Wowzers, there was sure a lot to unpack in that one. It goes without saying that Mob Psycho 100 is a series with tremendous tonal versatility, and we’ve seen a good chunk of that range in the first four eps of this season. As with so many great series in this oeuvre, like Hunter X Hunter for example, each facet of the jewel is critical for making it a priceless gem. But there is a certain endorphin rush that happens with the shit really hits the fan and the limiters come off, and this episode was the first time this season we’ve seen that for an entire episode.
With Mob Psycho, part of the rush comes in knowing that Tachikawa Yuzuru and the team Bones has assembled are going to be unleashed. And it’s truly one of the most exceptional staffs in TV anime history, animators and artists and designers who clearly love this series and want it to be the centerpiece of their artistic C.V.. ONE’s writing has tremendous depth – his metaphor-driven take on adolescence here will surely go down as one of the finest in anime history – and when you pair that with the basically unparalleled production quality, the result is, well- Mob Psycho 100.
I have so many notes, I hardly know where to begin. I suppose we can start with characters – there’s Jodou (Tanzawa Teruyuki), the head of Shinra’s psychic’s association who’s probably a real psychic, but a bit of a paper tiger. Matsuo from CLAW turns up, trying to make an honest living as a psychic now but terrified of Mob (and Reigen). There’s the one who brings all these psychics and more together, the okanemochi Asagiri Masahi (Hoshino Mitsuaki), desperate to find help for his 14 year-old daughter Minori (M.A.O.) who he believes (quite rightly) is possessed by an evil spirit.
Most important of all, by far, is Mogami Keiji (unmistakably Ishida Akira). Mob has never heard of him, Reigen knows him by reputation, but Ekubo knows him intimately – he was a famous psychic of the late 20th-Century who exorcised Dimple and almost absorbed him fully. He’s a sick and twisted soul, who engineered his own transformation into a vengeful spirit. He now finds himself in the body of Minori, staring through a two-way mirror into a room full of psychics brought in to evict him.
Wow, where to even start. First of all, once again Reigen shows his true colors because when things get serious, he gets serious. There’s obviously money to be made here and he’s incredibly good at Janken, but once he’s in that room with the girl, he immediately sees through Mogami’s BS even as the psychics in the other room are taken in by it. Reigen has obvious character traits that make him a badass – balls of steel and an unshakable moral compass for starters – but there are times when his lack of spiritual power is a major benefit. He’s not taken in by any of the tricks which bamboozle the psychics – he can spew bullshit with the best of them and he knows it when he sees it. His superpower is his common sense.
Sadly, common sense and steel balls are not going to slow down Mogami in the slightest. He’s a freakishly powerful bastard – if not this season’s big bad, then at least this arc’s – and he has no compunction about taking out humans. When Shinra takes his turn to try and stop him Mob steps in to save him – but then is forced to stand down when Mogami starts destroying his host body. Reigen gets in a good kick and his moves remain as solid as ever, but he’s no match for Mogami either (I loved the detail of him protecting his head when she slammed him to the floor). There’s only one person in the house who could possible give Mogami any concern, and it’s only a matter of time before he has to step in and do what he can. That’s the burden Mob carries.
Eventually Mob realizes that he’s just not powerful enough to take out Mogami, and that his attacks are only making things worse. He hatches a terrible plan that may be the only one open to him – use an OBE to try and possess Minori himself and kick Mogami out from the inside. This involves letting Ekubo take possession of his own body so it isn’t totally defenseless while Mob is absent, which suitably horrifies Reigen – but Mob doesn’t hesitate. He probably does trust Dimple too much, but the irony is that it’s that very trust which is slowly changing Dimple into someone that can at least to some degree be trusted.
We’re getting pretty hard into the whole FLCL puberty symbolism thing here, but that’s pretty much the central theme of Mob Psycho 100 to begin with. Even inside Minori Mob is no match for Mogami, at least not now. That psychic powers come from emotions is no surprise, nor that negative emotions are far more powerful – but in telling Mob this, Mogami is trying to make Mob question his very nature. What happens next is a shocking development. Rather than destroy Mob’s soul, Mogami mentally sends him back into his own body – but without his powers (or memories of what’s happened). It seems to be an experiment on Mogami’s part, a cruel indulgence of curiosity – but it’s certainly going to be interesting to see where it takes the story. For Mob, who has certainly dreamed of what a life without the burden of his powers would be like, I fear it’s going to prove something of a nightmare.
Miyu Fan
January 29, 2019 at 10:22 pmMob my cinnamon roll, so many times I want to scream in this episode. Season 1 was character driven but Season 2 is horror-driven, the tonal shift really caught me surprise this time.
Yuuki
January 29, 2019 at 10:31 pmI don’t think Mogami actually sent Mob back to his body. I believe its all still in the mental space.
King Wombo Jr
January 29, 2019 at 10:43 pmI’m not certain if it’s what you meant, but just to be clear, Mob wasn’t returned to his physical body. He’s still inside Minori, trapped within an illusion world Mogami fully controls.
Mogami is basically using Mob’s memories as a template for the illusion world, but tampering with it for his own devious purposes.
Guardian Enzo
January 29, 2019 at 10:47 pmWell yeah, that’s what I was guessing but confirming it is kind of a manga spoiler, isn’t it?
azerty
January 29, 2019 at 11:53 pmI don’t know how that would be a spoiler. If he’s really back in the real world that means Mogami can alter reality itself because multiple characters besides Mob should know he has powers.
