Making the most of youth
What They Say:
In a world full of spirits and the supernatural, the only ones who can deal with them are those with powers known as psychics. Self-proclaimed psychic Reigen Arataka operates as an exorcist for a living but in reality possesses no powers at all. His apprentice Kageyama Shigeo, otherwise known as “Mob” on the other hand, is an incredibly talented psychic, but has difficulty controlling his powers. Together the two of them battle against the supernatural while Mob remains none the wiser to the fact that his master is a fraud.
The Review
Content (warning as portions of this review may contain spoilers):
Alright so I ended up spending most of my previous review comparing this show to One-Punch Man, and not quite enough time talking about the show itself. Now it’s time to remedy that and start digging into what Mob Psycho 100 is actually trying to accomplish. To be honest, there was so much going on with the premiere visually that I had a hard time getting a read on anything outside of its premise, but the second episode here offers a bit more clarification on what we can expect going forward, and there’s certainly a lot of potential.
The basic beats of the episode are pretty straightforward: Mob’s starting to have some doubts about whether or not his job with Reigen is fulfilling enough and wants to find other things to do with his youth. Reigen, of course, wants to keep Mob under his paw, and when the Telepathy Club at Mob’s school offers him an invitation to join, Reigen does everything he can to try and talk Mob out of it. Meanwhile, the two of them decide to take on an exorcism job at an all-girls high school, and when the spirit he exorcises turns out to have had similar doubts to Mob about how to spend his time, Mob recalls that the thing he wanted to do the most was impress his crush, Tsubomi. Thus Mob decides to better himself so he can achieve that goal and breaks away from Reigen a bit by joining a school club after all…but unfortunately for the Telepathy Club, he opts for the Body Improvement Club instead.
So based on this episode it seems pretty clear that the core theme of the show will center around Mob’s struggles with adolescence, with the spirits he goes up against all representing different aspects of that. It’s not quite as fresh a concept as One-Punch Man’s take on job fulfillment, but there’s certainly a lot of potential here, and this episode has already cleared up one of my minor issues with the first as it gives us a much clearer take on Mob’s character, and that he’s more reserved than deadpan. With all that, I expect that the mysterious rising percentage representing Mob’s “explosion” will likely result in him breaking out of his shell, but whether it’ll be through all out rebellion, him moving closer towards adulthood, or some combination of the two is hard to say at this point.
In the meantime, the show’s visual design is still really strong, and while the presentation here isn’t quite on the same level as the premiere, there’s plenty of kinetic energy in the framework, and there isn’t a single dull looking moment throughout. Comedy-wise though, this episode is a lot stronger, and while I can’t say that every joke hits its mark, it certainly had me laughing quite a bit, and the final punchline, in particular, was pretty great. All in all it’s safe to say that Mob Psycho 100 has a great shot at living up to the excitement surrounding it, and now that it’s more or less given us an idea of what it hopes to accomplish, I’m looking forward to seeing just how much it can get out of its theme.
In Summary:
Mob Psycho 100’s second episode manages to improve on the first as it gives us both a clearer picture of Mob’s character and what the overall theme of the show actually seems to be. Action-wise this one is a bit of a step-down, but it’s more than balanced out by stronger gags, and the overall consistency of the show’s energetic visuals. It’s still a bit too soon to say how effective the show’s formula will be, but if this episode is any indication, I don’t think it’ll have any problems delivering on it’s potential.
Grade: A
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
