Mob Psycho 100 – 04

Who needs the Ghostbusters when you’ve got a good arm?

Everyone loves a story about punks beating up other punks. It’s good fun for the whole family.

Mob is the foundation that this show stands upon, as he is the central character all these ghosty shenanigans revolve around. His personality has been explored each week, looking at different emotions and the desires he secretly harbours behind those blank eyes of his. But this week, he stepped just a bit to the side and let some other characters have their time to shine. All of their actions are still intertwined with Mob in some way, as everyone is inevitably attracted to a weirdo psychic kid like him. However, this gives us a nice chance to expand on the world Mob lives in so it’s not all about the bowlcut boy.

Also, it’s a nice chance for me to stop blabbering about Mob each week and talk about other peeps.

Note the one guy in the purple blazer who is too tall and has to bend his legs to be properly harassed

First up, we have a whole group of punks and muscleheads. I will admit that I ignored the delinquents for the entire episode and got them all mixed up because I simply didn’t care about their petty rivalry. It was just a convenient excuse to get some action going on. The guys from the Body Enhancement Club, however, were a delightful surprise. I didn’t expect them to accept Mob as one of the bros considering that just the act of holding a dumbbell in his hand is a challenge for him. I thought for sure they’d bully Mob for being so physically unfit. It was nice to see them not only train with him without a hint of eyerolling at his struggling, but to see them rush out to save him when he was in danger. That made me like them so much that watching them throw the delinquents around was that much sweeter to witness. Mob has made some really great, loyal friends. I’m happy he joined this club.

“OH SHIT, MOB IS INTO SOME KINKY STUFF”

Next up is Teru, the self-proclaimed main character. I think we should get some great parodies from him, as he’s the stereotypical prettyboy that all the girls fall for (who has also been gifted with special powers). It’s the classic set-up for zillions of anime. The thing is, Teru (obviously) isn’t the main character of the show. I get the feeling Mob is more powerful, and when Teru realizes that his main character status has been revoked by a dopey kid who can barely pass math class, he’ll be crestfallen. It’s funny that before meeting Mob, he assumed that psychic powers were a special talent that only he possessed (because, of course, only the main character is special). Based on his reaction to Mob using his powers, he was horrified that someone else could use them as well. The fight between him and Mob should be a treat to watch.

See the spoon…be the spoon…

Finally, the wild card for future episodes, is Mob’s brother. He’s been shown as a super nice guy who looks after Mob, but isn’t so doting that he smothers him. Basically, the cool brother everyone wants to have. While he does seem protective of Mob, there’s also an underlying bitterness there. He hates the fact that he doesn’t have psychic powers and Mob does. It sounds strange at first because everyone bullies Mob for being psychic weirdo (or dedicates a cult to him), so why would he want that sort of negative attention? I think he’s secretly power hungry. He’s one to watch out for, as he may get his wishes granted in one way or another and it’ll turn out poorly for anyone involved – namely Mob.

Not much else to say about an episode focused on people punching each other a whole lot. Dimple-sama was there, I guess. He’s only really there for comedic effect when Reigen isn’t there to make tsukkomi remarks to Mob though. And what else can I say about comedy aside from “yep, sure was funny”? All in all, not my favourite episode, but it was fun and I loved the Body Enhancement Club. This is the first two-part episode, so it looks like the story is getting more involved now. That sounds like a good thing to me.