Mob Psycho Universe - Thread Title Season 2

Kizuchan

So, episode 8 was another great episode, especially when it comes to animation. I mean wow. I really like Ritsu and Mob, but I'm still kind of waiting on a central statement for the story. I thought it was leading up to something theme-wise, but it's just been some fun characters and spectacle. One Punch Man had it's statement right in episode 1 and ran with that simple statement throughout the story, Mob Psycho seems to have bits and pieces here and there so far, but nothing unifying. What the hell is it actually about?

If it's just spectacle with some cool characters by the end OPM will be the better one to me.

Wagomu

Mob Psycho is a much more dynamic series than OPM ever has been. The growth of the characters is the main thread throughout the series, but there is a centralized theme that has been showing up time and time again and will continue to throughout the series. It's the idea that there's more to life than a single talent, and not to get arrogant about that. Dimple thinks he can use psychic power to become god, Teru thought he was the main character of the world just for having it, Ritsu became so obsessed with it that he threw away his other good qualities to pursue it, and now Claw wants to take over the world with it. Just how far can that get them, alone, though? While they're wrapped in their delusions, the world around them keeps moving, and no matter how much they try to force people to accept them, people never will.

ONE has said before that the driving theme in Mob is kindness, and that makes sense. Above the themes I mentioned is a deeply rooted sense that social bonds are important, and that no talent really serves a purpose without them. Mob aspires to fit in with other people, while all the antagonists think that they're beyond that.

There's some more to find in terms of the story's statement, since it isn't entirely a one note affair, but those are probably the biggest ones that stand out.

Purple Hermit

There's also the theme of discovering all of Reigen's secret techniques

Wagomu

The main theme of Mob Psycho 100 is that Reigen is the best. How could I forget something as obvious as that.

Kizuchan

I thought I would like Reigen a lot, but Mob and Ritsu are the best characters and I don't care much for others (well, the body builder club guys are cool too). Sometimes the jokes with Reigen work and sometimes they don't for me - this episode's didn't really work for me.

I also see a theme similar to what you said building up, but for some reason it just feels kinda incomplete? (Which makes sense, the story isn't complete yet) I dunno how to describe it. Empty? No, I care about it on a character level. I care about Mob and Ritsu - this episode did such a great job displaying their bond. Everything was really raw, from the blows to the emotions.

I don't really feel a "hook" to it? Hard to explain, haha.

Purple Hermit

Reigen is actually a really great character in terms of development as things go along. He's played off mostly for laughs in the beginning but the first spark of his own sense of morality was when Mob was fighting Teru. And he only ever really gets better from there.

The next arc should be a strong showcase of how great each of the different characters are.

Wagomu

The themes also get to be more apparent as the characters grow as people and end up coming against more deluded people.

I think the character growth is something a lot of the anime people weren't and/or aren't expecting. I can say with confidence, though, that by the end of this arc, you'll see Reigen as 1000% better than you did before.

Kizuchan

I enjoy it a ton as a spectacle. You don't get great animation and unique style like that with every anime. We'll see how I'll see it by the end of season 1.

I mean OPM is kinda like this to me too, I enjoy it a lot while watching, but it didn't truly stick to me - I haven't kept up with the manga chapters for a while or seeked out the webcomic or anything.

I've rewatched the fight in episode 8 again and it really is great. It's the 90s animation raw feeling - the emotions almost pop out of the screen.

Sander

Is…is there an ongoing animated show out there matching this animation quality? I don't think there is.

I guess this is what happens when you pair up Sakuga and top class art direction with animation-friendly art and chara design of ONE. So many people crap on ONEs artwork, but your more detailed character designs sure as heck ain't converted into THIS.

Good lord this episode made my jaw drop hard. This is a greater visual treat than OPM.

And yes, Reigen is the greatest. I don't want to overhype anything, but if you're absolutely anything like me, Reigen's about torock your world in novel ways.

Cyclone_Baroness

Hot damn this was an awesome episode. I literally sat upright once the adult esper started beating on Mob.

Urge to read ahead: 75%

Ruin

the full version of the OP is out too, btw

it's pretty great

Lef

https://twitter.com/59033ihcimihsoy/status/770878073235382272

Member of Mob Choir :

Tachikawa Yuzuru (Director)
Seko Hiroshi (Series Composition)
Minami Masahiko (President of BONES)
Kameda Yoshimichi (Character Designer, Chief Animation Director)
Kobayashi Sho (Draft Story assistant)

2nd season WHEN?

SpaceCowboy

Only had time to watch the anime now.

The animation is brilliant, but somethimes I feel like there´s too much "movement" in the way characters interact with each other in the slice of life parts, kind of like one of those gag animes, almost like Bonez is afraid that people will get bored if there isn´t something happening all the time. It´s just a minor complaint of mine though.
The battles scenes are just amazing.
I also notices that they took some liberties in some of the "missions", like the one where they go to the all female school. Not really a bad thing. I guess it was just a way to showcase more of the Mob/Reigen Dynamic.

