Lesbians on tumblr be like: “I saw a butch today. It was sublime.”
saw a lesbian today. effervescent.
#RedrawReigen is back and so is this disaster crew
The bad taste gang might come for me over this post, but the fact is that BNHA and MP100 have some overlapping themes, and that’s one of many reasons why they get compared. BNHA’s treatment of those themes is shallow and unwittingly cruel, but is supposed to be read as positive. Meanwhile, MP100 approaches those themes with hope and compassion
Both BNHA and MP100 explore themes of value as an individual and in society—value judgments of who is average, who is extraordinary, and who is inferior. From the very beginning, BNHA asserts that people are not of equal value, but anyone can improve themselves to meet or exceed the average and become valuable and worthy. I don’t like that one bit—it assigns worth to each individual based on their level of mental and physical ability. It seems like a positive message at first glance, but upon further inspection it’s just desolate.
BNHA asserts that if you physically can’t conform to norms, the only acceptable route to happiness is to do the impossible and exceed those norms. MP100 asserts that if you can’t conform, you are still no better or worse than anyone else, and the path to fulfillment is treating yourself and others with respect.
MP100 answers the question of who is worthy and who is not with the idea that nobody is special—not in a positive way, or a negative way. (“If everyone is not special, maybe you can be what you want to be”.) In the end, whether your ability level in one area or another is within the bell curve, or if it’s at the extreme edge of the range of human experiences, you are good enough to value yourself and be valued by others, but you are not superior, either.
What makes Midoriya different from the established norms around him is something that he must change about his nature as a person. What makes Mob different is his powers and his neurodivergence, and while he’s insecure about both of these things and afraid of the way they manifest in combination (reaching 100% and having a meltdown), the narrative shows that those are neutral qualities and he can do whatever he wants with the hand he’s been dealt in life. (“Mob, Mob, What do you want?” “Mob, Mob, whatever you want!”)
Midoriya’s happiness relies on meeting and exceeding the social norms set for his body and future—gaining a quirk and becoming a hero. He has to change to be treated with any respect. But Mob’s happiness relies on learning that it is okay to be who he is.
Another theme is power: in BNHA, the pursuit of power is treated as something noble and admirable. In MP100, power is treated as something that only immature, self-aggrandizing, destructive people seek; or, in Ritsu’s case, power is something that people seek when they feel helpless and unsafe. But that’s another essay unto itself.
As someone who watches BNHA, I have repeatedly found myself disappointed with the routes it takes with its ideas. This post is fantastically articulated and finally helped me understand a thing or two about why that is. I don’t hate BNHA by any means - I wouldn’t watch it if I did - but on more than one occasion I’ve reached the end of an episode, or a major arc and thought, ‘oh, that’s… somehow worse than being predictable.’
I remember with absolute clarity watching the first episode of BNHA and being excited about halfway through about the journey ahead of Deku as a quirkless hero - you know, exploring the idea that the worth of a person is not based purely on natural ability. One might even argue that that’s the route that was set up from the start, what with Bakugou mercilessly bullying Deku about how worthless he was without a quirk. Classic proving the bully wrong. Needless to say, I was left completely baffled when he just… got a quirk from All Might. Like yeah he was a Good Person with Heroic Traits, but… the whole thing felt off to me. It was unexpected to be sure, but not in a good way.
The message of the whole thing came across very clearly as, ‘Deku was worthless without a quirk, but because he’s a good person (not that that means anything if he’s quirkless) he gets to escape his worthlessness by being gifted what he lacked.’ In essence, if he’d remained quirkless he would’ve remained worthless, no matter how good of a person he was.
All of this isn’t even to mention the fact that BNHA has somehow fallen into the exact trap that Naruto did but worse - that being that the audience is introduced to the idea that the system is flawed but… that’s it. We know the system is flawed but nothing will be done about it ever. Some heroes/ninjas are still good, so… the system remains exactly as it is. Stain is wrong just like Sasuke was wrong - for murdering the Good People in an attempt to fix the system. Both are punished by the narrative for their methods and nothing changes as a result of their presence. BNHA is only worse because it manages to shove our faces in the horribly flawed system and say, ‘Endeavor WAS a bad hero - now he’s not. The system is fine the way it is as long as horrible, power hungry child abusers can be redeemed to make it so.’
