Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 Series Review

Just a few days before One-Punch Man season 2 begins, Mob Psycho concludes its very own. Let’s see how it did.

Synopsis

In a nutshell, Mob Psycho 100 is the story of a teenage boy with supernatural power. Nothing new, you’d say; how likely would you be to say this knowing it is written by One, the manga-ka behind One-Punch Man? That in itself, probably makes you assume that the show in itself has some unique element of structure and critique that make it what it is, and that is of course true.

Mob is a very average but unusually kind hearted and mature teenager. Powerful as he may be, he keeps it to himself, and only makes use of his powers for his poorly paid part-time job that makes his master, Reigen, a living. He is casually bullied but generally avoids getting into trouble and attracting too much attention to himself. Despite his peaceful nature and overall effort to avoid getting in trouble, Mob’s powers inevitably make him the center of all sorts of dangerous incidents, and he often has to use force against evil in order to protect the people he cares about.

Plot & Story

When I started reviewing this season, I remember hearing that the theme of it would be ‘change’. To some extent it was. Tailoring a critique of the shonen genre is not something new for the writer and that is what this show aims to do. The protagonist, Sigeo or Mob, is a little bit of a shonen anti-main character: he is quiet, peaceful and docile. He feels awkward with social interactions, and the girl he has a crush on is not a sexualized 15-year-old who is secretly all over him – in fact, she seems like a pretty regular bitchy teen who is completely uninterested in his existence.

While in Season 1 his adventures mostly revolve about his introverted character, in the second one we follow Mob as he decides to drastically change his lifestyle. He falls in some sort of skinny love with another girl, he works hard to improve his physique; he demands his working rights from Reigen; he runs for school president (lol); he makes friends; and he even decides to run a marathon and promises himself he will ask the girl of his dreams out when he wins (he doesn’t). Up until episode 8, we are getting what is a very sceptical approach to the standard shonen format: the character actually puts in the work to change and improve his lifestyle. He is not competing with anyone, he has no major enemy to defeat, he does not give up on himself – he evolves. But that’s until Episode 8.

During episodes 9-13, the show’s content literally dies. There is still the subliminal themes that are what the show is all about, but instead of following through with Mob’s development as a human being, we’re going back to him using what he has as a given (his supernatural powers) to defeat some almighty guy that he will, of course, easily destroy in the end. Meh. Okay.

Art & Music

The show looks good. Very, very good. The animation is on point and despite the fact that I care very little about the battles they genuinely are great to look at. The show delivers its unique aesthetic of transitioning from simplistic to over-stylized drawings with absolute grace and every time 100% Mob shows up is a real delight.

I do however, find the sound aspect to be even better. The OP music (which I initially didn’t take seriously, probably because I loved the previous season’s so much) is fabulous and catchy. The whole soundtrack is phenomenal and episodes like Discord ~Choices~ an eerie uncanny vibe. Finally, I suppose we can’t underestimate the skill displayed by the voice actors (my favourite being Dimple) who are doing an excellent job breathing life into the characters.

Psycho enough?

Plus:

Innovative script in the first episodes
Very emotional and deeply relatable
A good critique of the genre

Minus:

Ends up complying with the rules of what it’s attempting to criticize.

Should you watch it? Yes, definitely until Episode 8, it’s worth every minute. Had the ending been different, I genuinely believe this would have been a masterpiece.

What did you think of Mob Psycho 100? Let us know in the comment section, and don’t forget to check more anime reviews on MANGA.TOKYO!