Mob Psycho 100 – 09
“Pika pi~”
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School starts for me tomorrow, so I’m going to wish all my fellow students good luck! School can be rough. Especially when first years are clogging up the gym the first week back. Ugh. I need to join the Body Enhancement Club so I get my own club gym-space… |
This is one of those episodes where I’m afraid I don’t have much to say. It’s a very straight-forward, beat-em-up affair where Mob and Teru (and Dimple) storm a hideout. Of course, I love my Mob Psycho 100 fights, but there’s not for me to write about them other than going on a capslock rant about it. I’ve been trying to avoid that, but I guess it’s inevitable that I have to spend some time talking about the thing that makes Mob Psycho 100 so ground-breaking: the animation.
bouncing around more than boobs in a harem show
First of all, I feel like I need a disclaimer. I love the animation, but I feel that Mob Psycho 100 is far from being a glitzy show with no substance. It has some great character moments where we see what makes the usually stoic Mob go red with rage, as well as an arc that took Ritsu from an ideal student to a psychic sadist. Even Teru has done a 180, admitting his inferiority to Mob and refraining from using his powers when he can. This episode sought to highlight these changes we’ve seen, without much of a shift to the status quo. Mob still goes wild when his brother is involved, Ritsu is still struggling to find himself, and Teru is still deferring to Mob. Yes, there are some slight advancements, but there’s not much fun in pointing all that out again for an entire post. So, to address the elephant in the room…HOW ABOUT THAT SICK ANIMATION?!?!
While not as stunning as last week, the fights this week still packed a good punch. Mob easily beat up some guys who were toted as being strong Claw members who supposedly could take Mob on bare-handed. Sometimes it’s nice to see a really one-sided match to fully cement how powerful Mob is.
gotta add your own personal colour tint to it
Something I really like about how the psychic powers manifest in these fights is how each esper uses them differently. Teru, for example, tends to hold his legs together like he has to pee all the time. It’s almost as hilarious to me as his stack of fake hair. So unlike Mob, he writhes around dramatically a lot when he’s using his powers – probably a leftover habit from his flashier, narcissistic days. It was also interesting to see a more stylized approach to psychic abilities in the case of Terada, who specifically shaped his psywaves into bright red whips. That’s a big change from the usual, more brutish showing of psychic powers we’ve seen. But of course, Mob continues with his vanilla style, barely moving his body as he unleashes torrents of force in a crude but effective manner.
The way everyone uses their powers says something about their personality. This has gotten me really excited about the new group of espers that make up Claw. From Terada using whips and Mutou tricking Ritsu and his semi-psychic gang with hallucinations, these guys clearly have a very unique approach to how they maximize their talents. It’s going to be awesome! I hope Teru also continues teaming up with Mob, because he provides a lot more insight on his opponents and their abilities. His tactics are also much more varied since he can’t rely on raw power alone to survive. For example, he was able to copy those red whips after seeing them once – meaning that powerful espers are able to learn new abilities. Mob doesn’t need to learn fancy tricks because he can just decimate foes by bouncing them against a wall a bunch of times. Despite this, I hope he’ll pick up some new tricks too. I’d be particularly pleased to see him learn some of those illusions to mess with people. It just goes well with how creepy and incomprehensible he is when he reaches his 100% explosion state.
All in all, this was a good episode to show us where everyone stands in terms of their psychic abilities. I appreciate that they have weaklings who can barely bend a spoon shuffled into the mix now, because it makes Mob seem even more incredible. That being said, the semi-psychic crew achieved some pretty impressive feats this week, from unlocking their jail cell to seeing through a complex illusion thanks to a telepathy link. They’re actually helping Ritsu escape instead of being dead weight. Hopefully this leads Ritsu to find peace with his inferior psychic powers (compared to Mob, that is) and realize that he can still do amazing things.
See you next week, where the rescue/escape continues!
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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.
