It's Okay, I Don't Think I'm Real Either

But the best part—the BEST PART— about it is they DONT do it in a coy way like “you are so cool 🥺🥺🥺 and amazing 🤩🤩🤩 and fascinating with your power but…! Alas…! 😔😔😔 God’s coolest soldiers must bear the burden of using power responsibly…! You must in fact bear the great burden and be the coolest and specialist protagonist of the world silently…!”

That would have been the easiest way to write it for sure. Dimple even presents it this way. Reigen absolutely did say some foot-in-mouth terrible things claiming that Mob’s friends are using him and Mob can only rely on Reigen.

And while Mob absolutely took issue with the accusation that his friends are using him, the words that really got to him were Reigen going “you gotta grow up for crying out loud”

Mob is someone who thinks deeply about the things people says to him, and he’s someone who wants to put in the genuine effort to live his life.

Mob’s take-away from this wasn’t “I’m mad at Reigen.” His take-away was “I tend to just follow what Reigen says because it’s easy and works out. But I think to grow up and live my own life, I need to start making my own decisions and figuring out what I want.”

This arc could so easily have been about a petty squabble or a classic “your business won’t last a day without me!” style bet. But Mob isn’t that type of character.

since i’ve been pretty demotivated about everything recently, i wanted to make myself some motivational stickers to put wherever i like. And literally who else could i have chosen but them

And as someone who is the opposite of that I truly appreciate it.

It’s about doing the things you love to do even if you aren’t good at them and not doing the things you’re great at “gifted” even simply because they don’t make you happy or fufill you.

Reigen really looked Mob, the quintessential gifted child, in the face and told him “you don’t have to do something just because you’re good at it, your powers aren’t who you are” and the body improvement club tells him “why give up just because your bad at it? You’re having fun aren’t you?”

And it’s very important to clarify that Reigen did not -accidentally- give Mob good advice. Because one of Reigen’s most distinct traits is his ability to come up with genuine advice and tell people what they need to be told. But he’ll do this on the spot. He’ll do it wrapped in bullshit. He’ll camp it alongside some conman string. He’ll go along with anything. He’ll pretend anything is true. The grift is, in fact, integral of it.

And I love this dichotomy in him because he’s so precariously set up at all moments to topple. For anyone to call him on his bullshit and use that to dismantle everything he’s said. He was lying. He was scamming you. He was using you.

And yes, he was. But it wasn’t really for service of the con. It was for service of the customer, who needed to hear something important.

When mp100 season 1 aired in the summer of 2016, Trump was a joke who wasn't going to win anything. Legalization of gay marriage had happened pretty recently, with what felt like a lot of momentum and support. "Manosphere influencers" had no foothold and were relegated to incel forums that received much derision. Covid hadn't happened. Q-anon hadn't happened. The economy was "good" insofar as it was pre-inflation, and you could get a job if you focused on the "right" degree, and the whole market wasn't hung on the clothesline of AI.

It wasn't perfect of course, by no means. And the seeds of most things I listed above did exist. But the snowball of things which have mounted since then has been... horrific, honestly.

"Hey Chrissy wasn't this post about Mob Psycho 100?" It is, and it's actually about narratives of young men lost in life trying to figure out how to grow up "right." Between 2016 and now, I've probably seen glimpses of a hundred forgettable anime where the young male protagonist learns how to achieve this--and learns how to do it by becoming strong, by becoming strong enough to crush the enemies that threaten your loved ones (which enemies? who is an enemy? never mind that. there is an enemy. they want to crush what belongs to you. you are a protector.) It's about becoming Powerful Enough to hurt evil, and Powerful Enough to protect your woman, and Powerful Enough to harm harm harm (the correct target).

And that narrative is not new either, of course!!! But that narrative just has gotten stronger, and more salient, and more commonplace in such a reactionary cultural time. More individualistic. More fearful. More distrusting. You have Enemies!! We have so many Enemies who are trying to Take What Belongs To You! And you stop that by becoming Strong; a Man Becomes Strong, A Man Destroys Enemies, A Man Protects.

And it feels so... heartening. So nice. To pick up Mob Psycho 100 again 10 years down the road with our typical coming-of-age young man protagonist. And he's a loser, and girls don't notice him, but he's secretly powerful. He's so powerful he could crush all his enemies in his grip.

And with every single breath the narrative takes it says, "No, he won't harm people with his powers. Because powers are like knives, and you don't point those at people." It says "He refuses to believe his powers make him special. He wants to grow as a person in other ways, and specifically in ways that challenge him, and ways he's not good at, because he refuses to take his gift as a carte-blanche pass for being important." It says "Even if you have powerful and violent abilities, you alone can't manufacture any of the things you use in your daily life. We all rely on everyone else to make our world work."

And there IS real kindness in the world, in the places Mob looks for it and chooses to believe in it. Even as a loser in school, his classmates aren't cruel and terrible. They're nice to him when they interact! They're just people living their own lives. The Body Improvement Club are the strongest boys in school, but they adhere to their code stronger than anyone. Their muscles aren't for fighting. They don't leave members behind. They adore Mob, no mind at all for the fact that he started at the bottom. And this is masculinity! This is what a man should be. Strong, sure, but mindful, compassionate, principled, cooperative, disciplined, and upstanding.

The con-man who is using Mob for his powers is also the one who set Mob on the path of trusting he doesn't have to hurt people. Usually you'd expect the message to be that a young man has to step up and fight and protect his loved ones, but No, Actually, It's Okay To Run Away.

It went well! At least 100 people attended, families dogs a solid portion of Glasgow's trans community. There was a really lovely atmosphere, nice weather and a very cheerful celebratory vibe.

Arrived early to find the crowd already gathering, so the kick got off to a prompt start. Following some introductions from everybody and some cheery folk music from our flautist (my wife!) we got on with the kick.

I think we got good contact, the top of my boot making a good solid noise on impact. Very good atmosphere all round, people stayed to chat for a while. Were it not January it would have been an excellent opportunity for a picnic.

7am: the pressure is getting to me; I wake up and drink half a bottle of diet iron bru from my bedside table; roll out of bed, and psych myself up in the mirror - "you can do this my little pogchamp" I say to myself over and over until I decend into a stupor.

8am: I play an hour of Okami on steam to replenish my chi levels

9am: I look at my balls for a while

10am: I spend 20 or so minutes trying to decide what to wear before realising it's the subartic in midwinter and I'm going to have to dress for -2C° regardless of what I choose and opt of my trusty black Schott thermal padded winter flight jacket and a pair of loose, warm Uniqlo trousers to give my testicles room to breathe.

11am: crashing out, texting my friends to arange a substitute kickee, an understudy, anybody so I can just become one with the crowd and not go through with it

12am: the homies have arrived, I'm drinking redbush tea in a small cafe by the park; god is in his heaven and all is right with the world

12.15: "you must be here to watch me get kicked in the balls?"

12.40: a circle emerges, from within the circle a palpable energy focuses like a lens down unto me and I feel like I'm gonna pee my pants a little

12.50: cheers begin, several complete families with dogs arrive - more friends appear and assort themselves into a gathering of 'real heads' ready to watch my groin be dessicated by the firm lace of a women for woman woman with a foot loosed through the gates of war as Augustus saw fit the dispatch and return of his troops from far corners through the blessings of Janus.

12.55: I think I left the stove on

1pm: Short introductions are made, grace is shown, beautiful flute music accompanies the gathering

RIP YOUR GUTS OUT

sketch under the cut