It’s the little things that really make the difference with Mob Psycho 100. I mean that both in terms of the production itself and the characterization, which pretty much evenly splits the credit between Tachikawa-sensei and his team and ONE. I would actually say that Tachikawa has been relatively restrained so far this season of Mob – or at the least, that his visual choices have been more subtle than they were in Season 1. But the level of detail here – right down to the eyecatches – is off the charts (why armadillos on the “we’ll be back in a moment” message?). You don’t want to let your attention slip for a second with this show, and I thank my lucky stars for the invention of the pause button.
As to the character side, obviously this arc really boils down to Reigen – even if it’s his relationship to Mob that’s at the center of it. And Mob is at the center of the show that bears his name for me – he’s the heart and soul of it. That doesn’t diminish Reigen’s importance in any way, though, because he’s as essential to the series’ success as Mob-kun is. I once said about Kenshin Himura that he was the perfect protagonist in many ways (and I still believe that). And I think Reigen is the perfect supporting character – a virtual template for what a side character should be. He has everything, and most importantly he’s integral to everything that happens with the lead.
Reigen is a popular man, no question about it. He’s a meme-generating machine, the gag spiritsandsuch.com website that Crunchyroll opened has become a viral sensation, and he’s even become something of a sex symbol. That’s why this arc – which shows Reigen becoming a meme-generating internet sensation for all the wrong reasons – packs a fair bit of irony to it. But then Reigen is all about irony in many respects, which is one of the reasons why he’s such a profoundly interesting man.
No question about it, what Joudou-sensei did to Reigen on that preposterous (i.e. normal for Japan) variety show was pretty cruel. Joudou is a right old bastard who I hope gets his comeuppance before this series is done. But as always with Reigen, there are two sides to this. Let’s be honest – he’s in this situation because he’s a fraud. He started a fraudulent business, lucked into having it be legitimate, then pushed his luck too far when he had to go back to full-time fraud. And he outsmarted himself on that TV show, in part no doubt because he just can’t help himself – Reigen is a natural performer. He’s always trying to game the system, but sometimes the system games him.
Japan’s press is a lot like Britain’s in the manner in which they latch onto a victim like a pack of hungry wolves, and just won’t let go. Whatever Reigen’s transgressions, he certainly didn’t deserve to be publicly and relentlessly humiliated in the manner he was. The hardest part of this episode for me was seeing Reigen without his usual zing (as Ritsu pointed out). This is a man who always has an answer, always has an angle – and he was out of answers. Being confronted with that much reality that quickly was a terrible body blow, and the press conference was the culmination of all that.
Again there’s that Reigen contradiction though, as there always is. He’s a fraud, yes – but in truth he actually helped a lot of people, some of them even without Mob’s assistance (psychology is a powerful thing). And it almost seemed as if he was going to salvage the press conference by talking straight until the matter of his school essay came up and totally threw him off his game. It was fitting that Reigen remembered at that moment the most fateful moment of his adult life – when 11 year-old Mob walked into his office. That was when everything could have gone in a different direction, but it went the way it did because of one simple fact – Reigen elected in that moment to perform a random act of kindness.
For all the contradictions, this is the essence of Reigen – he’s a nice guy to people who deserve to be treated nicely (most of the time). When the chips were down he gave Mob the best possible advice, with no vested interest – he had no idea Mob was a true esper at the time. Now in the time since yes, he has taken advantage of Mob, basked in Mob’s glory and exploited him for his business. And maybe this ugliness (thanks, Joudou) needed to happen for Reigen to realize that he’d been taking Mob for granted, and that he’d been truly cruel to him at their last meeting. If there were any doubt that Reigen is capable of growth – that he’s a person who always manages to find the right path when things are at their worst – no words could better dispel it than “You’ve grown up so much. You know that?”
Of course Mob knew all along – let’s get real, how could he possibly not? But the essence of Mob – and the essence of his friendship with Reigen – is that he doesn’t care. It was Reigen’s own advice, after all, not to think of esper powers any differently from test scores or physical ability or body odor. Mob gets Reigen – knows his true nature – and still considers him someone worth admiring. Not many people would see deep enough to feel that way about a man like Reigen, but not many people are as decent and full of humility as Mob. As to what happened in that press conference, well, until I see evidence to the contrary I’m going to assume it was Mob’s doing – but whatever the case, no one is going to be forgetting Reigen’s name any time soon…
Orion Taylor
February 19, 2019 at 11:51 pmIn the manga, this is the first and only time we get to see the flashback of Mob and Reigen meeting for the first time. For a long time, I thought that the director’s decision to include this flashback at the end of the claw arc last season would end up being problematic, since it is so fundamental to Reigen’s arc, and it might end up feeling repetitive seeing the exact same scene again.
