Well now, that was quite a left-hand turn for Mob Psycho 100 II this week, not just within the series but the episode itself. It was pretty clear things were going to be considerably more low-key than last week’s blockbuster (there was really only direction we could go after that), so a character piece this time was no surprise. But I wasn’t necessarily expecting things to take the turn they did.
I’ve noted it before, but the thing that really makes Reigen such a standout character is his paradoxical nature. There are two facets to him (I was going to say “faces” but that implies a duplicity I don’t think exists) in almost every sense. I mean, while he’s an amazingly cool guy and a badass who’s (up to now at least) always been reliable in the clutch, but he’s also kind of an asshole. Most of the time he’s an asshole in the service of good, so it’s not such a problem. But we saw a side to him this week we really hadn’t seen before – or at least not that I remember to the extent we saw it here.
If there’s been a recurring theme through the stylistic roller-coaster of the season’s first six episodes, it’s Mob’s quest for self-respect. This is certainly fitting, because he’s at the age where he should be discovering himself – the fact that he’s an incredibly powerful esper has little to do with it. As with FLCL (the real one, I mean), all the sci-fi and fantasy trappings are the glitz and the flash, but the story is at its heart a relatively simple take on adolescence. And Mob – starting with the premiere and Mob’s assertion that he was trying to “listen to his own feelings more” – is growing up before our eyes. Exceptionally lucky in the people he has surrounding him, yes, but Mob has friends now. Friends that genuinely like and care about him.
Here, then, is yet another paradox with Reigen. Despite being a hack and a fraud he’s still been Mob’s protector, his catcher in the rye – and for the most part, he’s steered Mob in the right direction especially where his powers are concerned. But he’s also taking advantage of Mob, who does whatever legitimate work Spirits and Such does for a pittance and is expected to come at Reigen’s beck and (phone) call. It’s a testament to how much Mob has grown (all those emotional push-ups he’s been doing) that he’s finally ready to stand up to Reigen when he walks out on a fun outing with the Body Improvement/Telepathy club members (it was going to include Mob’s first ever karaoke experience) only to be treated quite shabbily by his master.
A couple of points up front… First, it’s totally, 100% healthy that Mob decided he needed a break from Reigen. He deserves a chance to have a sliver of normal childhood while there’s a rare moment of peace. And second, Reigen was a serious asshole to Mob there – I mean, almost to the point where it seemed out of character. He relentlessly poked at all Mob’s sore points and insecurities – which was an incredibly nasty thing to do and if we’re honest, there’s no way someone as perceptive as Reigen didn’t know exactly what he was doing. We saw an ugly side to Reigen here – including the fact that he’s possessive of Mob and flat-out jealous at the idea Mob has friends (or God forbid, confidantes) apart from him.
The B-part of the episode was, to be frank, kind of unpleasant for me. I get that it was supposed to be, but above and beyond that. It’s not fun seeing a grown man so unmade by being rejected by a 14 year-old boy that he falls into a cycle of despair. The fact is that it’s Reigen, not Mob, who has no friends apart from the other. And perhaps most unpleasantly of all, we see what Reigen’s life – professional as well as personal – is like without Mob in it (no messages on his birthday apart from Mom). And it’s unsettling, not reassuring, that he can be so financially successful relying 100% on fakery and bullshit. For all that Reigen has been a positive on Mob’s life (and he has, and downright saved it more than once), this episode leaves no question that meeting Mob has been a hugely positive factor in Reigen’s life as well. We saw this week how Mob brings out the worst in Reigen, but he also brings out the best in him.
For now, it seems pretty clear than Reigen has surfed the wave of bluster and lies a wave too far, and he’s gotten himself into serious trouble. The TV appearance with an extremely pissed off Shoudo-san (who for all his popinjay ridiculousness is an actual psychic) has disaster written all over it. I’ve no doubt that Mob would come to Reigen’s aid if he knew he was in trouble, and he very likely will here. There’s genuine affection and even love between these two despite the dysfunctional side of their partnership that was on display this week, and that will win out in the end. But in order for them to remain a team, I think Reigen has to start respecting Mob as a person in a way he hasn’t up to this point, and to stop treating him as a child. Maybe, as ugly as all this was, it can be a good thing if it leads to that end result.
Miyu Fan
February 12, 2019 at 10:45 pmOnly after I finished the episode that I realised that I am actually the same age as Reigen and the horrid feeling have never left me. The difference is that I’m living with my family and work in an office so I’m surrounded by people, but honestly beyond that I lost contact with my school and uni friends. Loneliness is really something you need to deal with when you are a single adult so I feel for Reigen here.
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2019 at 11:10 pmNevertheless, that’s not a license to be a total asshole to a 14 year-old kid who worships you like a God.
Miyu Fan
February 12, 2019 at 11:23 pmYeah he was definitely over the line here and need to realise he’s been unhealthily depending on a 14 year old kid to validate his self-worth. Mob already grown up (I was so proud of him finally standing up for himself) and now it’s time for Reigen to grow up too.
