Hey Wisecrack, Jared here. Today, we’re looking at another offering
from the mind of ONE, the Japanese manga artist behind one of our favorite shows, One Punch
Man. I’m talking, of course, about the hilarious
and thought-provoking Mob Psycho 100. Like One Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100 explores
what it means to live a fulfilling life by unpacking the unique challenges faced by an
overpowered protagonist. Unlike Saitama, however, Shigeo Kageyama finds
a way to make peace with his abilities and get satisfaction out of life in spite of them. How does he do it? Well, let’s dig in and find out. Welcome to this Wisecrack Edition on the Philosophy
of Mob Psycho 100. And spoilers ahead, for mostly season one
since season two is still in progress. Now first, a quick recap.Our main character,
Mob, is a middle schooler born with psychic powers that give him a near-godlike ability
to manipulate the world around him.The young psychic spends his afternoons working for
Reigen Arataka, a con man masquerading as a powerful psychic. From the beginning of their time together,
Reigen tells Mob that he must never use his powers against another human being. “However, if you misuse a power that's all
too great, you'll only destroy yourself. That's why I'm teaching you how to control
your powers, so they don't go berserk.” So Mob spends his days trying to live the
life of a normal middle-schooler,repressing the rage that fuels his powers which, in spite
of his best efforts, occasionally gets away from him. When other superpowered humans - called ‘espers’
- attack Mob and his friends, he is torn between the desire to defend his
loved ones and his promise not to hurt other people. Mob’s reluctance to use his powers might
seem a little weird. At first glance, having psychic powers seems
like a sweet deal. Teru, the ‘shadow leader’ of the gang
from a rival Middle School, uses his powers to bully his schoolmates into submission. As a result, he seems to have everything a
teenage boy could want: Attention, respect, power, etc. In other words all things Mob lacks. Dimple, the power-hungry ghost who becomes
Mob’s sidekick after a failed attempt to possess him,puts it pretty bluntly: “He's put his psychic powers to good life
and live a fulfilling life.” With the exception of Mob,the espers and other
powerful beings of this world are profoundly egocentric,viewing themselves as the “main
characters” of an unfolding story rather than regular people with limitations. “After all, I’m the main character of
this world.” But Mob doesn’t want the superficially perfect
life of Teru. He’d prefer to earn his more fulfilling
existence. Mob believes that an easy life built entirely
around his innate gifts would be “pointless,” because the things he wants are things he’ll
have to work for: "Are there things you can't have even if you
use your powers?" "Not at all! You can even become god!" "Muscles"
"What is he talking about?" "Or the ability to understand girls, or read
my suroundings. I think there's even more than that" Taking a cue from his master Reigen, Mob argues
that accepting or realizing limitations can have a positive influence on one’s life. And he has an ally in Irish philosopher Edmund
Burke. Burke is most well-known for his description
of “the sublime,” the feeling of experiencing oneself as infinitesimally small in the face
of vast forces beyond one’s control. To put it another way: the sublime, according
to Burke, is that which suspends or even destroys egocentricity through a display of power or
grandeur that completely overwhelms one’s own capabilities. It’s the feeling you might get looking at
a mountain range, staring into deep space, or sailing a ship through a thunderstorm. Robert J. Oppenheimer might have been feeling
the sublime when he tested the first nuclear weapons in the Nevada desert. You get the idea. Burke believed that such experiences were
a vital part of a healthy life, in that they force us to use mental and spiritual capacities
we might otherwise prefer to ignore—namely those which remind us we are not at the center
of the universe. According to Burke, a life spent avoiding
the challenging scenarios that make the experience of the sublime possible can get very unhealthy,
very quickly. He held that the experience of the sublime,
in a literal way, exercises parts of our minds and bodies which rarely get activated in day-to-day
life, but which are vital to our wellbeing- specifically, the parts which “tense up”
in response to fear. As he puts it: “Labour [is] a thing absolutely requisite
to make us pass our lives with tolerable satisfaction [...] Melancholy, dejection, despair, and
often self-murder, is the consequence of the gloomy view we take of things in this relaxed
state of body.” In other words, getting too “relaxed”
about one’s place in the universe is a quick way to majorly bum yourself out. This is exactly the trap that the majority
