Mob Psycho 100 III – 11 [Mob 3 ~Trauma~]

Welcome everyone, to the penultimate episode of Mob Psycho 100! I apologize for this delay, I’m attending a wedding right now so writeups had to go on the backburner a bit. No idea when this will be out but I will try my best. Excuses aside though, lets dive into the episode!

Starting off, lets talk about the only real problem with the episode first: Suzuki. I was not a fan of him in Season 2. I thought him very simple, very dull, and generally not a great foil for Mob. And that carries over to his portrayal here in Season 3 as well. I am predisposed to not enjoy him. And this becomes a pretty big problem when you consider just how much of this episode was about him. Suffice to say, I wasn’t particularly engaged with him. Yet despite that, I think Mob Psycho did a good job of correcting its past mistakes and making me care about him. It focused on his relationship with his son. His family. The things he gave up for his power. It was… surprisingly poignant, and brought a lot of depth to his character that I wasn’t expecting. So good job Mob Psycho!

The other side of Suzuki’s presence however wasn’t that good. I’m talking about the fight. Like expected, Suzuki got beat hard. He got jobbed to show us just how powerful this “inner Mob” is. And in a way, it did work. We know now that no one can stop him with power. But I would wager most of us already knew that to begin. So did it really accomplish anything? For me, it just started to make me fatigued. I’m starting to grow tired of this constant “Throw people at Mob” thing. In previous seasons, previous fights, these tended to change the circumstances of the fight, or involved different characters in each fight, allowing things to feel like they are happening. Here though, at best it’s just reminding us of all the connections Mob has made up to this point. That’s fine, I just wish there was a better way.

Moving on, the next character in our conga line is Ritsu! I actually really liked Ritsu. Unlike a lot of the other characters, he actually has something to say to Mob and is relevant to what is happening. He makes it very clear that what Mob was doing before, bottling up all of his emotions, was no more healthy than what he is doing now, letting them all come bursting out. Basically he is jumping between the two extremes. And that by bottling up his previous experience of hurting Ritsu, he never truly dealt with it. Instead, he ignored it. But Ritsu? Ritsu has been living and dealing with these feelings this entire time. And he only ever wanted to talk it out with Mob, which he finally gets the chance to do now. And I thought that was really cool. Also 100% Ritsu was great.

Finally we come to Tsubomi, and what exactly her place in this arc is going to be. Unlike everyone else we have seen confront him, Tsubomi doesn’t really have a relationship with the current Mob. They don’t talk, his crush is a one-way thing, she doesn’t really care for his psychic powers. In a way, she’s the only one who has a positive relationship with the old him. So because of that, I think her words are probably going to carry the most weight. My only concern here is that a profession of love from her doesn’t really make any sense, for all the same reasons I listed above. So if its not a profession of love, if it ends up being a rejection in fact, how is she going to fix all this? Most likely she’s going to say she misses the old Mob, the true Mob who was neither of these 2 extremes, and that is what will push them back together. But I honestly don’t know.

So yeah, all in all this was a good episode with some promising setup for the finale brought down only a little bit by Suzuki stil not being a terribly engaging character. Even with that though, there was plenty to enjoy. The Body Improvement Club, Ritsu 100%, even Suzuki reconnecting with his son. All good stuff. On top of all of the big things, there were also a number of small details I noticed and appreciate. Stuff like each psychic having their own patena of energy, or Serizawa still using an umbrella, etc. Nothing huge, but small details go a long way.

Anyways, apologies for a shorter post this week. I’m writing this from a hotel in Texas as I prep to attend a wedding, and don’t have the time to really go all in on the subject like I normally want to. Mainly what I want from Mob going into its final episode is solid conclusion that doesn’t feel out of left field or to convenient. I don’t want Tsubomi professing her love, or for Dimple to randomly come back from outerspace with the tree. Just find a way to make Mobs reconciliation with his inner self work and I’ll be happy.