English Dub Review: Mob Psycho 100 “Discord ~Choices~”

Mob Normal 100

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Continuing from the last episode, the spirit of Keiji Mogami puts Mob in an illusory parallel world where he never gained his powers and is picked on by everyone, including a supposedly accurate portrayal of Minori Asagiri, who turns out to be a total brat who bullies Mob to get in good standing with everyone else. Six months pass wherein Mob is used and abused by all around him while people who used to be his closest friends ignore his suffering.

Mogami explains that he was also a powerful psychic like Mob, but he couldn’t stop his mother from dying from an unknown illness, and so started seeking more payment by becoming a psychic hit-man. He later found out from the spirit of his mother that his negativity and dirty jobs were what killed her in the end. Eventually, he died too and began a journey of vengeance as a spirit bent on killing those who would abuse their powers, leading him to posses Minori to lure in fake psychics. He says he doesn’t want Mob to go through what he did and that he should use his powers to exact justice on those who wronged him.

In the real world, Reigen and Dimple (possessing Mob) wait for Mob to re-emerge from Minori’s body, so Dimple dives into Minori himself (with the aid of Matsuo, one of the former Claw psychics) to wake Mob up. On the verge of falling into Mogami’s trap, Mob is reminded by Dimple of all the people who care about him and who have given him a reason to become a better person by using his powers responsibly. Enraged, Mogami tries to kill Mob, but Mob taps into 100% of his power to exorcise Mogami from Minori in a sequence I cannot do justice by just describing it. Mogami escapes but is captured by Matsuo.

Mob and Minori awaken, with Minori revealing she really was just as bad as that world made her seem, but she tearfully apologizes for her actions, though she’s stopped by Mob, who tells her he’s learned that people can change.

OUR TAKE

If you told me this was the season finale, I would probably believe you, since this feels like a culmination of everything covered in this season so far. We have Mob making use of his astral projection ability he learned in the first episode, we have more examples of regular people being crappy to Mob, and that in turn tests Mob’s resolve about whether or not he’s using his powers for the right reasons or in the right way. Pile all of that in with yet another mind-blowing psychic battle this series is known for (that involves destroying an entire (mental) universe and seeing Mob pushed far past his limits), and you get one of the major highlights of the series overall, let alone this season.

I am an absolute sucker for heroes getting their principles stress-tested, which is exactly what happens here in the battle between Mob and Mogami. When it comes to getting this sort of external and internal conflict right comes down to both sides being propelled by a grain of truth. In Mogami’s case, it’s the harsh reality that, if you aren’t someone who has power or uses the power you have, you’re doomed to be a victim all your life, as well as after it. But in Mob’s case, it’s that there are also people who will support you and give you reasons to not abuse your power, even when it feels like the world is pushing you to do so. Just like Teru did on a smaller scale last season, Mogami acts as a dark reflection of what Mob could become if he places too much importance on his power over his humanity.

Mob Psycho 100 prides itself on being a story about people putting that humanity ahead of being those who have amazing and powerful abilities, but it’s also a story about people who want to change. No better is that exemplified in this episode than by Minori, who turns out to not only be no sweet daddy’s girl, but a rather ruthless bully when pushed into it both in Mogami’s illusions and apparently in real life. But its Mob’s insistence that people can change that seems to inspire the beginnings of some good nature within her, so I hope we get to check in on her later on to see some of that progress. And with us not even reaching the halfway point of the season yet, I can’t imagine how this show will blow away my expectations next!