You know, I honestly think that deep down we all want to do something incredible with our lives. Something that no one has done before. But we feel like we need some type of, I don't know, magical power in order to make that happen. But what if I told you that you already had that power inside of you? One that many of us fail to utilize in our everyday lives. And that super power is self-awareness.
And this season we're exploring how incredible that power is by looking at an anime whose main character just wants to be seen for more than just his actual power. And that anime is Mob Psycho 100. Hey what's going on guys, my name is Nate and you're listening to the Otaku Liberation. A show where we help you break the chains that are holding you back in your life by connecting some biblical principles with themes from your favorite anime. And without further ado, let's get right on into it.
And we're gonna get right on in with the verse for today's episode. And that's Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23. And it says, guard your heart above all else for it is the source of life. And the reason I chose this verse for this theme is it's telling us to basically guard ourselves from outside influence, right? To guard yourself from everything else besides, you know, the Lord himself, besides what God has called you to do, who he's called you to be. And essentially just listen to him.
And it ties into the self-awareness aspect of it because once you know who you are and who you are, nothing else is going to matter. Nothing else is going to even get in your way, get in your mind. Like it's never going to be a factor. And honestly, I feel like that this verse really ties into just the theme of this whole season, which again, is self-awareness.
And when I was watching Mob Psycho before I even decided to do it as a part of this podcast, I almost immediately resonated with a lot of the characters in there and just the theme itself because it really dives deep into what it means to kind of grow into your own, right? To kind of grow into who you've always been or who you always could be. But now it just comes full circle. And before we go too, too deep into that, let me give you an overview of what Mob Psycho 100 is and what it's about.
So it was created by one, you know, O.N.E. Jesse, the author is what he goes by. And the original run for the for the manga was from April 18th, 2012 to December 22nd, 2017. And it's about the main character Shigeo Mob Kageyama. And again, in for the context of the of the series, Mob means like John Doe, right? Basically you're you're bland kind of, you know, just a generic name given to people, I guess.
And Shigeo is a middle schooler in a very, very powerful Esper or psychic, whatever term you want to use. And in order to keep his powers in check, Mob or Shigeo suppresses his emotions in the hopes that he's able to live life like everybody else. And the reason why he does that, because in the world of Mob Psycho 100, especially for the case of Mob himself, their emotions greatly dictate how powerful and how much they can control their psychic powers.
And in Mob's case, since he's such a strong Esper, it's even more so. So if he loses control of himself, loses sight of essentially who he is, then he runs the risk of just running rampant. And so in order to avoid that, he chooses to essentially lock away his his own emotions.
And and on through the journey of Mob and some of the other characters that we see, one of the big themes that's tackled in Mob Psycho, like I said, is self-awareness, but is broken down in three main ways, the first of which is the way of power and responsibility. OK, what does what does that mean? So Mob strives to keep his immense power under control so he doesn't hurt others. Right.
And sometimes this can be to a fault where he may need to use his powers in order to overcome whatever obstacle he's currently facing. But because of his his fear of essentially being who he is, then it causes him to to hesitate to second guess his in the base, a second guess, his decision making. And again, you guys know I love the cliche saying, you know, yeah, Uncle Ben said it best with great power comes great responsibility. Right.
And that rings true not just in the fictional realm of superheroes and anime characters, but it also rings true in the real world, because it is true. Those who have power have a responsibility to use that power wisely and correctly. And all of us have power. Right. All of us have power. And God put us on this earth for a reason. Your reason may be different from mine and he may expect more out of you than me or vice versa.
But the beauty of it is he only holds us responsible for what he has given us and not for what others even if not for what he's given others. And so just let out a sigh of relief. You know, if you're not a billionaire, don't worry about it. He's not going to hold you accountable for, you know, for being a billionaire because because you're not one. Right. But I do like looking at this whole thing of your power and responsibility. So what is what is power?
Right. The way I look at it, power is just your influence within your your spear. Right. When then your your immediate vicinity. Now, some people who, again, like the billionaires of the world, their influence is larger because they have more resources, they have access to more things, people, what have you. But just think about yourself. Right.
Think about the four to five people that you spend the most time with and think about how you how you influence them, whether intentionally or unintentionally, you know, because I've noticed sometimes you spend a lot of time with a person, you start taking on their mannerisms and how they talk, the things that you find funny or cool or whatnot. You kind of feed off of each other. And it goes both ways. Right.
