Jan 6, 2021 2:33 AM
Quick Take: Mob Psycho 100
Anime Relations:
Mob Psycho 100, Mob Psycho 100 II
Mob Psycho 100, ONE (2016) (I absolutely adore One Punch Man, anime, manga, and webcomic). “No there isn’t! He can even become God!”, Ekubo: Mob Psycho 100’s comprehensive approach to its characters, primarily Mob (Kageyama Shigeo), Reigen Arataka, Kageyama Ritsu, Ekubo, and Hanazawa Teruki, pries away the cliché tint of similar deliveries. Several characters’ motivational drives and energies are unveiled at first through subtle foreshadowing then through overt expository dialogue or action, resulting in encounters that affect Mob’s self-rejection of his immense esper ability, the kernel narrative.
Mob’s self-rejection is a point of contention initially for both Hanazawa, who was “a big fish in a small pond”, Ekubo, and Ritsu, Mob’s younger brother who spent his entire life concealing his envy of Mob’s ability. “I’m going to find a different talent”, Mob declares, in spite of his overpowered nature. Admirable, though it is a consequence of his inability to assimilate a self-fragment comprising his innate esper prowess: the rejection manifests as ???%, a squirming mass of harsh black strokes, overpowered Mob, bifurcating the self. “Which was Mob’s mere resistance towards himself. Sadness. Overwhelmed with his powerlessness that he would never be able to conquer himself”, Narrator.
Mob’s rejection appears the ultimate cause of his inability to control ???%, it remains unassimilated into the entirety of the self. At 100% Sadness and 100% Rage, ???% acts as Mob’s chaotic element, leaving Mob with a sense of powerlessness in relation to control. Mob’s rejection, though like Ritsu and Hanazawa’s consciously contrived presentations of the self wherein one is aware of his envy and the other of his commonplace nature, has seeped into unconscious levels. Interestingly, the more Mob attempts at control, the more his psychic meter, measuring psychic energy release rates, increases: Ritsu is aware of Mob’s stress triggers. At 100%, it wrenches free of Mob’s constraints, radically warping his appearance, external reality, and Mob’s internal state as it operates in a manner unlike Mob’s usually bland temperament. Mob is often left astounded and guilty at its actions, but it acts as things do when finally freed from the recesses of the unconscious: uncontainable wildness. The intensity of the warping indicates the degree of Mob’s control, the magnitude of the element being rejected, and explains Mob’s symptomatically extreme expressionlessness.
Resistance towards the self, the shadow of ???%, and Mob’s motivational drives are interrelated. “What do I want to do? What do I really want to do? Does everyone know?”. As a middle school student, Mob views others as complete, industrious subjects, while he struggles with inferiority: “I envy you, Ristu…”, he says to the younger brother who envies him. Mob, Ritsu, and Hanazawa struggle with assimilating self elements that promote a sense of inferiority, though their resolutions, if existent, vary. (1) Reigen fights Claw through Mob’s transmission of his ability, allowing Mob some relief through cutting off contact with the element of his self that he constantly resists: ???%, (2) Hanazawa’s element of a fear of commonality in his self is assimilated in his discovery of and defeat by Mob, (3) Ritsu’s element of an envious self, coveting Mob’s ability, assimilates as he comes to terms with Mob’s genuine acceptance, diminishing his initial callous conceit at gaining psychic abilities. Reigen Arataka, despite his monetary motives, offers Mob several notable deliveries that solidify Mob’s experience of his gradually developing value system and acts as an unresisted adult fostering Mob’s assimilation of self, or at least creating a space for it. Onigawara’s growth is a similar one.
Claw is interesting, though more counter argument than actual malevolence at this point. The Telepathy Club and Claw are individuals unlike Mob, Hanazawa, and Ritsu, they remain the “I am special!” psychic element. Unlike Mob, Hanazawa, and Ritsu, who are aware of and accept (though Mob still struggles with it) differing self elements, like commonality alongside esper ability, members of Claw and the Telepathy Club reject differing elements of the self for a one-dimensional idea. The Telepathy Club maintains a one-dimensional focus on telepathy/extraterrestrials or a carefree life, while Claw has a one-dimensional idea of “I am special!” in regards to psychic powers. A counter for Telepathy Club: Body Improvement Club, a counter to Claw: Reigen’s group; every member’s value systems are not one-dimensional. One aspect of the self does not constitute a whole self. Sadly, Reigen is a great counter example: despite running a fraudulent psychic business as a spiritualist, he's great at massages, photoshop, and intuitively reads his clients. Reigen isn't limited by the psychic/spiritualist aspects of his self, despite it being his main shtick. He's aware, both of his limitations and his assimilation process: being a clever and not entirely unethical fraud.
