As Mob Psycho 100 transitions into its final act, it turns – inevitably – to a battle episode hot the heels of its most bittersweet and character-driven outing of the season. That’s always a bit of a danger moment for me, because I tend to love this series more in the latter mode than the former (not that it doesn’t do both exceptionally well). But while this has all the trappings of a blockbuster action finale, there are some different-y things about it that stamp this development as anything but run-of-the-mill spectacle.
There were a couple of different ways ONE could have gone with what he did at the end of Episode 9. Mob being dead wasn’t one of them – that was just never an option. I speculated in the comments that perhaps a head injury would make him lose his powers, forcing him to confront whether he’d be happier with or without them. I actually think that would have been a fascinating way to go, and probably led to a quiet and introspective conclusion. But he’s gone 180 degrees in the other direction – and not without some precedent.
We’ve seen this side of Mob – canonically referred to as “???” – before a few times, but never fully unleashed as it is here. As best we know it’s the manifestation of Mob’s psychic powers – distilled and corporealized. Without the limiters of Mob’s seemingly limitless kindness and empathy. And that, friends, is a terrifying thought for good reason. Why did ??? come out here, after the accident? At this point we can only speculate, but perhaps the jarring to Mob’s brain effectively put his conscious self into a coma, leaving ??? unchained. Or perhaps it acted to preserve Mob’s brain from the trauma, and if it hadn’t he’d have died on the scene. We just don’t know (yet).
Seen in its unchained form for the first time, this is a terrifying entity indeed. ??? destroys everything it touches – even its footsteps are destructive and explosive. ???-Mob walks through the city, Tsubomi’s bouquet in hand, leaving a trail of destruction everywhere he goes. It’s actually quite sad watching him clutch those flowers protectively, but whatever of Mob is in there is doing nothing to check this power. What it actually reminded me of, in fact, was a cantus monster from Shin Sekai Yori – probably a Karma Demon more than a Fiend, given that the former are less in control of their power. Those were some terrifying creatures indeed – which gives you an idea of how scary ??? is.
The real star of this episode is Teru, in fact. He’s Salt City’s first line of defense against ???, though for Teru this is really about trying to help a friend in need. Sensing what’s happening he goes to the scene immediately, and he thinks he understands what he’s facing. He doesn’t, but he obviously wouldn’t have backed down anyway. Teru tries to reason with ???, to reach the boy trapped inside (and eventually sort of does) but this is not a being to be reasoned with. Teru takes a terrible beating, including his hair – ONE seems to take a special joy in beating the crap out of this kid and leaving him bald.
Maybe Teru slows down ???-Mob a little, but his main victory is in saving the civilians who would have been pulverized in the backwash of ???’s attacks on him. Teru is truly heroic here – and lucky to be alive – and he’s 100% right about Mob being trapped in there, crying. A few of Mob’s friends start to notice something familiar in the scenes of devastation which show up online, and finally Reigen himself does. He’s not going to passively watch from the sidelines now that he knows Mob is in trouble, but for now the one facing Mob is an old enemy, the former head of CLAW Suzuki Touichirou (yes, that was Inoue Kazuhiko and Miki Shinichirou in the same episode) – part of a despatch of criminal espers being parachuted in to deal with the threat.
I’m sure we’ll get our big showdown, but what really interests me is what’s going to happen after. There’s going to be a reckoning for this – both from society and Mob’s conscience. Whether anyone has died or not there’s huge damage, and there will be no mistaking the identity of the one responsible. If ??? is inside him, is Mob someone it’s safe to allow to walk around free? But as big a worry as that is, I’m even more concerned about how Mob will find a way to forgive himself. How can this sweet, inestimably kind boy live with the reality of what he’s done – and equally, what he might do?
That’s the real genius – and cruelty – of this direction ONE has taken for the final arc. All the hard work Mob went through to learn to accept and love himself may fly out the window now that he’s had a harsh reminder of what it means to be who he is. It’s hard to imagine a more painful thing for Mob to go through, so ONE has a big challenge in finding a way out of this box and delivering an ending for him that’s not downbeat and depressing. I’m putting a lot of trust in ONE here, but if any writer has proved they deserve it, he has with this series. I feel certain he was always planning to end things here, and knows exactly how to get where he needs to go.
sonicsenryaku
December 8, 2022 at 11:10 pmWhat a fascinatingly directed episode of Kaiju Psycho 1- I mean Mob Psycho 100. This felt straight out of a disaster film/show as some instances even reminded me of Bones’ previous work, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. Spectacle works best, at least for me, when a story puts equal weight on how that spectacle is affecting the psyche of its characters, which is exactly what we get here (that’s what makes the best kind of kaiju/disaster films).
