4 replies to this topic

[gormadoc]

I'm not looking for spoilers about this; the comment section groaning just made me think about the theories some more.

 

Folks are now claiming that the reason the manga seems to be supporting a theory as it unfolds is that they read the raws.  I'm hoping that's not true; I'd prefer to believe the best of those people. The thought that got me started thinking was "Which theory is it?"

 

To my count, there are four theories that have been suggested:

• Everything was as it seems and she really does accurately read minds
• She gains impressions of some kind but interprets them according to her own thoughts
• She doesn't have telepathy and is actually just really good at reading people
• Everything is her own delusion and not necessarily connected to reality or people's thoughts

It seems like these theories run a full spectrum between delusions and her being able to understand people extremely well, so, barring something completely out of left field, the truth has to be within this space.

 

The first theory has some issues, but it's what most people probably believed until relatively recently. The problems are mostly in the form of her mental picture not lining up with reality (Akira's girlfriend, Toda crying, the chocolate sandwich, et cetera). But she's able to converse extremely well with Mana when Mana is just thinking, so that's a strong point in favor.

 

The second theory seems to be going strong. The opportunity to challenge it hasn't really come up, I think. I'd welcome some criticism of this theory. Maybe the language matches too exactly with what she interprets people to be thinking? Maybe she just doesn't correctly see images but their word thoughts are clear?

 

The principal problem with the third theory is the time where Akira thought that Mana's curls look like croissants. I can't imagine how you would read that from body language. And how was she so good at this from an early age?

 

The last theory seems the least unlikely. Everything would have to be extremely coincidental for it to work.

 

And who knows, maybe her powers are in flux or something and all of this is moot. Maybe NOBEL wasn't initially as concerned with her telepathy and it's only been more recently that they decided to take it in this direction.

[Hayate22]

One of the key clues is in the title itself "Mousou Telepathy"

Ayako is telepathic that is a fact in the story. She has the ability of trying to not listen to other people's thoughts but is unable to stop any thoughts directed towards her. This is mentioned early in the story. Her telepathy like others with the same power has an upper limit she can handle before her mind overloads, this was demonstrated during their outing at the outdoor festival.

What isn't mentioned is how evolved her ability is, there are a number of cases of her 'seeing' mental images, flashbacks, and another's imagination/delusion, what others see, and even mental clones of people.

1. The mental clones that randomly appear, like with Toda, Mana, or her own mom. It seems she can see them and in some cases try to shake them off like Toda's for example. What could be taken out of this, is that so far every time one has made an appearance, it could be said they represent what the person is truly feeling at the time. Toda's as one can see is shown to be facially and emotionally expressive as opposed to the actual person who has the eternal poker face.

2. Throughout the story, Ayako tends to 'see' Toda's imagination/delusion whenever he is imagining whatever Toda x Nakano scenario he has going on at the time. And she has 'seen' it from others. She never addresses it once. But she has reacted to it. Often these are mental images that she can 'see' but never questions them besides the content.

3. There are only 2 instances of this, but it could be theorized that she could see what another person is seeing albeit in a limited fashion. Both times happen with Toda, and both times have happened when he was on his phone. The first was him googling how to start a conversation, the other was the soccer club's group chat. She is most likely unconsciously focusing on him at both times when this happens since it doesn't happen at any other time.

4. The flashbacks that occurs once in awhile, she's able to 'see' these due to how strong the memory is. This has happened during the school trip, and after the soccer game. She may not realize this aspect either.


Now to the theory based on the title itself. Many Japanese authors tend to be very direct with the title and the relationship with the story. Mousou is often translated as delusion or wild idea. Thus Delusion Telepathy. Right now where we are, a number of inconsistencies Ayako and readers have noticed. Primary ones being the souvenir she got her mom, the drink, Akira's girlfriend, and Toda's ex. While the first two are not as important, the other two are. Akira's girlfriend and Toda's ex were shown before whether in extras or side stories.both of them have established appearances. Due to Ayako never meeting either of them before the mental image she see is different from the actual person. Toda, Mana and Akira know exactly how they look like. The mental image that Nanako sees is a delusion from her point of view. She is creating the mental image subconsciously due to not knowing the actual person. This is the disconnect that started to happen and she is realizing something is wrong. The souvenir is also a mental image Ayako has due to not knowing the actual item.

