Some of the most powerful memories I have in anime are of times when great series were seemingly one-upping each other non-stop. Spring 2012 is an obvious example – at times it felt like a torrential downpour of quality washing over you. A much more recent – and relevant – case is Winter of 2019. It seemed as if Dororo (in its first cour, when it was especially magnificent) and Mob Psycho 100 were firing tour-de-force episodes across each other’s bow every week (on the same day, yet) – a battle Dororo eventually won by a whisker. It’s one of my favorite times in recent anime.
Golden Kamuy and MP100 are airing two days apart, so I don’t have to make that decision about which to watch first (and a hellish weekly quandary that was). But maybe, just maybe, we could be building towards that kind of scenario again. In October they weren’t quite up to that 2019 standard, but both fired absolute bangers this week – episodes that epitomized what makes both series great. I had a feeling after GK’s masterpiece that Mob was poised to answer in kind, and happily it did.
Like all the relationships in this series, when it comes to Shigeo and Ekubo, it’s complicated. In an episode full of jaw-dropping hand-drawn action and emotional haymakers, one of the most powerful moments was when Dimple told Mob “we could have a blast together”. It was kind of heartbreaking actually, if – like me – you see Ekubo as basically a tragic character. He’s kind of broken, but Mob saw something decent in him and in his inimitable fashion, chose to focus on that. In the end Mob considers Dimple a friend, and Dimple considers Mob a disciple – someone who needs a friend like him around to tell it to him straight when everyone else is BS-ing him. And if he didn’t care about Mob, he wouldn’t bother doing so.
Ekubo is doubly tragic because he doesn’t realize how broken he is. His worldview is seriously skewed but to him that’s because no one else sees things as clearly as he does. He’s weak, desperate (by nature) for acclimation – and more from Mob than anyone else. None of the things he values hold value for Mob, and that’s the eternal gulf between them. He keeps trying to tempt Mob with things that he would find irresistible. And Mob just gets sadder and sadder, because he’s being forced to do things he doesn’t want to do. He’ll only go as far as Dimple pushes him – but he’s willing to go as far as it takes, if he has no other choice.
The thing about Shigeo is, he’s guilty of what some critics of this show accuse him of – he’s OP. But it’s not a writing flaw like those critics claim, because the whole drama of Mob Psycho 100 is Shigeo dealing with the fact that he’s OP and in the end, it gives him no satisfaction whatsoever. Ekubo thinks he understands Shigeo’s limits better than anyone – that he can fool him by stalling for time while the broccoli drains his power and Ekubo sucks it up. He throws Hanzawa at him first (knowing Mob will hold back), and various increasingly grandiose versions of his Psycho Helmet founder cosplay. Eventually he even presents himself as a literal golden God. But it didn’t hold true for Ekubo any more than it did for Robert Plant or Russell Hammond.
Funnily enough, I felt really proud of Mob here. This is a brutally difficult situation for him, so much so that it drives him to tears – he’s fighting someone he kind of loves, praying he won’t be forced to do the unthinkable. He has to face it alone, without Reigen or Ritsu at his side. But this is a clear theme this season – our Shigeo is growing up. Forget his psychic powers – Mob is as emotionally fragile as any 14 year-old kid. But his growth is a clear theme of this season. Part of the effect of Reigen’s stewardship has been Mob’s growing ability to get by without it – a painful and powerfully bittersweet realization for Reigen (as it always is, for any good parent).
It’s a turnabout and a very interesting one, but Shigeo is actually a sort of parent to Ekubo too – because Ekubo is very childlike in his wants and desires (and self-image). Mob is absolutely right about the reason why Dimple won’t show himself. Of course he’s scared – he may be juvenile but he’s extremely clever. Mob is also right that Ekubo is holding back against him, which is a tell that the real Ekubo Mob thinks he knows is still in there. Right up until the moment Ekubo finally loses it and does go all out – and is immediately struck by remorse that he might actually have killed Shigeo. And then terror when he realizes that no, he’s underestimated him again, and all he’s really done is piss Mob off.
For all that Dimple has done to piss Shigeo off – including using Tsubomi against him and then telling him he has no chance with her – Mob doesn’t break, emotionally or mentally. He could end Dimple at any moment, I think that’s obvious, but he doesn’t want to lose himself. Mob knows better than anyone how strong he is – and how dangerous he could become if that happens. ONE really doesn’t miss a trick, and that callback to the monkey shirt at the end was a perfect way to pop the bubble of tension that’d been growing for the entire episode. And, perhaps, to remind these two of what existed between them before the World Tree and Psycho Helmet religion came along.