Guardian Enzo
February 12, 2019 at 11:45 pmYup. Not a coincidence that he’s exactly twice Mob’s age, I’m sure.
Orion Taylor
February 13, 2019 at 12:20 amReigen was definitely a huge jerkwad in the way he treated Mob. I’m not sure how far out of character this is for him, though, given what we’ve seen of him in the past.
As we see halfway through the episode, Reigen is genuinely surprised that Mob actually has friends. Why wouldn’t he be? The only direct contact he’s had with Mob’s school friends was that phone call with Tome, back in season 1, where she was actually trying to use Mob to her own ends. Reigen has never met the body improvement club, though he does know about the time Emi asked out Mob as a joke! As far as Reigen knows, Mob is still being used by everyone.
This is the first time that Mob has ever pushed back against Reigen. Reigen has had a lot of experience handling Mob over the years, but as we’ve seen, Mob’s rapid development this season has been taking him by surprise. For example, it took Reigen a while to catch on to the fact that Mob really didn’t want to murder that nice spirit family. Moreover, Mob essentially went through a 6 month emotional development timeskip in the dreamscape last episode, while only an hour or so passed in the real world.
Reigen thought his usual methods of handling Mob would work; but, caught off guard by Mob’s newfound maturity, he made a misstep in trying to regain control of the situation. This was further exacerbated by the fact that his arguments were founded on the faulty premise that Mob was still currently friendless. Though none of this justifies how Reigen treated Mob this episode, I do think it suggests that this was not that far out of character for him.
King Wombo Jr
February 13, 2019 at 1:31 amThis episode (and arc for that matter) needed to happen because at this point in the series a lot of people including myself (and maybe you?) loved Reigen and were willing to “overlook” his more negative qualities because of the good he did for Mob and others.
It’s a common thing to happen in manga/anime (and stories in general) for the audience to overlook a cool/endearing character’s more negative qualities and/or actions. And for the author to let it happen. But ONE doesn’t play that game. He WANTS us to see the ugly side of his characters, no matter how unpleasant it may be.
And that’s exactly what this episode was. Reigen’s speech to Mob was certainly extreme and cruel (though the latter was most likely unintentional) but it wasn’t out of character, because he’s always had that blunt asshole side.
Remember how in the Emi episode he jokes about Mob having a girlfriend and then says “as if.” while laughing. That’s a real insensitive asshole thing to say (and it’s not the first time Reigen’s done so), yet it didn’t come across as extreme because Mob brushes it off (here he doesn’t) and it’s played off as comedy (here it isn’t).
Reigen speaks and says what he believes is correct, and usually it works out for the best, but here it wasn’t because Mob does have friends who care about him. Dimple knows this because he’s around Mob all the time (it’s why he was so effective last episode with his speech), Reigen doesn’t because he knows little about Mob outside their interactions unless Mob tells him (note Reigen never really asks Mob about his personal life).
~
I love Reigen, I really do (he’s my favorite character outside the Body Imporvement Club) but this needs to happen, because he’s never really respected Mob as a person, and it’s about time he gets his just deserts and either grow from the experience or go down in flames.
King Wombo Jr
February 13, 2019 at 2:59 amMe again, just wanted to add one more thing (I love this arc), it’s not that the absence of Mob causes ReI gen to head down a downward spiral, it’s that Mob’s absence causes Reigen to realize how much he had been relying on Mob and that his life was already heading downhill.
And that’s the beautiful thing about Reigen. He realizes himself that his life is heading down a dark path (kinda like Mogami) and opts to change it himself rather than mopeing and/or sinking further (like Mogami did).
AND HE DOES JUST THAT! Sure, he’s still conning people into believing he’s a real psychic, but that was never really a genuine character flaw as has been pointed out before, his actions largely benefit society.
Just this episode alone we see him cleaning up parks and (ironically) giving free lectures on avoiding scams. That’s more than many of us have done for society.
And the jobs he is taking are ones he can actually do, or better yet, ones only he can do. Just look at the MMO game that other psychics declined. Whether real or fake, Reigen put his heart into accomplishing the task and succeeding in helping some people where others refused.
That’s the great thing about this episode, as it actively shows our main duo growing and changing on their own (yet also, interestingly, still subtly inspired to change because of each other).
L0ken
February 13, 2019 at 1:56 amAs the person who recently rewatched s1 I think many of you forgetting first half of s1,when Reigen seemed much more “assholish” character and in second half(mainly last two episode with his
major screentime)there were completely different scenario when he showed his other side, because that was a serious situation when he was meant to show his best,but when it was resolved we back in s2,in first episode the first words from Mob to Reigen were -“Again,can you stop summoning me in such a short notice”,nothing really changed in that regard.
