English Dub Review: Mob Psycho 100 “Show Me What You’ve Got ~Band Together~”

Buckle up, everyone. This is the big one.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

This week’s episode begins where the last one left off. Mob has just seen the charred remains of his family…or so he thinks. Dimple tries to reason with Mob, saying that these aren’t real bodies, but dummies. Mob doesn’t believe him, but he senses his family is still out there. He locates the people who burned down his house, two members of Claw. Mob dispatches with them easily and is soon picked up by Sakurai, the former Claw member Mob defeated in season one. They take him to a secret location where his friends and allies are hiding out. Reigen, who’s also there, corroborates Dimple’s story that Mob’s family isn’t dead at all, though he’s basically just trying to relieve Mob’s anger. Mob relaxes and passes out, leaving Reigen to organize things.

In addition to Mob’s friends, the psychic former members of Claw are also present. They respect Reigen for his ability to get things done and wish to learn from his example. Teruki soon arrives with a knocked out member of Claw in tow. They interrogate him to find out information.

Elsewhere, Suzuki Toichiro, the leader of Claw, addresses his soldiers, declaring war on the world with this esper army. Using their psychic powers to hack the airwaves, Claw broadcasts Suzuki as he announces his plan to conquer humanity. However, despite Suzuki’s charismatic leadership, there is a splinter faction within the organization that doesn’t believe Claw has a chance of victory. It occurs to them that they can overthrow Claw if they’re stronger than its mass of members. This splinter faction, led by an enigmatic psychic named Joseph, makes their move to take what they want.

However, Joseph’s mutiny isn’t strong enough to take on the most powerful members of Claw, the Ultimate Five. The Ultimate Five take care of the mutiny with relative ease. Back at Reigen’s base, meanwhile, everyone was too busy eating food to notice Claw’s declaration.

The next day, Claw kidnaps the prime minister of Japan with a member of the Ultimate Five, Shimazaki, who has the ability to predict people’s actions and teleport. However, Teruki steps in to stop Shimazaki with his psychic powers. Despite his best efforts, though, Teruki is defeated and the prime minister has been taken.

Our Take:

It’s all out war here on Mob Psycho 100. The series that has usually been known for it’s modest, humble plotlines has decided to take on it’s most ambitious arc yet. A full-on war between Mob and friends vs. the most powerful psychic terrorism organization on the planet. It’s amazing to me that a show can flip a switch and go from 0 to 100 like this, elevating the tension of its conflicts to epic levels in only two short episodes. Needless to say, I’m satisfied with the results. I was already in love with this show before, and am now calling it as the easy taker for best anime of the season, and possibly best of the year. This doesn’t surprise me, but credit needs to be given where credit is due.

I was initially disappointed in hearing the episode rationalize that Mob’s parents weren’t actually dead and that their bodies were just dummies. However, as the episode goes on, the show elevates this point by making it ambiguous as to whether or not they are still alive. This lends an extra bit of dramatic weight to Claw’s takeover of Japan. It’s not just a distant “Take over the world” plot, there are real, personal stakes at play here. Mob’s psyche hangs in the balance, because if his family truly is dead, his unleashed power may tip him into the depths of oblivion.

This isn’t just Mob’s story, though. The real fun of the episode (And it is quite fun) is seeing all of these Mob has touched gathered in one place ready to support him in this fight. This alliance has the significance of the entire series up to this point since it combines all the relationships Mob has into one righteous army. The mind jumps at the thought of what cool battles are to come, and seeing Teruki jump into the fray was a real treat.

As always, the animation is sterling and the writing funny and alive. Reigen fits neatly into his role as team leader of the former Claw members, and he provides much-needed heart and levity to Claw’s assault on Japan. There isn’t a single boring moment in the whole 22 minutes, as the time the episode has is well-constructed enough to have a whole bunch of plot included with the whole thing. It even finds time to do a little side story about the splinter faction within Claw trying to overthrow the whole thing. A side story that, in addition to being entertaining, is also an excellent way of introducing Claw’s finest to the audience.

Everything works here. I don’t like to give out perfect score because I’m always of the opinion that things can be improved. Yet, here, I don’t think there’s any place for my criticism of this episode. Simply wonderful.