Note: The comments are starting to get way too spoilery. Please be careful and do not discuss – or infer, or hint, or talk about characters that have not appeared. I’m officially switching into “delete first, ask questions never” mode with spoiler comments. So don’t put a lot of work into something unless you’re 100% damn well sure it’s not a spoiler, direct or indirect.
After I’ve just gone and waxed poetical about how different Dororo and Mob Psycho 100 were while being equally great, watching this ep brings home the flaws in that line of thinking. I mean visually, sure – one could hardly imagine two more diametrically opposed styles. But there is a universal theme running between these two stories, that of trying to retain your sense of decency in a fundamentally cruel and unjust world. They don’t get a lot more universal than that in fact, so it’s really not so surprising even if it’s counter-intuitive.
As odd as it is to say, one of the first things that crossed my mind in watching this episode was “My God – how much did that cost!?” I rarely focus heavily on production budgets in reviewing anime, but I rarely see episode on TV that look anything remotely like this. Money cannot buy brilliance, that’s for damn sure – but at the same time, you can’t deliver the blizzard of sakuga we saw this week on Mob Psycho without spending a lot of it (especially by TV anime standards). Bones isn’t like most other anime studios, and MP 100 isn’t like most other anime. Even so – wow.
In truth, the visuals were so good here that it’s hard to focus much on anything else. ONE’s underlying story, with its powerful themes of alienation and loyalty, was represented brilliantly as always and this was a powerful subplot. But in truth that side of things was what we’ve come to expect from this show (I’d actually still rank the season premiere as the most emotionally powerful so far this season, in fact). We’ve come to expect great art and animation too of course, but if the writing was vintage Mob, the visuals were an a whole other level.
The spirit of Gainax (and some of its former staff) are certainly a presence here (the “manga in motion” sequences are super-FLCL, and those explosions…), but this is a unique entity – Bones, Tachikawa, ONE – we’ve never seen anything that looks quite like it. In point of fact ONE’s native art style and Tachikawa’s (at least if Death Parade is anything to go on) are quite different, and he’s assembled a murderer’s row of the greatest cel animators and background artists from the past three decades to work on this series. Stylistically there’s so much to unpack here – rather than a consistent look the ep is in fact all over the map in a way that totally works. It’s breathless and unrelenting, a visual tsunami that picks you up and carries you along helpless to resist.
One of my favorite visual conceits here (and I’m going to assume this is a ONE thing) is representing Mogami’s presence in the dream world through a variety of creepy crawlies. “Come into my parlor”, said the spider to the fly – and Mob came voluntarily, too much the compassionate fool to abandon a girl he’d never met to her fate. If I’m honest I thought the dream sequence sped by a little too quickly – I would have liked to have seen an entire episode (or maybe even more) devoted to Mob trying to cope without his powers. It certainly goes more or less as you’d expect – Mob is still socially awkward and physically weak, but now he has to face the world basically unarmed. And Minori is a major force among his tormentors.
It’s pretty clear where Mogami is going with this to be honest, and there may even be a tiny grain of honesty in his telling Mob he sees something of himself in the boy, and wants to prevent his making the same mistakes. Of course the overwhelming mass of motivation for Mogami is selfish, to turn a child he realizes is a freakishly powerful esper into an acolyte. As terrible as things are going for Mob in there, it does seem as if Mogami’s literal mind games are shifting him – something inside Mob does seem to break, though tellingly it’s not when he himself is threatened by Minori and her team of bullies but when the stray cat he’s been feeding is.
What would have happened if Ekubo hadn’t broken into Minori and snapped Mob out of it? I suppose we’ll never know, though it’s a bit disturbing to consider. As it turns out Matsuo is a key player here – it’s his psychic B-12 shot that allows Dimple to get past Mogami’s barrier (and for another reason, as we’ll soon see). As Reigen says, he refuses to flee because he’s “dumb” and trusts Mob – and Mob is dumb because he trusts Dimple and Reigen. But trust is the key to everything for Mob, and it’s hard to overstate the important of Reigen’s appearance in his life giving him someone to trust. That’s one thing Mogami was absolutely right about – Mob was very lucky to have wound up surrounded by good people who care about him (and a debatably good spirit who does).
