English Dub Review: Mob Psycho 100 “The Battle for Social Rehabilitation ~Friendship~”

Mob Psycho 100: Friendship is Magic

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Serizawa blocks Mob’s path to Toichiro, being totally devoted to his boss after he seemingly saved him from being a shut-in three years ago when really he was just recruiting another powerful Esper to use as a tool. Mob takes him to task over this, very quickly riling him up, though they manage to knock him off balance once they get his umbrella away. Serizawa has intense anxiety and seemed to find security once he was brought into Claw, but Mob tells him that the people he thinks are friends are really just using them. So, Mob promises to be Serizawa’s friend to prove how friends are really supposed to be…after absorbing his power and sending it right back, showing him memories that show how Mob’s own journey to understand his power was the same as Serizawa’s.

Meanwhile, Toichiro explains to Sho that he’s been able to give his power to the organization’s lowest underlings, but he’s taking it all back to deal with his son. Mob then arrives and explains that he’s gotten Serizawa to turn over a new leaf, an example of how relying on others is important, but Toichiro scoffs at this, saying he’s never needed to rely on anyone. But when Mob supplies Sho with energy as well, Toichiro starts seeing him as a rival in power and starts fighting him seriously, and soon has the upper hand. It’s then that Reigen shows up with Sakurai’s cursed gun, using his Bullshitter Extraordinaire routine to buy Mob some time, but this only angers Toichiro. Luckily, Serizawa saves him from a fiery end, as well as the other members of the Ultimate 5, and Mob is infuriated enough to make his opponent learn this lesson about friendship the hard way.

OUR TAKE

Dear Princess Reigen, today I learned that friends are more important than special powers, and if you don’t have friends, then you are doomed to be beaten into the ground by someone WITH special powers who also has friends. So really, the true power to be weaponized is pure, concentrated friendship. I suggest we begin field trials immediately and we shall control the Crystal Kingdom by year’s end.

Sincerely, Twilight Shigeo

…but seriously, this week brought pretty much more about my concerns from last week, namely in how a really exceptional story like this seems to be ending up more or less along the beaten path of more typical shonen battle series, particularly when it comes to confronting the last few big bad guys of an arc. The main antagonist’s deal is that he doesn’t have friends, and so forces his most powerful minion to believe that he has to rely on the antagonist to survive, but the protagonist uses their recent character development to enlighten that minion of otherwise and then has to fight the antagonist, who has just finished fighting someone they had a personal connection with and harmed/almost harmed someone close to the protagonist in order to further motivate them to power up more for the final battle.

Sounds like about a dozen shows with arcs just like this one, doesn’t it? Granted, there are no new ideas under the sun, but I know for a fact that there are more original, or at least less expected, versions of this to make use of. They seem to be pretty self-aware of this, considering that the season finale is titled “Boss Fight”, but I still can’t help but notice how formulaic things are getting, even if they follow said formula about as well as they can possibly do it. Ultimately, my only real issue with this being the way this season seems to be closing is just that I can’t help but be reminded of how it’s been done before…which is not the WORST problem they could have had, but is nonetheless distracting when trying to watch and concentrate on only this one show.

Regardless, the finale is finally upon us next week, but it feels like we might have hit a wall in terms of how far the series will be able to go in future seasons. I’m still plenty intrigued how this season will play out, so I look forward to its conclusion all the same.