sonicsenryaku
November 4, 2022 at 2:24 amI always love fights in visual media where the fight isn’t about the fight; it’s about THE fight. Last week I mentioned how much I loved the way ONE decides to frame this confrontation between Mob and Dimple, so Kudos to the Mob Psycho team for not only capturing (and elevating) the tension erupting between these two characters from the manga, but adding this heavy, alien-like, atmosphere through the episode’s visual direction. It’s one thing when two characters fight over ideals, then reconcile their differences with talk-no-jutsu at the tail end of the fight; but it’s another thing when the fight actually becomes: “Who’s going to lose their cool first during the argument of ideals/morality and be the first to throw out a fatal blow?” From that point of view, you start to realize that this clash between Mob and Dimple isn’t a conventional fight; it’s a conflict between characters grounded through the very relatable framework of two friends having an intense argument and fearing that their inability to come to common ground will force each other to have to go their separate ways, in Dimple’s case, this means Mob reluctantly having to exorcise him. We’re basically watching Mob for 20 mins pleading for Dimple to give him a reason not to have to do what he thinks he has to do, and with the way ONE has set up the drama leading to this confrontation, you can’t help but appreciate ALL the building blocks responsible for making this such a compelling watch
Also, the way ONE uses the percentage counter methodically during this part of the story is best use of it throughout the entire series. The juxtaposition between Mob’s continuous attempts to demonstrate restraint despite his emotions escalating was a brilliant way to keep the tension pervasive throughout each and every one of Dimple’s attempts to subdue Mob physically and emotionally. We as the audience have been conditioned to expect hype as the counter goes up, and with each strain Dimple puts on Mob, we ourselves are subjected to a swirl of conflicting emotions: excitement to see shit pop off, yet dreading it at the same time because of how much we don’t want to see Mob go through with something that’s clearly breaking him. The more you think about this episode and the arc as a whole, the more you appreciate the layers ONE wove together to create such conscientiously dense and engaging clash between characters. As I said before, there’s a reason why a fair amount of people (myself included) claim this stretch of material as being Mob at its strongest.
I am so down for a Golden Kamuy versus Mob Psycho showdown for the title of fall season big dog. I can’t speak for Kamuy since I don’t know the source material, but next week’s Mob Psycho is going to be another banger, so Kamuy is going to have to bring it if it wasn’t to keep the playing field even
Marty
November 4, 2022 at 10:50 amI ain’t gonna lie, this is ONE at his best.
I’ve personally grown tired of the One-Punch Man manga. I feel like ONE may have drank the Kool-Aid regarding the hype behind his own series and has leaned into the wrong narrative direction (from what I understand, the Monster Arc is fine in the webcomic, but all the changes made to the redrawn manga ARE ultimately approved by ONE).
Writers, even talented ones, are human, and as such are susceptible to male mistakes. However, episodes like these show ONE at their writing strongest.
I Appreciate how the power stored in the Broccoli gave Dimple the temptation he had no previous access to, and despite all of the Mob still wants to save a friend from himself.
Guardian Enzo
November 4, 2022 at 12:21 pmI like OPM, but in general I think thematically he’s ripping himself (MP100) off with Saitama to an extent. And it never had the same depth of feeling or, frankly, seeming author commitment.
Rob Barrett
November 5, 2022 at 3:31 amSince MP100 postdates OPM, I feel more like it’s the more complex second take on the OP protagonist concept—it’s just the weird situation where OPM has kept on going while MP100 finished its manga run.
Simone
November 5, 2022 at 5:02 amNot just that, OPM started as a much more casual project that then happened to earn enormous fame, MP100 was planned as a serialization from the get go.
Simone
November 4, 2022 at 6:38 pmI wonder what the 100% emotion is going to be this time. As a rule, it seems no two outbursts have been the same, and while the obvious one would be something along the lines of anger (which though if I’m not wrong we’ve already seen), I think that may be a fake-out. I’m thinking loneliness might be an option – Mob cracking because he just feels truly isolated as everyone has been brainwashed. Or it could go the other way and be his *restraint* that is maxxing out – and thus he now goes 100% Compassion, truly turning into a Buddha redeeming Dimple and teaching him what real godhood is like. We’ll see next episode, I guess. The ending with the shirt being the thing that pushes him over the edge though really couldn’t have been delivered any better, it sent me rolling.
Jibi
November 7, 2022 at 6:48 pmThere is no such rule. His first 100% was anger was also used at the start of Claw boss fight. Sadness and Courage(mogami fight) was also during the Claw boss fight but the anime. It was much more clearer in the manga because the medium allows for displaying a text during the fight. It was harder to pull of multiple emotion of 100% in the anime because it will ruin the flow so the emotion changes are more subtle.
Gina
November 6, 2022 at 12:02 amWe were never given Ekubo’s real backstory, and we don’t even know if he has memories of it. His arc is pretty antithetical to Mob. Mob is capable of growth, forging new relationships, thinking of where his future may go. Ekubo is a spirit, his only real relationships are with Mob (and perhaps Ritsu to an extent), and there’s no future to speak of for a spirit right?
In that sense, it was a little unfair for Mob to lash at Ekubo, asking what his true self was. Who knew how much of that “sense of self” is left in a spirit. But I have a feeling it’s what Ekubo needs to move on from this world.