Mob Psycho 100, Mental Health and the Shonen Aesthetic 

gigguk from a distance: *T O U R N A M E N T A R C*

Oh that's great

I would watch it, honestly

eh...not really for Naruto, i don't remember one time where talking worked while fightning didn't, most of the time what happen in Naruto is more that Naruto beating his opponent and how he behaves gives more weight to his talk no jutsu. I just reread the frist Naruto vs Sasuke fight at the end of the Sasuke Retrieval arc and Naruto tried very hard to bring Sasuke back by talking before giving up and fightning him full strength and anger.

@@SuperBallani I would say it's rather consistent with each other. Usually talk no jutsu is used after the win or during the fight that Naruto or an ally of his won (ex. Zabuza defeated by Kakashi). Just like Mathwiz described in another video with, I believe, something along the lines "it's narrative praising character with taking W in a fight due to winning ideological battle and having a stronger conviction". In your example Naruto wasn't able to understand Sasuke or compromise with him so he lost the fight. But he didn't loose literally because his talk no jutsu was uneffective, it's winning contest of combat skill that symbolizes how right or wrong Naruto was during his talk. Which in my opinion is pretty fascinating way of storytelling.

A concise summary demonstrates profound understanding.

I also thought that was hilarious, honestly. He was so pretty, I just kept replaying the scene from the shock and just to appreciate it all.

love it when mob reaches a new level ofhis growth and it literally affects his character design and dimple goes who are you? cos even someone close to mob are flabbergasted at his change, mentally. Like that time mob became overconfident at being popular and literally look like he came from jjba

Wait hold up there is more about that broccoli?

@@indigo4740 yep read the manga if you want to see the broccoli arc or wait for third season (if it does get another season)

I myself m jyped for the next mha arc,it will be fantastic also cabt wait for its op

I'm sooooo hyped for s3! (Even though most of the storyline got spolied to me... _internet is a savage place when it comes to spoilers_ )

@@nataliaborys1554 the spoilers in mob psycho 100 doesn't matter much. It's how the scenes are played is what makes this interesting. Edit: I just realised that I am 1 year late.

@@catsaresocute7516 That's how japanese society works

Yeah, I definitely agree that the Kageyama parents have poor comunication with their kids. And I don't think that that is a flaw of ONE's writing. In fact, I think it serves to highlight the point that Mob is a very average kid when you remove his powers. His parents aren't bad, but they aren't that good either, and that's what most parents, especially in japanese society, are like. The way both of their sons developed from the ???% incident, along some other more minor details, like the comparisions, seems very deliberate from a writing standpoint when you analyze their characterisation.

@@pearlyp9898 Yes. East Asian society is far more obsessed with decorum and academics than Anglo-America. Affection in East Asia is nil. Work isn't just for a living. Its a lifestyle. "Working yourself to death" is a literal thing. Its so bad that hikkimori (NEETs) are a growing caste because of burnout. This worker ant culture is why anime and manga are so colorful and campy.

Actually, I sympathise with his parents feeling out of their depth when dealing with their sons powers. Rather than pretend to understand their sons conflict with his powers (looking at you Reigen), they try their best to provide his basic needs. Future manga chapters show Mob having a talk about his future career with his parents which is very relatable.

To be fair, absent or despondent parents are pretty par-for-the-course in shonen anime. Most of the time the parents are simply killed off.

Alpha Jay 3.0 get ready! wake your psyche up mob!

FIGHT ON

I think having more than one takeaway is entirely plausible. Sometimes people really do need that push to understand. Edit: ok for some reason I thought you were talking about that final fight with toichiro LOL

The author titles it as a critique and then goes on rambling how they like shows which agree with their definition of justice and how they don't like the theme of pacifism(which wasn't even present in the show) then tells the reader that the writing is bad but doesn't give any evidence in support of their argument. What kind of critique is this? Is throwing personal opinions now critique?

''Is throwing personal opinions now critique?'' My dude that's 90% procent of RU-vid reviewers

wasn't ghandi a questionable person who slept with underage girls and racist towards black africans iirc.

What are you reffering to when you say "naruto's message"?

Same. And that a lot of times, he feels like he's talking _at_ people more than he's talking _to_ them. It doesn't help that a lot of his relationships seem rather shallow - he doesn't really hang out with anyone just to hang out with them. Interpersonal relationships and downtime to cultivate them in Naruto is honestly rather weak, and much more glaring when you look at Naruto, a character who's more extroverted in his friendliness than much of the other cast - or at least he's meant to be. It's kinda sad, honestly.

