Hello everyone, and welcome to the premier show of the season, Mob Psycho 100 III! Some people might take issue with that considering some of the other big hitters airing, but this is my post not theirs so they can suck it. Enough with the rivalry though, lets dive into the episode proper!
Right off the bat, Mob Psycho continues to be one of the best looking shows of the season. The colors are bright and saturated, characters expressive, the movement dynamic. There’s no CG backdrops or janky crowds, just hand drawn goodness. Sure, it’s not polished and perfect. The lines aren’t neat and clean. But there’s a distinctly human element to it that I love. To paraphrase kVin, who often expresses the same feelings I have but with better words, it’s appealing in a way few things are and really fits what Mob Pyscho is going for. Combine that with the extensive use of eyecatches and this is some of the most visually engaging stuff I’ve watched this season. You could argue about Do It Yourself‘s expressive and polished visuals, or for Time Machine Blue‘s timeless minimalism. But for me? Mob Psycho is where it’s at.
Getting into the actual episode, this was primarily just good fun with some setup for what is to come. The only thing of real narrative importance was Mob slowly becoming more independent. What do I mean? Well for 2 seasons now Mob has largely depended on others. Reigen, Ritsu, Dimple, the Body Improvement Club. He’s been trying his best to grow, but it’s been a slow process. This episode however we see him solve a problem all on his own! And not some big psychic monster problem only he can solve, we’ve done those before, they are easy. I mean the kind of problem Mob has always struggled with: A personal one. We see him not only push back against the majority, the lazy sheet ghost costumes, but come back, speak up and implement his own idea. And in the end? He, and his classmates, are rewarded for it. Emotionally.
As for the actual adventure, this was a pretty standard exorcism. A client comes in, they have some kind of shtick (In this case Yokai) and then Reigen and co solve the problem with some jokes distributed throughout. And the jokes were pretty fun! Reigen conning himself out of money while explaining money isn’t everything, the Yokai Hunter’s voice cracking as he tries to keep it deep and imposing, how he broke character halfway through his scroll story, etc. It’s not just physical slapstick comedy but vocal and visual as well. Not all of them hit of course. The “4 Demon Generals and the Yokai King” shtick was expected and really only served to look good. After 2 seasons of Mob Psycho and 2 seasons of One Punch Man, you start to expect this gimmick. Hopefully it stays just a gimmick however, as I’m looking forward to this seasons antagonists.
What was nice though was that throughout this adventure, we’ve begun to see everyone start to move forward a bit. I’ve already commented on Mob, but we also see it in Serizawa and Reigen. For the former, it’s pretty straight forward. He wants to start going back to school, to pick up his life where he left off before he became a shut-in. Hopefully we get to see the fruits of that labor throughout this season, though I figure we will since it’s being introduced this early. Meanwhile on Reigen’s side, he’s trying to figure out what’s next for his business. What will he do when Mob graduates, or if Serizawa moves on? How does he market it as they slowly deal with all the ghosts and spirits in the area? Again, I’m looking forward to seeing what Mob Psycho does with this setup.
Finally we need to talk about the larger story for the season, and the hints Mob Psycho is leaving us. Namely: The tree. It’s the pretty obvious elephant in the room at this point, as it looms over the city in almost every external wide shot. And we are starting to see its effects on the town as its roots spread through out and spirits begin to reappear in places Mob and Reigen previously exorcised. The question of course becomes: Why? What is this tree doing? How is it doing it? What does it mean? Are things like the Yokai King just precursors to some kind of larger unintentional summoning? Or is it just amassing psychic energy become it transforms itself, like an egg? Only time will tell. Personally though? I’m really looking forward to finding out.
So yeah, in case it wasn’t obvious, I really enjoyed this Mob Psycho episode. It feels like forever since I’ve had this kind of fun with anime. Of course I’ve enjoyed other stuff I’ve watched, and some of them have touched me deeply, like Welcome to the NHK. But Mob Psycho is one where I just… I feel happy watching it. I don’t know if that’s because I love the characters as much as I do, or because of some subconscious attachment, I don’t know! But its easily the thing I look forward to most each week now, even beyond His and Her Circumstances or Golden Kamuy. Hopefully it can live up to those expectations moving forward.