In ep3 with ghost family when Reigen business starts getting popular with more jobs then ever he comments how he got complacent and half-assed things and may need to talk with Mob seeing how something in him changing.
Ep 4-5 were about different thing and not much of direct Mob-Reigen interaction,but in this episode again more jobs starting to come from every corner which consumes him and he needs Mob more,while still unaware of how much his boy social and school life has improved from s1.
Finally in this episode in crucial moment when he tried to make the simular talk from ep2 of s1 while being much arrogant because of numerous jobs,thinking that his friends still using,mocking Mob and he’s the only one who knows what’s better for him -BAM,it all backfires and he’s realizing this too late,so all this development seems completely logical and foreshadowed from the begging of s1.
Overall,absolutely perfect adaptation of first part and my second favourite episode from this season,can’t wait for next week!
Rita
February 13, 2019 at 2:01 amI think my favorite way to sum it up would be, to quote a friend, “good people and nice people are not mutually exclusive”. Reigen clearly does value Mob, just look at the end of season 1. And he comes the closest to understanding the nature of the internal struggle mob goes through. But I think in some ways, being Mob’s only pillar of support for so long (remember mob was 10 when they met) also gave him a skewed viewpoint where he was always the one mob went to first.
As uncomfortable as it was, I liked the second half because while the series has shown us mind daily life, it’s never shown as Reigen. The viewer has only ever seen Reigen with Mob, never without him.
kiwi
February 13, 2019 at 12:14 pmexcellent point! We’ve almost always seen Reigen in the context of his relationship with Mob, and it was especially depressing to see just how much of Reigen’s life revolves around mob…
Kurik
February 13, 2019 at 2:31 amAbsolutely loved this episode….every bit of it. Great to see Mob standing up for himself even a little bit (was quite surprised he could actually do that many pushups and run that long – now i feel shamed haha)….Reigen was uncharistically a jerk and I really disliked him then and then felt sorry for him later….It’s good they got the time apart to help define themselves…I am now very curious what the relationship dynamics is going to be when they get back together again. Curious…Why wouldn’t Mob be able to confide in his brother who has powers similar to him and near in age? They seem to get on pretty well now.
Aera
February 13, 2019 at 2:37 amI see some other people also cannot find this episode interesting because they think Reigen was acting out of character. Which, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure Reigen’s sheer popularity and how the series painted Reigen as a “ally of justice con-man with fun, dynamic personality” play the case of how most people find Reigen as an entirely good guy. The fact is that Reigen is just a human. Sure, he has the best moral compass and act like a great guy, but people forget that he is still a con-man that takes advantage of Mob, and that he cannot do any job that involves real evil spirit without Mob’s aid.
If Reigen was truly a perfectly good person (and a true psychic), when Mob wants to spend his afterschool to celebrate his friends’ birthday, he could have tried to be considerate and respected Mob’s wish and exorcised the spirit by himself. But, Reigen is a con-man. He is not an actual psychic, and he cannot get rid of the evil spirit without Mob, so he summoned Mob, in a very short notice even though Mob has repeatedly told him not to do so.
Yes, as mentioned by the previous comments, Reigen does not know that Mob has friends, and does not know at all about what happened in Mogami world. I’m pretty sure Mob’s decision to finally speak out is because his experience in Mogami’s world truly affects him.
I guess this episode reminds us how human Reigen is, and how dynamic his character is. Not all that he said was right. He can make mistakes too. And that is why he is a very interesting character.
Guardian Enzo
February 13, 2019 at 7:24 amThe “also” in your comment bothers me a bit.
I don’t think I implied in any way that I found this episode uninteresting – just uncomfortable and unnerving. And I don’t think I’ve ever downplayed the dark side of Reigen’s character – quite the contrary, I was worried I was harping on his dualistic nature so much people would start to get annoyed.
kiwi
February 13, 2019 at 12:12 pmI completely agree that Reigen is an asshole about these things, but I disagree with you when you say he was intentionally pushing Mob’s buttons. Mob is pretty inscrutable emotionally, and I honestly think that Reigen is just mostly oblivious about what Mob is going through. Reigen doesn’t realize he’s pushed a button, bc he assumes this is the same situation as when Tome was trying to extort Mob into joining the Telepathy Club (when they actually were trying to take advantage of him). Reigen is saying those things to save his own ass and keep Mob at his beck and call.
That said, Reigen is 100% possessive of Mob and jealous of Mob’s other friends… which is kinda depressing for a 28 year old tbh.
Anyway, I love this arc a lot and I am so excited to see next week’s episode!!
Guardian Enzo
February 13, 2019 at 12:17 pmAgree to disagree on this point. Reigen is incredibly good at reading what makes people tick – he has to be to succeed in a business where he has absolutely no legit skills whatsoever. There’s no way in my mind he didn’t know exactly how those things he was saying hurt Mob, and why.
The main point for me is, I’m so fucking proud of Mob for the way he stood up to Reigen there. He’s come a long way already, our boy.