#being insane about sponge reigen again

[grimalkinmessor]

No but it is literally canon that Reigen has some sort of natural resistance/tolerance for psychic powers, I will die on this hill.

Not only during the first season finale (which is an arc that still confuses the fuck outta me—I know it was a fake-out but what was with??? the cab driver then???) when Reigen holds and uses all of Mob's power without flinching or even realizing he's got them at first, when Mob pushed a liiiittle bit of power into the twins to help boost their powers and it was so difficult for them to handle they could only do it for a minute or so. Reigen held and used Mob's full power for several minutes, "fighting" with it, and did not break a sweat even though he should be the one least accustomed to having ESP energy yeeted into him.

And when the whole "Some espers can drain people's powers" thing came up I thought that Reigen might've ACTUALLY had powers at one point and it was going to be revealed later that he'd had them stolen—BUT THAT'S NOT THE CASE SO,,,,,WHY IS HE LIKE THAT

In the third season finale, Hanazawa got his clothes literally blown the hell off (again) by Mob's powers, and even the BIC members had their uniforms shredded and blown off when they approached him, but Reigen was. fine? Well not FINE but the sheer force from Mob's explosion seemed to affect him less than the others. The only injuries he really had were from the debris whipping around and hitting him, and he discarded his jacket and shoes on his own instead them being literally blown away or shredded like the others. Plus he's able to get far closer to Mob than literally anyone else, even other powerful espers like Serizawa. (Not counting Suzuki because Mob was literally holding himself back on purpose and he STILL ran away. Prick.)

Maybe it was because Reigen was only trying to talk to him, not fight him or restrain him like everyone else was trying to, and thus Shigeo let him get close 🤔 But that doesn't explain the other stuff!! Reigen Has A Natural Born Resistance & Tolerance For ESP Energy Confirmed!!!!

[grimalkinmessor]

Okay no but I'm actually devolving into Shimateru like one of those water soluble pills that turns into a small foam dinosaur. Like I wasn't sure at first but now I get it, I am insane about it—

Because aside from the astronomical sexual tension between them for each of their fights, Shimazaki is the ONLY other person that Hanazawa has lost to aside from Mob. And given that Hanazawa has seemingly been running from Claw for so long, I don't think it's wrong to say that he's likely up there with Shou in power level—so either on par with or juuust below the Ultimate Five. Hanazawa probably wouldn't have lost to anyone else; the others in the Ultimate Five included, because Shimazaki seems to be the most ruthless and sadistic out of all of them.

But again!! Hanazawa is ALSO likely one of the only people that could beat Shimazaki!!! (We don't count Reigen because he has Sponge abilities so Shimazaki literally can't even see him, but other than that it's likely just Toichiro and Mob). And not even just because of power—it's like Hanazawa says; "Even I could defeat you." Meaning that he KNOWS his power level is below Shimazaki's—it's about the strategy. Both Hanazawa and Shimazaki wouldn't be nearly such intimidating fighters if they weren't incredibly smart to go along with it. Knowing where and when to move is half the fight (unless you're Mob apparently but that's okay bc we love him for being a literal supernova), and figuring out what strategies work on which opponent in real time is super impressive!

Which is why the idea of Shimateru has me so so so obsessed rn: it's about the ANTAGONISM 🤌 It's the idea of Shimazaki taking an interest in Teru earlier and being the one that hunts him down for Claw, but then backing off and letting him run because he's having too much fun fighting him. It's about the Cat and Mouse dynamics. It's about the Reformed™ Villain with lingering anger issues and violent impulses suddenly getting accosted and tempted by a Villain who has NOT reformed—likely the only one left who hasn't. It's about falling back into old habits because Shimazaki is the one person Hanazawa is "safe" doing so with. It's about the fact that Hanazawa could call Mob at any time to make Shimazaki go away, could end things whenever he wanted, but he doesn't. It's about the VIOLENCE and INTRIGUE 🤌🤌🤌✨

GOD I'm going feral, I'm going insane, I think they should've gotten more screentime together because they have such a fun dynamic. I think Shimazaki should've been chasing Hanazawa down for Claw, they should've been enemies for longer, that tension should've brewed like royal tea in a china pot for far longer it would've been SO GOOD 🙏🙏😩