Mob Psycho 100 is one of those series that has many faces, and can be brilliant in many ways. All of them were one display in the first season and all of them have this season, too. On a purely personal level, this edition has been a bit heavier on the shounen battle content than I’d prefer – as much as I love that side of MP100, I love the more measured character moments with Mob (and the comedy) even more. But if you’re going to make a blockbuster action series, it sure works out better if you do so as brilliantly as Bones has done with Mob Psycho 100 II.
The last couple of episodes might have been problematical in lesser hands, but with Tachikawa Yuzuru and the incredible team of animators he’s assembled, they’ve been breathtaking. I’m not sure there was any possibility of compromise here – these eps either had to be spectacular or fail utterly. While this one wasn’t quite as sublime as last week’s flawless masterpiece, it still stacks up as one of the best battle episodes of the series, and it did manage to sneak some character material past the goalie in the process.
The surprise of the week was Serizawa, who not only got a much bigger bite of the narrative apple than I expected but proved he deserved it. He’s a disaster, there’s no question, a hikikomori who was at his low ebb when Touichirou found him in his mother’s basement and sweet-talked him into joining forces with Claw. But he’s a poor fit for the sort of campaign his boss is engaging in – he’s so squeamish at seeing Shou brutalized by his father that he has to leave the scene, and it’s a full-time job to delude himself into thinking Touichirou’s brand of world domination is a victimless crime.
Mob, to his immeasurable credit, is ever true to his ideals. He hasn’t come to Chomi Tower to fight, but he’s come prepared to fight. Reigen describes Mob’s greatest strength as his ability to be absolutely honest about his feelings, and while only someone like Reigen would say that and in Suzuki Senior he’s up against the worst possible adversary to use that strength against, there’s a genuine power in it. What’s more, the fact that someone with Mob’s tremendous power of the more literal kind is able to remain as unassumingly empathetic as he is amplifies the potency of his essential goodness all the more.
That won’t work against Touichirou (as we’ll see) but it does work against Serizawa, who’s as fragile as he ever was, hiding beneath his umbrella to keep his anxiety in check. This solution that Touichirou has devised for Serizawa is utterly unhealthy and useless for him, but of course Touichirou doesn’t care – Serizawa is just a tool to be used like any other. The fact that Mob refuses to take no for an answer eventually wears Serizawa down, and the clincher comes when Serizawa sees that Mob actually can understand his pain in a way Touichirou never even tried to (and never would).
As big bads go (and I realize that with the manga progressing well past this point, there’s likely an even bigger one awaiting) Touichirou is about as good as it gets for Mob. I’ve come to view the pair of them as complete and polar extremes, diametrically opposed examples of what can happen with a boy is gifted (or cursed) with overwhelming esper powers. Mob is completely selfless to the point of dysfunction – he literally disregards his own feelings and wishes routinely, and initially resents the powers he was born with. Touichriou is the perfect narcissist, a genuine sociopath who views his powers as the sign that no one else in the world is worthy of his mere consideration, never mind respect. Touichirou believes his powers make him superior to everyone else; Mob that his powers make him defective.
The crucial difference here, of course, is both through lucky encounters with others and through his own innate resilience, Mob recognized the dangers of the path he was on and sought to change. Touichirou doubled down, becoming ever more isolated and ruthless in his use and abuse of others. And Mob’s efforts have succeeded gloriously, which is really what this season is all about – a kid discovering that it’s OK to like himself and OK to have selfish feelings sometimes. There’s something almost cocky about the way Mob keeps trying to build bridges with people (and spirits) who want to harm him. He’s like a kid with a new toy whose functions he’s still figuring out how to use.
Again, though, with Touichirou he’s barking up the wrong tree. And he comes to realize that soon enough, through watching the way his enemy treats his own son and the way he belittles his own allies. For all that we love Mob’s essential goodness, there’s something glorious in his disgusted “Never mind”, when he realizes this scumbag just isn’t worth it. Once Touichirou’s powers are finally revealed we see even those are shared with Mob – the ability to share his powers with others, or to draw on their powers for himself (which I assume Mob can do too, even if he hasn’t yet). Mob being ready to fight is only part of the battle, though. Touichirou is crazy strong – hell, even Reigen’s balls of steel (and lead) attacks prove powerless against him, and only Serizawa sacrificing his precious umbrella prevents disaster. This is one enemy Mob can’t disarm with the strength Reigen talks about – it seems very likely that only proving he’s truly the strongest esper will win the day. That’s not the most poetic way to end the season, but it should make one hell of a spectacle.