When it’s all done, of course Mob forgives Minori – he has an infinite capacity for goodness, so he’s always prepared to see it in other people. He believes in their power to change, but the struggle for him is believing in his own – not to become kinder or more selfless, but in fact to value himself and his feelings more. That’s what someone like Mogami can never understand, and that’s why Mob is able to carry the burdens he does while remaining pure even as he struggles to become the person he wants to be. That, and the insanely on-point support team good fortune has allowed to stand behind him.
Simone
February 5, 2019 at 11:10 pmThe one thing that has left me slightly puzzled is the mention Mogami makes of his mother saying it was his fault that she died. Was that real or just spite from her evil spirit form? If it was, since Mogami didn’t start killing until *after* his mother got sick, does that mean ESP powers somehow affect those near to the esper? I’m not sure how to interpret it.
Guardian Enzo
February 5, 2019 at 11:39 pmThat was exactly how I interpreted it. Which is a pretty unsettling thought.
Orion Taylor
February 6, 2019 at 2:28 amLike a less severe case of Hashimoto-Appelbaum syndrome? That’s an interesting possibility.
I always thought that it was because, being an esper, he naturally attracted evil spirits towards him, and their evil aura was what ended up getting his mom sick initially. Or alternatively, that he was carrying home some sort of evil spiritual residue that he picked up during his exorcisms.
Rita
February 6, 2019 at 4:51 amThis is one of those small parts that would’ve taken a single extra line that I’m oddly confused the anime left out. Though I suppose it works either way (in the manga Mogami has an extra line specifying that it was because of the evil spirits he attracted due to the shady work he started doing to pay for her bills. He started killing after she died, yes, but he was already doing questionable work for shady people to pay for her bills while she was alive)
Simone
February 6, 2019 at 5:23 amOk, that makes sense. So we don’t have to worry about it happening to Mob. The way they put it it made it sound like he had more of a point – if “suppressing” one’s powers too much truly led to uncontrolled outbursts that could harm people, then Mob might have been endangering his family too.
Rita
February 6, 2019 at 6:39 amMy guess is that his mom really was NORMALLY sick at first, but the reason she got worse even with treatment is because of the evil spirits he gathered doing shady work to pay for the bills. It’s never specified how she originally got sick, but I’d say it’s pretty clear cut that what caused her death was Mogami attracting evil spirits. In a sort of tragic self fulfilling cycle (mom gets worse -> do more shady work -> gather more evil spirits -> mom gets worse)
Onix Franceschini
February 5, 2019 at 11:35 pmWhat an episode. I genuinely didn’t expect to be floored on the emotional level that I was. This hit home, I NEEDED to hear this. To be appreciative of the good that’s around me. I am in love with MS100.
L0ken
February 5, 2019 at 11:59 pmBones did a phenomenal job into adapting this arc in 2 episodes,as the manga reader i loved it but I highly-highly recommend if you want really full and more fleshed out experience of this arc to check out the manga from ch 59 to 67 ,you felt right that dream sequence sped up in anime due to limitation of time also bulling part were more fleshed out and some instatnce were removed,fthere is actually a lot of staff in this arc for example before even entering minori’s body other psychics have way more screentime and other stuff.Bones managed to convey all motives,themes and key scenes behind the arc and did in a more creative way that I’ve imagined,but if you want more manga may give you that.
Orion Taylor
February 6, 2019 at 12:20 amI came here to comment the exact same thing! Ideally, the Mogami arc would have been adapted in 3 episodes, with one episode devoted almost entirely to the dream sequence.12 minutes just isn’t enough time to feel the emotional weight of what Mogami and Minori are putting Mob through (also the cat dies in the manga, and Minori stabs Mob with a boxcutter, and the whole Minori pouring milk on Mob makes a bit more sense).
That being said, as has been previously discussed by myself and others in the comments, there is really only one logical stopping point for the end of the season, there are only 13 episodes to work with, and the final arc of this season needs as much room as possible (even then, it still might be a bit rushed). Adapting this arc in 2 episodes makes a lot of sense, and operating under that constraint, I think they made the best adaptation of the arc that could possibly be made.
BigFire
February 6, 2019 at 2:42 amWell, the World Domination Arc is just too long…
Guardian Enzo
February 6, 2019 at 7:30 amI can say that as a viewer who hadn’t read this far yet, the entire dream sequence was perceptibly too short. I absolutely felt there needed to be another episode to the arc, and that made this episode great instead of historically great. It’s nitpicking but I was aware of it.
Kurik
February 6, 2019 at 12:37 amVisual Treat. Character development Treat. Mob Treat. I love this show.