@@TheRealObi-wanKenobi Maybe about being the underdog, and the value of hardwork? That was more apparent in Part 1, but the Chosen One message started hitting harder in Shippuden, and the whole reincarnation stuff made it feel like a lot. Like, Naruto's strength and power ended up being more from powerups from a psuedo-god rather than him merely grinding it with good teachers, especially since he was supposed to be the antithesis of Sasuke who at least grew up around resources that showed and started cultivating his strength outside of school, while Naruto only started off with not even being good in school either, yet Naruto fought to match up with him with what few skills he had. I'm not gonna really get into Kurama at this point, really. I personally got tired of all the power ups Naruto and the Uchiha and general ended up getting - it was getting more about "what new superpower can we introduce and break the power scale with," and it just wasn't as fun anymore. Naruto has a similar pedigree as Sasuke, which kinda messes with the message of "hardwork vs. talent" which was helped defined by meeting Lee and Neji, as there was a _reason_ Naruto resonated with Lee, and was against Neji, even though, ironically enough, Neji was right. The end of the manga was exhausting for a lot of people, as it was just one thing after another after we thought we were getting to the end, and the insertion of aliens and reincarnation and the power that comes with exhausted a lot of people, including me and OP, I think. I hope what I said made sense?

@@justanawkwardnerd I don't think Neji's idea of destiny and the hardwork beats talent idea are the same. Shippuden did fuck up -hardwork beats talent-, however part 1 also never really dit it "right", because Lee lost to Gaara. I'm pretty sure that Gai said "your talent is your ability to work hard and never give up" in Lee's backstory. Atleast something similar to that. Later he also says "Luck is part of a ninja's skill" when talking about Lee's surgery. I don't think the message was ever hardwork beats talent, because of these quotes. Especially the first one, saying that hard work is also a talent. According to that hardwork vs talent wouldn't even be a question, since it's the same thing. I'm pretty sure there was supposed to be a message there, that was never adressed again. As far as I know. The message about destiny is consistent. Neji believed that there is a fixed destiny for everyone. Naruto proved that wrong by beating him even though he was destined to lose according to Neji (He changed his destiny, destiny isn't fixed). The prophecy about Jiraiya's student wasn't fixed either, since Jiraiya's choice could influence things. Naruto and Nagato both ended up being the students of prophecy, because of Jiraiya and all the choices and actions of the people involved. (Destiney wasn't fixed) The reïncarnation meant that naruto and sasuke would end up fighting over their ideals till they die, like every reïncarnate before them (Except Madara). The final fight stopped the cycle of reïncarnation and the eternal fight between the ideals of Ashura and Indra. So Naruto changed his destiny by making peace with sasuke (He changed his destiny, destiney wasn't fixed).

That doesn’t undercut his crappy upbringing, emotional struggles and insecurities. I also just despise this hard work vs talent bullshit. That wasn’t the main message in Naruto.

Ayyy its you, the hunter hunter guy

Who would have thought that one of my one of favorite discussion youtubers would be in the comments of another one

I would actually describe it as the Jump aesthetic. If you go around other shonen magazines, they don’t have that typical shonen style that people think of.

Watching this video now and it's really good. Gonna link it for any random people who stumble across this comment: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WPW3lfTVVnA.html

Yes, but Mob eventually learns that sometimes it's necessary to break that rule. That's why he's able to fight people like Mogami and Suzuki in the second season. The Teruki fight was essentially a draw since both characters ended up going back on their ideals.

@@MathWizHQ Mogami was not human. anyway, he started to consciously fight humans using powers way back when dude with spiral fists attacked Ritsu. he basically adjusted the rule that it's okay to use powers against humans to protect or help other humans. he never broke it. and during the Suzuki fight we can see why the rule was necessary - at one point Mob nearly lost himself in a battling frenzy, but regained control thanks to his journey and development and connections with others.

@@MathWizHQ Doesn't he violate that rule in the first season tho? Mob ends up brutalizing Koyama in order to defend Ritsu. Also, even in cases like Suzuki, I felt the point of the fight was more "even if we have to use violence as a necessary evil, it's still not good for us." Hell, Mob "winning" the fight technically doesn't save the day, only causes Suzuki to turn into a nuclear bomb that threatens to destroy the city. It's not a victory on Mob's part, it's a failure. It's when Mob decides to be kind that the day is saved.

I also thought it might have been in a discussion of nen, but I don't remember who said it.

​@@MathWizHQ THE QUEST IS OVER ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kv3FN2y6zJI.html The phrasing makes it sound like he came up with the name himself.

YUP. THIS IS IT, CHIEF. I remember watching this video a while back.

Maybe not a multi-part series, but rather a handful of individual videos spaced out over time like what I did with Naruto. I have a few installments of the anime left to watch, but I already know of at least 2 topics I want to discuss.

hmmmmmm...

I mean, pretty sure the slow development of his powers is cause he's traumatised by them, and that theme of trauma, when you look deeper, actually seems to be a big part of how the show handles a lot of it's characters. I understand how that could be frustrating to some, tho. But I, personally, really appreciate when shows take their time exploring the flaws and problems of their characters like this.

I get a bit frustrated as well as a lover for action series sometimes. But One originally didn't intend it to be an action manga in the first place, just 'Slice-of-Life that happened to have superpowers' he just ended up putting a lot of action-packed moments for it to be considered such. So I get why it didn't go the usual all out route.

