Category: Mob Psycho 100

It is a remarkably cheap tactic to pull a fake death right before the climax but that aside this acted as a decent finale to Mob Psycho. Through it’s clear that a second season is needed as the story does set up for one and sadly I doubt this has as high a chance of getting one. Well the show gave us the illusion that Reigan was hiding tremendous power only to have it be him borrowing Mob’s power for a moment. This gave Reigan the perfect method to combat the Claw members as with their powers rendered useless Reigan was able to make use of his greatest asset, his ability to talk anyone down. The members of claw that were presented as entities of dark ambition we stripped down and shown how childish their motives were. Even the gas masked leader was reduced to a whining baby in face of Reigans logic.

The battle here was explosive but ultimately Reigan beat claw by breaking down their entire being and showing them just how fragile it really was. In typical shounen it’s par for the course for heroes to force their logic on someone by beating them up. Even Touma from the certain magical index series literally punches his logic into villains until they agree with him.(Made all the more hypocritical when you consider this boy has the life experience of a pillbug) Here Reigan isn’t truly fighting the enemy but rather making them realise just what they are doing. Ultimately it’s the more mature manner of dealing with the problem and a real solution. Enemies beaten up can easily stand by up and continue fighting another day. Enemies stripped of all reason to fight have no reason to return. Batman maybe should start taking notes. I find it strange that the series decided to include a small story about Reigan and Mob hunting a UMA in it’s  final minutes but I suppose it shows that life goes on for Mob.

My overall feelings on Mob Psycho are lukewarm personally. I see that it has merit, it certainly has impressive animation and a interesting story. However I find that it didn’t quite grab me as I thought it should. Perhaps this is how some people felt when watching One Punch Man and it not hitting them as hard as it did with others. Though it that is the case perhaps something like Mob Psycho is more to their tastes? The story isn’t exactly what I would call deep but it holds some interesting food for thought while being entertaining. It subverts a viewer’s expectations  bring a more interesting turn of events to stereotypical shounen plotlines. Characters go through some interesting arcs like some side character previously acting niferous only to come to terms with themselves and become better people. Humor was a hit and miss aspect as usual for me but in this case I think Mob Psycho 100 fell short of the bar when compared to it’s brother. Despite efforts from the team to essentially one up OPM I think Mob Psycho is doomed to live in the shadow cast from it’s more popular sibling. But even then it does stand out when compared to other anime. When checking out ONEs work in the future, Mob will likely be a secondary choice but none the less it will still be a worthwhile watch.

Looks like I need to eat my own words as it turns out Reigan isn’t the organization’s leader but he managed to convince the guards that he was. This was definitely Reigans finest moment as he makes use of pure deception to catch everyone off guard. He has absolutely no idea what exactly is going on and yet through pure luck and his own abilities as a conman he manages to catch the espers of Claw off guard. The result is a funny yet rather impressive feats of Reigan as he demonstrating his “Special moves” such as distracting someone with a hypnosis coin and then walking up and punching them. We also get to see just how Mob met Reigan and how Reigan gives Mob the most important life lessons he needs while still being a pretty shady individual. It is rather surprising as on first impression of this series I thought he would be a character whose act would make him utterly despicable but he may have very well have earned a fanbase with this. He may be using Mob but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about Mob.

In fact he may be the very person who cares the most as the others push Mob to unleash his powers, Reigan is the one saying no. In fact even when it comes to his clients Reigan at least lets them leave happy as opposed to the other con artists trying to frame Mob. Even his view of seeing the members of Claw as children who didn’t grow up is not inaccurate. After all they are acting like Saturday morning cartoon villains with their plot to take over the world and their reliance on force instead of reason shows the level of their immaturity. Still despite Claw fighting to the death, Reigan says that there is no reason to fight and they should run. His logic is flawed in that Claw isn’t going to just leave Mob alone if he runs away from this place but he did manage to prevent Mob from using his power to kill the Claw members. Or at least…almost. Considering how the episode ended it could very well be the case that Mob will aim to outright kill them. I doubt Reigan is actually dead though as I most certainly didn’t see any blood.

