The Older Brother Bows
~Destructive Intent~
Japanese Title:
兄ペコ ～破壊意思～
Ani Peko ~Hakai Ishi~
Original Air Date:
30 August 2016
Hanazawa approaches Mob and Tome, cutting their date short: there's an emergency. Someone from Salt Middle School is impersonating Mob.
It's Ritsu, standing in a pile of knocked-out banchō. Mob wants answers. Ritsu’s got them: his new psychic abilities. His brother, to his shock, congratulates him. Ritsu, however, meets Mob’s kindness and wonder with bitter words. He implores his older brother to fight him, but Mob is having none of this. He gently puts Ritsu in his place and apologizes to the gang leaders on his brother's behalf.
Suddenly, the esper watching from his perch swoops down on Ritsu like the hawk he thinks he is, grabbing the child by the collar and grinding his face into the ground. The banchō are pissed off. Who does this man think he is? White-T Poison is their prey. He simply kicks the challengers away. The man—whose name is Koyama—humiliates the now-helpless delinquents before making his way off with Ritsu.
Mob isn't having any of this, either.
Charging after Koyama hard enough to make Usain Bolt weep, the child grabs him by the collar and body-slams him into the concrete. The esper practically tenderizes Mob in response. Dimple can’t watch this. He leaves to enlist Teru’s help. Ritsu, horrified, pleads with Koyama to just take him and leave, but the enforcer smacks him down instead.
Remember that counter? Of course you do. This time, Mob unleashes before it hits 100%, visiting payback upon the man a hundredfold for his earlier beatdown. A drained Koyama still can't force the kid to submit, so he resorts to a cheap trick that finally drops Mob. He then vows to disappear the delinquents, but Mob, now unconscious, pops right back up. Koyama has had enough and jumps to safety with the younger Kageyama.
The city's banchō now know the true identity of White-T Poison. It's not Ritsu.
Meanwhile, Reigen sends a client on a spiritual, aromatic beauty spa trip... and wonders why Mob is late for work.
Mob awakens in Teru's apartment, with Dimple by his side. Teru knows who kidnapped Ritsu: Claw, the organization Koyama hails from. They've been harassing him for years. He warns Mob to stay away, as they're well-organized and dangerous, but Mob is determined to take them on. Dimple has a clue that might help him find the kidnappers; he leads them to the Awakening Lab.
Koyama and his colleague Sakurai herd Ritsu and the Awakening Lab kids through a forest towards an imposing building.
Tropes appearing in this episode include:
- Big Brother Instinct: And how. If you value your life, don't hurt Ritsu in Mob's presence. He will end you.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Koyama, who appeared in the previous episode as the adult esper with the sickening vibe. That purple hoodie of his shows up in the OP from the first episode on; his kidnapping the wrong Kageyama brother sets a major story arc in motion.
- Knight of Cerebus: Koyama, again. His appearance signals a darker shift in tone that lasts until the end of the season.
- Knockout Gas: Sakurai's cheap trick sedative. All it did was buy Koyama time, as the last thing you want to do to Mob is knock him unconscious.
- My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: Subverted. Ritsu wants a psychic showdown with his brother and even cruelly provokes him, but Mob refuses to play.
- No-Sell: Downplayed. Mob is hurt by Ritsu’s shedding his façade but not enough to affect his emotional hit counter much.
- Pose of Supplication: A chain of them. The banchō demand Mob grovel to seal his apology for Ritsu; Koyama forces them to grovel on pain of death for merely existing; Mob at 100% Animosity imposes this pose on Koyama.
- Stepford Smiler: Ritsu in his terror of Mob, to the point of feigning solicitude with him so as not to set him off. Mob asserts that only half of his cruel words here are true, and Ritsu doesn't deny this.
- Vocal Dissonance: In the original Japanese; at 100% Animosity, Mob's soft, husky, slightly nasal tenor shifts for a few lines into an underworldly snarling rasp so unlike his normal speaking voice that some viewers wondered whether a different voice actor had been swapped in.
- Would Hurt a Child: Koyama sees no problems with pounding middle-schoolers without psychic powers into hamburger meat if they're in his way.
