What Does The Manga Add To Roy And Riza's Relationship That The Anime Doesn't Have? Asking Out Of Curiosity

I made an analysis breaking down the S3 MP100 OP! Thank you @russenoire for the translation and guiding me with them, I can’t thank you enough.

Also, please keep in mind that I am in no way a professional at this, I’m just a kid who likes mob psycho. It’s around 15 pages long and includes insight into the lyrics and visuals, though it might be a bit messy.

But anyways, please enjoy! This was super fun to make.

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MP100 season 3 OP analysis-breakdown

MP100 S3 OP Analysis-breakdown Before we start, I’d like to give a big thank you to @russenoire for the translation of the season three OP

If you really think about it, what Ritsu was going to do for Mob during Confession Arc (allow himself to be hurt again to snap Mob out of the state he was in) is pretty much exactly what Mob did for him during the Cleanup/Claw Arc of season 1. Mob’s wasn’t intentional or planned out like Ritsu’s was going to be, but he found Ritsu in a violent and abnormal mental state and accepted him fully despite his actions, allowing himself to be bullied to protect Ritsu from enduring the pain of the consequences of his actions. And it was this self-sacrificial beating Mob endured from Koyama that snapped Ritsu fully out of his rebellion and bloodthirst by begging some “super powerful being” not to hurt him (like Mob did to himself in his head).

Also, “Half of that is true, isn’t it?”/“Dont bother trying to get rid of me. Because I’m your brother.” VS “This isn’t some separate, scary version of you. It’s a part of you.”/“Because I’m your younger brother.”

[ID: A series of Mob Pyscho 100 screencaps, here described in pairs.

Ritsu with shadowed eyes and Mob with solid glowing white eyes.

Mob looking serious or neutral and Ritsu with a fearful, shocked expression.

Mob kneeling with a genuine smile and Ritsu smiling with self-assurance.

Ritsu crying and looking battered and Mob sweating and looking harrowed. End ID]

But Ritsu decided to change the ending this time, and end the cycle of self-sacrificial trauma.

Of course, parallels in Confession Arc is a given bc it’s half of the entire point, but it’s fun to explore them.

so like basically in the REIGEN manga tome tries so desperately to throw herself into the center of this literal Superhuman world she sees and play the role of the eager young protagonist and its so endearing but in the end reigen has to come clean and she can’t keep using the spiritual premise as a crutch. not because she was wrong to have her whimsical interests, but because the fantasy of specialness can often be an escape from the isolation a person feels due to being unable to live up to societal ideals of normalcy, and yet in the end the fantasy can itself end up feeding directly into the isolation by obscuring your view of the other people in your life. you cannot prioritize the idea of being unique or special alone and that is the reason that the power structures in the story (as represented by roshuuto in REIGEN) so frequently fail short; because actually EVERYONE is a Pathetic Freak Weirdo Nerd Loser, from the handsome, popular rich boy, to the pretentious Dark!Reigen foil who takes himself too seriously, to all of the mundane teenage girls who the audience is initially tricked into dismissing as shallow, but also by the same token EVERYONE deserves to be loved and feel supported. 

because actually bonds with other people are the most important thing, and centrally this is also why REIGEN relies so heavily on bonds with others as something to create horror. the evil spirit mimics the voices of the ones you love and lures you in and when you’re at your most lost and scared and in need, that’s when you turn around and the face of the person you trust betrays you. tome only contracts the fatal curse in the first place because she cared about reigen and went back to make amends with him. because that’s the most horrifying, most terrifying thing, the thing that renders you absolutely helpless, isn’t it? it’s letting yourself rely on others and trust them to the point that it leaves you vulnerable, isn’t it? but you have to do it, if you want to achieve true connection then you can’t continue keeping up a veneer of Specialness and posturing as someone you’re not no matter how afraid you are of being seen as your true self. that’s the idea that really connects tome and reigen above all else. you have to be who you really are and you have to trust that you’ll be loved for it. and that’s horrifying! that’s an unimaginable, Forbidden terror! but it’s necessary. 

and also I think it’s so clever how REIGEN conveys this by only bringing in shigeo kageyama, the protagonist and most recognizable character who the reader has so many preconceived notions of, in at the last moment as a terrifying ghost who is impersonating him. I mean also it’s partially because shigeo can easily be made to look scary lol, because let’s be real, he can be pretty goddamn scary /hj BUT MOSTLY it’s to have him in his uniform, in his most recognizable and iconic form that the reader will cling to, and then have it be blown away by the post-canon shigeo, the real shigeo, the shigeo who has grown and changed and is no longer stuck in the role he once was. because to be vulnerable with others you have to grow and change and do away with old pretenses and dynamics that you’ve become dependent on. it can be scary to stop playing roles after you’ve grown use to them for so long, but you don’t need them - your most honest self will be the most loved. and also I love how just like tome could tell that it was the real reigen bcause he immediately ran into a spiderweb and yelled, you can tell that it’s the real shigeo because he’s immediately rude as fuck and he and reigen literally instantly go into their mean pithy little affectionate banter lol ok sorry anyway.

and also because you cannot really be any more or less special than anyone else and you need bonds with others, it’s true both that you have to rely on other people, but also that you owe it to them to be kind. reigen is literally a normal person working in the spirit business, so he has to rely on other people with the necessary abilities, such as dimple the spirit and serizawa the psychic, yes, but he also does his part to take care of the people who matter to him. roshuuto is so focused on appearances and power - as shown by how he goes on and on about connections - but when it comes down to it, he was not willing to save others (leaving hoshido in Reliance), and so nobody bothered trying to save him in turn. he only abandoned, and was abandoned. this is shown most acutely in the end by how roshuuto “has no other option” but to pass his curse on to someone else to save himself, while reigen “has no other option” to take on a curse to save someone else. reigen and serizawa accepting their responsibility as adults to protect the children around them is an extension of the idea that you are equal to everyone and are obligated to be kind to your loved ones and recieve kindness in turn. anyway mutual trust and communication is all that matters and tome kurata is The protagonist of all time Sorry,

hey, i think i just Got it. 

Reigen not really understanding what Mob is going thru (him not being a psychic) is the perfect parent/teen child analogy. Like, he kinda pretends to get it, but he doesn’t really know – until the end. and he says, “I didn’t know! Is that what you’ve been going through? something this big?” That line just cuts me to my core and it’s because… isn’t that what we all wanted to hear from our parents when we were 14 and at the mercy of our uncontrollable emotions? to be seen, to be validated in that way? wow

the clickbait title: Amazing! This manga has the power to heal your childhood trauma!

thanks to @jellyana for posting some of teru’s dialogue

Roy Mustang - Fullmetal Alchemist Fanart

- “Thank you,  I guess .. I’ll finally be able to sleep at night”

i think the reason why tome’s arc in s3 eps 7&8 is so blindly gorgeous isn’t just because of the amazing animation, but also because tome desperately wanted to know that she wasn’t alone in the universe and she felt like she was running out of time. then she learns that’s she’s NOT alone in the universe, because she’s surrounded by people who love her and want to support her passions, and that there is always time for the things we love.

and then she actually discovers aliens and just fucking kicks it with them all night

Friends, once again :’)

something like ‘time won’t make you someone. it’ll kill you first’