BigFire
February 6, 2019 at 2:34 amThe director/storybook of this episode is about to start his mandatory military service in Taiwan. He’ll be out of anime industry for about a year, so he went out with a bang.
BigFire
February 6, 2019 at 2:35 amThe name of the director is Hakuyu Go.
Guardian Enzo
February 6, 2019 at 7:31 amThanks for that insight.
Simone
February 6, 2019 at 10:59 pmAnd he’s now leaving animation for one year to go do the obligatory military service in his home country.
King Wombo Jr
February 6, 2019 at 5:32 amFrom the very start of the series it’s made clear Mob is the protagonist and Reigen the deuteragonist, but it’s not until this arc that Dimple truly solidifies himself as the series’ tritagonist and more than just a comedic relief mascot.
For better or for worse, he has been the most influential character aside from Reigen towards Mob’s character arc, and here he is certainly the former.
~
I love how his conversation between Reigen has them both note how Mob is important to them for his power, yet it’s clear by now he’s more to them than a mere tool.
Similarly, I love how this arc highlights the importance between these three characters and their impact on one another. In this episode alone we see Reigen’s words affect Dimple to the point he risks facing Mogami (someone he’s terrified of) in order to help Mob. We see Dimple’s words (and punch) save Mob from the nightmare he was trapped in. And, in turn, its Mob’s impact on Reigen and Dimple that causes them to place trust/act in the first place. It’s a fantastic dynamic between three great characters.
Guardian Enzo
February 6, 2019 at 7:34 amAnd Dimple’s words clearly impact Mob. It’s telling that he knows Mob so well he knows exactly what to say to snap him out of it.
Also : https://twitter.com/guardianenzo/status/1090864011376095232?s=21
King Wombo Jr
February 6, 2019 at 10:31 pmNot bad, add facial features and some shading and you’d give ONE a run for his money 😉
Guardian Enzo
February 6, 2019 at 11:07 pmMy next opus, perhaps.
Rita
February 6, 2019 at 6:30 amThis is one of those times where I wish we could’ve just gotten one extra episode (give MP100 14 episodes cowards *shakes fists*) because as you said, the dream sequence really was sped up quite a bit. It says a LOT about the director and staff that they still managed to pack an emotional punch even with the severe condensing of material. (this’ll probably be a little controversial, but I honestly would have preferred episode 3 be cut down to say half an episode and had this arc started a bit earlier to give this section more time). But the visual brilliance does cut down on the sting a bit.
One thing about this part that’s been bothering me ever since I read it in the manga is how the mental fight with Mogami ends. It’s not as pronounced in the anime, but basically Mob’s 100% Courage is like the epitome of the shounen classic protagonist power up, driven by determination and positive emotion. But in the end, it’s not enough, and it’s Mob’s inner destructive psychic powers, the ???% that he has no control over and desperately tries to hold back, that ultimately win the day. And like, which message is supposed to be the takeaway there? My interpretation was that courage alone doesn’t solve anything, but talking it out with my friends we got everything from the scale of the pessimistic ‘courage doesn’t really matter and it’s ultimately overwhelming power that solves problems’ to the more optimistic ‘courage and compassion help guide people to use power correctly’ but it did boil down to power solving the issue.
And I don’t think of that as a writing flaw or anything, since ONE loves to subvert classic tropes anyways. But it is the one that I feel like is pretty open to a lot of different interpretation when you start talking it out with other people
King Wombo Jr
February 6, 2019 at 8:50 am“It’s not as pronounced in the anime, but basically Mob’s 100% Courage is like the epitome of the shounen classic protagonist power up, driven by determination and positive emotion. But in the end, it’s not enough, and it’s Mob’s inner destructive psychic powers, the ???% that he has no control over and desperately tries to hold back, that ultimately win the day.”
Slight correction here, but Mob’s 100% Courage DOES defeat Mogami here, and Mogami becomes so weak that he loses control of all the evil spirits he controlled. It’s the thousands of evil spirits that Mob’s 100% Courage cannot defeat, but technically Mob’s positive emotions did defeat Mogami’s (and only him) negative emotions.
Final section deleted – GE
Guardian Enzo
February 6, 2019 at 8:59 am“I’ll say nothing cause it’s a spoiler” followed by saying something almost never ends well.
King Wombo Jr
February 6, 2019 at 10:38 pmSorry. I actually edited that last part several times to make sure it wasn’t spoilering anything.
