It's easy to fall into the trap of envy and jealousy.
Do you know why?
It's because we are always focused on what we don't have.
So much so that we miss the blessings that we have right in front of us.
And I believe this happens because it's easier to see what other people have as it is clear
as day.
But when it comes to our own gifts and treasures, it takes an outside perspective to shed some
light on it.
And on today's episode, we're looking at a character who covets the very thing that brings
his brother so much pain and he fails to see the value in his own talents.
I'm talking about Mob's younger brother Ritsu Kageyama.
Hey, what's going on guys?
My name is Nate.
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 today I'm going to jump right into the verse or verses today because it really paints
the picture as a whole of basically Ritsu's whole character arc.
And the verses are going to be Galatians chapter six, verses four through five.
And it says, but each person should examine his own work and then he will have a reason
for boasting in himself alone and not in respect to someone else for each person will have
to carry his own load.
And essentially what that means is mind your business is basically take stock of what you
have and don't worry about what other people have and what they're doing with what they
have and all these other things.
And I think that this is a lesson that's so, so needed in today's world because in the
way social media is right now, it's easily accessible to see someone else's life or their
highlights of their life as I say on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, threads, Twitter, all the
Snapchat, all the different things.
It's easy to see the high points of someone's life.
And when it's all you see, it's easy to believe that that's what their life looks like.
But you know, and I know life is never just the highlights, right?
Is never the high moments.
Those are just the moments we choose to share.
And it just creates this facade of, you know, look at me, look at what I have, look at what
I've worked for or I've accomplished, but don't look at all the battle scars, all the
blood, sweat and tears that I had to put in, in order to get to this point.
And that is essentially how Ritsu sees the psychic powers that mob has.
So the first point I want to go over for Ritsu is his sense of jealousy.
Ritsu has always been jealous of mob psychic powers, which I mean, let's be honest, who
wouldn't be if your sibling has psychic powers or have any type of power or talent or something
that you admire, right?
But you don't have that same talent.
You don't have that particular thing.
And yeah, you probably would feel a little bit jealous, right?
Which is fine.
Again, I'm not saying this is a bad thing to feel this way, but it's a bad thing to
let it consume you the way it consumed Ritsu.
And the ironic thing is that Ritsu was jealous of mob psychic powers, but mob was jealous
of pretty much everything else Ritsu had, which is the good grades, the charisma, the
athleticism, all the things that mob coveted Ritsu had.
And Ritsu coveted the one thing he didn't have over mob, which was psychic powers.
Though I love how the author showed that kind of parallel between the two brothers.
And this sense of jealousy led Ritsu to feeling inferior to mob and having a distorted perception
of his own self-worth.
And what I mean by that is Ritsu felt like he was less than his brother because he didn't
have psychic powers like him.
And that caused him to not see the beauty in the good that he already has, right?
All the things that mob coveted, all the things that I'm sure a lot of people will covet,
the good charisma.
I struggle talking to people a lot of the time.
Once I know you personally, then I'm more like I will to get tongue tied and stutter
more and all these different things until I get comfortable with you.
And all my other introverts, people who don't really like to interact with people, you know
what I'm saying.
You get me.
I see you.
And for those who don't understand that, just know, yes, this is a real thing.
There are people out here who don't just enjoy normal day to day conversation as much as
you do.
And it's okay.
We still love you.
But anyway, and it's so it's easy to it's easy to undermine our own gifts and talents
when we're too busy focusing on somebody else's is essential.
What this whole thing is.
So one of the questions I want to pose to you is, do you take your value from other
people, whether that's somebody speaking directly to your value, you know, the standard lifting
you up or the tearing you down?
Or is it by you people watching you seeing what you believe to be something that you
want, something of a value in somebody else's life and that you trying to live up to that
standard even though you haven't been called to that standard yet?
And God may have something even better for you, but you're so focused on what they have
that you're not even listening to what he's promised.
It's a really thing about it.
And Ritsu, honestly, he convinced himself that his twisted sense of jealousy was admiration
for his brother and his abilities.
But in reality, it was just jealousy and fear because again, like I mentioned on the previous
episode, there was an accident when mob and Ritsu were younger, when mob powers went out
of control and he seriously injured Ritsu and the bullies that were bullying now.
And at that moment Ritsu began to fear his brother, understandably so, but it was the
type of fear that it distorted their relationship because Ritsu was afraid for his life, really,
and he was afraid that if he angered mob in any sort of way, then mob would use his powers
to hurt him.
So he felt like he couldn't have the normal sibling relationship.
Anyone who has siblings understands that you guys can be the best of friends and the worst
of enemies all within a span of five minutes.
It's one of those type of dynamics.
And Ritsu couldn't have that with mob because he was so afraid that mob would lose control
like he did that one day and just end the world essentially.
And so that coupled with the jealousy of not having the psychic powers like mob did, it
just created this weird sense of self for Ritsu and his weird obsession over mob and
his powers.
So the next question I want to ask you, you didn't know you were taking a test today,
did you?
