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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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.

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.

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.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Season 3 is available now.

Overview

Mob Psycho 100 (モブサイコ100) is a supernatural comedy series from the same creator as One Punch Man, ONE. And if I’m honest, I wasn’t sure if I would really like this series when I started it. I felt the same way about OPM before I watched it, but I ended up really enjoying that one in the end.

However, Mob is a fairly different series and the circumstances surrounding my introduction to it were different as well. With OPM I was originally hesitant to watch it because I’m not all that into superheroes and everyone seemed to love it. And by everyone I mean a lot of people who don’t watch all that much anime, so I expected something like Sword Art Online.

Now, luckily OPM wasn’t like SAO, which is part of the reason I was willing to give Mob a shot as well. But, while I wouldn’t say that everyone seemed to love Mob, those who do often claimed that it was the best anime series. The fact that Monogatari is the actual best aside, when multiple people constantly hype up a series, it tends to disappoint in the end.

Anyway, what’s this series all about? It’s about a kid with psychic powers who just wants to live a normal life, but always gets roped into crazy situations, partially due to his mentor, a washed-up conman. In a way you can think of Mob as simply a supernatural version of OPM, though that’s a pretty broad comparison.

The reality is that while these two series may share ONE’s art style and sense of humor, the stories they tell are very different. While OPM is a story about saving the world, but being bored while doing so, Mob is about being the person you want to be despite the situation you were born into.

It may sound strange, but Mob is actually a much more down to Earth story.

That said, the story wasn’t actually the part of Mob that I cared about. The first half of the season (this is solely a review of season one by the way) was pretty much a supernatural slice of life series. And aside from the episode which introduced Dimple, I preferred it over the latter half which became much more plot-driven.

Speaking of the episode that introduced Dimple, that was by far the worst episode of the entire season. If I had to rate that episode alone it would probably be a 2 or 3/10. Other than the shot that said “Mob loves milk” there wasn’t really anything of interest to me.

Characters

This section is going to include some spoilers. So keep that in mind if you plan to continue on.

The titular character is Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama. Don’t ask me why his nickname is Mob, because I actually don’t know. It must have been explained at some point, but I’m pretty sure the only person to actually call him that is his mentor, Reigen. Everyone else either calls him Shigeo or Kageyama(-kun).

Mob has had psychic powers for as long as he can remember, and as far as he’s concerned they simply end up getting in the way. His silverware bends when he tries to eat, and other kids at school think he’s weird because of his powers. However, he doesn’t let that stop him from attempting to live a normal school life.

And because he’s trying to live a normal life, he doesn’t want to use his psychic powers. Instead, he wants to woo the girl of his dreams by getting in shape. To this end, he joins the body improvement club (who just so happen to be some of the best characters in the series).

But there are times at which Mob will use his powers, mainly when confronted by an evil spirit of some sort which he has to exorcise at the behest of Reigen.

Reigen is Mob’s mentor, sort of. He actually just lies to and uses Mob, but he still does seem to genuinely care about and look out for him. Reigen works as a psychic and “specializes” in exorcisms, though he’s actually just a conman who calls Mob in whenever there actually turns out to be an evil spirit.

He even pays Mob for his work, although it can barely be called pay and is more like he gives him the loose change found in his pocket. However, the real thing Reigen gives to Mob is guidance. He may not actually know anything about having psychic powers, but he does still give actual life advice meant to help Mob.

A great example of this is how Reigen was the one who created a rule for Mob about never using his powers against other humans. Sure, he specifically said humans so that he could continue to leverage Mob’s powers to exorcise spirits, but at the same time, he knew that harming humans would send Mob down a dark path.

My favorite Reigen moment of the series came in during the climax of the series towards the end when Reigen actually intervenes in a fight between Mob and enemy espers. Despite not being an esper himself, Reigen was willing to put himself between Mob and the enemy to prevent Mob from using his powers against humans.

Also, a fun fact about Reigen is that he’s voiced by Takahiro Sakurai who you may know from his other roles which deal with spirits, the Medicine Seller from Mononoke and Meme Oshino from the Monogatari Series. I love how he plays the roles of a spirit hunter, a spirit mediator, and a spirit fraud.

Other notable characters from this series are Dimple – an evil spirit defeated by Mob who often takes the form of a gas cloud, Ritsu – Mob’s younger brother who desires psychic powers, Teruki – a psychic from another school who befriends Mob, and Musashi – the president of the body improvement club.

I could discuss these other characters at length, but I think I’ll instead end this section with a brief word on Musashi and the body improvement club. First of all, despite already being spoiled on the whole body improvement club thing, I still thought that was a great way to subvert a common, school anime trope.

But what I really love about Musashi and the rest of the body improvement club is that they accept Mob for who he is. Despite him being a small, weak, dork, they still cheer him on and empower him to follow his dream of becoming physically fit. They don’t care who he is, what they care about is that he’s committed to exercising like they are, even though he’s bad at it.

Conclusion

In the end, I decided that Mob Psycho 100 was a 7/10. Originally I had it rated as an 8, but after thinking about it more for a few days I decided it wasn’t quite as good as the other series I gave 8s to. For example, OPM is an 8, and I liked that a decent amount more than Mob.

I do hear though that the second season of Mob is better than the first, so perhaps that one will be an 8 or higher. I don’t really feel like it’s going to be a 10 as many people have tried to convince me, but maybe I’ll be proven wrong.

If you enjoyed this review, be sure to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content or schedule updates. I tweet out every time a new post goes live, so it’s the best way to stay up to date.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the second season is available here.