This may be a surprise to some so I better start this with an explanation. As you know I originally planned to cover Berserk this season and have put up reviews of the last two episodes. However due to Berserks rather disappointing quality, my desire to cover it has vanished. I doubt anyone wants to read my constant whining over the series so I decided to drop it. Now I will still put up a post about my feelings on it at the halfway point and give it a review when it finishes. But I have given up on covering it weekly. Instead I thought it would be better to cover Mob Psycho as I really didn’t want this season to go by without someone on the site covering it. So why not me?
My original fears for this adaption were that due to the manga/webcomic’s slow beginning that it would take a while to start catching people’s attention. However it seems that Bones realized this and decided to mix about chapters in order to have a good mix of comedy and action each episode. The result has been great so far and the studio has added scene which help the stories feel cohesive instead of disjointed. However the action and comedy is admittedly hit or miss for me, the reason may be a number of things. Comedy has always been something far too subjective for me to evaluate and it doesn’t help that my sense of humor is not really attuned to japanese comedy. One’s comedy i something I can find amusing at times but while I did laugh at One Punch Man, I admired it more for it’s visual excellence and it’s story beats. Mob Psycho seems far more concentrated on comedy and the villains are more silly looking than threatening. That mixed with the inevitably of Mob just steamrolling them has me less interested in Mob Psycho than One Punch Man. I know that I should be judging this show on it’s own merits instead of comparing it to One Punch Man but the similarities between the two shows make that rather difficult.
I have warmed up to Reigen these last two episodes after finding him rather annoying in the first. The likely reason for this is that he has moved to a supportive role instead of standing in the spotlight with Mob. This tones down his conman antics and makes him a much more likeable characters. For even with all his faults as a human being, Reigen really is a good mentor for Mob. He has shown to really care for the kid and his advice while said with self confidence with no basis, is still solid advice for Mob to follow. Mob himself is also fleshing out as a character with these past two episodes focused on dilemmas he faces. Despite the deadpan demeanor, Mob does have a range of emotions and personal problems. I find it really amusing at how little he values his psychic power and has a greater interest in muscle training his body. His gullible nature is also quite endearing as well as his childish aspects. Accepting a challenge from a cult leader because he loves milk brought a smile to my face. I think from this point on the stories main focus will be Mob’s coming of age as a character and I am interested in that.
Animation is this shows distinctive feature as it takes ONEs rough art style and incorporates it will a high level of movement. The result is a adaption true to the art of the webcomic while being visually interesting. However i must admit that at times the animation can become a bit Chaotic and much like One punch Man, the higher quality your animation is then the more noticeable the animation drops become. There are times the animation becomes somewhat choppy and while some may say it’s a feature of the style of animation, to me it feels like playing an online game where character animation is lagging. The style reminds me a lot of Masaaki Yuasa of Mind Game and Tatami Galaxy fame. A style which generally sacrifices art for a high level of exaggerated moment though Mob is to a much less emphasized degree. At the moment what this show really needs is something to cut it away from it’s ties to One Punch Man and make it’s own identity, though considering the number of hidden Saitama references I worry the Studio may not have that in mind.
~AidanAK47~
