Mob Psycho 100 – 02
Telepathy club or Track & Field club?
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I hope you’re all enjoying the new anime season right now! I’m still dreadfully behind, so I haven’t seen everything there is to offer. Not even close. Let me know what the hits are, guys! And I hope Mob Psycho 100 is one of ’em. |
Reigen is an interesting foil to the perpetually deadpan Mob, but I’m glad they took a step away from him this week. He’s the kind of character that’s most effective in small doses. It was better to have him as more of a back-up role this time around so we can get to know more about our MC, Mob. While we don’t learn much about his powers or the countdown to his explosion, we (arguably) learn something more valuable: what he wants in life.
Live kawaii, die hard
In episode 1, Mob was little more than a psychic powerhouse loyally following his master from one exorcism location to another. He was just the kid who nonchalantly killed fearsome spirits. This episode seeks to remedy this lack of character depth by showing us Mob when he’s not slinging technicolour psy-sparks or whatever from his hands. This was all about Mob’s regular, everday school life and what it means to him.
At first, it doesn’t mean all that much. Mob places more importance on his job with Reigen than anything else. His reasons for working for Reigen are pretty depressing – he had no one else with psychic powers to relate to so he latched onto Reigen (who doesn’t even have powers). Mob is also too stupid to realize Reigen isn’t actually teaching him anything, and is instead manipulating him to make money. It’s a sad, 300Y/hour situation that Mob mistakenly sees as a great opportunity to fit in somewhere. I guess that’s the best he can get. So for a while, Mob is content with this set-up, and he dedicates all his spare time to ghostbusting.
More One Punch Man on the right!
After some thinking, Mob finally notices something is missing. No, he doesn’t notice Reigen is a cheapskate faker. However, he does nothing that his precious high school life is sorely lacking. His crush on Tsubomi and desire to fit in make him seem a lot more like a relateable character now. Even an incredibly powerful and talented psychic like him has weaknesses, as well as interests outside of exorcism. Seeing him awkwardly stutter around girls was a sharp reminder that despite the fact he can knock out an entire undead biker gang, he’s still just a teenager figuring life out. He fails tests, has one-sided crushes, and gets cheered up by his kind older brother. Mob is special, but he’s also painfully average.
I loved his dilemma over whether or not to join the telepathy club. You could tell that he obviously wanted something new, but wasn’t sure what it was. Joining the telepathy club would signal just going with the flow like he always has. Picking the sketchily-named body modification club shows that Mob is willing to be proactive and make his own decisions instead of just consulting Reigen about every little thing. It’s a decision that still lacks a bit of discernment, but at least it’s his own decision. It was a surprising twist at the end for him to pick the buff dude club (I laughed), but I’m glad he ended up picking what he felt was best. I will miss Tome though, because she was a fun character leading her group of ragtag guys around the school. Afterall, my favourite parts of this episode involved the telepathy club as opposed to the girls school exorcism.
All in all, another fun episode with amusing gags. Mob is developing nicely as his own character, which should be interesting to see as he tries to meet his goal of confessing to Tsubomi. Seeing Mob do his best to please her by floating dogs over to her with his mind was so adorable, I can’t believe she lost interest. I’m already happy seeing regular dogs on the street, let alone floating ones! I’m definitely cheering him on to get the girl of his dreams. Let’s just hope he doesn’t explode before that happens…
See you back at Metanorn next week teehee~<3
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
spam folder at it again huh?
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
Sorry, no, this time I don’t see anything from you. Might have been an internet hiccup.
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
noooooooooooooo
POWUH: 400-499 with 445 comments
well this is what my previous comment was:
Bones is taking some liberties with the source material and are adapting it in a way that is really strengthening some of the core themes that this series is going to explore. i cant wait for the next ep as we’ll see some of those themes explored a bit more and we’ll get the introduction to who i consider the best girl of the series. Also digging the whole surreal visual presentation this series has been taking. Im not too fond of tsubomi; she seems kinda shallow and more of an object of desire rather than a character.
Speaking of liberties taken with the source material, i think we may have had a little Easter egg in regards to camera girl. Now take this with a grain of salt but when mob was called on by the teacher in the first ep and the class laughed at his display of ignorance, the camera seemed to focus on a girl with bushy hair who turned to look at him after she was done giggling. Im surprised people who were familiar with the source material who live reacted to the first ep (or viewers in general) didnt pick up on this. I think that was the camera girl (same eyes and head shape), but she probably cuts her hair later to fit her design in the opening. This is something that wasnt in the manga which is why im mentioning it because i think it’s a weird detail for bones to add in the first ep if my theory is correct; and if it is correct, i think i understand why they made this decision. It’s very minor but i like that attention to detail if that is indeed the case
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Cool! I’m not familiar with the source, but I’m glad fans of the original are being satisfied even if it isn’t a direct panel-by-panel copy. Nice!
Yeah, I feel like Tsubomi is supposed to be like Mob’s shallow first crush based on looks alone. Especially based on her textbook rejection of the nerdy Mob followed by flocking to a jock. Not sure how intentional that is yet though.
Oh camera girl. I’ll watch out for her!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
As usual this is a big old mixed bag of stuff. I felt that there was a better line running through it than the last one. Still, that oddly disconnected opening routine doesn’t fit, but I guess they gotta show some diversity in the cases Reigen takes.
But the thing I loved the most was the club’s descent into desperation that was very nicely done with the wild animation this time.
But I like that Mob’s character is being built up and how much a contrast he is to his boss.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
There was a lot to keep track of…I actually kind of liked knowing that Reigen is actually good at something (massages) and not just a totally useless human being.
Lots of emotions being conveyed well by the animation. I was tempted to show a side-by-side screencap thing of the club’s initial rush and their last zombie shuffle through the hallways looking for new members haha
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Loving this so far! The artwork is growing on me and it was funny watching Mob cross dress to sneak into the all girls school! LOL @ his boss for instantly being discovered…dem hairy legs…
I’m starting to figure out the 100! Maybe it means 100 spirits defeated or 100 times using his powers? I mean it obviously has something to do with him increasing his powers much like One Punch Man doing 100 push ups, sit ups and so on.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Yeahhh it’s fun! I think it’s not just the legs that gave him away…
Ahh we’ll see how it works soon, I’m sure.