So just think about how you're affecting other people and how they're affecting you and influencing you because that influence is power. Right. And I want you just to be more, I guess, cognizant is the right word is be more intentional. There we go. There we go. Be more intentional to how you interact with people and how it gets in business and how you can make a difference in their lives, whether how how small it is or how big it can be.
It all comes down to how we use our gifts and our talents and the power that in God gave us. And I can stress enough, you're only responsible for what you can do. Right. Not asking you, not telling you, you have to change the world in, you know, in two days or something crazy like that. It's all about what you already have at your disposal, what you've essentially already have been doing. Now you're just doing it with more intention. So that was the first part.
First part against power and responsibility and just being aware of the power that you have and how you're using it. So the second point is the emotional intelligence or connecting with others, however you want to take it. And being emotionally intelligent is a vital skill in life because it not only helps you understand yourself, but it will also help you connect with others and understand where they're coming from.
So in the case of Mob, he always takes into consideration how his actions or the actions of others will affect those around him. Again, this ties back into why he doesn't use his powers because he knows if he does use his powers and they go out of control again, a lot of people's lives are going to be in danger. They're going to be negatively affected by his actions.
And again, like I said, not even just his own actions, but some actions of the enemies that he's going against at that point in time. And whether it's, you know, Stimple, Claw, you know, sometimes even Reagan, if he's being ridiculous. And Mob is always thinking about others. And I think that's something that we can all take from is to just be more cognizant of how our actions or inactions are affecting the people around us. And not just our loved ones, but just people in general.
Because you may think is what you're doing or what you've done is it's innocent, it can hurt nobody, you know, or is only affecting me, you know, whatever the case may be. Oftentimes it's not. Sometimes it's not just affecting you is affecting again, those same four to five people that you spend the most time with and who truly and genuinely care about you, then is going to affect them a great, great deal.
So just being able to recognize how you how you are feeling and how to express those feelings in a healthy way is it's a superpower in of itself. Sorry, just reading, reading this and just really thinking about it. This is something I have. I'm still learning and approving, but for the longest time could not get right. And just, you know, full disclaimer, I'm an emotional guy, right?
I'm an emotional guy and I I like to say I feel my emotions deeply, which means, you know, when I'm sad, I'm really sad. If I'm angry, I'm really angry from happy and really happy type thing. And it it ebbs and flows. So when I was younger, I used to always, you know, just be a crybaby, right? If I got too, too upset and the water works for common, that that's how it was. That's you know, that was my MO even in even in high school, right?
Up until I believe my junior years when I finally got out of that season. But so I went from just being overly emotional to the other end where I never fully express myself because I don't know. Just hear you think about I'm not sure why I or what caused the shift to happen, but I just noticed in myself that I taper my emotions. I keep them close to the chest and don't and I don't really express them as nowhere near as much as I used to.
But now it's to the point where they're not really expressed at all. At least it was. I can say I'm getting better and being more animated, I guess. I'm trying to trying to be. Sometimes these things are a little nerve wracking.
But for someone who's personally gone through this and we're still going through it, you know, just being able to express yourself in a healthy way, you know, without blowing up on somebody or or just, you know, flying off the deep end or on the other end, not expressing yourself at all or not expressing yourself enough. And I strongly encourage you just to just be honest with yourself. That's where it starts from. Right.
Just be honest with yourself and what you're feeling and know that it's OK. You know, whatever it is that you're feeling, it's OK. And to just let them go, let them flow. Just acknowledge your feelings, acknowledge what you're feeling in the moment and then just let it go. Right. Because none of these things are going to are going to last forever. And again, emotions are fleeting. Right. You're going to feel it for one second and the next second you you're good again.
So just take it with a grain of salt. Don't get so hung up on it and, you know, this basis don't turn in the mob. Don't turn in the mob. Don't keep them so close to the chest that you physically can't express them anymore because that's not that's not healthy either. So just learn how to be honest with yourself, how to be honest with your own emotions, how you're feeling, and then also just be aware of how others are feeling and really just, you know, be better, I guess. My enemy.
So I was pointing to, you know, emotional intelligence and being able to connect with other people. And then the third point that the whole anime pretty much covers in terms of self-awareness is rejecting external validation or making me not reject, but not relying on external validation because in mob actually exemplifies this really, really well because this whole motif is that his worth isn't solely determined by his psychic powers.