Ritsu’s story arc looks to have come to a close as Mob shows him that in the same way that Ritsu looks up to him, Mob holds high respect for Ritsu’s abilities outside of Psychic powers. His character arc was handled a little haphazardly but overall this works. Other than that we get the kind of animation you would expect from this show at this point, highly fluid and dynamic. It really is shows like this that show how far animation has come. In the old days you could only expect animated fights like these from movies or the opening of an anime. Now we can actually get anime that live up to the quality of their openings. Next week looks to be the finale of the show and it certainly has turned out to be more or less the hit of an otherwise rather weak season. WIth it’s interesting animation and solid storytelling make a worthy part of ONE’s body of work. Though sadly it’s chances of a second season are not quite as certain as One Punch Mans. If anything this series shows that ONE is not a one hit wonder(Pun not intended.) and does have talent as a storyteller. His talent as an artist is more up for debate but I certainly can say the guy can tell some interesting stories.

Plenty of action this week as Mob, Terumi and Dimple take on the major members of claw. As far as what happen this episode feels a lot like your standard fare for a shounen anime series. The main group infiltrating an enemy base, split up and encounter the enemies in one on one style battles. It’s a little too standard and even ONE himself mocked this in One Punch Man when Saitama and Genos reached the house of Evolution which was a servel floored deathhouse which you would assume the heroes would have to go through encountering foes alike. But then Genos just blasts the whole building to oblivion. Here however it’s played straight and in that regard it is a little dull despite the animation being quite interesting for the fights themselves.

A particular standout moment had to do with a group of henchmen who encounter Ritsu while he is rescuing one of the captured awakening lab espers. Just when the henchmen are about to fight them, an old grizzled henchman tells them all to stand down. Saying that there is no way in hell that normal henchmen like them can take down an esper. Despite this decision rooted in cynicism rather than wisdom, this man is absolutely right.  Making this guy the smartest henchman I have ever seen as he knew he was outmatched and decided to stand down. Unlike him though, most of the other henchmen follow the normal route and try to fight the likes of Teruki, Dimple and mob thus naturally getting destroyed in no time.

So this episode consisted of fighting and people running around which naturally gives me little to work with. I was surprised to see Mob get beaten up by a physic physical fighter again only for Mob to reveal that he was holding back from fighting because she was a woman. Through once she commented that his chivalry was insulting to her as a fighter then Mob naturally knocked her out with no trouble offscreen. Mob really has ingrained Regains lessons into his mind to a degree that they could be considered a weakness. Though these lessons are important for Mob to retain his humanity. The animation of the fights can get a bit messy but the animators must be having fun with the level of movement they can work with. Teruki’s fight against the pyrokinesis scar did have some remarkable fire animation. So now the group has been captured and it’s really a waiting game for when Mob wakes up to destroy them all. However the organization’s leader looks to have appeared and he seems oddly familiar.

Well to no one’s surprise this episode was filled with action. Though contrary to what the previous episode suggested, the person Mob is fighting is not his brother but instead a mysterious hooded figure. The matter of Ritsu’s power trip seems to be resolved for the most part as his brothers reaction is nothing like he expected. While Ritsu looked to be provoking Mob to deplore him or hate him, Mob merely brushes off his self deprecation and congratulates him on obtaining psychic power. As well as degrading himself on his brother’s behalf to apologize to the people he attacked. This approach to the problem is rather new to me and I rather like that Ritsu’s power trip looks to be a product of teenager emotional angst as his true feelings come out when his brother suffers on his behalf. That is only the first part of the episode however as after is a long battle scene against a member of Claw who came to abduct Ritsu while mistaking him for Mob. They may be the antagonists for the finale of the series as next episode looks to be an assault on their base. The fight that ensues is quite the spectacle.

The fight of this episode was rough and you could feel the impact of every blow with the sound design. What made this fight particularly noteworthy compared to the ones before is that this wasn’t easy for Mob. Finally the distinction between him and Saitama is made, in that Mob can in fact be beaten. In this case his greatest weakness is his heavy reliance on psychic power as his foe makes use of his physical strength and trickery. In the end, Mob with his near infinite psychic power was completely knocked out by a villain spraying a chemical in his face. Kamijou Touma’s villains should take notes from this guy, as when someone can completely negate your powers, maybe it’s a good idea to change strategy instead of throwing more fireballs like an idiot. I really like that Mob’s explosion meter didn’t move an inch after Ritsu’s attempts to egg him into a fight. But when the hooded fellow punched Ritsu it shot up to 100% immediately. Though Mob didn’t reach ??? level which looks to be reserved for special occasions. Claw looks to be the first thing to give Mob real drive to use his powers and Mob almost feels dangerously motivated. His claim to be able to take down claw singlehandedly does hold weight but the problem is that Mob is not accustomed to fighting other espers when Claw most certainly is. They are not going to simply fight Mob with psychic power but instead use anything to counter it. Well assuming they are clever.

