Mob Psycho 100

Oh god the tears. ;_;

Yeah, this was fantastic. I don't cry at sad media, but I teared up when Dimple showed up.

Some notes, not about the adaptation, just subtle things that went over my head my first time reading:

• As we saw at the start of this season with the garbage and booger scene, Tsubomi still remembered Shigeo and wanted to talk with him. Her line "I don't think of you in that way" implies that she wasn't interested in Mob in a romantic sense, but she waited all that time because she wanted to reconnect with her childhood friend. And as we saw in the epilogue, that's what happened.

• ???% is Shigeo. The original Shigeo Kageyama. The reason Shigeo started acting differently after the incident with Ritsu is because that's Mob. Ritsu was right that the incident caused a personality split, but he had it backward. The Mob that we've been following this entire time is the split personality created from that event, suppressing his full power tied to the original personality of Shigeo, also known as ???%. This is also why Mob is so strong, trauma and intense emotions can boost psychic power, and the very act of suppressing Shigeo caused his power to grow immensely over the years.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Dec 21st 2022 at 7:07:33 AM

I'm so proud of my son...

Very interesting to learn why Mob was so strong. I hadn't realized that from watching the anime. That's really cool.

And definitely warms my heart to see Mob reconnect with Tsubomi.

Edited by fillerdude on Dec 21st 2022 at 6:18:50 AM

It's a great twist on the "well, actually the main character is super strong because he's the chosen one/possessed by a space alien ghost" kinda thing that a lot of series do and was a popular theory for Mob before this arc. The first episode of the anime, which had an original scene of ???% fighting a bunch of super-ghosts in space, kinda implied something like that was the case, but nope. That whole scene was just a non-sequitur, Mob is strong because of his own trauma.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Dec 21st 2022 at 7:39:50 AM

Yeah, I don't know how literal the split personality thing is (I think it's just a way for Mob's mind to visualize the situation right now), but ???% represents years of bottled up emotions and is the source of Mob's enormous power. The normal 100% explosions we've seen until now were just a tiny amount of that going out of control, but there was a lot more bottled deeper.

God, I love expressive Mob at the end. And the fact that he still has his powers, they're just not the one thing that defines him anymore. And the fact that being rejected by Tsubomi as a crush helped the two reconnect as friends. And Reigen teaching Mob to confront the part of himself he hates by example, and not just with words. And before that, Reigen accepting that a sizeable part of Mob's anger is directed at him, and enduring all of the punishment in order to reach him. And everything about this episode, and this anime in general.

Petty complaint: they took away one of my favorite lines, when Serizawa goes "Wow, this power doesn't seem human anymore" and Reigen replies "You think? It seems to me that a perfectly normal boy, that happens to have a lot of power, is going through a perfectly normal adolescence".

Also, what makes this storyline so strong is the fact that even if we know this is a wholesome anime and will have a positive ending, it's constantly toeing the line with horrible tragedy. If Hanazawa hadn't protected the random citizens, Mob would have been a murderer, and there's no going back from that. Same thing if Mogami had gone through with his Redemption Means Death plan. Or if Ritsu hadn't protected the Body Improvement guy. There was real risk and real, very high stakes in all these intermediate fights. And if Reigen hadn't stopped Mob before he reached Tsubomi... it's pretty easy to imagine she would have rejected him anyways, and how he would have reacted.

In a typical shonen, the main character's training pays off at the end by making him strong enough to win. Here, we see all the efforts Mob made to become more open and create real connections with people paying off in a similar manner.

Edited by Cozzer on Dec 22nd 2022 at 9:44:02 PM

I think it did include that line, the translation was just different. I remember an exchange like that.

That line was indeed included.

Yeah another great thing about the conclusion is that it reinforces that power doesn't net you happiness. Sappy as it may sound, Mob's greatest powerup was the friends he made along the way.

That ending was so good.

Concluding on Reigen's next birthday after his first one shown in the series was so crushingly lonely is the perfect character note for both Mob and Reigen.

I like that the epilogue shows that the main cast still continues their relationships with everyone, even Momozou who was only just introduced in the last arc before this.

THAT FIRST SEASON OPENING THEME POWER UP AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Also Reigen talks about this being the "last time" he gives Mob a lesson, from this and his attitude you can understand that he was fully prepared for Mob cutting ties with him after his confession.

There's just too many things to love about this finale.

And yet Mob didn't, because despite what Shigeo claimed, Reigen never did truly treat Mob any differently. At least not in the way he was intending.

I am going to miss Reigen a lot. He really is one of the best mentor figures ever. He truly showed that real strength isn't in your psychic abilities.

If you want more Reigen then I highly recommend reading the one volume side manga. It's available online and also can be purchased in English. It's a nice little story centering around him, Serizawa, and Tome.

It's quite the finale, and it's hard to believe that it's all over. (Watched the entire block in one go)

Although, I think that there was a bit of a missed opportunity not showing Mob using his psychic powers in the end there. It would be interesting to see how he stacks up, now that he's got full reign over the full power of his abilities.

Still, all the callbacks in this block were nice. We finally got to see what happens if Mob let loose completely, like Mogami wanted him to in Season 2. He'd not have stood a chance.

As a bit of a fun detail, from the subreddit discussing the episode:

In Japanese culture, removing your socks and shoes is apparently symbolic of suicide. Reigen removing theirs basically meant that he was willing to reach Mob, even if he died in the process.

Anime was a really good adaptation. It'd been a long time since I finished the anime, and I actually forgot a few of the plot beats, so watching the anime was still thrilling, even though I normally tend to lose interest in series where I've already followed the manga.

Good stuff.

Tidbit: the shoes thing is more noticeable in the webcomic. In the anime, Reigen just throws them away. In the manga, we see him slowly placing them to the ground, hands trembling.

At least it’s clear that Reigen is chasing after Mob knowing full well how dangerous it was.

Man, that ending was great! I love this show and I fully plan on reading through the manga after this.

Speaking of manga, I will admit that I did read the Reigen manga after finishing season 2 over a year ago despite not having read the rest. Mostly because I wasn't sure if it was ever going to end up being adapted and I'd heard a couple of vague spoilers at that point, anyways. But now, considering they've done OVAs before, I do think there's definitely a possibility they could make one adapting it. ...Though I can't help but wonder if they'd bring back Reigen's VA for it or if they'll end up replacing him after the cheating scandal.

I think the Reigan manga would need two OVAs to work, it's a little long for just one.

As much as I think that Takahiro Sakurai is a piece of shit, I can't really imagine anyone else in the role of Reigen. It's a shame because dammit if the man isn't an outstanding voice actor; one that also happens to be a terrible person though.

That bit earlier in the season when Reigen was giving Mob generic relationship advice that he had secretly googled that very second was killing me with its meta irony.

An AMV for the whole series set to the season 3 OP:

Now that the dust has settled somewhat. I've really just have to say. Although there's no such thing as a perfect adaptation, this series was damn close. I'm glad that studio Bones got to see it through all the way, and that they took such care and had a lot of respect and love for the source material. It's an especially jarring contrast when you compare it to ONE's other series One Punch Man, which had a phenomenal first season but a massively disappointing second one. Bones went three for three.

Yeah it’s practically a small miracle that the full story was adapted, and at a high level of quality. We can only hope more manga adaptations could be like Mob Psycho 100.