It’s difficult to be passionate about something yet very cautious/selective in how I discuss it.
Rita
February 6, 2019 at 1:02 pmOh no, yes Mob defeat Mogami through 100% courage, but the overall problem (in this case the evil spirits running amok after Mogami loses control) isn’t solvable with just courage. To put it another way, the typical shounen development is that the protag powers up through the power of friendship/love/whathaveyou and defeats the big bad. The common sub development is ‘super powered evil/forbidden powers kick in and protag gets shouted back down by friends’ or something. But it’s much rarer (though not unheard of) for superpowered evil side to win the day, even if that day is after the bad guy technically went down. Even rarer is for it to win the day AND not be commented on.
Granted, Mob’s power isn’t EVIL, but it’s clearly been linked with destructive imagery and Mob himself doesn’t want to lose control of it. And his 100% Courage wasn’t enough to defeat the rampaging evil spirits once Mogami went down. Basically, it took down the baddie, but couldn’t take down the final obstacle. It was Mob’s uncontrollable, destructive power that solved THAT particular problem.
Like I said, lots of different interpretations! It was just the one point that really stuck out to me when I first went through this part, because it just kind of nagged at me. I think it’s because 100% Courage is the first really, overtly shounen-y ‘power up’ style emotion. If you remember all the other times Mob’s emotions have exploded, it’s been anger, sorrow, tenacity, killing intent. Not exactly a grab bag of feel good emotions. That’s probably why having courage ultimately not be enough to stop the rampaging evil spirits stood out. Especially since the mental battle (sans Mogami) technically ENDED on that note. For me at least, it seemed like you could extrapolate a lot of different take away messages from that.
Ooooor it’s just me overthinking a 20 second clip but hey, that’s one of the good things about a show like this
Simone
February 6, 2019 at 11:04 pmTBF we still don’t know what ???% is, so it’s hard to interpret it fully without that bit of information. It could be that ultimately the lesson is one about emotional balance – just because Mob does not ACT on his negative emotions and worst impulses doesn’t mean he doesn’t have them, and repressing them is unhealthy for him. Or maybe this is just a step, and he still has room for growth, and that’s the point. Or it’s just part of the overall theme of the episode – that the world isn’t perfect, but we still need to make do with what’s possible and what we have control over. Evil things will always be a part of it and our victory isn’t guaranteed just because we’re in the right.
Orion Taylor
February 6, 2019 at 8:59 am(I feel bad deleting that after so many keystrokes went into it, so I’ll bury it way down the page instead. But it’s still a spoiler. Please do not discuss events (or characters) in the manga that have not yet occurred/appeared in the anime. – G.E.)
Spoiler
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I really like ???%, though I haven’t ever been able to give a good justification for why it’s more thematically meaningful than other examples of the berserk mode trope (9-tails, Vasto-Lorde Ichigo, Great Ape Saiyan immediately come to mind). Here’s my meager attempt:
The key aspect of ???% is that it’s simply “WHAT Mob is”, once the “WHO Mob is” has been stripped away. WHAT is Mob? He’s pure unbridled cold emotionless power. ???% is not an alternate personality or some embodiment of rage/fury, the way berserk mode usually manifests other series, it’s the essence contained within Mob’s vessel (Teru and Mogami tell the reader/viewer this). 100% Mob stands in direct contrast to this: it’s the pure expression of Mob’s ego, his emotions, a very different expression of power that is a direct result of Mob trying to suppress ???%, and thus rejecting a fundamental part of what he is. The difference between the two is best highlighted during the climax of the Teru arc, in which ???% destroyed Black Vinegar Middle School, and 100% Sadness repaired it.
IMO, ???% appearance in this arc is just to serve as a reminder to the reader/viewer that it’s still there, it’s still powerful, it hasn’t diminished one bit since the first time it was exposed, and it’s still Mob’s true essence. We are reminded that, no matter how dire the situation looks, Mob is never truly down for the count because his basically omnipotent ace in the hole, ???%, is always there, regardless of whether or not he wants to make use of it.