Also, I don´t remember the tunnel mission on the first episode at all. Was it just an anime thing?

Wagomu

The tunnel thing was part omake, part original. In the original, it ends with Mob exorcising the biker spirit.

SpaceCowboy

That´s it then. I thought the biker dude seemed familiar, but I recently re-read the whole thing and I didn´t read that chapter, so I was confused.

John Doe

Holy shiiiiit joseph joeystar's voice

I knew it

! Reigen was my favorite since the beginning
It seemed obvious he was hiding something when Ritsu told him he was a fraud.

Kizuchan

Uh, okay. That twist is possible joke set-up. Guess Reigen can secretly be a badass, too, but whatever happens, I guess? The fire animation was really awesome this episode.

LordPerucho

Best Plot-twist in the industry in the last 20 years.

DIO

http://vgmdb.net/album/61301

So it seems that the Anime will have a 2 Disc Soundtrack Release that comes out around Thanksgiving Week

Wagomu

Oh man, I just love love loved this episode. When reading this all in the manga, I wasn't really sure I liked the execution, but goddamn the anime adaptation got me feeling emotions. Great cliffhanger, too. The next episode is going to be a hell of a ride.

Kizuchan

I always love the theme of staying human in face of cruelty. I've got my thematic hook.

It's not so much a hook than bringing things together. All explosions so far a have been caused of negative emotions. In a way, Mob has been fighting himself, to be a good person. I love whenever a story makes a statement like this. It's powerful.

I mean you can enjoy shit for spectacle, but I love this the most.

A true adult is a kind and mature person and while Reigen is a con-artist, he isn't cruel like the members of Claw are, but because he tells Mob to not fight… he dies.

;A;

Why you do this. Y.

I think it might have an happier ending than the implied one at the end of this episode, at least. We'll see.

KaizokuJinbei

@Wagomu:

Oh man, I just love love loved this episode. When reading this all in the manga, I wasn't really sure I liked the execution, but goddamn the anime adaptation got me feeling emotions. Great cliffhanger, too. The next episode is going to be a hell of a ride.

I agree….1000% :ninja:

LordPerucho

I just noticed Teru with short hair looks like Naruto, heh.

Kizuchan

The Redraw Reigen tag is a thing.

AfroSamurai

@Kizuchan:

The Redraw Reigen tag is a thing.

This is one of the weirdest yet funniest hashtag trends I've ever seen How did it even start?!

Cyclone_Baroness

@Kizuchan:

The Redraw Reigen tag is a thing.

That's amazing.

On a side note I didn't care at all about Reigen. But this episode made me change my entire opinion about him. Interest to start reading 100%

Buuuut….I want to wait for a non cliffhanger before I start. I love the surprise of everything that's happened. And I have no idea how much content the manga has ahead of the anime.

SpaceCowboy

@Cyclone_Baroness:

That's amazing.

On a side note I didn't care at all about Reigen. But this episode made me change my entire opinion about him. Interest to start reading 100%

Buuuut….I want to wait for a non cliffhanger before I start. I love the surprise of everything that's happened. And I have no idea how much content the manga has ahead of the anime.

Roughly 100 chapters, but it´s inconsistent since some chapters are smaller than others.
The manga is on chapter 96 and the anime currently around 50 (haven´t watched the last couple of episodes, gonna do it in a couple of minutes), but ONE uses a "Chapter 60.1" "Chapter 60.2" system for a certain sequence of events, so it surpasses a 46 chapter difference.

If the last episode is what I think it is, then you won´t have a cliffhanger in 1 or 2 episodes. Unless they change the pacing in order to have another.

Kizuchan

The one big thing I haven't mentioned is that Reigen ended up in all of this through bullshitting.

What he says is great and powerful, but he's a great wise mentor through complete accident. lol.

Purple Hermit

Mmmm I wouldn't say bullshitting. I'd say it's more that he happens to have a very good perspective on life that he tried to impart on a kid. Same deal with his business. Even if the premise of it is BS, he still gets the job done for the most part for people. The facade just helps attract people to him that need help.

Kizuchan

Well, I don't know past the anime stuff (I think I have been sadly spoiled with the word gratitude and city being destroyed), but to be more specific I think it's partially just talking out of his rear for the giggles, but partially also sincere.

He comes up with all this crap to keep Mob in the dark, but it also seems to be a "good" person.

Kizuchan

and… that was kind of anti-climatic. I mean it wrapped everything up thematically and character-wise, but it was really low-key.

So, in the end I think it's solid. I really like some of the themes. It looks great, the characters are enjoyable. It just took a bunch of time to get to the point, though. The first half is really slow in hindsight.

