Divine Tree, 2
~Peace~
Japanese Title:
神樹２ 〜ピース〜
Shinju Ni ~Piisu~
Original Air Date:
2 November 2022
Mob stands at the foot of the Divine Tree amid the clapping, cheering throng as Psycho Helmet-sama speaks to him in his mind. All this adulation, this praise... Doesn't it feel good? No, it really doesn't, especially being coerced and all; he challenges this usurper to come talk to him face to face.
Mob sees Teru strung up inside the broccoli, unconscious... and almost immediately connects Psycho Helmet-sama's nonsense to Dimple. Dimple as Psycho Helmet continues his attempts at convincing the boy to join already: using a brainwashed Hanazawa to spar with him, ridiculing his feelings for Tsubomi, even drawing on his own Divine Tree-augmented strength to swarm him with hordes of broccoli puppets to break him into submission, but all in vain.
The teenager senses the spirit is actually too afraid of him to come out of his vegetable armor and just... talk with him. As equals. He persists in demanding that Dimple show his true self, acknowledging none of the forms he assumes, utterly refusing to fall in line with everyone else. The spirit obliges his insistence with a new-and-improved body and proceeds to pulverize the boy for his lack of vision.
To Mob, this is all empty posturing.
He steels himself to eradicate Dimple and the threat he poses to the very structure of Seasoning City, his earlier hunch that the spirit fears him too much for vulnerable communication... sadly validated. However, Mob happens to be wearing that shirt Teru suggested he buy for the founder audition, and Dimple gets a good look at it...
Tropes appearing in this episode include:
- Above the Influence: Dimple suggests that there’s nothing Mob can do naturally to attract Tsubomi, but leading the Psycho Helmet Religion might give him the ideal opening after her brainwashing into the cult. Mob barely bothers with a response.Dimple: ...You might just be able to win her over as the great founder Shigeo.
Mob: [snarling] This is stupid.note - Apologetic Attacker:
- Mob apologizes to Teru for immobilizing him while Teru tries to bring Mob to heel during their fight.
- Teru apologizes to Mob before blasting a gaping hole in the floor with him in response.
- Dimple is worried his Godly Beam attack might have killed Mob and moves to apologize before the boy's explosion counter hits 99%.
- Broken Tears: Downplayed. Mob begins to weep at the realization that Dimple is too afraid of him not to hide behind the trappings of psychic power; the last thing he wants is for his loved ones to fear him. His character development has entailed learning to hold space for his huge emotions instead of becoming an Angst Nuke, so the epiphany doesn't break him entirely.
- Berserk Button: Dimple informs Mob that he doesn't have a shot with Tsubomi, recounting the strength of her mental resistance against the Psycho Helmet Religion and suggesting the teenager has nothing to offer her unless he joins Dimple in godhood. Mob sees clear through Dimple's blatant attempts at emotional manipulation; the spirit's words add kindling to his ire anyway, powering him up for the hundred-handed bitch slap described later.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: Mob does not want to send the newly shiny, powered-up Dimple to the great beyond, as he considers the spirit a friend, but he is prepared to do so:Mob: I just want to know how you really feel. Say something, Dimple.
Dimple: Don't give me that. I was trying to take advantage of you from the start!
Mob: I'm sad. So... does this mean goodbye, Dimple? [raises a hand towards the spirit, poised to exorcise him] - Full-Frontal Assault: When Dimple finally abandons the Psycho Helmet guise, he fights Mob in the nude. His muscular, gleaming gold form as the Physical God he fancies himself to be is more unsettling than anything else.
- The Gadfly: This whole episode basically consists of Dimple moving heaven and earth to provoke a fight out of Mob. The boy just wants to talk things out.
- Metronomic Man Mashing: Mob to Dimple after trying to hundred-hand slap some sense into him; he commences to rhythmically slam him into the floor until Dimple regains an upper hand.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: At one point during their one-sided battle, Mob bitch-slaps Dimple relentlessly, grabbing him by the aura for a better handhold and slapping him even faster.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Dimple lifts Mob off the Divine Tree's roots by the head, dangles his body in the air, and asks him if he's ready to submit. The teenager's silent, piercing glare speaks volumes: the pupil of one eye, otherwise hidden in shadow, glows a menacing scarlet.
- Telepathy: Of the conversational kind, not the mind-reading kind. Played straight and subverted:
- Dimple as Psycho Helmet uses it to talk to Mob outside the Divine Tree. He later explains how his flavor of control works: touching or eating the Divine Tree establishes a kind of one-sided mental link with him.
- After powering up and unleashing a series of attacks on Mob, all prefixed with kami- (godly), Dimple can't read Mob at all.
- You Keep Using That Word: Dimple objects to Mob calling his mind control 'brainwashing', as the personalities of those affected have not been altered. They've simply added the Divine Tree to the list of things they care about, he argues.
- Zerg Rush: Backfired. Dimple swarms Mob with an army of disposable Psycho Helmet broccoli clones (and drains his energy through the Tree's roots) in an attempt to wear him out, but the boy can replenish his stores from the ghost's attacks, the surroundings and his own heightened emotions. Dimple's attempted war of attrition is no match for Mob's theoretically infinite psychic resources or his desire for honest talk from his spirit friend.
