This is it everyone, welcome to the grand finale of Mob Psycho 100. Not just of this arc, or this season, but of the entire show. There will be no season 4. No special. No movie. This is it. Lets dive into it.
Overall I thought this was a great finale. It’s all about Reigen and Mob, it was their episode, going so far as to even cut out Mob’s confession to Tsubomi so that it could focus on just them. A good decision I think! Their relationship is sort of the bedrock for the entire series. Mob came to Reigen to get help understanding himself and his powers, and ever since then its been a slow progression of coming to accept himself. For it to culminate in them both having a heart to heart talk, no more subtext just getting it all out in the open, was good. I think that ??? Mob got a bit shafted in his presentation, not going to lie. The sense of dread surrounding him was diminished compared to his earlier appearances like in Season 1. But Reigen’s run (Give me 100% Reigen cowards) made up for that.
Now I will admit, at first I was very confused about Reigen’s confession. After all, did Mob not already know that Reigen was a fraud? Was that not an entire, fantastic arc in Season 2? But after a conversation with a friend, upon hearing their interpretation, I came to really really appreciate this moment. The confession wasn’t about the information, Mob definitely already knew. Rather it was about Reigen being honest about. Of, for once in their relationship, vocalizing what kind of person he has been and laying it out there in full, with no misunderstandings or subtext. Reigen is a liar, arguably a scam artist. He’s been hiding that side of himself from people, for Mob, for years. Just like Mob has with his ??? self. And by speaking it, vocalizing it, admitting it to Mob without any pressure, he prompts Mob to admit and accept his other self to.
Similarly, I wasn’t all that enthralled by how Mob Psycho completely skipped over Tsubomi’s rejection. But again, the more I thought about it, the more it worked. Rather than take the focus away from Mob by turning this into an overblown dramatic scene, it instead focused on the after effects. On Mob, for the first time, openly showing emotion without a massive burst of psychic power. It’s the healthiest reaction he’s ever had to a negative experience across the 3 seasons. On top of that, by not making it a big dramatic scene it almost lets Tsubomi’s words fly under the radar. “Yet”. Not “No”, not “Never”, “Yet”. And it makes sense considering how their relationship has progressed! They both are able to look past those, Mob her popularity and Tsubomi his power. But Mob has put Tsubomi on hold for years after locking away his emotions/psychic power.
Moving on, the epilogue. This was just a bunch of wholesome “Where are they now” scenes, but ones I quite enjoyed. Again, seeing Mob with a healthy emotional range was just heart warming. We’ve been with this kid struggling with his emotions for 3 seasons now. Watching him be able to laugh, cry, smirk, and just generally express himself was beautiful. Plus we got to see him as the Vice President of the Body Improvement Club with his own batch of Kouhai, able to complete an entire run or climb a pipe. He’s talking with Tsubomi on the phone, showing their relationship isn’t over nor an instant couple, just a steady work in progress which I like. It was all just a really wholesome end after a lot of action. I’m typically not the biggest fan of Slice of Life, but as a small interlude sorta thing it works well.
I only have one complaint about the episode: Dimple. I said it last week and I’ll say it again now, Dimple shouldn’t have made a return. Yes, it explains how Reigen was able to get in front of Mob and not get blown away. And yes, I do like Dimple. But he had the perfect exit. He had his big moment, his sacrifice. And now he gets brought back with paper thin reasoning? Maybe if he had disappeared afterword’s again I wouldn’t mind it as much. But these kinds of random spontaneous resurrections in a series, after a big character moment no less, always rub me the wrong way. I feel that they lessen what came before, they take away the finality of it, and generally teach viewers to never believe a character is truly gone. It’s emotional manipulation, really. And I found that really disappointing.
That aside, I will say that as much as I liked the ending I think I’m a bit to old for it. I’m in my late 20’s now, I’m past this point in my life. I’ve already come to accept myself, all that emotional jazz. It’s like… It’s like Tatami Galaxy. I watched that as a freshmen in College. It was the perfect time in my life to do so, the message was aimed directly at me. Similarly, Welcome to the NHK was built for people in post-college life struggling to figure out what they wanted to do. That was also applicable. But Mob Psycho is aimed at young teens still figuring themselves out and feeling their way through growing up. It’s a good message, a quality production and story. But it wasn’t able to become personal for me like I expect it did for many of you.
So yeah, all in all while this was a fantastic episode and a good ending to the series, I ultimately didn’t fall in love with it. I enjoyed it, had a good time, found Reigen and Mob’s scenes really heart warming. But nothing more. Does that make it bad? God no! It’s great. It just isn’t something that’s going to redefine my experience with anime or break into my top 10 of all time. And that’s ok. I hope you got at least that much out of it as well.
And with that we come to the end of Mob Psycho! Review will go up sometime next week, I hope you all have a merry christmas and a happy holidays! I’m certainly going to be busy.
