One can’s help but notice that amongst all the superpowered espers (and muscleheads) we’ve met over the past two seasons of Mob Psycho 100, there’s one that stands out because he hasn’t shown us anything except megalomania and nads of steel. Suzuki Touichirou has to be the baddest badass of all the baddies – I mean, doesn’t he? He certainly has some very powerful people doing his every bidding, and strength respects strengths. But could he possibly be the evil version of Reigen – a guy whose superpower is gall and fearlessness?
I’m thinking that’s probably not the case, at least if esper powers are hereditary – but given what the Ultimate 5 are seemingly capable of, it certainly tickles one’s curiosity about their leader. What is clear is that Touichirou is pretty psychotic – his attitude towards world domination is about as close to pure megalomania as you’re going to see. His rule is simple – never give a damn about what others think or feel, only yourself. He calls it “undying positivity” and says “everything will work out as long as I believe in myself”, but make no mistake – this guy is seriously fucked up.
Meanwhile, Mob is still out cold, clearly having expended a serious amount of psychic energy during those moments when he believed his family was dead. And without Mob, Reigen – who’s following the events in Seasoning City on TV – is disinclined to engage the enemy. This proves rather a disappointment to Scar, who came to him to lead them out of the wilderness, but Reigen has no interest in taking on a fight he can’t win. That is, until he gets a call from his insurance company (I guess adjustors don’t take breaks even when cities are attacked by psycho-terrorists) and decides he needs to drag the guy who burned his office down to his insurance office in order to get his settlement.
Again, we see the essential paradox of Reigen. He seems cowardly and even craven, only too willing to sit idly by as the city suffers, and his motivation for changing his mind is as selfish as it gets. But once engaged he has the ability to see the big picture and plot strategy that no one else on his team has. He also has a responsibility to protect Mob, which butts up against the idea that he stays behind in the hideout while the others go off to try and infiltrate Skytree Cultural Tower for reasons of self-preservation. That becomes moot, though, when one of Touchirou’s squads from Claw shows up at the hideout.
Thanks to Reigen’s curse spray most of these zaku aren’t much of a threat, but it’s this monster that’s the problem. Ekubo makes note of Reigen’s ridiculous luck, and there are times (like this one) when I do start to wonder – like tripping over an unconscious enemy and avoiding “Psychic Steroid’s” punch while opening an escape route at the same time? When push comes to shove Dimple is still forced to possess the unconscious Mob, which he doesn’t hesitate to do in the heat of the moment, and he flees the hideout with the hulk in hot pursuit.
It occurs to me that the citizens of Seasoning City (including Tsubomi) don’t quite grasp just how screwed they may potentially be here, but be that as it may Ekubo is unable to shake his pursuer – who eventually punches Mob so hard he knocks Dimple right out of him. The highlight of this sequence (and probably the episode) is when the Body Improvement Club get drawn into the fight after catching the falling Mob (who I guess has Reigen’s luck, too), and the Prez takes on Psychic Steroid in an alley. Nah, this part isn’t luck, it’s Mob making his own luck – gathering friends around him through the sheer force of his own decency. We get a chance to see what Dimple can do with a decent body to possess, and it’s an impressive display. When the hulk revives himself for one last attack Mob finally wakes up – and has no choice but to reveal his powers to the Body Improvement Club.
For now, though, this all seems to be building towards a showdown between Suzuki Touichirou and Suzuki Shou – Scar have tried Reigen’s plan and come up short, but Shou and Ritsu (despite losing Shou’s trio of seconds to one of the Ultimate 5) plow their way straight through to the base of the tower. We haven’t seen Touichirou show us even a hint of what he’s capable of, but could facing Shou be the impetus to finally get him to show his hand? I rather suspect not – not yet, anyway – as Touichirou seems to have total faith in the supremacy of the Ultimate 5 and somehow I suspect he’d consider it beneath him to fight his son.
leongsh
March 12, 2019 at 10:56 pm“
TokyoCultural Tower” not quite right. It should be “Tokyo SkytreeCultural Tower”.Yes, yes, pedantic but it’s the Tokyo Skytree that they are showing and not Tokyo Tower (which is shorter and painted red with white bands).
As to Touichiro’s power, he is definitely holding back. The Ultimate 5 seem to respect/fear him. Will likely be shown in following episodes. He is the big bad final boss. If he is like Reigen without any powers but just sheer force of believe and confidence, it would be a letdown for me.