Simone
January 30, 2019 at 12:14 amNah, I’m not a manga reader and that’s the impression I got too. It’s par for the course for this kind of situation and obviously it couldn’t be done any other way unless Mogami was almost all-powerful. Mob is now in the Matrix. Interestingly, where a common declination on this trope is that heroes get trapped in some kind of pleasant fantasy to make them give up their fighting spirit (like at the end of TTGL), here it’s the opposite – seems like Mob will be forced to live in misery as Mogami wants to make him embrace his negative emotions and the power they entail to the fullest. He’s basically pulling a Cell, with Mob as his Gohan. And we all know how THAT ended…
L0ken
January 29, 2019 at 10:46 pmYeah,it’s all happening in mental world and outside Dimple still possessing Mob’s body
Rita
January 30, 2019 at 1:33 amI’m curious if you have any plans to read the manga after the anime Enzo? I got antsy waiting for the rest of season 2 and binged it myself (technically for the second time but I read part of it such a long time ago I didn’t remember any fine details) and it’s really interesting to see what sort of changes were made for the anime.
Though I will say, watching the anime and reading your reviews has made me much more aware of certain themes during rereading so it’s an interesting experience by itself, but even more interesting is seeing what the anime chose to highlight, especially during arcs like this one. And what little details they cut out (like Reigen noting that Minori changed from ‘watashi’ to ‘atashi’, an incredibly small detail my friends and I debated over and decided it was probably because sound is easier to mishear than words are to misread. Stupidly small detail, but with a show like this you start debating the small stuff XD)
Rita
January 30, 2019 at 1:45 amAlso I’ll admit it’s because I just finished the manga, found it incredibly satisfying and hope more people read it XD
And on a relevant note I forgot to mention, the small change I found the most interesting was the difference in how mob offered to let Dimple possess him. In the anime, it’s his initiative, he suggests it. In the manga, mob asks Dimple to protect it without specifying how and Dimple (annoyedly because he’s trying to explain that he can’t) is the one who says the only way he knows how is to possess Mob’s body and mob instead gives him the go ahead. It’s also a tiny detail, but it was the only place during this episode where I felt that the anime had made the ever slightest mistep.
Part of it is probably down to personal preference, and it’s hard to put into exact words why, but that small detail felt like a hefty shift in context. Maybe it’s just me, but there’s this sort of gut feeling about the …. power hierarchy? Degree of trust? SOMETHING differs on if you’re taking someone’s suggestion (even if it lines up with your own desires) and if you suggest it yourself without expecting it to be allowed and it is.
Or maybe this is me reading far too into a scene that lasted all of 2 seconds. But this is one series I feel like I do that a lot with XD
(I think this is fine since the scene in question happened this episode so it’s not really manga spoilers per se, but I’ll default to whatever your rules for manga stuff is if it is)
King Wombo Jr
January 30, 2019 at 5:11 amI’d counter the Dimple scene works fine within the anime’s contest. Dimple’s shown enough loyalty at this point to earn some of Mob’s trust, and in such a desperate situation I think Mob’s asking works effectively.
~
The anime adaptation has been great at keeping everything vital and noteworthy in the arc so far, while cutting down on fluff and shortening scenes in a stylized manner. For example turning the four-some pages of the other psychics planning an attack on Mogami into them immediately attacking and instead of Reigen throughly explaining how he wins RPS then stating he never loses into Reigen only saying the latter with his strategies all expressed stylistically in the background (gives reason to go back and pause on frames).
The one aspect I find the manga delivers better on here is atmosphere, partly because of the manga’s colorless design and ONE’s “distinct” art style working quite effective in creating ambiance for horror, but also because the manga gives time to build up the mood and atmosphere–such as having he psychic slowly descending down a eerie spiral staircase into the basement where Minori is being held.
It’s a pacing luxury a 13 episode season can’t afford, yet the anime more than makes up for it with twenty times the aesthetic stylization and sakuga.
Guardian Enzo
January 30, 2019 at 6:19 amI’m fairly (say, 70%) confident Bones is going to adapt all of the manga, and if they do, it makes little sense to wait that long to do it. At this point I’d rather wait and have the anime experience unsullied, and finish the manga afterwards.
Orion Taylor
January 30, 2019 at 3:29 amSomeone on reddit found a frame in this ep in which Saitama and Genos make a secret cameo among the group of psychics: https://imgur.com/3xMUsAx
hgfdsahjkl
January 30, 2019 at 8:16 amI really don’t think there is any contest with mob psycho,it’s simply the best
kiwi
January 30, 2019 at 12:14 pmThis ep was phenomenal. A bit rushed, but shouganai.
I love what Bones did to help distinguish Mob-inhabited-by-Dimple from regular Mob– just in the facial expressions and movements you could characterize it completely different!! and the way they had MInori swinging around like a rag doll…. just perfect.
can’t wait for next week!
sonicsenryaku
January 30, 2019 at 1:34 pmRushed? As a manga reader I think they went through the material at the pretty moderate clip. It’s a kinetic as all hell, but definitely not rushed
Guardian Enzo
January 30, 2019 at 2:23 pmAs a non-(this part of the)manga reader, it didn’t feel at all rushed to me. Intense and dense, but not rushed.
azerty
January 31, 2019 at 1:39 amDeleted
Eugene
January 31, 2019 at 2:23 amPretty sure this is way more spoilery than Enzo would like.
kiwi
February 2, 2019 at 3:22 amI did feel like it was a bit rushed… but in retrospect (ill be quiet so as to not spoil anything) i’ve changed my mind lol