But the next question is who are you envying?
Who or what are you envying?
Because this is why this is going to be so dangerous to look at someone someone else
have.
Because on one hand, admiration is great.
It can be used as a motivator to make you work harder, to strive for that level of success
in your own life.
But it's a fine line between admiration and obsession or even envy, because you can go
from the point of using that person or that whatever that shiny object has fuel to just
being that is the goal.
That is the end all be all and then you lose sight of everything else.
And one thing that you probably don't realize as much as we should is what you may believe
to be a blessing to one person and something to covet.
It may turn out to be their curse instead.
And that played out exactly how now it is for mobbing Ritsu.
Ritsu sees mob powers as a blessing and as something to covet something to pine after,
whereas mob sees them as a burden and as a curse because they can be used to hurt people
if not used correctly.
And that's a lot of weight and pressure on mob's mind that Ritsu doesn't see, nothing
that no one else really sees outside of the people who spend the most time with the mob,
meaning like Reagan, Dimple and eventually Ritsu.
But in this moment of time, all Ritsu sees is the shiny object, the powers and what they
could possibly hold.
So I just want you all to just cherish and honor your own talents because just as you
are coveting somebody else's gifts, somebody else can be doing the same thing for you.
And you're neglecting your talents that somebody else wants.
And it's a vicious cycle over and over and over again.
But again, this whole season is about self-awareness and just being aware of who you are, whose
you are, what you have and being able to use it to the best of your ability.
So that was the first point, jealousy.
The next point for Ritsu is his man became very power hungry.
So eventually in the story, Ritsu does obtain his own psychic powers.
Maybe they manifest and he's able to do more or less the same things mob is able to do
on a smaller scale.
But once Ritsu powers come, he becomes hungry for even more.
Even more so that he allows Dimple, the evil spirit that mob defeated early on in the first
season and he just let hang around him for some reason.
Ritsu allows Dimple to possess his own body in order to improve his control over his powers.
And the reason that's so significant is because Ritsu was so enthralled.
He was so engulfed in having psychic powers and having the abilities now and not just
having the abilities, but wanting to be better than his brother that he didn't even think
to go to mob with this to ask for advice or opinion.
Because he, my mob had his power since he was born and Ritsu just got him like now.
And you would think he would go to the person who has the experience, who he knows would
be more than willing to help him.
But since again, that whole distorted relationship or this distorted viewpoint that Ritsu has
about the relationship causes him to go the opposite way and allow this random ghost that
he just now met because before Ritsu couldn't see Dimple because he didn't have any psychic
abilities.
He couldn't see him who this spirit who he just met possess his body just so he can have
better control over his own powers.
And again, this can ultimately just devalues the gifts he already has because he's so focused
on the one thing that he doesn't have.
He's completely undermining everything else that he has going for him.
And this attitude just drove him to try and forsake his relationship with mob, even going
so far as to state that he doesn't care about mob, that he doesn't care about his own big
brother.
And this during this whole gets me like mini arc within the series of Ritsu gaining his
powers and basically becoming drunk off his own powers essentially.
I mean, his whole personality shifts.
He becomes more cold and ruthless doing things that he wouldn't he wouldn't have done before.
And that leads me to ask, you know, what is it that you've assessed over so much that
you suddenly just stop recognizing yourself?
I mean, this kind of calls back to one of my earlier episodes about Roswald from Re
Zero, where he was so obsessed about, you know, meeting the witch of greed that he was
willing to betray the very people who's helped him for centuries at this point.
I mean, he was able to betray the very people who looked up to him, who loved him, who want
to do things for him.
But he was so obsessed that he basically changed.
He did a heel turn and just became this this man just bent on getting what he wanted.
And it's the same thing with Ritsu.
He became just this just cold, ruthless type of person who he's never been like that before
a day in his life.
But just the power and then the just the idea of being better than his brother caused him
to to try to go through this change.
And as you say, if you're not careful, if you're not careful, the pursuit of ultimately
the pursuit of something that isn't meant for you in the first place, it's always going
to end in ruin, whether your own or your own and somebody and those around you, too.
But even if it's something good that you think is good, I mean, I even be a bad thing if
you focus too too too much on it and become obsessed about it to the point that it's changing
who you are.
Then I think it's time to take a step back and really and really evaluate.
Is that even worth it at that point?
Because if it's changing your entire personality, who you are, I'm not saying we're going to
stay the same forever because again, we're all we're all growing.
We are going through different seasons in our life.
You know, and you're not just not going to be the same person you are today that you
were five years ago.
And I understand that.
But what I'm saying is, is if the goal you're going after, the thing you're pursuing causes
you to do a complete personality shift, like you were a completely different person, then
I say it's time to take it back, take it back a few steps and really, really sit down and
take a look at yourself and see if this is really the way you want to go.
So again, that's what being power hungry and obsessed does to Ritsu.
But all hope is in loss.
The third point is essentially the restoration of who Ritsu was, his relationship with Mob,
the whole, you know, the whole happy ending that we that we all love to see in these series.
