#Ritsuposting

[gumy-shark]

ritsu kageyama is the kind of guy to realize post canon that he’s turning 14 soon and going through puberty and is therefore reaching the part of his life where he’s Supposed to be undergoing Teenage Rebellion (big cleanup arc doesn’t count that was an identity crisis) so he googles “teen rebellion ideas” “teenage rebellion wikihow” “what to do as a rebellious teenager” and spends 3 hours meticulously making a list of all the things he should be doing to be a Rebellious Teenager and then deliberately and efficiently does them one item at a time. and at no point does he ever consider that this is kind of an insane thing to do

[seri-tonin]

RITSU SAKUMA MY WORLD

[russenoire]

on first watch as an anime-only, i remember feeling like ritsu kageyama's descent into evil in episode seven needed a little more air, more space to breathe. i... no longer do. if that slide down the slippery slope feels a bit sudden, there is a reason; and if you know what to look for, it's not actually all that sudden. bear with me here.

from the first episode, the anime sets ritsu up as shigeo's kind, solicitous younger brother. we don't see much of him for the first three episodes, but when we do, he's making bids for shigeo’s attention: helpfully straightening his spoon when it bends and deposits a bite of his dinner on the dining table; noting that he seems out of it and offering himself up as a confidant at least twice; checking in on him in the morning so they can both leave on time. (i actually love the anime for doing this. ritsu doesn't even show up as a character until maybe the middle of the manga's second volume?) except for the spoon, shigeo gently turns him down every time.

and yet. the interview ichi mezato snags with ritsu in episode four confirms a distance between the kageyama boys. you are not seeing things here. he initially refuses her desire for detailed information about shigeo’s powers, only indulging her to find out what shigeo’s been up to. ritsu holds those powers in such awe that he uses a rather hyperbolic phrase to describe shigeo for her: '世界の基本', or sekai no kihon, literally the standard for [his] world.

after he coldly walks out on her, she reviews what little she’s gleaned from their chilly meeting: he's hawt, at the top of his class, athletic, very popular... all things his older brother decidedly is not. the story establishes a duality here between ritsu’s image—indirectly revealed through mezato’s notes—and the reality of ritsu, sat hunched across from her, sullen, barely tolerating her until she coughed up the information she promised him. later on that evening, we see just how deep ritsu's awe goes... or rather, how snared up it is in resentment and envy as he attempts in vain to bend a spoon, just like shigeo did when they were younger. all the trophies of others’ esteem already gathering dust on his shelves don’t mean shit if he can’t have this.

ritsu intercepts shigeo as he leaves for class the next morning: no student council meeting, so an opportunity to actually talk to him. this is rare, his brother notes. and of course dimple is haunting shigeo. when the specter comments on their apparent closeness, the boy side-eyes him hard. this can easily be read two ways: ‘why the hell are you talking to me when no one else can see you?’ and ‘man, fuck you for sticking the knife in deeper.’ ritsu doesn’t ask about the cult meeting here or ever in the entire series. was he really all that interested in mezato’s news? no, he only wants to know why his brother doesn’t use his powers anymore. and this is the first time they’ve talked about this.

it’s such a neat little mystery, these breadcrumbs the story leaves for us until ritsu’s formal introduction in episode six. even though they share the same home and appear to be on friendly terms, the kageyama brothers may as well live on opposite sides of the planet. we don’t even get a sense of why this state of affairs exists until episode five, where teru chokes the breath out of shigeo and his pissed-off soul levels teru’s school before catapulting him into the stratosphere to reflect on his sins: several years prior, shigeo nearly killed ritsu (and possibly ended three much older boys) in an accident neither boy understands; fragments of memory flash before his eyes as his consciousness shorts out.

