The year is 2016. My Hero Academia has just aired its first season, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is in the middle of my favorite season, and Yuri on Ice is enthralling the world with Cute Boys Figure Skating, among many others. It is a good year for anime. And in the middle of all of this is a new show from an a small studio, neither of which you have probably heard of. That show is Mob Psycho 100, that studio is Studio BONES, the director Yuzuru Tachikawa, and that previous line a joke. Please don't crucify me. Fast forward 6 years to 2022 and Mob Psycho 100 is finally coming to an end. It feels rare for adaptations to actually get an ending these days. Most don't even make it to a 2nd season. But Mob Psycho 100 has done just that. And it was glorious. Lets jump into it!
Be warned, this review contains minor unmarked spoilers for Mob Psycho 100. It also contains major spoilers in some sections however these will be heavily marked to avoid accidents.
Production
First up, lets start with what is no doubt the easiest section to write: The production. Incredible animation, color design and direction has long been a staple of Mob Psycho. From Yoshimichi Kameda to Haukyu Go, it generally has an incredible staff list and BONES has never held back on its production. And that holds true for this third, and final, season as well! Mob Psycho's highs were, without question, some of the best things I watched this season. Episodes 6, 8 and 12 especially stand out, as Mob Psycho headliners tend to do. And this goes beyond just flashy action set pieces. There's also detailed, emotional character work and immaculately done mixed media animation, such as paint on glass, etc. When it wants to be, Mob Psycho 100 is stunning. So much so that it only starts to falter when compared against itself.
Let me cut straight to the point with this: Does Mob Psycho look great? Yes. Is this the best animated, most ambitious season of Mob Psycho? No. Simply put, as good as it is, and it's very good, Mob Psycho kind of shot itself in the foot here. In it's quest for every more ambitious visuals, it gave the viewer an unrealistic set of expectations. Expectations that it would always be bigger, always be better, always one up itself. And the sad truth is that it doesn't. There are some incredible sequences, such as the one above, and absolutely stellar character acting. I realize I am repeating myself when I say, once again, that Mob Psycho looked very good. But I do so because I want to make it very clear that this is not a criticism of the show. More a warning to the viewers.
What warning is that? Simply to temper your expectations. Don't be like me. Don't get swept up in the hype, expecting every episode to be "that" episode, only to have it damper your enjoyment each time it's not. This isn't some explosive finale where every episode is a Season 2 Episode 5 Hakuyu Go episode. There is action. But the action isn't the important part. The emotion, the context behind the action, is what makes it work (Well that and my monkey brain enjoys it when pretty lights go brr.). So just go into it expecting to have a good time, with no expectations for it the be the greatest animates spectacle of the last decade. Because it's not. It's just great. And you'll have to settle for that.
Narrative
Luckily while the production suffers due to hype, the narrative sits as some of Mob Psycho's best work. For those of you that have read my reviews for any length of time, you're probably aware of how important an ending is for me. The journey needs to be good, yes. But the ending is the last taste you will be left with of a series. It is the final lasting impression you'll have until you inevitably rewatch it someday. Which is why I'm so pleased to be able to say that Mob PsychoS3 is fantastic conclusion to the story it's been building up all these years. This season came full circle with Mob and Reigen's relationship, giving them the focus they deserve and sticking to the overarching theme of accepting and being true to yourself. So for those of you looking for a satisfying conclusion, you'll get it.
The only part that's even slightly disappointing here is some of the decisions made leading up to said finale. To go into them properly though I'm going to have to dive into major spoilers territory for a moment. So if you haven't seen Mob Psycho 100 S3 and don't want to be spoiled, feel free to skip this small section. It's really just going to be me going through a few scenes I thought took away from the ending, but that's all. It's nothing to damning, and they certainly won't ruin the finale for you. More just small critiques. With that said, lets dive into them!
