The purpose of Mob and Mob Psycho 100

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqosrbG1Ye4 - 21:13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6-trQYG2XA - 16:25

     I have never had a student in my summer anime classes in the past talk about the anime Mob

Psycho 100, but one student in one of the sections of my anime class last year wanted to present this

anime.  Unfortunately, this student never showed up to his classes then due to being away at

the time, so he did not get a chance to talk about this anime.  After taking the time to watch two

videos about the anime, which are the two videos in this reflection, I would like to share what I get

out of the anime Mob Psycho 100, specifically the purpose of it, as well as that of the main character,

starting with the first video, then continuing to the second one.

     In the first video, we get an overview of the story of Mob Psycho 100 and the main character

Mob.  The character Mob (the name I prefer to use for him) is not like a lot of other anime

protagonists I have seen.  Besides the fact that he is not in shape, even though he wants, and tries, to

do something about that, he does not like to rely on his powers (in his case, psychic powers) and

prefers the life of the average person, which he wants, and tries, to make happen, like getting in

shape.  This is also what makes Mob different from the enemy psychics in the show.  The enemy

psychics not only like to rely on their powers, but base their identities on these powers.  Mob does

not think this mentality is a good way of thinking and not just because of what he wants for himself.

The psychic powers of Mob are also linked with his emotions and what Mob needs is to control his

emotions in order to control his powers, which he does with the help of others, like his friend Reigen,

and eventually himself, which is the reason I prefer his name of Mob.  Everyone has a mob within

themselves that represents the fact that everyone is a different person in certain situations (the

opening/theme song is weird, but effective).

     Another thing that helps Mob control his emotions and powers is the idea of the sublime, which

is seen and explained in the second video.  Having an experience of the sublime makes you realize

that you are not the most important person in the world and that you need others (people and things)

in order to help yourself.  The enemy psychics in the show struggled with not being the most

important person (not people) in the world, so they needed an experience of the sublime to realize

that they were not important at all, even special, and needed others to help them.  Mob, however,

needed an experience of the sublime to realize that he needed others in order to help himself since he

knew he was not the most important person in the world, yet he thought he did not need anyone, or

anything, but himself to control his emotions.  The sublime experience of Mob is his friendship with

Reigen, specifically what Reigen tells Mob during one of his losing control of his emotions moments.

     The second video also compares the anime One Punch Man with Mob Psycho 100 since both

were made by the same creator.  Besides both of the main characters being very powerful, these two

anime are different in terms of their purpose, both of the anime itself and the main character in the

anime (I wrote a post about One Punch Man last week).  I also like what the end of this video talks

about in terms of online counseling.  It can be useful, but it might not be the right thing for you (I

talked about online counseling in my previous graduate school program for Professional Counseling

- I am in a different program now for Transpersonal Psychology).  The endings of the videos I use

are things that I like (even though I only support the creators of these videos by subscribing to their

channels, liking their videos, and sharing the ones I use on this blog).  In this case, they also

support the purpose of this anime, as well as the main character in it (online counseling could be

useful for Mob and everyone, like the creator of the first video, needs to talk about their emotions,

despite the difficulties of doing that).
   
   

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