If I had to compare it to OPM, I'd say OPM definitely had better pacing and despite the themes, I think OPM did more with the point it had to make, so I think OPM wins it out for me as of fresh series finale impressions and Sweetness and Lightning is ultimately my season winner.

Wagomu

And there you have it, folks! The anime of the year.

I love seeing how people's opinions on Reigen did a 180 through the season. Reigen 1000% is such a great moment.

Also, if you didn't know, the segment at the end with the tsuchinoko had ONE providing key animations. That's really exciting!

If you're put off a little by the pacing, I'd try the manga. ONE's style on Mob Psycho likes to play with escalation and deescalation, sometimes in really short time spans (compared to OPM, which had the very cinematic redraw focused on escalation). This works really well in the manga, but I can see how it doesn't translate well to the anime for some folks. I have to say, though, that BONES did an admirable job of adapting it. The anime has its own flavor, which does justice to the series in an animated format. They made some good decisions on switching some scenes around, giving certain ones more impact, and pacing the episodes. In the manga, I had a few issues with the end of the fight with the 7th division, but the anime really made the moment land for me.

I'm hoping Mob does well enough in sales to get a season 2. By including Shou's phone call, it seems like the team is more than up for it, and the show has brought a lot of new fans to the Psycho Helmet fold, so I think it's almost guaranteed.

I want to support it as well and find a Mob shirt or something. If anyone knows where to look, I'd love to hear.

Baldulf

I feel refreshed and satisfied after the last episode.

I'm usually wary of adaptations and prefer the original source but Bones did an outstanding job, nothing to complain about here. The second season cant come soon enough.

Wagomu

Watching the anime has made me appreciate the series all the more. I've been seeing a lot more parallels in the confrontation here and the eventual boss battle that I didn't before, and it makes me more excited to see how people react to it.

Manga spoilers:

! The fight with the 7th division has Mob really forcing himself along instinctively for Ritsu's sake. It's not a situation he's prepared for or knows how to deal with, and so he keeps fighting blindly. It took Reigen to make him think about what he was doing and realize that he couldn't meet his enemies with killing intent, or he'd really just be hurting himself. Instead, Reigen uses his words along with his inherited strength to drag the Claw members out of their delusions, and get them to stop being aggressive children.
! By the time Mob confronts the President, he does it because he wants to both stop the guy from harming his friends, and because he wants to help him as a human being. Mob loses grip a little in the fight, because he isn't as confident or strong as Reigen, and the battle does take a big emotional toll on him, but he ultimately gets a grip of himself and convinces the President to give up, with his own kindness.
! It makes me think of what would have happened if Mob really went through with fighting the last 7th division guys, without Reigen to pull him out. It would have been pretty devastating.

SpaceCowboy

@Kizuchan:

and… that was kind of anti-climatic. I mean it wrapped everything up thematically and character-wise, but it was really low-key.

That´s the point though.

Ruin

good show
really good show

They call me D

Does the anime follow the manga well enough? Could I pickup the manga where the show leaves off and not be missing much, or lost?

statu variabilis

@They:

Does the anime follow the manga well enough? Could I pickup the manga where the show leaves off and not be missing much, or lost?

It does, and you could

Kizuchan

@SpaceCowboy:

That´s the point though.

Well, that's what I meant with my whole post.

Yeah, it kind of felt anti-climatic to me, but at the same time it makes sense considering what the point of the story was. I kinda was expecting "more" in terms of execution, but at the same time this more lowkey finale corresponded to what the story wanted to say. It's part of the point that Reigen defeated these guys as he did.

Daz

Having watched the first two episodes, the adaptation is more hyper than I'd have preferred. The standouts for me were the more quiet, calm scenes following Mob at school or with his family, but everything else feels like its been cranked to 11; theres constantly some visual gimmick to regular conversations, extreme and exaggerated movement, frequent cuts, and dialogue coming at an almost breathless pace. Its like watching something in fast-forward mode, where a few seconds of breathing space have been excised from everything. This of course isn't surprising with just 12 episodes for the amount of chapters, and I know extreme exaggerated reactions and movements are a Japanese comedy staple, but I've just always seen Mob as more relaxed and contemplative than that, though I supsect a large part of that is ONEs rough drawing style and the difference in format. Still, the animation is a perfect fit, but more episodes and a slower pace would've been my preference.

Cyclone_Baroness

That was pretty good. Mob is a soild character in my book. That episode was pretty fantastic. And Reigen definitely has the strongest talk no jutsu.
I loved thw chaotic imagery. It kind of reminded me of the Yellow Submarine movie.

Wagomu

Chapters through 97.1 are up and about the internet (96.7 and 97.1 can be found on these links for now, since they aren't up and about conventional sites yet).

