G-4rce Anime Reviews: Mob Psycho 100
Let's not start with an introduction for this review. It's gonna take me like 4 hours to finish this review anyways so let's just get into it...Reception
8.56 on MyAnimeList
Ranked #79
My Thoughts and Review:
Alright, it's been a long time coming. Mob Psycho 100... oh man. Oh, man. First let me start off by saying that once I began this anime, I was not expecting it to be this good. Like, no, this anime is not only good, it's almost up there with the pros, and the pros are spectaculars like Hunter x Hunter, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Yu Yu Hakusho, Attack on Titan... you see where I'm getting at here. If you haven't realized it by now, Mob Psycho 100 is from ONE, the creator of the worldwide phenomenon One Punch Man. I first found out about this anime through my usual way of finding out stuff: YouTube. Saw a couple of videos and I just thought "Why not," but my expectations for this anime were no more than this: a straight carbon copy of One Punch Man. It turned out to be way more than that, though. It featured some major aspects that were used in OPM, but a few differences...
One, the art direction is different. As a matter of fact, it's highly unique and distinguishable. The overall design of the characters and settings are very, very rough and cartoony. It kinda looks like a little kid's first good drawing, which some people didn't like about the anime, but I actually was amused by it because I've never seen this kind of art style used before. Although, knowing ONE, the animation behind the design is phenomenal and normally at full burst in its action sequences. Movement is insanely fast-paced and runs at, like, 100 frames per second or something. There's also an insane attention to detail, which may include some tiny details that you may not catch the first time watching. Camera choice and movement is also a bit deteriorating, which is actually a plus in action scenes like these. If you remember how good the animation was in One Punch Man, expect that sort of talent to be in here. Two, the story is balls deep; simply masterful, which is right up my alley. Mob Psycho 100 is the story of Shigeo Kageyama, also referred to as "Mob", who is a powerful Esper, which is basically a paranormal psychic. Mob can move objects with his mind and exorcise evil spirits with hardly any effort. In terms of how powerful he is, think of Saitama from One Punch Man, but replace the physical prowess with psychic abilities and powers and you got Mob. So basically, Mob is virtually unbeatable, but the thing that makes him such a wonderful character is that he tries to limit his strength. Mob is mostly a pacifist. He refuses to hurt humans using his powers due to an incident in his childhood and to Arataka Reigen, his job boss's, teachings. Now Reigen is a fantastic character in this anime. He falsely poses as an Esper and refuses to reveal to Mob that he's just a normal human, but he is highly intelligent and has the luck of a freaking god. Reigen has gained a heavy relationship with Mob to the point where Mob looks up to him as sort of a father figure. Reigen has trained Mob to refrain from using his abilities against humans, no matter what they've done to him, and Mob takes this by heart. Although, Mob's abilities can sometimes be manipulated by his emotions. I have yet to state that Mob is almost emotionless. He has no anger, happiness, or sadness among others, yet he does show to have love for another person. Sometimes Mob's psychic abilities can be manipulated by emotions, as it is shown by a percentage rate on when his next "explosion" comes. As Mob's emotions become more and more intense, the percentage number rises. Once it reaches 100%, one single emotion is activated in Mob and his powers become heavily enhanced. If he feels rage, you're basically f*cked. Mob's personality provides a whole different level of intensity to the anime and governs his choices in bad situations. Mob also has a younger brother named Ritsu Kageyama. Ritsu is another fantastic character. As a matter of fact, there are two episodes that revolve mainly around him. As we get deeper into Ritsu's personality, we see that he's a different breed of character. He is a very smart and honorable young boy, but he is very jealous of Mob and wishes to become an Esper just like him, which results in a level of antagonization applied to him in his two episodes. In these episodes, Ritsu finally unlocks his psychic abilities which are activated and grow due to his stress. Ritsu applies more stress to himself by becoming a corrupt member of his school council and passing off dirty deeds to grow his strength. Ritsu also uses his abilities to fight others, something that he knows Mob refuses to do. Regardless of Mob finding out what Ritsu has been doing for the past few days, he still shows him brotherly love, which is pretty much a result of his own emotionless personality. Another major character in the series is a young boy from a rival school named Teruki Hanazawa. Hanazawa starts off as a very bitchy character. For a major part of his life, he has believed that he was the only one in the world with psychic abilities. Once he runs into Mob, he becomes highly emotional picks a huge fight with him, but this backfires when he tampers with Mob's emotions and Mob explodes on him. After witnessing this, Hanazawa changes from a narcissistic ass hole to a lovable cinnamon roll. He has no intent on being hostile when it is not necessary and he's suddenly becomes a super nice person. Pretty much a likable character by all means.
