Welcome everyone, to what is so far the best episode of the Fall 2022 anime season. You know how I was talking about hype, and how to much of it can hurt a season? Well this week is what happens when that promise of hype gets fulfilled. Mob Psycho absolutely nailed it this week, on every front. Now lets dive in and talk about how.
First up, the production. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. This looked gorgeous. Not just because of Dimple flying around shooting laser beams and beating the crap out of broccoli men, but also the facial expressions, body language and evocative storyboards. I’m talking stuff like the giant set of eyes looming behind Dimple as Mob leaves, or Dimple’s desperate cry as the battle rages on and on. There is an art to conveying emotion in a fight. Any Shounen, any anime at all really, can animate a fight well if they put their mind to it. It’s selling the audience on the conflict, on why the characters are fighting that makes it truly impactful. And that’s something I think Mob Psycho did incredibly well here. Dimple went from the arcs antagonist to it’s hero in the span of 8 minutes, and I loved every single one.
Getting into the actual episode, I want to make it clear from the outset that I absolutely adored it. Some might be upset, calling how Mob and Dimple reconciled an anti-climax, and I can sort of see it. Mob Psycho was gearing up for this big battle between them, a confrontation of ideals. But instead it became a talk-no-jutsu affirmation of their friendship. For me though, that’s what makes it amazing. Because this simple conversation is what makes the big battle between Dimple and the Divine Tree right so impactful. This entire time, even through their big battle just in this last episode, Dimple has been wanting Mob on his side. Not because he thinks he can’t beat him like I suspected, but because he wants to do it with Mob. It’s not just about achieving his dream. It’s achieving it with his friend. He wanted Mob to be included.
This moment of true friendship wasn’t the only emotional gut punch either! As Dimple also realizes exactly what Mob did all the way back in Season 1, something no one else has ever truly understood: Psychic powers don’t bring happiness. If we compare it to say… money, yeah that sounds like a fitting metaphor, having a lot of it doesn’t automatically make you happy. It can help, it can support a lot of things, but it can’t replace true human connection, friendship and achievement. If you have psychic power (money) and nothing else, you just end up feeling hollow inside. And that’s exactly how Dimple felt after his conversation with Mob and subsequent defense of him from the tree. This acknowledgement, that moment of true and heartfelt friendship, is what finally allowed him to move on. And I mean move on from his schemes, not life, the tree did that.
Speaking of the tree, this is where we get the huge fight for all those people who hate emotional catharsis. Or for people who love both, I guess, like me. This was a god damn lightshow. From Dimple’s expressive body work and faces to Nakamura’s patented “Fly the ball through space” outrageousness, it was great. But I’ve already talked about the production, so instead I want to point out something I thought was really cool: In a way, this was just like the Reigen fight from the end of Season 1. Mob has invested someone else with all of his power, relying on them to fight the fight and defend him. But where in Season 1 it was Mob running away from responsibility in a way, this one is simple trust. Faith in Dimple’s character, who could have easily run away with all this power at any time.
As for the tree itself, this was fucking creepy. I kind of suspected it last week, when I mentioned the possibility of Dimple being controlled by the tree himself. But I wasn’t prepared for it learn and fully absorb the Psycho Helmet imagery. It was far more ruthless with it than Dimple to. Flinging unlimited resources at him, smothering him until he couldn’t do anything, looming in the background as he sent Mob out. My god the looming. Those giant eyes in the background as Dimple forces Mob to get up and leave on his two tired legs… Absolutely terrifying. So much so that it makes me wonder if this is truly the end for it. We saw it fly into space, but all that means is that it isn’t truly defeated. Will it return? Will Mob ever have to fight it? Is… Is Dimple truly dead?
That last one is the real question. I honestly did not think that Mob Psycho would have the stones to kill off Dimple. I fully believed that this fight would end with Mob convincing him or letting him live somehow, or that he would leave on his own. Yet here we see him not only dying, being absorbed by the tree same shit, but sacrificing himself for someone else. It’s not something he would have ever done when we first met him. Not content with just that though, Mob Psycho even ends on what I think is Mob realizing what happened. Not the specifics, I doubt he remembers those. But he can put 2 and 2 together, what with Dimple not being home, the tree flying away, and whatever snippets he remembers from the day. And man did it hurt, that quiet cry as he lays in bed… My heart.
So yeah, all in all in case it wasn’t clear, I think this episode was fantastic. Easily the best thing I’ve watched this season so far. It had the pathos, it had the brain-off “Pretty lights go brr” action, and it had existential terror I haven’t gotten since the last time I played Arkham Horror. It was everything I have been hoping Mob Psycho would be and more. A bit of a shame it took us this long to get to that, where as Season 2 did it in the 1st episode. But the wait was well worth it. Now we just have to wait and see what kind of emotional turmoil the 2nd half of the season puts us through.