IMO, this arc’s message on power seems pretty consistent with the series’ message so far: i.e. that it’s a childish mindset to think that being powerful makes you superior or entitles you to special treatment, but ironically the only way to truly get through to people with this mindset is through an overwhelming display of power. It should be noted that talk no justu didn’t work on Teru/Mogami until it was backed up with power. Heck, Ishiguro wasn’t even convinced by Reigen’s speech, and had to be defeated by Sho, and Mob didn’t even really bother trying to convince Dimple to change his ways before beating the shit out of him in the LOL arc. I think Goda, (who like Mob is a pacifist at heart, but unlike Mob has had to work hard to develop his power instead of having it handed to him at birth) says it up best, when after protecting Mob from the high school bullies he states: “If you don’t resist at all, you’ll only make them cockier Kageyama”.
I think this is basically the same as your interpretation (please correct me if I’m wrong). Of course, I can’t comment on how much any of what I said changes/stays the same in the future because spoilers
Orion Taylor
February 6, 2019 at 9:22 am? That analysis is entirely based on events that have happened in the anime so far…
Guardian Enzo
February 6, 2019 at 9:29 amSpoiler?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
This reference to “???” makes me nervous. If you can explain how it reflects only what’s already happened in the anime, I’m all ears.
Orion Taylor
February 6, 2019 at 10:53 amAdmittedly, my discussion is informed by knowledge of the series as a whole, but I would like to contend that the conclusions drawn in the above analysis can be derived (or at the very least hypothesized) based entirely on evidence found in what has been presented by the anime so far. Here is how my derivation goes (based on what we’ve seen in episode 5 of seasons 1 and 2):
1. The two times ???% has appeared, it is because Mob’s self/ego/identity/etc. has been eliminated or incapacitated. In the first case he was knocked unconscious by Teru. In the second case, his avatar in the dreamworld (i.e. the projection of his identity/the manifestation of his ego) is completely annihilated. In the anime this moment is quick and easy to miss since his avatar hits a wall of fire, quickly disintegrates, then boom! ???% one second later. In the manga, his mental projection is chomped by a spirit limb by limb until nothing remains, which is far more explicit. From this, we can conclude that, irrespective of it’s nature, ???% only manifests when Mob personality/ego/self has been stripped away. In other words, i.e. ???% manifesting is Mob on autopilot.
2. In ???% vs Teru, Teru comments on how Mob’s “vessel” can contain so much spiritual energy, and the Narrator further elaborates about how there is something deeper inside that must never be touched. Mogami similarly concludes:
“I see… If your vessel is broken… that’s what’s inside of you”.
Mob’s vessel probably refers to Mob’s body and its ability to serve as a container for psychic energy. What’s a person minus their soul? A body, a container for energy, a vessel, and whatever is contained inside. It’s WHAT we are, with the WHO being defined by our souls. It’s the vehicle without the pilot. This is where I think we can draw the conclusion that ???% is WHAT Mob is (the vehicle without the driver), with whatever is contained inside the vessel being synonymous with whatever Mob’s pure essence is (I don’t know, the gas or something). Is the vehicle Mob? Well, in a sense, yes. But so is the driver, just at a more surface level.
3. In both the Mogami and Teru arcs, ???% never directs its power anywhere at all. It simply outputs massive unhindered destructive force in all directions, indiscriminately. There is nothing behind the wheel. It’s an omnipotent force of nature. Forces of nature are cold, emotionless and uncaring. This is contrasted directly with most instances of 100% we’ve seen so far. 100% anger Mob carefully focuses his energy into Dimple’s forehead, annihilating him without damaging anything else. 100% sadness perfectly repairs an entire school brick by brick, while simultaneously keeping a bunch of students from falling to their deaths. 100% animosity explosively defeats Koyama… without hurting Ritsu or any of the other students nearby. 100% and ???% are clearly complete opposites. 100% is the pure expression of Mob’s emotion. ???% is cold emotionless destructive power.
4. We know that Mob knows about ???% The incident with Ritsu and the bullies is a defining point of his character. We know that this is why he suppresses his psychic powers, which results in his emotional suppression, which results in the 100% outbursts. Thus, 100% is a direct result of Mob suppressing ???%. However, as previously stated, 100% and ???% are powered by two very different things (his emotions and his “vessel” respectively)
5. Because of how much more powerful ???% has been over 100% in these two instances, and given the conditions under which it has taken over, it is very reasonable to think that Mob is basically an unkillable god in this world, unrivaled by no one. If someone wants to defeat Mob, they need to knock him out (which is already super difficult). If he gets knocked out, ???% is going to one-shot his opponent. I think we can conclude that Mob has an extremely secure safety net, whether he likes it or not. Sure, nobody else gets to be protected, but as far as we know, Mob is indestructible.