Spoiler, click to view
I have 2 major issues with this finale, the first being a lingering remnant of the 2nd season, the second being an unfortunate trope. So what am I talking about? Lets start with the first: Suzuki. Suzuki was the main villain of Mob Psycho S2. And if you've read my review of that season, you know I wasn't a fan of him. I though him underdeveloped and uninteresting, a disappointing finale for an otherwise great season. Which is why it was so saddening to see him return in Season 3. He does his job well enough, literally jobbing to show us how strong ??? is. And Mob Psycho does attempt to give him a bit more character as he starts to consider the feelings of those around him. This is all decent! But I just can't shake my initial impressions of him from last season, and I suspect I'm not alone.The other mistake I feel it made was Dimple. Not his arc, Dimple's arc with the Divine Tree was absolutely fantastic. It has perhaps the highest highs of any arc in Mob Psycho ever, across all 3 seasons. Simply put, Dimple couldn't have asked for a better way to go out. But that's just the issue: He didn't stay out. Instead, with very little justification, he returned in the grand finale to help pull Mob out of his funk. Now emotionally, that's fine. I like Dimple, I like his relationship with Mob, good stuff. But I'm never going to be a fan of an important character death, the culmination of someone's arc and their huge self-sacrifice, being undone out of nowhere without any good justification. It feels like Dimple was robbed so that Mob could succeed. Which sucks, because I love both of them.
So yeah, the only real issues with Mob Psycho's narrative lie in the details. The execution rather than the content itself. Was it good? Will I fondly remember Mob Psycho? Did these massively impact my enjoyment and will they yours? Yes, yes, no and probably not. So head into Mob Psycho ready for a good time. Just don't expect it to be flawless, or else you're setting yourself up for disappointment.
OST/Sound Design
Finally we have the OST/Sound Design, a personal favorite section of mine. This is where anime are often able to set themselves apart from the pack, establishing their own audible identity. And with Kenji Kawai, the man behind the first 2 seasons of Mob Psycho as well as Eden of the East and the legendary Ghost in the Shell, on the team, it should come as now surprise that Mob Psycho has a pretty damn good one. With classics such as "Kageyama Kyoudai no Kakushitsu Mie Nai Kabe" and "Mobu Chikara no Kaihou" to many others with long names, Mob Psycho already has an iconic sound track going into this final season. As such, you wouldn't think Kenji would have to do all that much. And you'd be right! It still sounds great. But I can't help but wish they did a bit more.
Fair warning, some of the track names could be considered spoilery. Continue at your own risk. Otherwise skip to the summary of the section below.
Spoiler, click to view
While the already existing Mob Psycho soundtrack is great, this final season doesn't bring all that much new greatness to the table. Some, like "Personality Taken Over" and "The 'Psycho' in Psycho Helmet" pique my interest, I love slow, plodding, ominous music. Meanwhile "Re: First Love Feelings!" is truly heart warming. And don't even get me started on "A World Without Ekubo"! I tear up a bit just listening to it as I write this. But for every good, memorable track there's 2 forgettable ones. "Egoism", "Psycho Helmet-sama" and "Yukai Hunter!" all feel like different flavors of building dread, though I will gladly call out "Yukai Hunter!" as being the best and most unique of those three. Similarly "Transferring to a new school! What?" and "~Confession~ A Pure Heart" aren't particularly memorable at all. I understand leaning on what you already have, but I'd have liked a bit more.In short, I think that Kenji Kawai phoned it in a bit. He knew he already had a lot of absolutely perfect tracks from the past few seasons and knew there wasn't much else needed for Mob Psycho to be a success. And it was! I want to be very, painfully clear, Mob Psycho sounds good. It's just that Season 3 contributes the least to the discography of the show. If you don't care about which season the music comes from, awesome, you are going to have a fantastic time just like I did. For those that are a bit more pedantic, well now you know. And as for the Sound Design and VA work, that was generally pretty good. Akio Ootsuka absolutely killed it as Dimple, while Setsuo Itou and Takahiro Sakurai brought very emotional performances to Mob and Reigen. Lets just ignore Sakurai's family drama when we think about it, yeah?
