Mob Psycho 100 III

Shigeo’s Character Growth

Mob Psycho 100 III (モブサイコ100 III) is the third season of the Mob Psycho anime. And the main focus of this season is Shigeo’s personal growth. But, isn’t that what the whole series is about? Yes. However, this season focuses even more on it.

In the first 2 seasons, Shigeo would often find himself in difficult situations due to his powers. And he would grow as a person by overcoming these situations. But, this season is a bit different. It’s more about the culmination of his growth.

That’s not to say Shigeo doesn’t still find himself in tricky situations. But, at this point, he’s a lot more confident in who he is. He knows what he has to do to overcome whatever’s in his path. And the best example of this is his confrontation with Dimple which I’ll get to in a bit.

Another main theme of this season is finishing what you started. This applies to Shigeo’s goals, but also the goals of other characters. One such character is Tome Kurata, the president of the Telepathy Club. She started the club to find proof of things like telepaths, aliens, etc.

And, while she did end up finding Telepaths, she still felt that her time as president was a waste. Finding proof of aliens would have been the big success of her (school) career. So, Shigeo, some other telepaths, and the Telepathy Club set out to help her make her discovery.

When you combine personal growth and finishing what you started, you get closure. That’s the big takeaway of the season. And, it’s fitting considering this may be the final season of the series. At least, I’ve been told this is the final season. There’s nothing left to adapt.

Dimple Is Peak Mob Psycho

I need to start this section of the review by saying that I’ve never liked Dimple. And that’s why I was so surprised when a Dimple episode actually made me feel things. But, that just goes to show how good ONE is at writing characters and stories.

Somehow, he made me care about a character as unlikeable and gross as Dimple. That’s why I think the Shigeo vs. Dimple episode of Mob Psycho 100 III is the peak of the series. Also, if all you care about is action, this is still a pretty good fight.

But, how did ONE make me care about Dimple? He humanized Dimple through Dimple’s interactions with Shigeo.

As we all know, Dimple wants to become a god. And in this season, he pretty much achieves this goal by becoming Psycho Helmet. Due to all Psycho Helmet’s worshippers, Dimple gains near-unlimited power.

However, Shigeo mentions something important when he finally confronts Dimple. He brings up the fact that Dimple has never tried to become a god and take over the world on his own. And even now, with all this power, he’s still trying to invite Shigeo over to his side.

Why is that? Well, as Shigeo points out, it’s that having unlimited power isn’t really what Dimple is after. Yes, unlimited power is cool. But what’s even cooler is having fun with your friends. And Shigeo is right in guessing that friends are what Dimple actually wants.

Every time Dimple has a scheme, he invites Shigeo to join him. And when they have disagreements or fights, Dimple always returns to Shigeo’s side. Of course, Dimple is a bit of a tsundere. So, he doesn’t want to admit that this is the case. But, Shigeo knows it’s true either way.

The Final Season of Mob Psycho?

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been told that this is the final season of Mob Psycho 100. I haven’t checked to see if that’s true for myself. But, it does make sense. Everything that the series set up in earlier seasons had a conclusion in this one.

Dimple finally admitting that he wants to be Shigeo’s friend is one example. But, both other main characters, Shigeo and Reigen, also got good conclusions. Dimple’s character arc conclusion was my favorite. However, I’m not sure which is my second favorite. Maybe Reigen’s because it was a happier ending.

The end of Reigen’s story involves him revealing to Shigeo that he never had psychic powers. To some extent, Shigeo already knew this was the case. At least, the “other” Shigeo he kept locked away inside himself did. But, this still comes as a huge shock.

Despite knowing deep down that Reigen was lying to him, Shigeo still has a hard time believing it. But, what makes this scene so great is what comes later. Even though Reigen had been lying to Shigeo for years, that doesn’t change anything. Shigeo still values Reigen as a friend and master.

And now for Shigeo’s ending. From the very start of the series, he wanted to confess his love to Tsubomi-chan. That’s why he joined the Body Improvement Club, after all.

At the end of the series, Shigeo finally gets his chance to confess. She even waits for him where they agreed to meet despite the inclement weather and his tardiness. But, things don’t go how Shigeo hoped they would. Tsubomi turns him down.

The thing is, we knew this is probably how it would end. Earlier in the season, Tsubomi told Reigen that she liked someone else. But, I was still rooting for Shigeo.

Conclusion

I ended up giving Mob Psycho 100 III a 9/10, making it my highest-rated anime of the fall 2022 season. It also has one of my favorite OPs of the year, but I don’t think it’s the best.

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