Side note: because this episode is the second time ???% has appeared, it does seem like a reasonable topic for discussion, at the very least to compare notes on what everyone thinks about it so far. 100% appears far more frequently, and the series is very explicit about what it is, so it’s not really an object of curiosity anymore.
I hope this derivation is satisfactory, though it’s extremely reasonable if you disagree. I really do put in a lot of effort to keep my analysis spoiler-free (and there have been many times where I simply don’t post because I don’t think I can do so).
Guardian Enzo
February 6, 2019 at 11:08 amI do get where you’re coming from, and it makes sense for the most part. But I think there’s an underlying concern – namely, someone who has knowledge of the whole series can’t really make the judgment whether the evidence presented so far would be enough to reach the some conclusions for someone who doesn’t have knowledge of the whole series. You can’t un-know what you know. What seems a logical or obvious interpretation of anime events to a manga reader may not be self-evident to a new viewer.
I realize this is a slippery slope, and I’m not trying to stifle discussion. But I think “interpretation” is the keyword here. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been spoiled over the years by manga-readers’ interpretations, which didn’t seem at all obvious to me, or manga readers trying to “help” new viewers figure things out.
I guess the bottom line is to be very, very careful when it comes to extrapolating out from anything that hasn’t been explicitly spelled out in the anime version. Err on the side of caution.
Orion Taylor
February 6, 2019 at 11:25 amFair enough! The comment sections of your posts are not the appropriate place for a detailed discussion between people who are extremely familiar with the source material in its entirety 😛 (It’s a shame though, since I really do like the discussions I see here, as compared to other forums like reddit). I’ll do my best to refrain from extrapolating in the future.
Guardian Enzo
February 6, 2019 at 1:17 pmWell, I like them too – this is a safer environment than most in anime fandom both in terms of spoilers and general trollage – and I want to see them continue as fruitfully as possible. It’s just a matter of striking a balance I guess. Please keep having those conversations but handle them with care, and it should be fine.
sonicsenryaku
February 6, 2019 at 2:07 pmRefrained from commenting the last two weeks so as to make sure I wouldn’t spoil anything for ep 5. Sooooooo yea, I know some people think giving this arc 1 more episode to extend the dream sequence would have solved the slightly rushed pace that plagued the beginning of the episode, but I’m inclined to disagree. I feel like having 1 whole episode dedicated to the dream sequence would have dragged it out as there honestly wasn’t as enough content as manga readers keep claiming there was to make one whole episode out of it. Sure there could have been filler content placed within those sequences to extend them enough to fill up a tv slot runtime, but then it would feel like padding rather than something that should have narrative impact (unless of course, the padding actually elevates and reinvents the content its ancillary with).
So what should the solution had been? Personally i think it’s one that should have been heavily vouched for by the production team; that is having an extended episode; a 27 min ep that cut both the op and ed and used that extra time to insert the extra scenes that were cut from the manga. A 27 min ep provides the episode the runtime it needs to cover all the events it needs to with time and care while being contained in one singular episode, meaning that singular episode retains its emblematic permanence in people’s head as that one special episode that had to be extra-long because it was emotionally crippling, visually arresting, and magnanimously triumphant. If mediocre shows like re:zero can get extended eps commissioned (ep 18 of that show comes to mind) out the wazoo then why can’t a great show like mob psycho get that shit? 13-14 mins is all that was necessary to sell the full weight of Mogami’s phillistine-esque oppression on mob’s psyche. Again, having his whole dream sequence be 1 episode and then making the next ep the action sequence would break the momentum Mob’s triumph over Mogami is meant to have. I think it was necessary to have the action sequence be paired with mob finding his resolve to contend with Mogami’s morose ideals. It’s called having a good understanding of sequential cohesion and narrative momentum. Imagine that; a 27 min mob psycho ep that uses its runtime to beat you over the head about how special this episode was meant to be while taking you for a hell of a ride. If I’m honest, I’m slightly puzzled as to why Bones didn’t go this route, especially since they knew they were going to make this episode extra special. Perhaps they considered it and ended up not being able to make it a reality; guess we’ll never know. Anime like Fate/zero had quite a few extended episodes; but then again I think some of those eps were only extended in the blu-ray releases (someone correct me if im wrong). Speaking of which, that brings me to my next thought: if bones really wanted to, they could add those additional bullying scenes on the blu-ray release of the episode and truly make it feel complete. If the concern was that they weren’t able to get the tv time to add those scenes in, then maybe they could just edit them in with the blu-ray release.