Can You Be Too Old For A Story?
With that we come to what I call the "Personal Section" of this review. This is where I take off the reviewer hat, stop trying to compare Mob Psycho to other shows, and just try to connect with you as a reader. I want to try and give you a window into who I am and my experience with the show on a personal level so that you can better understand where I'm coming from with this review. If that's not your style, or you aren't ready for massive spoilers, feel free to skip. Otherwise, read on! Hopefully this lets you into my head a bit.
Spoiler, click to view
It is my personal belief that when you watch a show is just as important as the show itself. Take for instance my review of Welcome to the NHK, where I talk about how being a young adult in my 20s greatly affected my experience with the show. It allowed me to really connect with the lead and the story, to feel like the show was targeted at me. Absolutely shocking that a show might have an intended audience, right? But there's a flip side to that as well. If watching a show at the right time in your life can elevate the experience beyond what it would otherwise be, is it not also possible to watch a show at the wrong time? To miss the window in which in would be most effective? I think so. Because that's how I feel about Mob Psycho.Mob Psycho's grand, overarching message is one of self-acceptance. Of looking at yourself in full and embracing it, both the good and the bad. This is reflected in almost every major story arc across all 3 seasons. We see it with the Claw agents, who are a microcosm of Mob's larger conflict, with Suzuki and his family, and with our leads. Mob and Reigen especially embody this, as we see in the finale. The entire conflict is Mob rejecting himself, his two sides fighting for dominance in a very literal sense, only brought back together when Reigen vocally acknowledges his own lies and deception's where before they were just implicitly known. By vocalizing them he publicly acknowledges them as part of himself, prompting Mob to do the same. It's a very beautiful message, one I think a lot of people would benefit from. But I've kind of already done that.
This isn't meant as self fluff or anything. I'm just no longer in my late teens/early 20's. I'm an adult nearing 30 (Oh god help me). I've already figured myself out and come to acknowledge it. I enjoy doing nerdy stuff, like painting Warhammer 40k models, playing videos games and writing anime reviews on the internet that no one will ever read. These are my hobbies. I'm a bit of an arrogant twat at times, it's something I need to work on, but I'm also loyal to my friends. I hold grudges and remember favors. What I'm saying is, Mob Psycho isn't the first anime with this message, nor is it the most effecting or my favorite. As such, a lot of the emotion surrounding this finale just... missed me. I enjoyed it, I had fun. But I didn't feel much from it.
This leads me to the question of the section: Can you be to old for a story? Some would say no. They still love the Precure series and swear by Cute Girls Doing Cute Things. I know that personally, I still love Shounen, despite them ostensibly being made for children. So maybe the question isn't "Can you be to old" but rather "Can you grow numb to a theme". And to that, I think the answer is yes. You watch enough shows with the same general theme, the same message, I think you can get tired of it. Especially when its one meant to touch you so deeply. In that sense, Mob Psycho had the unfortunate job of competing with the likes of Tatami Galaxy, among others. And as much as I love it, that's a fight Mob Psycho doesn't win.
Conclusion
So yeah, all in all I loved Mob Psycho, the finale was great, but it failed to land anywhere above that. It wasn't able to truly affect me, to become something core to my media experience. Is that a shame? Yes. But that doesn't speak ill of Mob Psycho. The fact that it was in the conversation for that at all is impressive, and a testament to it's quality. It's definitely in the conversation for Anime of the Year, that much is for certain. No, rather than Mob Psycho getting worse, it's more that my standards for incredible anime have risen. As I've watched more and more stuff, I've found series that push even the incredible highs of Mob Psycho further down. In a way, I view that as a good thing. The ceiling is ever going up, giving me hope I'll always be able to find something better.