In reminiscence, the character development in this anime is very strong. The things that went wrong in for these kids take a huge toll on their personality and their choices. The main idea of the anime is that Mob is trying to find meaning in his life which transitions into a natural means of him growing up and making his own choices, and the people around him heavily affect the choices he makes. These types of characters result in a highly exciting storyline. The anime does start off pretty basic for the first 4 episodes, but it was mainly meant to introduce the major characters. Once episode 5 hits, that's when things kick off. Each episode provides one exciting moment after the other, and I found myself constantly running my way through them at 1:00 in the morning. This anime has some One Punch Man elements like silly moments and comedy, but it's mixed in with a serious and intriguing plot. As the first season was finishing off, I was getting very excited to do this review. Everything about this anime seemed so perfect, but, surprisingly enough, there was a bit of a downside. It was the final episode of the season...
So there are three reasons this episode was actually in the anime and was the "finale" of the Season 1. One, they were only making the first season with 12 episodes. Two, it's ONE's style of "trolling" people, or just making a story go in an unexpected direction, which is the right way to go, but ONE executed it in an unexpected way, which I'll explain in a minute. Three, the episode was in the manga, of course, so regardless if the first season was 12 or 24 episodes, this one would've still made the cut. This final episode was foreshadowing a second season, so basically, I wouldn't really call it a "finale" but more like the ending of the first half of a season. I'm guessing that the season 1 was supposed to have more episodes, but they kept it to 12 which I can kinda understand since animation for an anime like this costs a lot of money. Now why exactly did I find this last episode disappointing? I felt it was... kinda rushed. It was like One Punch Man-style: it was filled with constant dialogue and ONE's silly comedy. I'm not going to say that it was a bad episode, because it really wasn't, but this anime as a whole is far-fetched from OPM. As a matter of fact, it's almost a polar opposite. I always saw One Punch Man as an overrated gem. The action is incredible and the comedy is well-executed in the anime, but as far as the main plot and storyline, it didn't catch my interest. Mob Psycho 100 simply wasn't going in that direction until that final episode dropped. It stayed on track with superb storytelling, and as a matter of fact, the story was so f*cking good that it literally made me forget all of the silly moments that were thrown into the anime, so I really can't blame the style of this episode. Just the fact that it was the ending to S1 really tore me to pieces and I was expecting something much more captivating. The bright side of this final episode is that it's not really the end of the subject at hand. Mob and his friends raid the enemy headquarters and beat the bad guys in it in such an unexpected way, but that wasn't the final battle. After their quarrel with the pawns, they haven't gotten deeper into the enemy organization and the real leader of it was shown in the episode, so basically, it's not the end of the arc. We've only scratched the surface, but this means I have to wait an ENTIRE F*CKING YEAR, maybe two, FOR THIS F*CKING NEXT GOD DAMN SEASON TO DROP... *repeatedly bangs head on keyboard*
Oh, sorry bout that. Let's get into my final verdict...
Overall 9.5/10 Amazing:
Okay yes, that last episode was quite a slap in the face, but have I lost any shred of hope in this anime? Aw, hell no my man. I mean, Mob Psycho 100 had it all: amazing story, wonderful characters, awesome animation and badass action, but due to the foreshadowing finale of S1, this entire review is virtually incomplete and it prevented me from giving it a perfect score. Believe me, before that final episode dropped, I was aching to give this a straight 10/10; it's that damn good. I highly recommend any anime fan to watch this as soon as possible, but if you want a full scoop, then wait for S2 to drop. Hopefully, things will stay on track once it does. Considering how purely incredible this anime is, I have very high expectations for it. Please ONE, don't f*ck with me. I'm way too black for this sh*t (just a joke, don't take it seriously). This was one of the greatest anime in the last 5 years, and I am now a hardcore fan. Do not disappoint me as one of your fans. Bring on season 2 because I am all ready for it.
BRING IT.
Comments
Good review. I am watching it right now. Good anime. - visitor
Good review - ProPanda
Thanks 👍 - visitor
Good review. - Skullkid755
Thanks - visitor
I might watch this entirely when I have free, and even if I don't, I still might check it out. Good review. - SwagFlicks
Thanks - visitor
*free time - SwagFlicks
Huh. - WonkeyDude98
Wut... - visitor
I don't know - Skullkid755
Should've saw this when this was still played on Animax asia(haven't checked the channel for a while, so I don't know If this is still on). I mean, all they play now is only Assassination classroom(not really, though. I'm neutral with Assassination Classroom, But It's hogging airtime. Even they do play other shows like Ranma1/2 and Fairy tail) - MLPFan
You can still check it out on KissAnime - visitor