ONE’s comment-

I thought to myself; Mob’s younger brother, the person closest to him… how would he grow up if he didn’t have any powers? Perhaps he should be superior to his older brother in every way, but unable to wipe away how crushing it is to not have powers. So he joins the main plot as this excellent, ideal ‘good little brother’ who happens to hide a heavy distortion in his heart. I thought it’d be more human - more Ritsu-ish - to make sure that the distortion in his heart doesn’t go away even after he exposes it to Mob. I think we can only feel a sense of security in someone’s positives if they have a few negatives. It’s difficult drawing him when he’s facing the right.

-Tachikawa’s comment-

I was really charmed by him when he leans toward the dark side in season 1. When he was immersed in that superiority complex and beat up those delinquents, Mob apologised on his behalf… I thought the description of what was going through his mind at that point was well done. After he reconciles with Mob in season 1 he grows, and in season 2 he realises that the reason he admires Mob has nothing to do with powers, so I think his troubles are basically over. He’s a good character with how devoted he is to his big brother. When animating him, his hair (ie. keeping it balanced) caused a good amount of grief. With season 2 we decided to cut his hair a little, which made him easier to deal with.

HANAZAWA TERUKI

-ONE’s comment-

He’s a character with which anything goes, so I rely on him to develop the story. He falls to the point where he can’t fall any further, then reforms and is reintroduced to the story, but you can’t even see the top of his head with how high his wig stack is. Watching the anime, I thought to myself, why is he the only one who I treated like that… do I have no compassion? His fashion sense is also amazing. I think he really gave it his all to liven up Mob Psycho 100. I love him.

-Tachikawa’s comment-

He’s a character who I always look forward to drawing. He’s introduced in episode 4 as the first enemy esper, he has his clash with Mob… that’s also the first time we see Mob reach ???%... he’s a character that carries a good few firsts for this work. His ochimusha and hair 150% forms are also popular - during season 1 he gave us a lot to laugh about (laughs). Since he has powers his appearance in season 2 gives a sense of security. He’s trustworthy. ‘The enemy becomes a friend’ may be a typical development in manga, but with all the examples that come to mind his particular rendition of it really touches me. He moves and fights of his own accord, so his esper action scenes promise a lot of highlights.

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Posted on twitter here.

The character guidebook interviews are here.

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #kageyama shigeo #reigen arataka #dimple #kageyama ritsu #hanazawa teruki #my stuff #ekubo #character guidebook

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shiobookmark · 4 years

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Ooh actually, new Utena theory.

So I've been following along with a certain liveblog (won't say who in case they see this, they don't like spoilers) and I've realised that while I like my previous Utena analysis it never really satisfactorily explained what the heck happened with Dios/Akio and Anthy.

All we really know is that Dios eventually exhausted his ability to save all the girls in the world, and Anthy stepped in to save him from an angry mob.

So just a quick aside to set the scene.

The reason Dios can't be Anthy's prince is that the fairytale prince is an explicitly romantic figure. A prince makes a girl his princess, his bride, and she is then loyal only to him. You could say it plays into notions of romantic chivalry as well.

There was a review of the film with Jesuotaku and Oancitizen which put this rather succinctly, to paraphrase:

A prince has to play a dominant role in a relationship, which means controlling his beloved in such a way that undermines her personhood, which will eventually destroy the fantasy of the prince anyway. Or else they have to be nobly self-sacrificial to all people and be unable to give their beloved special treatment, eventually sacrificing their own happiness and that of their partner.

Dios could not protect the person he really loved (Anthy) and still be a prince without either sacrificing his personal relationship with her and being a hero to all, or by forcing her into a subservient role.

As Dios, he tried to be a good person and hopefully help Anthy along the way, but as a result Anthy was left all alone in the world as he was too busy to spend time with her. He couldn't make her his princess because that would be a romantic role, and to be clear, at the time there were no incestuous feelings there. He loved his sister and wanted to be with her as a family, but his role as a prince forced them apart.

And when it eventually grew to be too much, Anthy decided to take on the role of a villain and hopefully free him that way. If the prince had been captured by an evil witch, he could no longer fight for the world. Maybe then they could be a family again, even if she had to be hated by everyone, it would be worth it.

The key thing is here, I don't think Anthy did anything.

She didn't seal away his power, she just claimed Dios for herself and herself alone. That was enough to get the mob angry enough to tear through her.

Maybe she did seal away his power to prevent him from being even able to fight, but if she did, surely she would have been able to give it back to him? Akio never seems to directly confront her about that, and I think he would. So unless it was a spell she could never take back and he was leveraging her guilt over that, I think something else happened.