Anyway, despite my criticisms, i thought this episode was fucking great. I think the directing captures the dread and haunting oppressiveness mogami’s illusions were meant to have on mob quite well, which makes up for some of the content cut in the dream world. I don’t find that the storytelling was damaged significantly by abridging the dream sequence as I didn’t have any difficulty understanding or feeling the magnitude of the themes being communicated by the episode or the pathos meant to be derived from Mob’s defiance of Mogami’s ideology. Mob has been struggling to find himself since season 1; therefore, the dream sequence is not the end all be all in giving his courageous fight with mogami its catharsis; that shit comes from everything that has preceded this narrative apex up until this point. The adaptation communicates well what mob went through and why it broke him. Don’t get me wrong, I think it sucks to have not got the full sequence of Mob’s psychologically poignant tribulations with Mogami’s spectres. Again, I find that the direction expertly communicates how mogami’s macabre thinking eventually influenced mob enough to want to break his one rule: DON’T USE PSYCHIC POWERS AGAINST PEOPLE!! The whole dream sequence, in isolation, is one of the fundamental pieces that made Mogami an interesting antagonistic force to me. He’s essentially the Joker to Mob’s batman. Mogami has been corrupted by the world; a man turned sociopathic by the burdens of society and now he wants to spread his repugnant worldview on everything like margarine butter on toast. Thing is, he wants to drag mob down to his level by forcing him to break his rule the same way the joker tries to get batman to break his: “Yea sure; you live your life saying that you don’t have to use your psychic powers; but what if you had a shitty life without your powers?”
I don’t see many talk about the implications of this detail, but when Mogami puts Mob in this illusionary world, he takes his powers away from him rather than letting him keep the power. If Mogami’s goal was to have mob eventually have a psychic outburst and hurt the people who oppress him, why take his powers away? Why not just make it more convenient for him to have that physic outburst if he ever felt cornered? Because it’s all about deconstructing the opposition’s ego; it’s about Mogami asserting a power dynamic and utilizing it as a way to exclaim to Mob that his worldview is the one that should be accepted; key word here being accepted. Mogami wanted Mob to accept that Mogami’s way of thinking was the right one, however he wanted it to be a 100% (pun intended) victory on his part; a complete dominance over mob’s fragility and a petulant celebration of arrogance that he was right. Sure, mob would be breaking his rule if he used psychic powers against people anyway whether Mogami took them away or not; however, by Mogami taking those powers away and mob having to suffer without being able to defend himself; mob would have to go against everything he was once preaching and ASK for that power back. It’s that pleading which Mogami so desired from mob. Rather than Mob just spontaneously using powers against other people, the act of having to supplicate himself to Mogami to get his powers back would prove to the fiendish ex-psychic without a shadow of doubt that he was absolutely right to think that negative emotions are the only way to fuel one’s existence and that Mob, up until this point, was nothing more than a privileged hypocrite. It’s like “No bitch, you want to talk that good shit about how psychic powers should be suppressed and whatnot; well how about you go through hell for 6 months….oh what’s that? You need power in order to deal with shitty people?? Awww, but whatever happened to diplomacy?? Well, little boy, if you think you should teach these little shits a lesson then go ahead; do it; use your powers. Oh wait, you can’t. Not unless you admit that I’m right; admit that I’m right; then I’ll grant you use of your powers and allow you to let them explode. The fact that you have to admit that I’m right in order to unlock your powers in this dream world vindicates me.”
It’s this triumph that Mogami so desperately desired that made him putting mob into the dream sequence only after stripping away his powers, interesting to begin with. And it is here that it kind of sucks that the dream sequence got sped up, because we as viewers of the anime miss out on the experience of watching Mob gradually come to this conclusion and almost proving Mogami correct. As I said before, the adaptation nails the dread mob feels in the illusionary world; it nails the isolation he feels; but it misses out on allowing the viewers to share the experience mob goes through to get to the conclusion he does. In the original adaptation, the reader experiences Mob slowly but surely losing his cool after his kind nature gets snuffed out by the cruel and rambunctious middle-schoolers surrounding him. In the anime, we still understand why mob almost loses it, which is why I’m not making a big deal out of the cuts, but being able to join mob along with the experience would have made his decent into darkness more palpable because then we as the viewer would have had a “first-hand experience” with all that hopelessness. This is what Manga readers were hyped for: seeing that experience animated, which is why I get why some are slightly disappointed. But hey, nailing 2 out of 3 criteria necessary in completing the perfect emotional narrative is still a pass, especially when averaging it with the beyond-stellar boss battle that ensued as ebullient display of mob’s growth. By losing that aspect, Mob’s inevitable breakdown and his use of his powers against people slightly loses some impact, but just slightly though. Most of the impact is still there as a product of the previous season and episodes leading up to this, but it would have been even better if we got to share the experience mob had in mogami’s world. The dread and isolation mob was meant to feel was communicated artfully; but that third element; the experience; that was what was needed to complete the trifecta and cement this episode as THE perfect adaptation.