Now in the show where there are other experts or other psychics on the show and other ones who are very, very powerful, you know, not, they're not as powerful as he is, but they're pretty close and their whole identity is them having psychic powers, like in how strong they are and so much so that they just don't even consider just doing normal things as something great. And for mob is the exact opposite.
I mean, he pretty much loads his power for the majority of the series and he just wants to be normal.
He just wants to be able to do normal things and excel at what we consider, you know, this would be normal, you know, getting good grades at school and being able to talk to girls and again, because he's in middle school and he's going through that and, you know, being athletic, being able to run for more than 20 feet without passing out, you know, things like that, things that we wouldn't think would be a problem for somebody who has those type of abilities.
But in mob's mind, if he were to just rely on his abilities all the time, then that would be the only thing that he has. And in that, that speaks volumes to me and was the reason why I wanted to cover this entire anime, but it's just that particular moment, that particular idea is that, you know, we are not defined by what we can or what we can't do. We are all uniquely made and no one thing makes or breaks our personalities. So you're, we are not, we are not just one thing.
Not one thing defines us, you know, you, you being six, two doesn't make your entire personality, right? You being a star athlete, you being a superstar in the classroom or you struggling in the classroom or you not being a star athlete, you, you know, whatever it is that you think is defining you, whether it's good or bad, it's not, you know, it's not the only thing that you offer. It's not the only thing that defines you.
Not the only thing that is a part of you because we are all made up of different gifts and talents and things like that. And again, that's part of the beauty of the world and no, no two people are ever the same. And but that also means you have, you have the opportunity to continue to grow and discover new things about yourself. You might discover new things that you're bad at or good at, you know, or amazing, you know, and even then, even those new things aren't going to define who you are.
Right? Because again, we're just a combination of all our different gifts, talents, life experiences, you know, environment, all these different things that make us who we are and who we are is amazing. You're amazing. And don't let anyone else tell you different. Don't tell yourself anything different. And no, seriously, don't tell yourself anything different because even if you're, excuse me, even if you're saying it as a joke, right, our brains don't recognize jokes and sarcasm.
So everything you say to yourself, you're taking it literally whether you want to or not. And it's good. Just going to start this whole negative feedback loop of you quote unquote joking about it. Then you start thinking about it for real. And then now you're just feeling worse about yourself. So I really want you to take a step back and start saying some positive things about yourself in your life. You know, say I'm today, I'm going to be happy today. I'm going to do great things.
I've already done great things. I'm awesome. I'm also because some random guy on a podcast said I am and, and you know, just different things like that. You really get into your own into your own head and give yourself some credit and don't worry. It's not, you know, I'm not giving you the big old homework assignment without any help, without any guideline. Again, that's what this whole season is going to be about this whole, you know, four or five, six episode.
I'm not sure how long it's going to be yet, but you know, this whole season is about self awareness and how we view ourselves and how we have how our own action decisions affect our lives and those around us and just improving it. I mean, that's, that's pretty much it. So just kind of a quick summary. Mob Psycho 100 has the overall thing of self awareness and we mainly look at it through Shigeyo or Mob, whichever one you want to call them.
I'm going to switch between the two and how his journey revolves around understanding his own emotions and the psychic powers. But through his experiences, we're going to learn the importance of, you know, recognizing consequences of our actions, both the good and the bad, the value of being able to connect with others and not relying so much on external validation and what other people or what other things are saying about our self worth.
You know, self awareness is a guy in force in Mob's life and helps shape his choices and decisions and it's also something that's going to help guide us to if you let it. And just like anything else, that's a skills, the skill we're going to have to develop and really practice to get better at. But don't worry, I got your back. We're here. We're going to go through all this together. I promise. All right.
So thank you guys for tuning into today's episode and I pray that you get what you needed out of it and that you learn something new about yourself. And if you like what you heard on today's episode and want to take a deeper look, head on over to the otaku liberation dot net where you find an accompanying blog article that goes even deeper into today's episode. And you'll also find a link to our YouTube channel where I cover some bonus topics, some bonus topics outside of our podcast.
Just a little, you know, shameless plug right there. But don't forget to tune in next week to the next week's episode as we learn what it means to truly be ourselves with the main character himself, Shigeyo. And as always, remember, you are the main character of your story and that story doesn't end until he says so. All right. Be blessed.