Teru is scared of ???; after all, getting a glimpse of that entity in season 1 is what made him do a complete 180 in his life; however, Teru is much more afraid of seeing Mob break from doing the one thing he has always feared coming to pass if he ever lost control of his psychic powers. Watching Teru amidst all the destruction trying to keep things lighthearted while doing everything in his power to ensure Mob doesn’t live with the guilt of having killed someone is powerful. The entire series has been building up to this: Mob has always been afraid of what would happen if he ever lost control of his powers, and just when he thought he was finally improving, he gets thrown a curveball he’s unable to catch. While previous arcs of Mob Psycho have explored the complex dynamics of its main casts, this finale is arguably the most psychological about doing this. 2 more eps to go and then it’s all over…..but at least this great series will have 3 great seasons that can be consumed together as a fully realized package of storytelling splendor
Some corrections to your post: Mob’s crush’s name is Tsubomi and the organization Suzuki was leader of was named “Claw”
Guardian Enzo
December 8, 2022 at 11:26 pmExhaustion will do that to the mind.
Aera
December 8, 2022 at 11:55 pmThe horrified scream of people as ???% destroyed the entire apartment complex, while Teru stood there in shock, was such a powerful scene. The sense of dread and paranoia were really strong there, and as the comment above said, it really felt like a disaster movie and gave me Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 vibes.
This episode did a great job in concluding Teru’s character arc. His arc had finished a long time ago, and we have witnessed how much he’s changed, but this episode just blew away the remaining doubts. So many actions paralleled Episode 5 of Season 1, from Teru echoing Mob’s “you shouldn’t use your powers against others” to how Teru casually remarked that he and Mob were average human beings. Teru managed to somewhat reach out to Mob, but most importantly, he used his powers to save others, something that his past self wouldn’t bother to do. The entire Teru vs. ???% scene stood out so much to me because of how character-driven it was.
Everyone coming to realization that Mob’s the one causing the catasthropic destruction was also an amazing scene, especially Reigen’s. It’s worth noting that despite how much time Reigen spent as Mob’s mentor, he never saw this side of Mob, unlike other characters like Teru, Dimple and Ritsu. He also said during the Touichirou’s fight back in Season 2 that it was his first time seeing Mob going 100% as well, even Serizawa witnessed Mob’s 100% before Reigen ever did, so his shock stood out to me. I think that moment might be his realization that he didn’t know Mob as well as he thought he did.
We already see a little bit of how guilty Mob felt as soon as he’s awake, and realizing what he’s done to the city and Teru. Mob even wanted Teru to use his powers against him. Just when we thought Mob finally could make things better…everything comes crashing down. I feel really sad for him.
This episode was…a lot. There are a lot of things happened. But damn, what a great episode it was.
Guardian Enzo
December 9, 2022 at 7:47 amCharacter-driven showcase battles is a ONE specialty (just look at Mob vs. Dimple). It’s one thing that separates this series from 99.7% of battle series.
Orion Taylor
December 9, 2022 at 1:50 amI’m a bit miffed by the start of this episode. There are some key panels that were left out that would have added a lot more context to what’s going on (and were a really cool moment in their own right). I suspect it’s due to pacing: I have no clue how they think they are going to manage to fit the rest of this arc into two episodes (something I’ve become more and more worried about each week). I really hope they don’t end up cutting out some of the good stuff. I won’t spoil what they skipped, just in case they show it next episode (though I think it’s unlikely). I had similar issues with how the season 2 finale was adapted tbh. I just really hope the don’t fumble the ball at the last moment.
Now that we know what the premise for this arc is, I can say at least a few things without them being spoilers:
I love how the final boss of this series is the main character. As you mentioned many times in your reviews, the world was incredibly lucky that of all people, Mob was the person that ended up with such incredible powers. Last season, there is a moment where Mob thinks to himself:
“If I ever end up using my powers for evil, if I ever end up wanting to eradicate people rather than spirits, I wonder if there will be anyone to stop me.”
Well, we are now about to get an answer to that question (well, sort of, since Mob was envisioning a hypothetical in which he acts with more malicious intent than what current seems to be going on, where the damage to the city is collateral rather than intentional, though there is a question as to whether or not that matters). This arc has been strongly foreshadowed. ??? is one of the last remaining long-running plot-lines (the others being Psycho Helmet, Claw, and Tsubomi), and it needed to be addressed before the series conclusion.
Mob was already the most powerful esper in the world from the outset of the series (though we didn’t necessarily know it at first). Unlike every shonen protagonist ever, he never had a training arc. He’s grown tremendously, but as a human, not as a combatant. Yet his strength as an esper has been demonstrated to us again and again. As he’s run through the gauntlet of increasingly more powerful antagonists, we’ve hoped that his powers would be strong enough to overcome whatever challenge he was currently facing; and fortunately, they were. However, this strength is not always a good thing. Last arc, we saw that his powers were an obstacle to being able to reach out to Dimple. Now we see that the unintended consequence of all of Mob’s victories is that it has been demonstrably proven to us that there is nobody strong enough to stop Mob, especially when ??? has been unleashed. This does not bode well.