of the show’s espers have fallen into. Like the Paradisers in One Punch Man, Teru
and the leaders of Claw carry around a massive sense of entitlement which, far from bringing
them what they need to be truly happy, instead leaves them feeling miserable when the real
world fails to give them what they falsely believe they deserve: “It’s hard to live...surviving’s a chore,
even though I’m so special. It’s obvious I’m amazing, why won’t
you just acknowledge that? I’m a gift! This planet should put me on a pedestal and
worship me! That is the only world that is worthy of me.” Mob recognizes early on that these espers
have no substance to their being: “If you take away your psychic powers, there’ll
be nothing left. You’ll be empty.” Because the espers are dependent on their
powers for their sense of identity and worth, they can’t tolerate any attacks on their
constructed self-image. “If I let you infiltrate the facility like
this, my reputation will be ruined!” Teru displays this fragility towards the end
of his fight with Mob.Frustrated with Mob for not fighting back, Teru breaks down and
tells him: “As long as I used my powers, everything
went just the way I wanted…” “What was that shot? That was amazing!” “We’re sorry please forgive us.” “And yet,you took my world…”
“u-um… I made some cookies if you’d like some.” “You… Your existence… destroyed that” Teru perceives Mob’s refusal to fight as
a “rejection” of him - not just an annoyance or an insult,but a direct assault on his self-perception
as an opponent worthy of Mob’s full strength. Teru can’t stand Mob’s patronizing because
it denies his self-perception; and as Mob points out, Teru has nothing without
that. “Oh. I just realized why you hold such animosity
toward me. You don't like me because we're the same. You're sort of like me Hanazawa... Not the fact that we both have psychic powers,
but the fact that you have no confidence in yourself, just like me” Like Saitama’s strength, the espers’ abilities
are a double-edged sword. Left unchecked, they make it easy for to believe
that they are inherently better than other humans,and therefore are deserving of special
treatment:Now this way of thinking leaves them feeling deeply unsatisfied, no matter
how much power or status they attain.What these espers need is a reality check, a reminder
that they are subject to the same set of rules as the rest of the human race:in other words,
they need to have their egos brought down a peg by an overwhelming experience with the
sublime. Burke described the experience as a terrifying
but ultimately pleasant feeling resulting from the healthy exercise of mind, body, and
spirit. A mind that never experiences its own insignificance
is therefore a weak mind. In the same way that a body gets weak without
exercise, that weakness is what allows “Melancholy, dejection, despair,” and all that other
fun stuff to take root in the first place. He claims that: “The best remedy for all these evils is
to exercise or labour; and labour is a surmounting of difficulties[.] [For mind and body to work] in proper order,
they must be shaken and worked to a proper degree.” Unlike the deluded espers, Mob wants to do
the difficult “labour” of integrating himself into the world and society,rather
than trying to transcend it. So he finds some friends to help him do just
that. “FIGHT ON! FIGHT ON! FIGHT ON!” Like Burke, Musashi Gouda and the other members
of the Body Improvement Club view “surmounting of difficulties” as the key to a fulfilling
life. Unlike Teru, Dimple, and the Section 7 Division
Leader,they choose to challenge those parts of themselves which are weakest,rather than
rely on their innate strengths and let the rest of their bodies and minds waste away. “Remember the pain and how good it feels
Onigawara” The espers, on the other hand, avoid “difficulties”
by relying on their psychic powers to gain social status and uphold a false sense of
self-worth. As such, they have to be “shaken and worked”
by forces outside their control before they can find a true sense of fulfillment. Teru is the clearest example.When Mob defeats
him, Teru is overwhelmed by his power and feels terror, the emotion Burke identifies
as a key component of the experience of the sublime.For the first time in his life, Teru
feels utter helplessness and the fear of death as he is shorn of his hair stripped naked,and
hoisted up into the sky by Mob’s runaway psychic powers. “That’s enough, I’m sorry! I won’t use my psychic powers against other
people!!” After pleading for Mob to stop, Teru gets
cast into the sky and the chaos gives way to a serene moment of reflection, where he’s
dwarfed by the clouds and an endless vista in the background. Such visuals are reminiscent of classical
Romantic art, which was influenced by Burke’s ideas and often portrayed small human subjects