Hunter Hunter is a deconstruction of the Shonen genre. so by nature it wouldn't fit them.

Season one was fun but not super interesting. I'll get around to the second season eventually.

@@MathWizHQ i'd recommend you read the manga instead cause i heard the animation for the second is a huge downgrade compared to the first season

the blogpost is gone, but the video upload of it is still on their channel last I checked

I'm guessing shonen stuff (generally) is more popular than seinen stuff due to the reputation of magazines like Jump. A number of manga authors nowadays (whether they work for Jump or not) have mentioned how they grew up reading weekly shonen jump, so it could be an ease of access thing. Because it's designed to appeal to a younger audience, more people can connect to it. I dunno, I've never heard of a seinen magazine with the kind of influence that Jump has, but that doesn't mean such a magazine doesn't exist. Also, HxH is still considered a shonen because it was published in a shonen magazine. It's that simple. Even from an aesthetic standpoint, though, HxH is still incredibly shonen.

@@MathWizHQ it might be the case that the weekly format only really works for the shonen demographic others are more suited to one offs or light novels. The intricacies of genre are not simple and this new thing of "shonen is a demographic not a genre" that seem to be piping up around anietube in the last year although strictly correct is going to limit discussion.

I also talked about shonen as an aesthetic. The point of the video was that, even though shonen was originally just a demographic, it has since been used in a context that merits further discussion. I just think "the shonen aesthetic" is more accurate than "the shonen genre."

Hugtto Precure

@@MishaMishaMatic ty

SkyMushrooms i laughed

Dude, please no. i want Mathwiz to make content and analysis by his own standard as he does and as everyone else does. Maybe YOU found these videos "boring after a while" but for me, and a lot of other people, it's not boring when you talk about different shows or that you you tackle different aspect of a show in each video. There is always something different to say since what we are talking abou is different.

@@SuperBallani I don't think that you actually understand what I was trying to say if that's you're response, especially regarding TNM's series. That I thought it was boring was just an aside. I think it was a good series and I'm glad that it exists. That statement you made: "it's not boring when you talk about different shows or that you you tackle different aspect of a show in each video" Is one that I totally agree with! It's good that there are people doing this (well, the first part is non-specific, but we're both mostly talking about the second and his DBZ focus). I just also had a criticism of it, but it's still a series that I used to explain how I thought anitube has a lot of potential. I'm not saying that Mathwiz should defer to some singular external authority. If you read my comment more carefully, you would have seen that I very strongly ran that implication already. How? Well, my biggest complaint for TNM is that his frameworks can sometimes be too narrow and insular. If he did more research of the kind that he has already started to do and gained an appreciation for more lenses of criticism, it would help him step back from any one particular dogma and give a more nuanced view that is more about his own perspective than applying one singular perspective of someone else. It's a very common development arc, and I think it's great that TNM has been independently putting in work to make that progress for himself. Does that make sense? I think that our values here are mostly in agreement.

@MopedOfJustice As a communication student, I have done a little literary analysis on different anime and their authors, and I agree with you! I personally feel a need for good rhetorical criticism (film or literary) on anime, and Mathwiz and other anitubers are stepping up and identifying some of the rhetoric for us - showing us what makes these stories and their characters persuasive and easy to identify with. I love that these youtubers are putting their own spin/opinion into the mix, too. That's what makes their videos valuable, and I'll sometimes quote/cite them in my research papers, too. I've found lots of film reviews on stuff like Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki films, but much less literary analysis, such as an English major would focus on. So keep up the good work, @Mathwiz, because I absolutely LOVE the work that you are doing (I'm a huge Naruto/Mob Psycho/HxH fan, btw, so thanks for all the videos!) and if you feel the desire, look into the "internal forms" of literature that the "New Criticism" analysis method addresses, such as mood, setting, repetition, theme, etc. (or even just the 7 key elements of fiction, it's all similar, haha) It might seem weird to apply bits of literary analysis to anime, but they do originate as manga, so it works, I think, just as different perspectives that affect story arcs :)

@@hannahreis8914 Hey, thanks a bunch for your feedback. It was encouraging to hear your opinion on it, since you seem a bit more qualified than me (I'm a philosophy student).

​@@MopedOfJustice Aww, thanks, and that's cool, because we need philosophy in the mix too! That's something that affects every anime, every story :)

he said he likes naruto more than mob tho...?

Mob psycho ?

yup

Daddy Jean I feel like it’s underrated

everyone was sucking it off when it was airing and there are still some pretentious weebs talking about it to this day it’s obviously not AOT levels of popularity but this shit is far from underrated wtf are you on lol

@@daddyrizo1346 wow cool dow ... -.- it IS a great show. Just not the typical stuff you normaly see. Not as many bs tropes. Its more about emotion and how to fit in and still staying true to oneselfe. Just vecause you don't like it doesn't mean its bad.