It’s 4:30 AM, and I haven’t yet slept: I have no desire to address formal elements at great length now, though the stylistics were surprising and brilliantly elected, to say the least. The aural experience of Mob Psycho 100 is perhaps the most notable: both extradiegetic frames of Mob’s psychic meter and musical motifs are excellent at inducing a sense of trepidation in viewers. Extradiegetic sound and narration are far more expository than Mob’s deliveries: his bland appearance and temperament leave little to decipher, but recurrent tunes and psychic level frames indicate the direction of advancement. This is an interesting counter to Mob’s featureless personality style and visual representation, aside from his overpowered esper power levels.
Mob’s self-rejection is a point of contention initially for both Hanazawa, who was “a big fish in a small pond”, Ekubo, and Ritsu, Mob’s younger brother who spent his entire life concealing his envy of Mob’s ability. “I’m going to find a different talent”, Mob declares, in spite of his overpowered nature. Admirable, though it is a consequence of his inability to assimilate a self-fragment comprising his innate esper prowess: the rejection manifests as ???%, a squirming mass of harsh black strokes, overpowered Mob, bifurcating the self. “Which was Mob’s mere resistance towards himself. Sadness. Overwhelmed with his powerlessness that he would never be able to conquer himself”, Narrator.
Mob’s rejection appears the ultimate cause of his inability to control ???%, it remains unassimilated into the entirety of the self. At 100% Sadness and 100% Rage, ???% acts as Mob’s chaotic element, leaving Mob with a sense of powerlessness in relation to control. Mob’s rejection, though like Ritsu and Hanazawa’s consciously contrived presentations of the self wherein one is aware of his envy and the other of his commonplace nature, has seeped into unconscious levels. Interestingly, the more Mob attempts at control, the more his psychic meter, measuring psychic energy release rates, increases: Ritsu is aware of Mob’s stress triggers. At 100%, it wrenches free of Mob’s constraints, radically warping his appearance, external reality, and Mob’s internal state as it operates in a manner unlike Mob’s usually bland temperament. Mob is often left astounded and guilty at its actions, but it acts as things do when finally freed from the recesses of the unconscious: uncontainable wildness. The intensity of the warping indicates the degree of Mob’s control, the magnitude of the element being rejected, and explains Mob’s symptomatically extreme expressionlessness.
Resistance towards the self, the shadow of ???%, and Mob’s motivational drives are interrelated. “What do I want to do? What do I really want to do? Does everyone know?”. As a middle school student, Mob views others as complete, industrious subjects, while he struggles with inferiority: “I envy you, Ristu…”, he says to the younger brother who envies him. Mob, Ritsu, and Hanazawa struggle with assimilating self elements that promote a sense of inferiority, though their resolutions, if existent, vary. (1) Reigen fights Claw through Mob’s transmission of his ability, allowing Mob some relief through cutting off contact with the element of his self that he constantly resists: ???%, (2) Hanazawa’s element of a fear of commonality in his self is assimilated in his discovery of and defeat by Mob, (3) Ritsu’s element of an envious self, coveting Mob’s ability, assimilates as he comes to terms with Mob’s genuine acceptance, diminishing his initial callous conceit at gaining psychic abilities. Reigen Arataka, despite his monetary motives, offers Mob several notable deliveries that solidify Mob’s experience of his gradually developing value system and acts as an unresisted adult fostering Mob’s assimilation of self, or at least creating a space for it. Onigawara’s growth is a similar one.
Claw is interesting, though more counter argument than actual malevolence at this point. The Telepathy Club and Claw are individuals unlike Mob, Hanazawa, and Ritsu, they remain the “I am special!” psychic element. Unlike Mob, Hanazawa, and Ritsu, who are aware of and accept (though Mob still struggles with it) differing self elements, like commonality alongside esper ability, members of Claw and the Telepathy Club reject differing elements of the self for a one-dimensional idea. The Telepathy Club maintains a one-dimensional focus on telepathy/extraterrestrials or a carefree life, while Claw has a one-dimensional idea of “I am special!” in regards to psychic powers. A counter for Telepathy Club: Body Improvement Club, a counter to Claw: Reigen’s group; every member’s value systems are not one-dimensional. One aspect of the self does not constitute a whole self. Sadly, Reigen is a great counter example: despite running a fraudulent psychic business as a spiritualist, he's great at massages, photoshop, and intuitively reads his clients. Reigen isn't limited by the psychic/spiritualist aspects of his self, despite it being his main shtick. He's aware, both of his limitations and his assimilation process: being a clever and not entirely unethical fraud.
It’s 4:30 AM, and I haven’t yet slept: I have no desire to address formal elements at great length now, though the stylistics were surprising and brilliantly elected, to say the least. The aural experience of Mob Psycho 100 is perhaps the most notable: both extradiegetic frames of Mob’s psychic meter and musical motifs are excellent at inducing a sense of trepidation in viewers. Extradiegetic sound and narration are far more expository than Mob’s deliveries: his bland appearance and temperament leave little to decipher, but recurrent tunes and psychic level frames indicate the direction of advancement. This is an interesting counter to Mob’s featureless personality style and visual representation, aside from his overpowered esper power levels.
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mochinyanya
| Jan 6, 2021 2:33 AM |
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