But recently I noticed one key thing: in this first (anime only) version of the flashback, they omitted Reigen’s internal monologue, effectively framing it from Mob’s perspective. IMO this was a great storytelling choice, since we are actually getting new information the second time we see the flashback.
Sonic (who pointed out that the flashback was moved in the ep 11 comments) might have a bit more to say about this.
This was the arc that I (foolishly) was a bit worried they would skip due to time constraints. Nope! They adapted this arc perfectly.
Orion Taylor
February 20, 2019 at 2:46 amAlso, I just remembered: are you planning on reviewing the most recent batch of HxH chapters at some point? I assume the answer is probably not, given that I think that everyone has collectively forgotten what just happened. I guess we’ll have to wait for the next batch 😛
Guardian Enzo
February 20, 2019 at 7:24 amMy plan right now is to do a brief summary when the next restart is announced, and then try and keep up.
Simone
February 20, 2019 at 5:55 amOh, I didn’t know, but I absolutely agree it was a winning choice. It reminds me of what makes My Roommate is a Cat work too – telling the same story from two different points of view is a powerful narrative tool! To me seeing it all from Reigen’s own perspective this time around really added depth to it. It wouldn’t have been the same without already knowing how the scene would play out in the end.
Kurik
February 20, 2019 at 12:02 amBrilliant episode and loved the pseudo mystery of camera and earthquake…Like yourself I am convinced it was Mob and the depth of thinking and feeling that made him do it show the growth he has made indeed. Glad they are on talking terms again and looking forward to see how their relationship develop from here on out.
King Wombo Jr
February 20, 2019 at 3:03 pmNo no no! Get a clue Enzo, it was clearly Reigen’s psychic powers causing the earthquakes and floating cameras!
Reigen is legit, I once went to him for a sore neck exorcism and he completely cured me of my pain. He’s an awesome guy and completely legit. Would definitely recommend him.
hgfdsahjkl
February 22, 2019 at 12:26 ambest adaptation of all time,hands down
Guardian Enzo
February 22, 2019 at 8:48 amUm…
Orion Taylor
February 22, 2019 at 9:43 amHuh, I’ve never actually thought about what you would consider to be the best “Manga” (to exclude Moribito) adaptation. I’d assume it’s HxH, unless you said otherwise.
Guardian Enzo
February 22, 2019 at 9:49 amI don’t know either – it might be H x H, or maybe Shouwa Genroku or something else that isn’t immediately springing to mind. I love me some MP100 but it’s not the best manga adaptation ever for me, much less hands down.
Simone
February 23, 2019 at 5:37 pmBut did he mean “best adaptation” as in “best anime that is an adaptation” or as in “best job at adapting the manga”? I don’t know the source material for Shouwa Genroku, but for HXH I think it was a relatively safe adaptation – very faithful and close to the source (and what little changes they made, like omitting Kite and Gon’s meeting from the beginning, I wasn’t too fond of). It was good because the source was. With MP100 however there’s more adaptational choices that seem to be enhancing the material (I’d argue the same is happening this season with Kaguya-sama but I know you’re not fond of that show so you probably wouldn’t appreciate that aspect).
Guardian Enzo
February 23, 2019 at 6:00 pmWell, I heartily disagree about H x H – I would never call Chimera Ant a safe adaptation by any stretch of the imagination. Now having read the manga, as much as I love it, for my money the Madhouse anime is clearly better.
I don’t disagree in principle that anime that make material changes to source material in order to better make it suit the medium are generally to be elevated above those that simply translate something virtually unchanged. But within that category there are still a ton of fine examples, so I’d hold the line at calling MP100 the best – by a long shot or not.
Orion Taylor
February 24, 2019 at 1:22 amI can’t speak for hgfdsahjkl, but I was personally leaning more towards the second criteria. Of course, we all know that the obvious winner of that category is Toei’s adaptation of One Piece, amirite? (just died a little on the inside…)
hgfdsahjkl
February 23, 2019 at 3:02 amreigen realizing that mob is there reminded me of pariston realizing that Gon is healed
or maybe it’s just me missing HxH