L0ken
March 26, 2019 at 10:29 pmBones again doing amazing job with adaptation for this episode and I really hope for them to announce season 3 on next week,10 episodes would be optimal lenght to adapt the rest of the series,which by the way is more to the side that you prefer,current Claw arc is as battle shounen as Mob Psycho gets and it still executes that side of shounen series brilliantly,you will see in final episode!
Guardian Enzo
March 26, 2019 at 10:53 pmI’m not expecting an immediate announcement – I think we’re going to have to twist in the wind for a while.
azerty
March 26, 2019 at 11:15 pmMob has already shown he can absorb the energy of other espers in episode 5 of season 1 against Teru. He did it again this time against Serizawa’s energy blast.
BigFire
March 27, 2019 at 12:03 amHow many episodes does season 2 have? Because next episode should wrapped up World Domination Arc, but there are 2 more arcs after that. Albeit, short arc, but the last one is especially important, of course. Perhaps they’re thinking about doing a movie to wrapped things up.
Guardian Enzo
March 27, 2019 at 12:25 amNext week is it.
sonicsenryaku
March 27, 2019 at 1:07 am” On a purely personal level, this edition has been a bit heavier on the shounen battle content than I’d prefer”
Are you referring to this season as a whole being more shounen battle-esque or just this last arc? Because if it’s the former, I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily true. There’s no doubt that the scale of the battles in this season have definitely been cranked up; however, the balance of action to character introspection remain the same if not slightly more emphatic. In addition, the themes of the show, both the in-your-face ones and some of the subtler ones, as well as both the direct and nuanced character conflicts (both internal and external), have been exemplified more so in this season as we’re seeing the payoff’s to both season 1 and season 2’s thematic introspection come to fruition through pulse-pounding action.
To put into perspective the balance of character-to-action moments in both seasons, Season 1 had 4 eps of mostly measured character drama (and comedy); those being: one of my favorite eps of that season, ep 2 (mob making the decision to join the body improvement club), a good portion of ep 3 (LOL cult), ep 6 (Ritsu’s frustrations at not having psychic abilities), and ep 7 (Ritsu becoming drunk with power). Then we had eps of pure action spectacle like ep 8 (mob vs Koyama) and 10 (1 v 1’s of claw members). The rest of the eps that make that season marry action and great character moments (Like Mob vs Teru in ep 5 and Claw vs the gang/1000% Reigen in ep’s 11 & 12). Season 2 on the other hand has had 5 eps dedicated to its character drama: ep 1 (Mob dating Emi), 3 (Mob growing awareness of his closeness to all semblances of life in his day to day experiences and the responsibility he carries), 6 (the reveal that Reigen isn’t completely absolved of his deceitfulness towards Mob), 7 (Reigen’s redemption), 8 (Mob’s tenacity to push forward towards growth); again with the rest of the eps being a marriage of character moments, comedy, and action (which I’d argue season 2 has done better despite some moments of sped-up pacing) such as the dragger conflict in ep 2, mob vs Mogami in ep 5, ep 10’s great back and forth between absurd comedic moments and raw action (again i liken Mob psycho’s handling of its dynamic styles to something like Shaun of the dead or Scott Pilgrim which is worthy praise), the balls to the walls action masterpiece that was ep 11 (that still found a way to sneak in good character moments), and this week’s ep 12. So by dissecting both seasons that way, it’s safer to say that season 2 has had measured character moments. Season 1 felt mostly scaled down in its overarching action, so it never felt like the stakes were grandiose enough to create the perception that the character moments were being overshadowed. The world domination arc has a bit more pieces in play and is bigger in scope, so perhaps that’s why it feels like its less focused on the character moments when compared to season 1.
I’ll have more to say about this season of Mob psycho, mostly about the way season 1 and 2 compliment each other (because that’s how they should be viewed; the seasons of mob psycho act more like seasonal cours than anything else), and how the structure of these seasons say a lot about how ONE has composed and structured this coming-of-age narrative. I’ve been staying out of most discussions of Mob psycho cuz i didn’t want to accidentally spoil anything. All i’ll say is that Mob Psycho is a series that is more than meets the eye, and as someone who’s taken the time to comb through the manga as well as what Yuzuru Tachikawa has been able to accomplish with his team, I can assuredly say that there’s so much to marvel about how this series is put together. As someone from the sakugabooru blog said on twitter: the show gets better the more you think about it and look into its parts. I’ll be getting into all that next week.
Kingwombojr
March 27, 2019 at 2:16 amI want to add/emphasize that it’s Season 1 that primarily introduces/establishes the characteristics of its big theee Mob, Reigen, and Dimple, while it’s in Season 2 where we see them experience huge character growth and development, at times during the flashy battles.
