Mob Psycho 100 II – 1 [Ripped Apart ~Someone Is Watching~]

Winter 2019 hype! The new season has begun, First Impressions are going up, and me? I’m writing about the second season of Mob Psycho 100, one of my favorite series of 2016. So everyone, lets dive in! Mob Mob Mob!

Right off the bat let me say I loved this premier. It hit a little bit of everything Mob Psycho is known for. Psychic Slice of Life, Shounen Battles, genuine emotion and expressive animation. Oh baby that animation. I will get to each of these later on, but I have to talk about this animation. Throughout this episode Mob Psycho impressed me. From the tiny details like Mob running into a door, to the big ones of the opening fight. The colors are bright, the simple designs allow the animators to do whatever they want, and Mob Psycho has no issue with completely changing the art style to fit the scene. Take for instance the sand drawing of Mob, being brushed away. That single shot had no conventional animation, yet it portrayed the emotions of the scene perfectly. God I love Studio Bones.

Now onto the expressiveness and the sheer emotion throughout the episode. You only need to look at Reigen for examples of this. The man is a walking reaction machine, with every scene he is in amazing. Once again the simplistic designs come into play allowing the animators the ability to be constantly in motion. Just look at the image above, you don’t even need text to know what he is thinking in that frame. Then you have the likes of the Body Improvement club or some of the other side characters, all getting their own expressive poses and reactions. Bones knows what the appeal of Mob Psycho is, and they are hitting it full force.

Speaking of Reigen and the Body Improvement Club, I am so glad these characters are back. What impressed me though was how Mob Psycho managed to reintroduce each of the characters. Connecting it all back to the first season. It managed to reference back multiple different arcs from more than 2 years ago, tying each of them up. From the President’s scheming to the Smile cult, all were used to pick back up the continuity and keep going right where it left off. There are even nods throughout to the first’s OP/future plot points, such as the Broccoli seeds or the cherry stem. For a reintroduction to the series, I think Mob Psycho did a great job hitting a little bit on everything that made the first season so special.

As far as the story of this episode, it was very self contained and focused on reintroducing us. The farm segment was very inconsequential I feel, aside from getting the vegetable seeds, so not worth to much discussion beyond its animation. The class president story-line though I feel is much more interesting. Once again, Mob Psycho goes with the %’s to tell us how close we are to the next big narrative climax. I think this works well, to constantly build anticipation for a climax with seemingly unrelated events all contributing to it. With each explosion tending to relate to a specific emotion it also allows us to draw a common through line for the arc. This one seems to be relating to romance, as it started with him being asked out, and ended with Tsubomi commenting on Mob. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

As for Mobs emotions, I also like how Mob Psycho is starting to make him question his outlook. In the first season he was very focused on physical self improvement. Becoming better, because he believed that psychic powers did not make him superior to anyone else. It was like any other talent. However he also stunted his emotional growth by refusing to feel much of anything, because of his fear of his power. That Mob Psycho is starting to explore that, with Emi and supposedly others to follow, broaching the topic with him. I hope that this season we can see Mob continue to grow emotionally. To start showing more of his emotions without the requisite psychic explosion that always comes. Mob Psycho is a coming of age story after all. A Supernatural Slice of Life with psychic powers and puberty. There is plenty for it to comment on.

Finally, what can we expect from Mob Psycho to come. From what I have heard, and what I remember, the following arcs are actually much better built than the first seasons arcs. Considering how good those were, that is a fantastic sign. However it has been years since I originally read Mob Psycho. I never actually made it to the ending, falling off sometime back in 2016. So while I have a good feeling about what is coming, the best I can give you is word of mouth.

So all in all, a fantastic start to a season I feel. Mob Psycho reintroduced us to the characters, setting and plot almost perfectly. It also continued its fantastic and unique animation’s, showing everyone why Bones is the best. This and Dororo were the first two anime of the season that when they were done, it felt like only 10 minutes had passed. Both are truly unique from most other modern anime. Considering one is from a 1960’s manga and the other started as a webcomic, that makes total sense. So I hope you also enjoyed Mob Psycho and are ready to stick with me through the season as we watch our little boy Mob grow as a person.

See you next week!