Rating: 8.5
Mob Psycho 100 is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by ONE, the same author of hit series One Punch Man. It began publication on Shogakukan’s Ura Sunday website in April 2012 and concluded in December 2017. The manga has so far been adapted into 2 seasons produced by Bones. The first season aired between July and September 2016, followed by a second season that aired between January to April 2019. A live-action adaptation aired in 2018. A spin-off manga series, titled Reigen, ran from 2018 to 2019.
Overview
A young middle school kid, Kageyama Shigeo nicknamed as “Mob” lives in Seasoning city. He is somewhat shy and introverted and is blessed with incredible physic powers, he is an esper. He works for a shady exorcism firm under an individual called Arataka Reigen, who is also his master. Mob has a crush on a girl in his school and wonders what he can do to get to her, while simultaneously questioning his powers. Is it really a blessing or perhaps a curse?
SPOILER ALERT!
Espers and Emotions
Mob Psycho is one of those adventures which really pushes the limits of what the shonen as a genre can do. Made by the same mangaka who made one punch man and I’m quite convinced this idea came to him as he was writing Tatsumaki, the green-haired esper from that project. I started watching Mob Psycho back when S1 came out and quickly dropped it at episode 3 because of the headache-inducing animations and a “boring” story. Jump to a month back I started picking it back up after a friend’s recommendation and honestly, I’m quite disappointed I dropped it when it first came out. Mob Psycho 100 is visually orgasmic is an understatement to how well this anime has been produced, with stunning and vibrant fight scenes to incredible character developments all around. I watched S1 and said to myself “yeah this is pretty good but probably overhyped” and I quickly took it back as I entered S2.
I will try to break down the series in two long sections and explain how I feel about this show respectively:
Starting off with S1 I feel it was pretty solid, reigen as a character is interesting but my opinion on him is still unclear for the most part. The concept and the world-building of the show are good and the consistency of the plot is smooth. We slowly ease into the life of a mid-school kid, mob as we travel with him on this journey of eccentric powers and evergrowing list off emotions which he suppresses. It’s pretty evident that emotions are the driving force of espers and determine the flow of battle including how to use them and physical strength as well. Mob lacks personality and is quite dense which reigen uses to his advantage, often calling him to help him get rid of spirits and paying him fewer wages than he deserves. The show also retains the original source material of the mangaka unlike OPM where Yusuke Murata’s style was referenced, hence many scenes of the anime look like a child’s drawing enhanced greatly with expert CGI artists. The opening song is quite terrible but the ending song gets a pass from me, adding up to this is the soundtrack aspect of the anime which is a hit in my opinion. It gives you a rush in the fights and sometimes keeps you on edge.
As a whole Mob Psycho 100’s S1 was good but I couldn’t help but notice how absurdly powerful he is just like Saitama was, which kind of left a bitter taste in my mouth, a lazy side story of an esper who didn’t make it to the hero association, or was he?
They leave us with a possible question that there just might be a stronger and more wicked force as powerful as Mob waiting for him, waiting to run rampant.
Let’s take a break while I tell you a fun fact, Mob Psycho 100 was trending on twitter for a very stupid reason.
Alright, getting back to season 2. This season shows a drastic change in the tone and progress of the show, while the incredible quality of animation is maintained, we get to see our characters in their most vulnerable yet beautiful forms. We dive deep into Mob as a character and the setup to how the anime takes place ahead begins immediately, tackling with self-conflict and a fake girlfriend who sparks his inner character to really pop out. Second season’s 1st ep really made me a fan of the series. The following couple of episodes we see Mob being more aware of his emotions, showing he also has a heart and soul that’s where my favourite arc of the anime comes in, The Mogami arc as I call it. Mogami and Mob face off in a series of emotionally strained battle assisted by a former evil spirit dimple, what makes this bit so incredibly breathtaking is the way we as viewers see the episode. Mogami, who gets consumed in hate and despair confirms that indeed emotion is what powers espers and the strongest emotions are Anger and Despair. Mogami who was a natural human esper, who now is so far gone that he possesses a teen girls body as an evil spirit. Mogami represents the “realistic” part of the show, trapping mob in a limbo of events which cause him to break down and making him realise that using his powers is good and he should use it to benefit himself. Mob is saved by dimple and the next few minutes is just pure animation bliss, a montage-ish styled fight of good and evil which further solidifies Mob’s character. I also really liked the Reigen and Mob episodes where we really understand reigen and I genuinely start to like him, he is the only humane person I’ve seen in the show because he tries to fake it till he makes it. Reigen understands mob is growing and all the time he was using mob thinking he is doing him a favour by being Mob’s friend was actually him trying to hide his problems, he was reliant on Mob as much as Mob was reliant on him. The scene where reigen throws up after a non-alcoholic drink and him reminiscing about his graduation quote allows us to see him in a new light. The slight bro moment between Reigen and Mob is also appreciated.
The last couple episodes of the show kinda slumped for me or maybe the first half was so stellar the end kinda fell flat in front of it. Claw the organisation which makes artificial espers really have a weak motive which is world domination and a lot of its members put up a good fight but at the end show pulls a naruto on us and talks the villains out of it, effectively giving us a couple good fight and somewhat of a weird final boss who is so powerful, overpowered is an understatement. The fight is okay and Mob, a freshly enlightened being tried to spend some of his enlightenment on the boss which doesn’t really do it for me. Not to mention I still don’t understand how Mob absorbed the entire power he stored up all these years, which again brings us back to Mob being the most powerful character. I also forgot to add the show does have light comedy as well which lightens the mood.
Nevertheless I really enjoyed watching this anime and had a blast writing this review remembering back all the good scenes and dialogues, without a doubt my latest addition to consistent and strong plot-based shonen anime lists. Give it a try if you already haven’t, also please refrain from watching the horrendous live-action adaptation of this project. Here is a reference for those who are interested.
Conclusion
That brings about the end to this review, I wanted to separate S1 and S2 in two different posts but the content for S1 was too less to write anything significant. I just also started watching the monogatari series and a couple new mangas can’t wait to share it over here.
Drop a like and comment what i should check out next!
Thanks for reading, do check out other posts ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
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