For example, don’t let Dimple’s epic manly battle with the muscular Ultimate 5 member blind one from his acknowledgment of Mob’s decision to join the body improvement club being the right choice.
That’s a major “character moment” for Dimple who spent all of Season 1 scoffing at Mob’s physical training efforts.
Guardian Enzo
March 27, 2019 at 9:52 amThe season on the whole has, to my perception, been more battle-heavy than the first one. And since we’re talking about a subjective response to art, perception is really all that matters in my case.
sonicsenryaku
March 27, 2019 at 2:52 pmWhich is perfectly fine; I just find that the empirical evidence says otherwise. Either way, the finale is going to be lit
Kingwombojr
March 27, 2019 at 2:41 am“He’s like a kid with a new toy whose functions he’s still figuring out how to use.”
That is by far the perfect way to describe Mob in this situation, and one of the multiple reasons Mob’s trying to use “talk-no-jutsu” here actually works effectively from a story-telling perspective.
~
It’s worth noting how this is also Reigen’s first viewing of Mob at a 100% emotion. And a negative emotion at that (his stunning “Mob’s lost it” statement is very telling). Rage is also the emotion that first defeated Dimple, possibly the reason why he looks so freaked out when seeing it (Dimple knows firsthand what happens when someone gets Mob in that state).
And that’s lastly one of the more subtle aspect this arc has really been emphasizing. No matter how close Dimple has grown towards Mob, he’s still scared of him, quite similar to how Ritsu was before. This is the fourth time this arc Dimple’s been afraid of Mob: twice in episode 9, once episode 11, and now here.
Guardian Enzo
March 27, 2019 at 9:58 amI think everyone is still scared of Mob on some level, and Mob is aware of this too. It’s not a big deal most of the time, but an undercurrent like electricity in the air before a thunderstorm. It breaks your heart for Mob that this is the case, because he’s such a sweet kid and if not for his powers would be the last person in the world anyone should be afraid of.
The interesting aspect of this is Reigen, who – it could be argued at least – may be the one person who doesn’t have this underlying edginess with Mob. Not because he doesn’t get why others do, but because he’s basically not scared of much of anything except his own failings. This is why Mogami strikes me as an interesting X-factor down the line, because he’s one who’s absolutely not afraid of Mob on any level. He understands him very well – it’s just that his worldview is so warped that he can’t accept the path Mob has chosen for himself. If somehow Mob and Mogami could be at least allies if not friends in the future, that would be a fascinating development.
animealex
March 27, 2019 at 2:45 pm“If somehow Mob and Mogami could be at least allies if not friends in the future, that would be a fascinating development.” But isn’t that already the case on some level? When Mogami’s prison was shattered, he came out and showed, yep, still as powerful and dangerous as ever. But he simply overwhelmed Mob’s adversaries and left without killing anybody because Mob persuaded him to show mercy and Mob in turn took Mogami’s advice to “be hard on others sometimes” to heart as shown in this and at the end of the last episode. Also Mob’s mental montage of the people who guided him showed Mogami in the last moment (it’s missing in your screen shot).
Guardian Enzo
March 27, 2019 at 3:05 pmWell – that’s a bit of a stretch definition in my view but I can see the argument. I’m thinking more in terms of the two of them having the sort of relationship where they communicate with each other on a semi-regular basis.
JE
July 17, 2020 at 8:15 amI disagree that Mogami wasn’t afraid of Mob, but I think he was more inspired by him. I think Mogami was traumatized and pulled back to reality by Mob, just like what happens to everyone who senses ‘???’ inside of Mob. He knows that if it came down to it, the power Mob has is far stronger than anything he could beat. Dimple believed that Mogami moved on for good after his second encounter with Mob. Likely because he realized his goal of punishing evil people might not be the right path. Seeing how kind-hearted and powerful Mob is probably let him move on, because he knows Mob will do better than just tormenting evil people.
Rita
March 28, 2019 at 3:38 amIf ever there was a time I wish we could have had a 2 cour and split it 24/10 episodes, this would be it. I think they really did the best they possibly could to fit everything, but I so wish we had an extra episode or 2 to allow for breathing room for the major arcs of this season. I do agree that the spectacle really does pick up the slack to make up for the slightly more rushed pacing, Bones is one of the studios I think could’ve done both if they had a little more wiggle room. I am very curious (and hopeful) about a 3rd season, just because if it follows conventional season anime timelines, it might have the opposite problem.
Timeline musings aside, I really am looking forwards to the final fight, because Mogami’s arc has shown that bones can do spectacle, and boy howdy am I looking forward to spectacle. If you’re gonna do the shounen side of Mob, you might as well go all out