I will admit to not haven’t much to add to this episode this week due to the heavy focus on the battle. Quite honestly I find it difficult to truly come up with something to talk about in regards to this and some of the other shows this season. Hence why my posts have sounded a bit too much like an episode summary as of late. On top of being actually late. I have no real excuses in regards to this as I find lately that my time seems to go far too fast, leaving me with not much room for intellectual musing about an anime episode. Or in many a case I really have nothing to add to what’s happening on screen.I am a bit worried I am experiencing anime burnout but perhaps it’s just a lack of enthusiasm for this current season as Re:Zero gets me writing paragraphs. I did express that this season felt weak to me in the preview and while there are shows with merit that none of the shows in the current season has grabbed me quite like Re:Zero…ah perhaps that is it. In face of a strong anime of the year contender, other shows pale in comparison thus my interest is fleeting. For I pine for the sweet reward of an continuation to the show I really want to see. No offense to Mob Psycho of course as I do think it does have greatness, just that it doesn’t quite catch me for reasons I can’t seem to put into words.

The fall of Ritsu is rapid, perhaps too rapid as the pacing of this series has sped up. Before it wasn’t really apparent that the anime was skipping material to get to the good content but here you can really tell that a significant amount of time has been removed which showed Ritsu’s more gradual descent. With Dimples help Ritsu manages to unlock his dormant psychic powers which appear to have awakened due to his actions in framing delinquents for crimes under Shinji’s orders. The two look to have become heroes of the school despite their nefarious efforts though Shinji clearly revels in it while Ritsu only feels guilt. Shinji’s karmic payback was quite beautiful when after falsely accusing delinquents in order to keep them in line, he in turn is falsely accused by delinquents of being a person called White T Poison and is promptly beaten up. White T Poison being the mantle that Ritsu has adopted despite it originally being a title given to his brother Mob. This episode attempts to tightrope between comedy and tragedy. WIth all honestly I am not certain it succeeds. On one side you have a series of schools delinquents named after condiments with Mob being conned into buying a vase. On the other you have severe cases of bullying and a boy drowning in power. The stories art style keeps a light hearted tone but as the plot darkens it becomes somewhat mismatched with what’s happening on screen. Sort of like watching Jojo if it took itself way too seriously.

Thematically I like the ideas behind this as it shows the main idea off power better residing in those who are apathetic about it. Ritsu seeked power and is now drowning in it while Mob seeks normalcy but is constantly pulled into strange events because of his power. Teruki attempts to pass on the lesson he learned from Mob to Ritsu(While wearing a fairly hilarious wig) but Ritsu is just far too gone to listen. And while all this is going on, Mob is busy being fooled by con artists. This side story feels out of place amidst the telling of Ritsu’s fall from grace while it does show more examples of Seigan caring about Mob. Though I laugh at Mob berating con artists in front of another con artist. Though it does make me wonder as to just why he is keeping up this act in front of Mob. Obviously it could be to exploit his powers for his own gain but I feel like there is another agenda under his facade. Animation looks to have fallen in this series as of late as I notice the number of still frames pop up. It could be due to the lack of a need for flashy animation during this particular arc. It is a wonder just how Mob will react to his brother gaining psychic powers and just what he has done to obtain them. There is also the matter of the mysterious hooded man who appears to be an esper as well. Next episode looks to be an action packed one.

It a beginning of a dark path for Ritsu as his own inadequacies are pushing him in a direction that won’t end well for him. Part of the problem is the student council president whom is called Shinji. He happens to remind me of another Shinji in another series who had an equally punchable face and crushing superiority complex. But while Mob is depressed over losing control last episode, his brother is becoming more frustrated as his abilities fail to meet his expectations. Mob may be the main reason for this as when he was a child he foolishly promised his brother that someday he too would have psychic powers which unfortunately didn’t turn out to be the case. Perhaps a testament that relation does not equal skill, nor should people expect a person to inherit the qualities of their family. In fact expectation may be the subtitle of this episodes theme as we see it presented throughout. Ritsu is frustrated because people have great expectations of him when he himself feel inadequate. The student council president is expected to match the level set by his older brother. Finally a innocent person is framed of a crime simply because it is something they expected him to do.