! It feels weird for people like Ritsu and Reigen to get taken over, considering they both had arcs where they learned just how much Shigeo meant to them, but I suppose the point is to get him alone with Dimple. We're just at the start of the confrontation, too. This has been a strange arc, overall, but I'm still feeling somewhat hyped for what's to come, since I really don't know what direction this is going in.
! After this, the one thing left for the story is maybe a confrontation between Mob and his ???% self, or at least coming to terms with it. I figure the chapter numbering is so that we end on 100, or possibly 101, and we're tying up loose ends now, so we've got to be getting close to the end. It makes me really look forward to what's to come.

Purple Hermit

@Wagomu:

Chapters through 97.1 are up and about the internet (96.7 and 97.1 can be found on these links for now, since they aren't up and about conventional sites yet).

! It feels weird for people like Ritsu and Reigen to get taken over, considering they both had arcs where they learned just how much Shigeo meant to them, but I suppose the point is to get him alone with Dimple. We're just at the start of the confrontation, too. This has been a strange arc, overall, but I'm still feeling somewhat hyped for what's to come, since I really don't know what direction this is going in.
! After this, the one thing left for the story is maybe a confrontation between Mob and his ???% self, or at least coming to terms with it. I figure the chapter numbering is so that we end on 100, or possibly 101, and we're tying up loose ends now, so we've got to be getting close to the end. It makes me really look forward to what's to come.

! Mmm I interpreted it more as the influence of the broccoli being able to worm its way into commoners brains and even people with only decent psychic power like Ritsu. Hence why Hanazawa was able to fend it off while Ritsu got brainwashed. Basically Dimple's original game of people joining the crowd but amped up to a tee

Baldulf

@Wagomu:

Chapters through 97.1 are up and about the internet (96.7 and 97.1 can be found on these links for now, since they aren't up and about conventional sites yet).

! It feels weird for people like Ritsu and Reigen to get taken over, considering they both had arcs where they learned just how much Shigeo meant to them, but I suppose the point is to get him alone with Dimple. We're just at the start of the confrontation, too. This has been a strange arc, overall, but I'm still feeling somewhat hyped for what's to come, since I really don't know what direction this is going in.
! After this, the one thing left for the story is maybe a confrontation between Mob and his ???% self, or at least coming to terms with it. I figure the chapter numbering is so that we end on 100, or possibly 101, and we're tying up loose ends now, so we've got to be getting close to the end. It makes me really look forward to what's to come.

! This feels like the first confrontation between Dimple and Mob. Only that Mob is much more mature now, but Dimple also knows well not only the true strenght of Mob but also his weakness.
Its going to be interesting to watch, thats for sure

Wagomu

@Purple:

! Mmm I interpreted it more as the influence of the broccoli being able to worm its way into commoners brains and even people with only decent psychic power like Ritsu. Hence why Hanazawa was able to fend it off while Ritsu got brainwashed. Basically Dimple's original game of people joining the crowd but amped up to a tee

! I'm just talking about by narrative, not mechanism.
! The more I think about it, though, the more I like that Mob is left here without influences, so we can see how much he's grown. He also knows his friends well enough to know that they're being manipulated. Man, maybe we're gonna get a reflection by Mob on the people who have tried to manipulate him. I am really eager to see what direction ONE takes this in.

SpaceCowboy

! Despite the obvious confrontation/fight, I´m actually curious to see if this will be the end of the line for Dimple.
! He was always with Mob so he could try to achieve his purpose, and in a way, the means he ended up using to get to those objectives didn´t really required him using Mob, and yet he is trying to convince him to join him.
! I think he actually ended up caring for Mob more than he expected, but he won´t let that get in the way of his goal. He is trying to make both things happen, but I he ultimately knows he can only pick one, and I doubt he will give up on his Diety status.
! I expect him to get exorcized after the fight.

Shobu Yoruichi

Well, i've just read the 97.1 from a conventional site.

A fight for freedom… round 2!

*I believe this is the last battle in the series. As Wagomu points the numeric chapter sequence, i think Mob will outstand himself getting the 101% and ending on that number. The emotion used is what interest me.

SpaceCowboy

97.2 and .3 are up on Batoto

! I can understand that Mob is angry, but Dimple-Sama is right. The Psycho Helmet ways are the only correct ways to achieve happiness.
! I propose that we all close this chapter of worshiping false Gods like Arlong and Usopp and move on to the superior Lord Psycho Helmet.

glass

@SpaceCowboy:

97.2 and .3 are up on Batoto

! I can understand that Mob is angry, but Dimple-Sama is right. The Psycho Helmet ways are the only correct ways to achieve happiness.
! I propose that we all close this chapter of worshiping false Gods like Arlong and Usopp and move on to the superior Lord Psycho Helmet.

!

Purple Hermit

! Interesting how things seem to be wrapping up by having Mob
! 1) confront the earlier antagonists in the series

start letting loose with emotions even before hitting 100%