‘brother, you’re home late, sopping wet. here’s a towel. are you hungry? you seem down; is everything OK? if you need to talk, i’m here for you.’

instead of turning down this bid for connection like all the rest and turning inward again, shigeo actually opens up. he apologizes for the accident—for the first time—then asks for some clarity, since his memories of it are broken. and ritsu clenches the knob to his brother’s bedroom door tighter. he lies to his face, tells him to ‘get over it already.’ this after asking shigeo to confide in him again, no less: too terrified to be honest with him, too used to being shot down. this boy is soaking in fear he has no context for, and he heads downstairs to soak in it alone. shigeo at least has reigen to process his own fears with, though he never trusts the man enough to take full advantage.

ritsu has no one.

he’s already keeping up appearances at home and has been for years; over the course of the spring cleaning big cleanup arc, we learn the extent to which he’s been doing so at school.

(all those expectations of him weighing him down for so long… he can’t hold out forever.)

student council vice president tokugawa calls him out on trying to melt into the scenery like his brother; his considerable gifts make that impossible. said gifts, however, are so ego-dystonic for him that they’re yet another part of Ritsu Kageyama’s Big Lie. the academically-gifted, popular sprinter so many of his fellow students swoon over isn’t real: why does everyone praise him for things anyone could do? he doesn’t actually have friends, just associates. who cares about charisma? why does everyone think he’s perfect when the only thing he truly wants will never be his? and why does his locker leak chocolate every valentine’s day?

gentle reader. are you still wondering why he snaps when he finally gets his wish? and why it looks the way it does?

[ask-ri-73]

[russenoire]

shigeo is a Morality Chain for a great number of characters in mp100, but especially his brother and teru. without him to keep their nastiest impulses in check, they'd both run off the rails. (and ritsu still leaps immediately to attempted murder when someone bullies his brother, even with that positive influence. it's funny? but also Seriously Fucked Up™.)

While I've long since finished rereading ABoT for the fourth time, I do wanna commend you on making me realize and love that Ritsu is up there with Teru, Shou, and Mezato in the ranking of "kids in Mob Psycho who would canonically kill a man with zero (0) hesitation" (although Mezato wouldn't kill a man so much as watch someone kill a man for the journalistic clout). Anyway, I simply am channeling the most of that energy into my own fic atm and every so often I think back to the many Ritsu v Teru fights in ABoT and go "yeah, Ritsu would do this" to justify my own shit.

(ABoT)

Yeah.

TBH one of the greatest joys in ABoT has been going "hey remember when both Ritsu and Teru were their own brand of absolutely unhinged, and then Mob quickly set them straight? Well no Mob in this AU. Ritsu and Teru just get to make each other worse and beat the shit out of each other with their own unhinged qualities."

It was unredeemed!Ritsu in the Big Cleanup arc that I think really really sold me on Mob Psycho. It took me by complete surprise since I was just fully ready to accept Ritsu as the "kind, smart, protective little brother" type of character. And then the Big Cleanup arc hit and I went "oh, he's fucked up."

And for ABoT I kinda went "okay what personality traits make Ritsu act Like That in the big cleanup arc, and then what would happen to someone with those personality traits if they suffered an intensely traumatizing family loss at an even younger age?" The extreme issues around a sense of control and safety. The innate distrust of others. The propensity to lie and people please. The sibling inferiority complex. The immense guilt over his actions, yet still with a desire to seek out more.

And it's true that in canon unredeemed!Ritsu was less violent than Teru, Shou, etc but, I think that stemmed largely from Ritsu's own lack of power and inferiority complex. Before awakening, Ritsu was not physically strong. And even after awakening his powers weren't that strong on their own. Ritsu plays the strategic defensive because he's constantly terrified of being overpowered by someone else.

But he would, otherwise, absolutely kill a man. And any restraint he exhibits would moreso be a matter of fearing being overwhelmed, not any actual qualms with killing a guy.

[se7ens-oc-heaven]

Clearing off my phone but - some shiny pokemon in PLA who are candidates to be Ritsu's.

Of them, mint the chimecho and delight the chansey are most likely to stay. Possibly also the staraptor and the zorua, but we'll see.