That being said, I’ll always remember this episode and laud it for it was able to accomplish. There are so many things it did to elevate the source material to greater heights and everything that was covered from the source material was realized in more fervor than I ever imagined. This episode fucking rocked and for me, it’s probably the best episode of this season of anime and probably Mob Psycho’s strongest outing yet. You know what the crazy part is…….this is not the only “Holy shit” moment coming in this season; oh no, this was just the first. There are two more “Holy shit moments” left in this season and I can’t wait. Yuzuru Tachikawa, Yoshimichi Kameda, and you guys at BONES…you’re madmen
sonicsenryaku
February 6, 2019 at 2:45 pmOh and about how much of a budget bones is packing for this season of mob psycho; it’s relatively the same as season 1. Yup I know; shocking, but this season’s impressive visuals have to do with MP season II’s fortuitous production schedule. If i remember correctly, ep 5 was completed in the summertime. I’m almost 100% (damn these puns) that this season of MP had production wrapped up by the time the first ep officially aired, meaning all the episodes are probably already done. If you haven’t noticed, BONES’ production management has gotten significantly better within the last couple of years. They’ve basically taken the kyo ani approach (no need to gasp in horror; they haven’t become a highly incestuous beehive of personnel and nor have their IP’s become homogeneous) in that they have adopted strains of their approach to anime production these days. Bones has divided their entity into sub-studios (A through E), each of who work on a particular anime production (sub studio B is in charge of Mob psycho ). This allows each team to focus on a particular anime production and have the time and resources to complete that production. As a whole, Bones productions have seen a significant improvement in their project scheduling, they’ve taken measures to proficiently trained newer staff to assure a steady growing team of talented individuals, and they’re dipping their toes more and more into cinema releases in the way Kyo ani has been doing for some time now. As i’ve said before I’m proud to see BONES really come into their own in this era of anime. They’ve figured out the secret to staying sustainable and profitable in this struggling industry without compromising their ethics and that makes me a happy anime fan.
Guardian Enzo
February 6, 2019 at 2:52 pmToo much there to respond to in the time I have so I’ll just say, in general as a new viewer what you wrote makes sense. Where the pacing was an issue (and you touched on it) for me was <>impact. Because the dream sequence was cut short, there was something just slightly anti-climactic about the denouement. As you say, that’s what kept the ep from being perfect, but it was still great.
Production wise, this was pretty much unmatched. Glorious sakuga, crazy backgrounds, and Tachikawa’s genius cinematography – wow. But from a pure storytelling/character standpoint, the highlight of the season so far is still the ending of Episode 1, when Mob put that ruined novel back together.
Orion Taylor
February 6, 2019 at 3:20 pmI really like the point that you make about Mogami wanting a complete victory over Mob by forcing him to beg for his powers back. I never thought of it that way.
I had always assumed that the standard episode length was a procrustean bed. Are there many other examples of series besides Re:Zero that have received extended eps?
Guardian Enzo
February 6, 2019 at 4:00 pmMushishi 2 did, I believe. And I know there are a couple others I’m not remembering…
kiwi
February 9, 2019 at 6:59 pmI’m just gonna say this ep left me speechless. Absolutely phenomenal adaptation. Perhaps my favorite bit of animation was after the milk was splashed on mob, and then the bullying faces shifted into red, white, and black shapes. And, of course, the moment when dimple reminds mob of Tsubomi and the blood snaps off his face as his memory returns was equally awesome… (and then the flower sprouts out of his head!)
Some manga readers have been harping about how this arc has been butchered….. but meh. It’s not spoiling anything to say that AMAZING stuff is yet to come. This arc has given Mob some skills and insights that will be essential to his development later, and I am so excited to see it.