Guardian Enzo
March 12, 2019 at 11:20 pmI lived in Tokyo three years so yeah, I know, but after 10 hours of work and three hours of blogging the brain doesn’t always communicate the right information to the fingers.
animealex
March 13, 2019 at 3:47 amAfter finally catching up, there are a couple of thoughts going through my head:
1.) Regarding the hereditary nature of esper powers: Wasn’t it mentioned in season one, that Suzuki Shou was the product of the brutal awakening experiments in the Claw HQ during his introduction episode? So my understanding of the situation felt always like Suzuki Touichirou couldn’t accept that his son wasn’t an esper and did some pretty horrible stuff to make Shou one of the more powerful espers in this show. (Coincidently this puts Touichirou in the running of the “Father of the year award”!)
2.) Perhaps this also explains why Shou opposes his father, because otherwise I’m drawing a blank on his motives. He seems like a flawed copy of his old man so far. He has his own team of mediocre espers build to oppose his fathers deadly “Ultimate Five”, both are manipulating those around them and both have serious problems with hubris. On the plus side for Shou, even though he burned down Mob’s house to draw him in the fight against his father and Claw, he also protected Ritsu and Mob’s parents, because there was an attack in the making and perhaps he prevented a real tragedy. So, there’s some “good” in him.
3.) The Body Improvement Club are on the fast track for “Best Bro’s of the year”.
4.) The same goes for Dimple. The megalomaniac evil spirit has come so far from his introduction as a cult leader wanting to become a god.
5.) Reigen is the best Con Man out there. The way he set up the mooks when they stormed his hideout was just another notch in his belt.
6.) I will never not be amazed by Shigeo’s humbleness. This kid deserves the amazing friends he has.
7.) I would love to see some interaction between Teru and Shou to get a complete picture on the esper teens. But alas, the second season feels too fast paced for that. In fact the pacing is my major grip with the second season. Everything else, give me more!
Kingwombojr
March 13, 2019 at 4:29 amLast week’s pacing was definitely brisk, but this week’s was ideal when compared to its manga counterpart. Hardly anything was cut and noting felt rushed. For me it was a perfectly adapted episode.
Also, Body Improvment Club have long since won my imaginary award for best bros of the century.
Guardian Enzo
March 13, 2019 at 9:29 amI agree with your last point for certain – this is great but it all feels like it could be greater if it weren’t moving so fast.
I don’t think it’s far-fetched to imagine Shou doing what he’s doing as part of, as was jokingly referenced in the ep, “a rebellious phase”. I’m not discounting that he could have an altruistic component to his actions but maybe he just (with good reason) resents his father and wants to screw up his plans because he knows that will piss him off.
Simone
March 13, 2019 at 6:07 pmYeah, it also seems he just considers his father’s aims to be, well, lame. Which they are, the whole point is that Claw is an assembly of very powerful manchildren. So I took it as meaning that in his own way Shou sees that too and is basically second-hand embarrassed by it the way only a teenage son can be by the action of his parents.
Kingwombojr
March 13, 2019 at 4:24 amReigen’s plan came up short!? You fool, a Reigen plan never comes up short, because the key to a Reigen plan’s success is Everything is part of the plan, even aspects Reigen didn’t know about and/or consider!
~
Anyway, Reigen’s initial plan to lay low was actually a mature and grounded decision. After all, Reigen doesn’t know he’s in a Shounen series where the military are almost always useless. We saw from last episode that the government have psychics at their disposal, how do we or Reigen know they don’t have more powerful psychics (like a Tatsumaki from OPM type) yet to appear. Reigen and co rushing in to stop Claw could be a hinderence to these theoretical gov agents.
But of course, classic Reigen changes his tune once he hears he may be penniless, though it ends up being for the best as the ex-Claw members were heading out anyway and it gave Teru the confidence boost he needed.
~
Pacing was great this episode (compared to last week’s briskness), as was the comedic and emotional timing. Very little was cut out overall, and I’m near certain this pacing will continue as such for the remaining arc. And if I’m not mistaken (and going by next week’s preview and its godlike animation snippets), next week should be a doosy of an episode!
Orion Taylor
March 13, 2019 at 5:26 amIt was nice to have Uvogin back, if only for 20 seconds.
Guardian Enzo
March 13, 2019 at 9:34 amHeh