facing vast, overwhelming forces of nature. The realization that he is not nearly the
most powerful being in the universe brings Teru real peace. “Oh. I guess...I’m just an average person after
all…” In a subtler way, Reigen exposes the remaining
“Scars” to the sublime by crushing their delusions of grandeur through a combination
of Mob’s transferred powers and his own rhetoric. He puts things in perspective by reminding
the Scars that, even with their powers, they’re not special. "Who the hell do you think you are?! You're nothing more than a commoner. You're just part of the masses." "b-but claw is a noble --"
"I'm a commoner I'm much more powerful than you, and I'm still just a commoner. So what does that make you?" He dragged them out of their delusions and
back into reality by force. Like Mob does for Teru, Reigen shows the Scars
proof of their utter insignificance, giving them a taste of the sublime and putting them
on the path toward a healthier, more grown-up state of mind. For the espers, the key to freedom is realizing
that they are still human, small and vulnerable as the rest of us. As the show’s theme song puts it: “If everyone is not special” “Maybe
you can be what you want to be…” Which is all well and good when you’re an
average esper like Teru or the Scars. But how do you experience the sublime when
you really are the closest thing to a god that anyone has ever seen? That is, how is Mob going to get back in touch
with reality? Mob has a leg up on the other espers in that
he actually wants to be a normal person. He tries to improve his physical abilities
and social skills by joining the Body Improvement Club, and he repeatedly states his admiration
for his brother Ritsu, who accomplishes so much even before he discovers his own psychic
powers. "What can your little brother do." "He's really smart. Unlike me who can't do anything without psychic
powers he can figure anything out and solve any problem." But Mob can’t get there on his own. Like the other espers, he is plagued by a
delusional self-image, albeit a less dickish one. As a 14-year-old kid, Mob is under the delusion
that he has to be in total control of his world at all times that he is profoundly responsible
for everything that happens during his unconscious psychic episodes.This causes him to repress
his emotions out of fear that he will be overwhelmed by his rage. “There are times when my psychic power goes
out of control… “And it happens when I’m unconscious,
to boot” Ironically, this gives him even less control
over when and how he explodes.The weight of this responsibility is incredibly painful
for him: “He failed to change as he had promised
himself...he caused another accident. He didn’t know where to direct his emotions. He was overwhelemd, his powerlessness born
from contradictions.” “The feeling that he would never be able
to conquer himself…” “sadness…” “This was Mob’s meager attempt at resistance
towards himself.” In other words, while Mob talks a big game
about wanting to be normal, in reality he clings to an image of himself as the main
mover and shaker of his world, responsible for everything that happens in it:this is
his delusion, a more benevolent version of the other espers’ greedy desire for godhood. “I realized I have to do it to protect everyone” It takes Reigen, an adult Mob respects and
looks up to, to remind him that he is just a kid, and that he doesn’t always have to
bear the world on his shoulders: “Don’t do it, Mob. In the end you’re the one who’s gonna
be suffering.” “When things go south, it’s okay to run
away” The idea that he doesn’t have to be at the
center of the fight after all shocks Mob into an experience of the sublime Burke would say
he’d been properly “astonished”. It allows him to feel his own insignificance
and temporarily transfer his powers to Reigen. In this way, he is finally able to come to
terms with his abilities, and get on with the business of living a good life. Which as we see in season two, comes with
it’s own struggles. No such luck for One Punch Man. Sorry, Saitama. “Back to one punch man again…” We’ve had the chance to review two of ONE’s
biggest projects, and have started to notice some interesting overlapping themes. Both One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100 ask
us to really think about what constitutes a good life. Saitama and Mob’s struggles with their powers
reveal that a fulfilling existence might not be as simple as getting whatever you want
whenever you want it. In the ONE-iverse, happiness is the result
of deliberate struggle and growth. As our favorite pubescent psychic puts it: “fight on fight on fight on” But we can’t wait to see how these things
develop as season two wraps up. So what do you think, Wisecrack? Do self-imposed limitations and challenges
beat out Uber Eats in the long run? Are there other overlapping themes?