But in any case, when Dios saw what the people he'd sacrificed everything for had done to his beloved sister, he lost it.

He probably killed them, but even if he didn't, he lost all faith in humanity as a whole. From then on, he decided he was going to be a prince to Anthy alone.

And at first it was everything she wanted. Dios was with her and yes she was in pain, she had to take all the hatred and resentment of humanity for his departure in his place, had to take all the blame, but she was happy.

But, as we covered, a prince can't be a prince to his sister. He can sort of be a prince to his beloved, but only if she submits to his authority.

So over time, it became twisted. Dios started forcing Anthy into that subservient role, tried to mould her into a princess, into his bride, rather than his sister. All the while he began to blame her for putting him in this position.

At some point, perhaps since that day in the barn, Akio was unable to access his powers.

Dios locked himself away in his own coffin, buried so deep down he could no longer climb his way out. Even worse than Anthy, he became almost entirely detached from his old self. And with it, his powers were gone. I think Dios sealed himself away.

And he was horrified to see what he had become.

So he used what little agency he had left to reach out to duelists. I don’t believe Utena was the only one or even the first. He reached out to anyone he thought had a noble heart, hoping eventually that someone would be able to help.

Akio found his own version of this, of people stunted by their traumas, so he used Anthy’s power to weave a garden where he could control everything and hopefully groom a prince powerful enough to break through to Dios’ coffin.

Anthy went along with it because by this point Akio’s successfully worn her down. Maybe she hopes he’d be able to return to his old self. She’s clinging to the past, hoping that one day they can be a family again. It’s also a bit of sunk cost fallacy, she’s worked so hard to help her brother surely just a little more won’t matter.

Dios didn’t know how to free Anthy, but maybe someday someone would be the prince he could never be. He lent them his powers as necessary, trying to raise one up to be strong enough to bring Revolution.

But his new self was always there twisting things. The cycle went on and on. It could be with the same players, it could be with new ones. Maybe they’re all going round and round in time. Maybe Utena is new, maybe she’s done this before. There’s lots of possibilities.

But either way, little did Dios know that no prince would ever be able to save Anthy. Anthy needed to make the choice to walk away. Anthy brought the Revolution. Utena just helped her realise she could still open that door.

#Utena #Utena spoilers #Revolutionary Girl Utena #Utena theories

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kimabutch · 7 years

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Revolutionary Girl Utena Headcanon Survey: Results!!!

Thanks so much to everyone who responded to my survey! There were a few troll responses, but those have been deleted. The results are below. May be spoilers — proceed with caution!

Other responses:

Queer

is into women, not sure if bi

Lesbian, but society have influenced her to view men as attractive (princes) as shown by how she forgot Anthy through the change in the "fairy tale".

Series: Kinsey 2—predominantly heterosexual, but she does seem to have feelings for Anthy. Movie: straight-up Kinsey 3 bisexual.

Other responses:

Bi, but prefers girls because men tend to abuse her

ace lesbian

Too hard to say without seeing her after being out of abusive situations for a while.

I dont think it is knowable, to herself least of all.

Bisexual but also, bisexual is Not the same as pansexual. Pansexual is liking all genders. Bisexual is liking same gender + other gender, ie a person can like the same gender + nonbinary, but not male/female, thus making them Not pansexual. They're two completely different orientations so please don't erase bisexuality/pansexuality by combining them

Utenasexual

Demiromantic/demisexual

Series: demisexual/single-target sexuality on Utena; movie: bisexual/pansexual

Questioning but def into girls

Other responses:

Lesbian. She has never been attracted to that blue haired manipulative sexual harassing senpai of hers.

Demisexual

Other responses:

Not straight but Very Confused

Ace lesbian

Demisexual

Nanami seems a bit too immature to know her own sexuality yet—see: Nanami's Egg

Other responses:

Queer

She does what she wants

Bisexual, not pansexual.

Straight, but totally willing to make out with a girl for attention

Other responses:

Some flavor of queer -- I see her as falling heavily into compulsory heterosexuality without realizing it

She's gay but it's gonna take her a few years to figure that out

not sure if straight or bi

Bisexual, not pansexual.

maybe bi-curious?

Other responses:

Heavily closeted lesbian

Dr. Jekyll/ Mr. Bi

bitch

Other response:

Bisexual. It's heavily implied that she was the previous Duelist before Utena. She might have had a relationship with Anthy, which makes Anthy hate her even more after because she chose Akio.

(Neither Tokiko nor Keiko have any other responses.)

Other responses:

Queer, but mostly uses sex for power and not intimacy or gratification

Scum

who the fuck cares

asshole

Yes.