Mob Psycho 100 recognises that systems based on power are inherently flawed and actively tears them down when they arise. The persuit of power is not noble and not cool. The least powerful character in the series (Reigen) is consistently shown to be of as much worth as his exponentially more powerful peers - he is the one to de-escalate dangerous situations a lot of the time purely because he is the responsible adult. Mob is never more valuable just because he is the most powerful. Ritsu is not rewarded for his persuit of power, nor was he treated as worthless before he obtained his power. The most valuable thing anyone in this series can be is a good person, regardless of how powerful they are.
We aren’t expected to sympathize with or root for Souchirou either, even when he realises his mistakes. He is punished for hurting people. (Endeavour should be in prison, is what I’m trying to say here).
Overall, Mob Psycho 100 manages to be everything BNHA isn’t. I rarely, if ever, found myself disappointed by the routes Mob Psycho 100 chose to take with its characters and narrative. Mob Psycho even manages to treat it’s child characters with respect despite constantly reminding us that they are, in fact, children and should be treated as such. No sexualization, no 'the children HAVE to fight because… Uh… Of course they do.’ Adults taking responsibility in dangerous situations in Mob Psycho is a given and is treated as correct every time. BNHA seems to think that children not only can but SHOULD ignore their own safety for the sake of being cooler heroes or whatever - as if the adults are incompetent. The only props I can give to BNHA on that front are that Bakugou was allowed a 'childish’ moment of weakness when he buckles under the pressure of being expected to fight alongside or instead of actual pro heroes and the guilt he feels over being unable to.
TL;DR Mob Psycho is a fantastic series that outclasses BNHA in exploring every one of their shared themes and Bakugou is still the only decent BNHA character.
The bad taste gang might come for me over this post, but the fact is that BNHA and MP100 have some overlapping themes, and that’s one of many reasons why they get compared. BNHA’s treatment of those themes is shallow and unwittingly cruel, but is supposed to be read as positive. Meanwhile, MP100 approaches those themes with hope and compassion
Both BNHA and MP100 explore themes of value as an individual and in society—value judgments of who is average, who is extraordinary, and who is inferior. From the very beginning, BNHA asserts that people are not of equal value, but anyone can improve themselves to meet or exceed the average and become valuable and worthy. I don’t like that one bit—it assigns worth to each individual based on their level of mental and physical ability. It seems like a positive message at first glance, but upon further inspection it’s just desolate.
BNHA asserts that if you physically can’t conform to norms, the only acceptable route to happiness is to do the impossible and exceed those norms. MP100 asserts that if you can’t conform, you are still no better or worse than anyone else, and the path to fulfillment is treating yourself and others with respect.
MP100 answers the question of who is worthy and who is not with the idea that nobody is special—not in a positive way, or a negative way. (“If everyone is not special, maybe you can be what you want to be”.) In the end, whether your ability level in one area or another is within the bell curve, or if it’s at the extreme edge of the range of human experiences, you are good enough to value yourself and be valued by others, but you are not superior, either.
What makes Midoriya different from the established norms around him is something that he must change about his nature as a person. What makes Mob different is his powers and his neurodivergence, and while he’s insecure about both of these things and afraid of the way they manifest in combination (reaching 100% and having a meltdown), the narrative shows that those are neutral qualities and he can do whatever he wants with the hand he’s been dealt in life. (“Mob, Mob, What do you want?” “Mob, Mob, whatever you want!”)
Midoriya’s happiness relies on meeting and exceeding the social norms set for his body and future—gaining a quirk and becoming a hero. He has to change to be treated with any respect. But Mob’s happiness relies on learning that it is okay to be who he is.
Another theme is power: in BNHA, the pursuit of power is treated as something noble and admirable. In MP100, power is treated as something that only immature, self-aggrandizing, destructive people seek; or, in Ritsu’s case, power is something that people seek when they feel helpless and unsafe. But that’s another essay unto itself.
learning that most trees do not derive from a single lineage but actually only look and function superficially similarly due to convergent evolution is one of the most fucked up things i’ve ever learned and i will never be the same person as i was before i learned that
Oak trees are quite a bit more closely related to roses than they are to pine trees.
