Mob Psycho 100
a review by Joshuapigeon
a review by Joshuapigeon
Spoilers Ahead! Warning!
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As someone who came into watching this, with a mixed expectation, and almost no idea what the show was about, I was pretty content with this first season. The ideas were pretty funny and the show would take a course which I think was quite entertaining.
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The show starts off by introducing us to Reigen, he is the funniest character in the series and his personality is very amusing. His character consists of being a con artist, with a very good bluff and a lot of confidence to back himself, whilst also having no psychic powers himself and acting as a mentor to Mob, who he uses to complete jobs. The first thing you notice about the show is the artstyle, it’s pretty unique, I think it’s charming, although I don’t actually like it that much, I can appreciate that it is new and unique, and it didn’t really get in the way of my enjoyment at all.
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Mob himself had a strange dynamic at first, he was really strong in terms of psychic powers, yet his personality towards others was pretty weak. He seemed to lack confidence in himself, and I was quite glad he joined the body improvement club, as it acted as a way to build his confidence through the rest of the season.
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The first challenge Mob took on himself of his own will was the smile cult, LOL. His personality was put into complete contrast in this environment and his dead serious emotion made it a pretty funny dynamic. The explosion meter was finally activated in this place too, although it was a bit disappointing as I hoped that the meter would activate itself in some super high stakes situation, although after finishing the season, I recognise the meter as more of something that is meant to come out more often, although it also seems a bit like a crutch for Mob.
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A new villain was introduced for Mob, this was another esper just like himself, which made for a cool fight dynamic, in theory. The fight wasn’t really taken seriously, and so was a bit less exciting, however, the clash of ideals presented between Mob and Hanazawa was really good and I think was a clever idea to touch on the opposing ideas which psychics might have. The callbacks to an event from Mob’s past, focused on the subject of using psychic powers on others, showed great reasons for why Mob is like how he is, and this came to be super important later on in the season too.
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The season also allowed the exploration of Ritsu, instead of Mob was also a really good addition to this season. I think allowing for more characters to have more depth is always a great thing. The student council is a pretty funny way to have evildoers in this show and it helped to act as an internal conflict for Ritsu to deal with, which was important in the introduction and formation of his character. He undergoes a huge change when Dimple gives his powers to him and the student council has been cast aside due to Ritsu’s powers being a larger focus. He also made a speech to all the delinquents, although this seemed a bit out of character for him and went to show what the powers had made him think.
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.The introduction of espers, who are adults, is a pretty good idea to focus on until the end of the season, this actually did make the stakes seem really high, as while Mob used his crutch ability to beat the adult esper, he was unconscious by the end, which shows this guy was a real threat. Mob also felt that he could use his power to defend his brother, this is important later on too.
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I didn’t expect Mob and crew to be able to infiltrate the Claw hideout so quickly, and I didn’t expect Mob to be able to beat the enemies as quick as he did. On top of that, I didn’t expect Ritsu to go about escaping so quickly, we also saw what I thought was the first death before they escaped, however, it was simply an illusion created to scare him.
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Hanazawa was also with Mob during the time of infiltration, there was this one fight he had, where the enemy esper had fire powers, and the ability was really animated in an overexaggerated way, which looked really cool, but it made the fight seem a bit random in their conclusion as after the super dangerous attack, Hanazawa simply went on to win by taking his opponent off guard. I also think I wouldn’t have minded if they spend a bit longer on each fight and spread out the pacing a bit. Him and Mob went on to get captured after this too, so their powers were for nothing it seemed.
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Reigen finally made a return in the Claw hideout, he had an amazing bluff, in which he claimed to be the boss of the Claws, and in the end, his character was shown to be pretty good too since he struggled with Mob in trying to get him to not use his powers against others. These strong morals made him a perfect mentor for Mob and also acted as a great dynamic while the others were attacking each other so freely. His analysis of the villain espers as kids who didn’t grow up shows how petty the Claw violence really was and acted as a nice representation of those who saw violence as a way to get power. The episode concluded on a cliffhanger, which was really good and created huge amounts of suspense after seeing Reigen get struck down.
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The idea of Reigen being super powerful, but barely questioning why it happened was really funny and added to his bluff from before. I’m happy his idea of being able to run away resonated with Mob too, the ending to the Claw fight consisted of telling the bad guys they didn’t have to be bad and they bought into this. The next season was set up from here…
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.Best episodes:
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Best Characters:
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Overall, this first season was a light introduction for how this show could look, and had a few interesting themes, although I did feel it could have pushed itself a bit further. It definitely left a good impression on me and has convinced me to continue watching.
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