Hedonist

Pansexual but abusive/pedophilic. Is attracted to people not for their gender but for the extent of control he can wield over them.

rather than "no preference" can i put "no orientation" whatsoever because he is a bad manipulative man and attracted to revolutionary power alone

the devil

Toxic masculinity—sexuality is a weapon that he uses against women and men alike. I don't think attraction or orientation has anything to do with it. So maybe aromantic and pansexual?

Evil

Queer

Bad

Power that can be gained from their partner. Either over the partner or because of the partner.

He'd describe himself as Heterflexible

Biromantic asexual. He acts sexual throughout the series due to Akio's manipulation, not of his own desire to attract others sexually.

Other responses:

Queer

Hatefucksexual

Bisexual, but for the same gender attraction, he's very closeted and insecure about it.

Frustrated

Other response:

Mikage = Gay / Nemuro = Straight

Other responses:

Straight trans man

Trans lesbian

Greysexual

hyper-repressed trans lesbian

gay trans girl!!

Other responses:

He's Just A Kid Dude

He's prepubescent, so it's hard to say for certain

Other responses:

I Don't Even Remember This Guy

Likes girls, at least, but is so weird in approaching this that might be trans.

Other responses for the survey in general are under the cut!

I think that the entire purpose of trying to fit these characters into specific sexualities goes against a lot of the point of the show. I see the show as very much a queer (and queered) narrative, and a lot of the characters would fall onto the queer spectrum, and it seems almost incompatible with the project of calling into question pre-received categories of self that the show itself has to even have a survey with questions like this.

I only gave their sexual orientation based on the interactions I saw during the series. All of the men are straight because I didn't see (or remember) them interacting with other men in a romantic/sexual way. I didn't base their sexuality on their appearance or their(especially touga's) flamboyant personality.

A lot of the heterosexual relationships in this show are explicitly shown to be Fucked Up so like, idk. Like, I don't really have a hc for Tsuwabuki bc his romantic involvement with Nanami was just Bad and I don't really see it as indicative of an actual preference and more of like, a vulnerability to manipulation? And I feel like that's true for a lot of the characters, like their really manipulative or abusive relationships can't be taken as like an actual indication of preference. Especially the incestuous ones.

chu chu is gay

I love my gay dueling kids

Some of these people's orientation is 'bitch/asshole' if you ask me.

Chu Chu is clearly gay. Come on.

???lol utena isnt straightttt

fuck akio ohtori

Literally everyone is bi in the Utena universe. Nice and simple. It allows for ease of storytelling, being able to explore gender/sexuality themes without getting all label-y in a narrative that doesn't really use (or need) labels. I like Utena specifically because it focuses on the more interesting storytelling aspects of romance and heterosexism without unnecessary diversions of "am I gay or straight? oh no I can't decide!" (But then again some people think of that as the driving question of the whole series! I think everyone just pulls out themes they relate to.)

this show made me realise i was a lesbian. also dont ever ask me abt chu-chu's sex life again

everybody thats a douche is straight i don't make the rules it actual canon

Chigusa Sanjouin - bi

Shaddow Play Girls - sexualities indiscribable in our lowly human language

We Are All Wlw

you fool. chu chu is the Ultimate gay representation

chuchu is bi too

It's odd how I just assumed some of the characters e.g. Tatsuya and Keiko are straight just because they don't show attraction to anyone of the same gender in the show but honestly I don't care

Aro/Ace should be a modifier and not it's own category

Although I marked some down as straight, no one's really straight on this show. I can see everyone make exceptions, although they're still primarily what I marked them down as (as far as headcanons go)

I imagine that Utena, Shiori, and Saionji are on the closeted side of things at the beginning of the series.

STOP CHU-CHU ABUSE (also juri and miki are both aroace and platonic soulmates bc not everything has to be about romance i think)

Chu-Chu's orientation is frog.

What about the Shadow Players??? (Kidding)

Bisexual and pansexual are two completely different orientations. Please do not erase the two by combining them.

utena is very much in the closet and by the end of the series she comes to terms with being a butch lesbian thanx

Everything is lesbians

lesbean

Chuchu is chusexual (attracted to frogs).

nanami's orientation feels more complicated than straight but i feel like she'd live her life that way and say it as straight to simplify for people (and herself)

Didn't ChuChu date a frog?

honestly i dont really have an orientation hc for keiko either i was just really aware of the fact that i hadn't put "straight" for any of them and i was like "yea she's probably a straightie" but you dont need to factor that in to your results or anything its just a fun fact, a piece of trivia i chose to share here :-)

fuck i love these gays

chu chu is gay and i love him

#revolutionary girl utena #shoujo kakumei utena #rgu #long post

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