How this relates to some of the points mentioned earlier.

1. The mental clones: the more she interacts with the person the more normal the 'clone' is. Her mother's is as normal as you can see since she knows her mom the best. Mana's starts out imposing before normalizing as Ayako gets to know Mana better, but with occasional devil Mana appearing. Toda's is shown to be the most expressive, but has yet to properly normalize since she interacts with him the least and only started to get to know him. These 'clones' are Ayako's mental images of them based on their strong thoughts and feelings, they are delusions of said person due to her lack of interaction as well as Ayako's own insecurities. The more she gets to know someone it normalizes to a mental image close or almost the same as the actual person.

2. The mental images, imaginations, delusions she sees from others. Generally most have never been addressed. But the ones that are addressed are the ones being questioned why it differed from the actual thing. Even though she is telepathic, there are examples in the story that show inconsistencies. Akira's girlfriend and Toda's ex. When Akira is imagining the scenario, he sees his girlfriend acting that way but Ayako imagines a different looking girl instead. Since she doesn't know his girlfriend personally, her own mind is subconsciously applying her own mental image onto it to her 'seeing' it. Toda's ex is the other prime example, Toda and Mana both know her appearance, but Ayako doesn't. Because Ayako subconsciously imagined who Toda's ex looks like, it is later imprinted on her when Mana is also thinking about her. And when she meets both of them the first time, the actual person looks way different. Another example is when Mana interacts with Shimizu for the first time. Shimizu gets a scary impression of Mana but Shimizu shouldn't be imagining Mana as a devil, this is Ayako applying her own mental image of Mana who usually has devilish thoughts. Some of the mental images over the course can be seen as Ayako's own mental image of it based on the thoughts, feelings, and/or impressions she gets from other.


Starting from a certain point, she realizes she starts getting delusions like Toda. But she may not know that her own delusions might be affecting her telepathy or her own view of things. Due to her suffering some trauma as a child, she develops her own delusions of others who have strong positive or negative emotions towards her via her telepathy. And she reacts the most to those.

Mana who holds a strong friendship with her, also knowing about Ayako's telepathy and understands how to converse with Ayako by forming her thoughts into mental messages. And she is probably the only one who can help Ayako with any future trouble. As Ayako may find out that her telepathy creates her delusions, her own delusions affect her telepathy in some way. And as she goes through her life and love troubles with her delusion telepathy.

[rick_bo]

I noticed it first with the "Toda's Ex" arc wherein multiple people who have seen Mizutani before, but each person has their own perspective and idea or Image in their mind of what Mizutani looks like, and so each 'image' of Toda's ex looks different for Ayako. Different people will notice different characteristics and those are what will tend to stick in the mind. Even given the circumstances or situation would make a person look slightly different; like when Mana considers how Mizutani will act, the features she calls to mind would shed what light Mana sees in Mizutani. Sort of like a caricature, different artists painting the same picture.

[definitionofinsanity]

Honestly, I think it's mental images from the minds of people she's reading. Case in point: when Mana was testing it, Nakano managed to successfully see what color and pattern her bra was... only... erm... there were certain "enhancements" made to the size. Considering Mana has a complex about that very same attribute and Nakano had absolutely no reason to image them being bigger... All signs point to that image being from Mana's head. Not Nakano's.

[rick_bo]

Counterpoint; the bra that Nanako sees with her telepathy is of a different style to what Mana was wearing. Mana knows what bra she's wearing so the image she projects would reflect that.

 

however; the wording Mana uses seems a little...implicative. 

 

New theory; The mental images produced by the people around Nanako have a set of conditions around them, What Nanako sees are her own delusions/imagination creating an image using those same conditions. Smaller unimportant details will vary but the major points will translate. 

For example; Back to the bra image

-Blue polka dots

-Bra

-Worn by Mana

The shape or style of the bra are not one of the defining conditions to the image because Mana is focusing on the bra she is wearing having blue polka dots. It's like the image is being translated into text then recreated in Nanakos mind. When Toda has a flight of fantasy involving Nanako in a lewd delusion he imagines a setting with certain conditions and atmosphere. The image Nanako sees may not match what Toda is imagining exactly but still has to fit the conditions matching the image he pictures.