Reigen Arataka

Character
Name:	(霊幻新隆, Reigen Arataka?)
Occupation:	Owner of Spirits and Such Consultation Office
Relationships:	Kageyama Shigeo (employee & mentee)
Fandom:	Mob Psycho 100
Other:
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Reigen Arataka is a major character in Mob Psycho 100. He is a con artist falsely claiming to have supernatural abilities. He is Shigeo's mentor. He received his own spin-off comic after Mob Psycho 100 ended.

Fandom

Reigen is a popular character. While he is Shigeo's employer in canon, he tends to be portrayed as either a second father to him or a romantic partner to him in fanworks. Reimob is a popular yet controversial ship, as Shigeo is canonically half Reigen's age (14 and 28 respectively.)

Reigen's age is also played with in fanworks. Same Age AU is common, where Shigeo and he are usually portrayed as two middle-schoolers. There is also the Reverse Age AU, where Shigeo is the adult and Reigen is a middle-schooler.

Reigen is sometimes subjected to whitewashing by the Western fandom. There was also discourse on tumblr about headcanoning him as ace.

Shipping

Reigen is often paired with Shigeo (Reimob, Mobrei), Dimple (Ekurei) or Serizawa (Serirei.) Het pairings are rare with the exception of selfshipping, probably because there are few female characters in Mob Psycho 100.

Race

In the fandom, it was common for white people to call Reigen a "rat" even though that word had been used as a slur against Japanese people in America's past. Many people of color spoke against this trend. Tumblr user jucked explained:

Hi! Since I’ve gotten alot of questions on why its racist here I am to explain it!

So, in history people have used rats to symbolize Asians (specifically Japenese people) as deceitful, condescending, and a plague in propaganda and caricatures, especially during America’s “Yellow PeriI”. It can also be linked to the racist stereotype of giving Asians buck teeth as well.

I dont want to show the examples for the sake of my Asian friends but Google Search “Rat Anti Asian” and you’ll get plenty of evidence of how rooted rats are towards the hatred of us.

So. Yeah I don’t like when Reigen is shown with rat features or his whole identity revolving around “being a rat” cause there is real racist history behind these sentiments that we should really analyze for just one second.

https://jucked.tumblr.com/post/185002792157/reigen-is-a-rat-jokes-boring-old-done-a

While some warned against portraying Reigen as a negative Japanese stereotype, there was also the reverse-yet-still-racist issue: Reigen being whitewashed. Reigen was sometimes drawn with white features, especially by Serirei fans. On May 21, 2019, in response to a tweet about calling Reigen a rat, justMizuyuki replied:

wait is reigen asian? i kinda assumed since he's blonde and a con artist and mp100 has a unique artstyle he was meant to be mob's white friend

https://twitter.com/justMizuyuki/status/1130898885008928770

This tweet was widely screencapped and mocked on twitter and tumblr.

Memes

• Reigen's evil twin, Bonjulio, a fan character who was briefly popular on tumblr as a tongue-in-cheek way to avoid spoilers[1][2][3][4]
• Redraw Reigen - a hashtag and meme that became extremely popular, involving fan art of Reigen mimicking a variety of awkward stock photographs, memes, or other humorous images.
• Studio Bones is horny for Reigen / calling him an "internet sex symbol"
• The Attic AU is a Reigen-focused twist on A Breach of Trust, one of the most popular fics in the fandom. He is usually depicted with one or more scars in ABOT-influenced works.
• Calling or depicting him as a rat. See above.
• Clark Newman. The Mob Psycho 100 fandom became aware of an apparent Reigen cameo in the cartoon, Molly of Denali, on February 1, 2020. The episode had aired months earlier, but only been noticed by a few people. In the show, Reigen is called "Clark Newman," described as an "American celebrity" and an Anchorage weatherman. The character was said to be "definitely Reigen" by someone who works on the show, although she later clarified (perhaps for legal reasons) that she did not work on that episode and was unable to confirm anything. Regardless, "Clark Newman" memes, theories and art proliferated.

Example Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

SCARED OF THE DARK // Mob Psycho 100 PMV [SPOILERS!

Fanart

• 

  The first #Redrawreigen by DoonaDraws on Twitter, from September 28th 2016.

• 

  by lyferie

Resources

• Arataka Reigen at the Mob Psycho 100 Wiki