Right.
And so, so essentially his attitude towards Mob changes after Rob comes to rescue Ritsu,
after Ritsu has been captured by by Klaw, this evil psychic organization that are kidnapping
psychic people, psychic kids in order to turn them into soldiers.
So one of the members came and kidnapped Ritsu.
So Mob had to go save him.
And keep in mind, this is right after Ritsu just said he doesn't care about Mob and even
tried to fight him or tried to provoke Mob into a fight, I should say.
And again, back to you know, back to Mob's episode, Mob has such a forgiving heart that
he just he was like, no, you don't really mean that.
It's like, you know, even if you did, I don't care.
You're still my little brother and I'm still going to love you no matter what.
Which again, I think is how we all should be, you know, with family, with people who
care about in general.
Don't we shouldn't hold their mistakes over them.
We should just still see them for who they are.
And Mob, Mob knew that the Ritsu that he was seeing at that moment in time is not the same
Ritsu that he's known.
And this is essentially just a phase.
And and it's because of that, because of Mob's willingness to forgive and Ritsu's willingness
to accept himself and Mob's relationship for what it is, was able to basically change the
whole dynamic around and back to the way it was and into a healthier way to because Mob
admits to Ritsu that there is no one else in the world who Mob admires more than his
brother.
Because to me, at this point, again, the relationship was strange, but kind of weird.
They didn't really connect that well even before all of this.
But for Mob to just straight up admit to Ritsu that Mob being the older one looks up to his
little brother more than anyone else in the world.
It just did something to Ritsu.
It helped him understand that he has qualities that Mob envies in that just having psychic
powers or just having a gift or talent isn't everything.
It's not the end of the world.
It's not the bee's knees, whatever weird saying you want to put here.
It's not all that defines us.
Just like how I said in the Mob's episode and back to this whole theme of just being
aware of what you have outside of just your talents and your gifts.
And not being so focused on the things that you don't have, the things that other people
have, the blessings that they have in their own life.
That's cool.
I mean, you can strive to achieve something of that similar level, but don't become so
obsessed with that particular blessing because it's not for you.
It's for them.
And another key part is you don't know the season that preceded that because every blessing
has a season of trial and stress right before it.
All of them.
Like you're going to go through something, right?
And it may be like the sky is falling type thing, or you might have stubbed your toe
last week.
You know, having two very extreme differences.
But the key point is the same, that we all go through a season that's going to prepare
us for the blessing.
So when you see these people on Instagram, these people on TikTok, on YouTube, Snapchat,
living it up, living the life, living the thing that you want, or they have the things
that you want, just understand they had to go through some type of trial, some type of
effort.
They had to put in the work.
They had to be strengthened.
They had to be just prepared for the blessing that they're enjoying now.
So you're seeing the highlights, but you don't see everything else that went into the highlights.
So that's why I really want you to focus on your own journey, your own season that you're
in right now.
Because maybe you are in a season of just of the trial, of the preparation, of just
being made ready for your eventual blessing.
Because again, I know this, most believers know this.
And if anyone out there listening who isn't a believer, just know that when God makes
a promise, he always delivers.
That's it.
He's always going to deliver and it's going to be in his timing.
So it may not be at the time that we want or in the exact way that we want, or even
what we even asked for in the first place.
It may be something better.
And just know that he's always going to deliver.
So I just want to leave you guys with this.
Don't get so caught up in someone else's story that you forget to write your own.
Because I always say at the end of every single podcast, you are the main character of your
story.
And I mean that, I truly mean that.
And the reason why I made that my tagline or whatever you want to call it is because
it's something that needs to be said, something that needs to be reminded that your life here
is a story.
The guy's written, he's authored, and he's given us the ability to choose the chapters
essentially.
And I don't want you to spend time in your own story reading somebody else's when you
can be writing your own.
So I really take that to heart.
Because it's easier said than done, but it's also more fulfilling than just people watching.
Trust me.
So in summary, Ritsu's journey, his own journey of self-awareness, it shows us how he confronts
his jealousy, his power hunger tendencies, and ultimately finds the restoration and the
progress that he needs through essentially realizing his own value and understanding that
pining after somebody else's gift shouldn't devalue your own.
And that again, we aren't the talents, we aren't the highlights, we are everything in
between the good, the bad, and the ugly.
So just keep that in mind.
And hey, at the end of the day, we're all just human.
We all have something to strive for, something that we are striving for.
Just don't let it consume you.
Don't let it be the end all be all.
So just want to thank you guys for tuning into today's episode.
And I pray that you got what you needed out of it, and hopefully you learned 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 otakulliberation.net where you'll find a blog article that covers today's
episode in even more detail.
And come back next week because we're going to look at someone who isn't exactly what
he seems, but he tends to mean well in the end.
And that is Mob's boss and mentor, Reigen Arataka.
And always remember guys, you are the main character of your story, and that story doesn't
end until he says so.
Alright, be blessed.