Under the grounds of removing delinquency from the school, Shinji and Ritsu frame Tenga by placing girls recorders in his desk and bag. The rest follows suit as mob mentality takes hold and he is left unable to defend himself simply because no one actually believes he wouldn’t do it. It’s more tragic when you see that Tenga may not be as bad a person as first thought when he has a perfect attendance record up to this point and even tries to awkwardly apologize to Mob for tricking him into getting kidnapped by Black Vinegar delinquents. Not to mention him starting to run with the body improvement club and actually starting to enjoy it. But after this he will likly be mistakenly labeled as a prevert for the rest of his school life. It really goes to show the level of cruelty people can display if given the opportunity and shield of anonymity.

Seigan is back fooling the gullible but I find his antics much more fun when his clients are far more reprehensible than he is. One thing quite amusing about the scene though was that when the client was threatening Seigan to reveal a 13 letter password, Seigan responded with “GetAJobYouBum” which actually is 13 letters exactly. In other wannabe esper territory Ritsu paid a visit to a lab dedicated to researching psychic powers. Besides him being greatly underwhelmed by the level of power of the subjects, it did reveal that he manages to unknowingly twist a spoon when he threw it away which does suggest that Ritsu has a level of psychic power that he’s not aware of. Looks like things plan to get more troublesome as DImple is back and looks to have taken an interest in Ritsu. Perhaps the next foe Mob will have to face is his own brother?

As Mob Psycho continues I believe it is slowly getting better as the introduction of more characters helps to round out Mob’s emotional range. With last episode we got the introduction of Dimple, the cult leader spirit who has now decided to follow Mob around in an attempt to find a chance to possess him. This character looked to be quite annoying from the opening sequence but he actually plays a good role of a voice of common sense for Mob. This main conflict of today’s episode is a battle between school delinquents and Mob ends up getting tricked into being kidnapped. Mob may be an extremely powerful esper but he’s also innocently gullible to a fatal degree. But that is a quality that separates him from his counterpart Saitama in that Mob is a honest and childish person at heart and that makes him quite endearing. Though it’s worrisome as well as I am certain that sparing Dimple will come back to bite him later on.

This looks to be the first main villain for Mob and he plays an interesting contrast to him. This guy is under the belief that he is the main character in his own story and acts entitled due to his psychic power. Whereas Mob wishes only to be a normal person and his tremendous psychic power makes that a difficult task. Mob’s brother seems to be envious of his brothers powers while Mob is envious of his ability to be popular. They both want what the other person has and don’t truly appreciate the value of what they have got. Mob’s brother brings up an interesting point that when growing up with Mob, his expectations were put on an extraordinary level and thus he isn’t satisfied with simply being a normal person. Mob on the other hand has grown up on an extraordinary level which has caused him to be ignored by society, thus he has come to desire a normal lifestyle. When you are normal you want to be extraordinary. When you are extraordinary you want to be normal. So put in simple terms, you always want what you don’t have and come to appreciate what you did have when you have lost it. Human nature in a nutshell.

The body improvement club remain a solid cast of good people despite their overly aggressive design and as I heard this being pointed out, they seem to be the only characters who aren’t trying to use Mob for their own benefit. Mob has no real stamina or strength for bodybuilding and yet the club is nothing but supportive of his efforts to improve himself. Meanwhile Seigan is using him for money, Dimple wants to possess him and the telepathy club wanted him to join just to have a place to goof off. Thus the nicest people in the show are the guys who look like a violent grunt from Jojo or Fist of the North Star. Animation remains stellar though admittedly that may depend on your taste in animation. I however find it rather charming even though it can get a bit too liberal in exaggerating movements. There are still frames but these are often used for comedic purposes like one of the screenshots above, were they are often over detailed and make for some great reaction images. I think we have gotten past most of the slow start of Mob Psycho and perhaps after this is where the show will truly shine.

~AidanAK47~