[eternalgirlscout]

i love the way ritsu will have exactly one (1) big emotional outburst where he finally unburdens his heart per season, and 2/3 times this is understandably to mob. but then one time it was shimazaki who was just like, i do not give a fuck about your emotional problems. unrelatedly im going to kill you

[twipsai]

the best thing about you finishing mob psycho is that i can finally tell you all of my insanest ritsuposting. technically i could do most of those anyways but it’s about the principle of the thing (plus like. 100% ritsu. AUHHHHH)

100% ritsu almost destroyed me. SIBLINGS!!!!

[21ritsu]

God I absolutely love Ritsu Tainaka.

idk what I'm gonna do on this blog (aside from some hopeful Ritsuposting - we'll have to wait and see)

[ritsho-archive]

[gumy-shark]

i think one of my top favorite ritsu traits is his complete lack of self preservation. like not even in a self sacrificing or suicidal way like some characters it just genuinely doesnt occur to him that things like following strangers to secondary locations or allowing evil spirits of indeterminate motives to possess him. might possibly be unwise ideas.

[seri-tonin]

Enstars text posts except it's almost all ritsumao with a side of bullying rei and kaoru. Cause that's mostly how I engage with this game at the moment

[russenoire]

this also handily explains why ritsu is so willing to serve himself up as bait for shimazaki during the world domination arc. he has So Much To Prove now that his own ESP has been unlocked; so much insecurity about his own psychic strength.

remembering ritsu’s spiel about mob being like the “basis of his world” or whatever really does contextualize so much shit he does specifically re: the dumb shit. like ritsu - despite getting top scores on nationwide exams - seems to have the self preservation instinct of a chicken and it’s so weird until you remember that mob is his older brother, and a lot the ways ritsu navigates the world are mirrored from mob (something tokugawa scolds him for, even), and mob is virtually fucking invincible. we can make fun of ritsu all we want for following an adult he doesn’t know into an apartment building but mob does almost the exact same thing, like, 3 episodes earlier when he gets invited to (lol). ritsu’s just… copying his older brother, like he always does, and it’s sweet in a way, but also please god someone needs to put these kids on one of those long child leashes preschool teachers use for field trips or something

[ask-ri-73]

Did you know?

Ritsu weighs roughly 8.3 billion ants, assuming each ant weighs 3mg.

[se7ens-oc-heaven]

Legendkeepers Info Post

Summary:

"Legendkeepers" is the title of my ongoing pokemon ocs project! It's an expansive exploration of pokemon storylines across the franchise, with my own twists and interpretations to it.

Similar in vein to the manga "pokemon special", Legendkeepers will bounce focus between characters of different regions, from the pov of "the protagonist trainer"s and their social circles.

Current plans span the regions from Kanto to Paldea, including storylines of Mystery Dungeon, Legends: Arceus and Colosseum/XD. Notable characters in focus at this time include Rex, Ritsu, Maciel and Lena.

Legendkeepers gains its name from the adventures of Legend Hunter Rex, as he travels across the regions in search of signs for his missing childhood friend Ritsu, one of many "Fallers"...

Navigation under cut: (wip until I get on desktop)

Catchall tag [Legendkeepers]

Worldbuilding tag [Legendbuilding]

Character tags:

Rex and co.

Rexposting - posts referencing my Shield playthrough

Calyrex - One of Rex's pokemon, and an invaluable support in Legend hunting

Hop - childhood friend to Rex and Ritsu

Ritsu and co.

Ritsuposting - Posts referencing my Legends Arceus playthrough

Maciel

Lena

Xavier

Aspen

[eternalgirlscout]

in retrospect, the intensity of my blorbo reaction to riz gukgak a few years ago is really funny in light of my current era of ritsuposting. i saw a teen who cannot be normal for one second about anything and who has the most powerful undiagnosed ocd on earth and said, i'll take as many more of these as you got.