I love how Teru’s fight with Mob this episode mirrors his fight in the first season. Like (and because of) Mob, he has also grown tremendously as a person over the course of the series (though his growth has been mostly offscreen). Here, he chooses to face Mob, someone who he knows can completely destroy him, because of the ideals that Mob imparted upon him during their first meeting. He fights to keep Mob from using his powers on other people, both to save the civilians, but also to save him from having to live with weight of having killed a bunch of people. Last time, Teru was rendered bald and naked and humiliated as punishment for his hubris. This time, they are a badge of honor for having the willpower to endure the impossible, and save his friend and that neighborhood from the brunt of the horrible consequences. Here, at the end of his story arc, he lies bald, naked, and unconscious in the rubble as a hero. Though the series has mostly been about Mob’s growth, it is also about the positive impact he has had on the people around him. Teru’s actions in this episode are proof of that.
As a quick aside, I also really liked this variation of Mob’s 100% angry kazoo soundtrack, which reflects how awful everything currently is. Did you know that the composer also did the Moribito soundtrack? There is an OST that plays this episode that gave me major Moribito vibes (it also plays when Mob “fights on” against monster Toichiro).
This is easily my favorite arc of the series. I really hope the next to episodes will be enough to give it the adaptation it deserves.
Orion Taylor
December 9, 2022 at 1:54 amMany typos, sry
sonicsenryaku
December 9, 2022 at 2:36 amYea I was wondering why those panels were left out in the beginning, whether it was for pacing purposes or not; but then it occurred to me that perhaps those panels were left out intentionally to sell the unease that was ???’s rampage and to build a sense of mystery around it, although surprisingly I’ve seen plenty of discussion where people were able to piece together the info those panels left out (something that I’ll go into a bit more next episode for the sake of not spoiling anything). Either way, this ep was still paced like a normal season 3 episode so I didn’t mind the 15 seconds those panels would have added to the episode being omitted.
It’s funny, initially I thought there was only enough manga content for a 10 episode season, but I kind of forgot just how dense those remaining 10 chapters of Mob Psycho really were, to the point where I feel like this could have easily been a 13 ep season rather than 12. I’m with you that I hope we don’t blitz through the remaining content. I can see how this would fit in 2 eps without condensing things, but a part of me is REALLY hoping we don’t blow through the content too fast; it can be done with normal pacing so let’s see. The outcome of ep 11 will determine how things go. The preview at least indicates that the parts that truly matter will get the time they need to shine
Guardian Enzo
December 9, 2022 at 7:48 amYeah, Kawaii Kenji is absolutely one of the best in the business.
russenoire
December 11, 2022 at 7:09 pmenzo — wanted to clarify that ???% just emerges if he’s knocked unconscious, so all this happening has been a looming threat since ???%’s first appearance in the series.
thanks for your reviews; i’ve been looking forward to reading them every week.
Simone
December 13, 2022 at 11:48 pmThere’s definitely been precedent; Mob unleashes ???% whenever he loses consciousness. It’s what traumatised him and led him to fear his powers for the first time – I don’t remember what happened precisely, but he’d been knocked out once as a child and hurt Ritsu in the aftermath. That after going this far to accept himself he gets this stark a reminder of how dangerous he is is really cruel. In the show I think he only went ???% twice, and one of them was inside Mogami’s fake world so there was no collateral damage; the previous one was against Teru though (in fact these two battles perfectly mirror each other), and in that one the aftermath was the 100% Sadness moment in which Mob used his powers to repair the damage to the school they had destroyed. I wonder if something like it will happen again, though Mob’s explosions never seem to repeat quite the same way.
Also among all these references to other manga/anime I’m surprised no one ever brings up Akira. It always seems to me like Mob owes a huge debt to Katsuhiro Otomo’s works (Akira but even more Domu, which is in some ways a proto-Mob also thematically), and the sheer physicality of the psychic destruction wreaked on the city in this episode particularly reminded me of them.
russenoire
December 14, 2022 at 8:13 pm@simone
little ritsu and mob were mugged by high schoolers for their new year’s gift money… when mob jumped in to defend his brother, the older boys flung him into a wall and knocked him out, liberating ???% for the first time. that scene of mob’s flashback after he came to was so disturbing for me on first watch: mob’s puzzlement and realization; the blood all over his hands and face; the high school boys still, bleeding out, possibly dead? and ritsu moaning in pain. this is a hell of a memory for someone so young to just bear and it stuck with me. it was also one of the moments that sold me on the series.
???% only happens if he’s forcibly separated from his consciousness, otherwise this sort of destruction would be a threat every time he falls asleep…
Simone
December 15, 2022 at 8:27 pmYeah, obviously that’s what I meant by “losing consciousness”. Sleep is too in a way, but as anyone who’s experienced both sleeping and fainting knows there’s a world of difference between the two. Sleep suspends your consciousness, but you’re still aware enough of your surroundings that you take in stimuli at some level – enough to wake up if something happens (noises, motions, bright enough lights) or to reflect it in your dreams. Fainting (or I suppose undergoing total anaesthesia, though I’ve never experienced that) is a much deeper and stranger experience. You completely lose contact with your body and completely lose any sense of time. Neurologically I assume they’re just very different phenomena, and ???% is only triggered by the latter.