Review of Mob Psycho 100 II

Mob Psycho 100 II does what Mob Psycho 100 I excels at, but somehow does it even better. 10/10, not even close. From a stylistic standpoint, the show is astounding: fights are beautiful and unique in their over the top and almost ragdoll fashion, the music- much like the first season - is absolutely gorgeous and captures the feeling of being a child again in Mob's shoes, where everything matters all too much and a slight mistake or issue is the end of the world. The story expands on the first season, taking what the first touched upon and expanding the conflict to a larger, more globalscale, giving the characters a heightened sense of urgency and seriousness. A lot of reviewers criticize this season for being more serious than the former installment, but with a much higher stakes conflict, it is only natural that the characters become more somber at times and even stoic. Even though overwhelming and unrelenting lightheartedness would suit this show fine, the ambitious choice to give the second season a serious tone paid off in full.

I think where this season truly comes to shine, however, is the character development, leading to more emotional and impacting scenes. In traditional shounen, emotion from the audience is usually derived from the loss of something: a character, a competition, a fight. Although this gives the audience a very clear image of character motivations, after a while, it begins to fall flat. In Mob Psycho 100 II, however, the bonds between characters grow even stronger, and motivations are not as clear cut as win or lose. When each character is given a strong and psychological backstory, you can start to see the threads that pull each character towards certain actions, and when those characters come to cathartic resolutions, the audience shares in that catharsis. Mob Psycho 100 II has really delivered some of the most heartfelt and tender scenes in all of anime for me, in ways that no other show can.

ALSO both the sub and the dub for this show are excellent, especially the English dub for Reigen. I only realized this when my sister (who is just sorta getting into anime) watched the dub and said it was hilarious. Worth a try, at the very least - the english VA seems really stoked to be Reigen and does an awesome job.