Mob Psycho 100 II

Mob Psycho 100 II

Mob Psycho 100 II anime series cover art
Mob Psycho 100 II

Season Overview

Mob Psycho 100 II (モブサイコ100 II) is the sequel to the popular Mob Psycho 100. It’s only been a little over a year since I reviewed the first season, so this review isn’t as late as some of the others I’ve done recently and plan to do in the future. However, since the series received some attention over on Twitter, I figured now was a good time to watch season two.

Overall, season two is structured in very much the same way as season one. That being, the first two thirds of the series focus more on slice of life-esque content while the major plot enters in the final third. But, that’s not to say there isn’t any action or meaningful content before the end. It just has a much more casual feel and is almost disjointed.

In the first season, I actually preferred the more casual parts of the series than the major plot that was introduced at the end. However, I wouldn’t say that was necessarily the case this time around. Maybe the transition was smoother this time around, or maybe it’s because I expected it to happen, but the swap from Mob’s everyday life to the action felt much more natural in season two.

It did a better job of tying in everything that led up to the action than the first season did. The first season’s major plot and action seemed to come out of nowhere.

And because of this better blend of the two parts of the series, I can’t really think of anything I disliked about Mob Psycho 100 II. Maybe there could have been more bits of action sprinkled throughout the first two thirds, but I wouldn’t say that the series suffered because it didn’t do that.

Powers and Battles

I didn’t really remember any esper abilities from the first season other than barriers ant telekinesis. But, considering some of the characters from season one were shown to use pyrokinetic abilities among others, they were probably used in the first season as well.

But, I really liked some of the esper abilities that were introduced in this season as well as how they were incorporated into the battles. There are two that really stood out to me, though, teleportation and plant control. And yes, I know that these aren’t exactly the most unique abilities around.

Shimazaki’s teleportation was probably my favorite esper ability showcased this season. Obviously, Shimazaki is just a cool character and he was the main antagonist in what I think most people would agree is the best fight of the season (taking place in episode 11). But, there’s more I like about him and his ability than that.

Shimazaki vs. Teruki from the anime series Mob Psycho 100 II
Shimazaki vs. Teruki

For starters, I think teleportation is a cool ability in general when actually used in combat. On the surface, it’s pretty standard, but it’s how its wielder uses it that makes it one of the coolest abilities. For example, Kuroko from A Certain Scientific Railgun uses hers to teleport weapons inside of people and objects.

But Shimazaki uses his teleportation in a more standard way, and yet it was still great because he was also using information to his advantage. Not only was he gathering information by sensing where other espers were around him, but he was also hiding information about his own powers. At first, Teruki thought he had extreme speed, not teleportation.

I like the plant control ability for an entirely different reason. One of the final enemies used plants to fight, which would have been pretty standard on its own. But throughout the first half of the season, we got to see glimpses of plant control from evil spirits and Mob himself.

So by the time we encountered a truly powerful plant controller, we understood how it worked and how to combat it without that needing to be explained during the big fight. This is a great example of setting up how a power works beforehand so we can focus on the action later on.

Character Development

For me, the best part of Mob Psycho 100 II is the character development. Characters are more important than action is as far as I’m concerned. And while this season delivered in both departments, I think the character development was the better of the two.

All three of the main characters, Shigeo, Reigen, and Dimple grew a lot over the course of these 13 episodes. Shigeo’s development was the most obvious. Even at the start of this season, he was still shy and didn’t quite believe in himself yet. But, with the help of the Body Improvement Club and his master, Reigen, he learned to stand up for himself and make his own decisions.

And what I think was most compelling about Shigeo’s growth is that it mainly due to him being forced to rely on Reigen less. There were more scenarios in this season where it became clear to Shigeo that Reigen wasn’t able to solve every problem the pair encountered.

Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama from the anime series Mob Psycho 100 II
Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama

Reigen’s and Dimple’s development were pretty similar. Previously, they had both been content with using Shigeo to achieve their own goals. And while that’s still somewhat the case, we’ve now seen them transition into viewing Shigeo as his own person, and more importantly, their friend.

For Dimple, the realization that Shigeo is his friend came when Shigeo trusted Dimple to control his body while he was having an out-of-body experience. Since Dimple’s goal was always to steal Shigeo’s body, this was a huge show of trust.

For Reigen, the same outcome was achieved, but by very different means. Once Shigeo decided that he needed to distance himself from Reigen for a time so that he could make his own decisions, Reigen realized just how important Shigeo was to him. He didn’t simply keep Shigeo around to use him, but because the two were friends.

Conclusion

Since Mob Psycho 100 II was a definite improvement over the first season, it gets a 9/10 from me. There was nothing it did poorly, and it did just about everything well, but I don’t feel like it was quite a 10. If there were more episodes like episode 11, I think it probably would have been a 10/10, though.

As for the OP and ED, I didn’t really feel anything special about the ED. But, the OP is extremely good, as I’m sure everyone who’s watched the series will agree. And I think this season’s OP improved on the first season’s OP in every way. I definitely prefer this song, and after rewatching the first OP, I definitely prefer the second OP’s visuals as well.

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My review of Season 3 is available now.

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