Review of Mob Psycho 100 II
WARNING, THIS REVIEW IS LO-I'll just be real with you, screw the fancy step by step outline talking about the show, screw the fancy review words, screw all of that. I'm just going to have a one on one with you, the reader, on why I think Mob Psycho 100 season 2 was the best anime of 2019.I didn’t watch this once, but TWICE, while it was airing and literally marathoned it before this review. It just felt like the most satisfying movie-going experience ever. To get stuff out of the way.YES, you need to have watched the first season in order to understand the charactersof the story.I had a great time with the first season,I do think the story in that season was great but not perfect.Its kinda like going to the grocery store,going to a free sample area. The first season is just a taste of what to expect, while the second season is just like a mouthful of that sample being gored by you.Honestly the storytelling this season is on a whole nother level of brilliance, It's the one thing I absolutely fantasized that other anime had.While do talk about the story, its difficult to give praise to either the story or character writing, because they are different things but work together in harmony so well that I will be talking about both in this section.
Mob is my BOI,I love him. I related to him a lot in season 1, and he was done so much justice in season 2, and loved how the creators put a twist on the regular anime protagonist by making him a wimpy pacifist who has ironically the least and most amount of speciality of all the characters in the show.I love how he can become badass and has superb powers, I love how he does not want to be defined by his power, I love how he still has weaknesses despite being so OP,I love how he struggles to fit in society, I love how he grows such a backbone in this season, I love how he goes through so much tribulation and that challenges his character,I love his chemistry with everyone, I love his family, I love his friends, I love, even though I shouldn't, the antagonists who challenge Mob, honestly I love just about everything they did with mob’s character in season 2. I love Mob. Mob is my everything.
Reigen’s arc is probably one of the most thematically powerful events in the show. I kinda liked Reigen in season one, but I knew his schemes would wear out on me in season two. It's almost like the writers of the show read my mind.I don’t know if this was a deliberate message presented, but Reigen’s development has a little bit of commentary on internet toxicity.When Reigen gets the spotlight, he is portrayed as a bottomfeeder of society who just struggles for relevance, and is just a ball of fakeness, arrogance,and loneliness living in his own world.Kind of like most people on the internet, I'm not gonna lie, I do feel like that sometimes. But instead of letting that statement just hang over and nothing else, Reigen’s character takes this notion and goes so far with it that I felt so motivated.I can barely find any actual weaknesses in the story of this show, so im just going to address some problems that other people had, and explain why they are FUCKING WRONG.Nah, Im joking,im just going to defend the problems they had and why I was okay with it.
One thing that some people had a problem with was the whole Reigen vs the media fiasco.Understandably, it does kinda feel a bit weird for a show like Mob Psycho to cover.But no matter how absurd it was, it is true.In this day and age it did feel refreshing to portray just how toxic news media and the internet can be. So in that aspect, It did really hit home for me, as a person who has had a fair share of controversy on the interwebs.Some people think that the show focused on Mob too much doing slice of life things, but then again he is the main character in the show, and an aspect about his character is that he wants to be an ordinary being without using his powers to be popular.The romance in the show, is not really in the forefront that much, but it is hinted,some of the side characters are just side characters that were sorta developed in season one(with the exception of the Body Improvement Club). And to be honest, if they did have more screen time, the show would be too jumbled,I think it's fine the way it is.One problem, that other people had that I can understand is that a crapton of villains and other characters are introduced in the final episodes, but the way I see it, it's like when you watch Spiderman, Into the Spider Verse, I don’t watch many superhero movies.In that film, there are many villains, but there are like one or two that have character motivation and backstory, and all the other bad guys are just there. Excluding the fact that there are probably comics and stuff about those villains, its kinda the same case here.Sure there are many villains in the final episodes, but the main one it focuses on has phenomenal character development and the others don’t really need that much explanation. I think I've said enough, ill just touch on animation and sound really quickly.
The animation is not good, it's not great, its consistently great.Let me say it louder so that the Kimetsu no Yaiba fanbase hears me, IT IS CONSISTENTLY GREAT. The animation was so damn good in this show that it scared me a bit thinking about how hard the animators worked on this.Some of the production members worked on other stuff like the promised neverland and one piece, and I can sure see it. Even when the animation is passable, its IMPECCABLE direction really does make it feel even better.This is not just the case with fight scenes, there are just awesome uses of character animation that just hit me on an emotional level ,
Okay, I really don’t want to talk about the fight scenes,because it is indescribable, I have not seen fight scenes like this in literally anything. Some people think just having good animation without good choreography and art direction makes it automatically good.But Mob Psycho proves those people wrong.The huge fight scene that lasts for like ten minutes in episode 5 was just ( ≧//∀//≦)♡aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.I really thought that fight scene was the best of the season.
Until I saw episode 11.
Episode 11 will go down in history as probably, not only the best episode of anime I have seen in awhile, But also the first anime episode that made me have an orgasm from start to finish, visually and literally.It was thaaaaat good.When it comes to best fight scene, it definitely is a three way tie, I’ll just say that.
I'm about to piss off like a lot of people, but Mob Psycho probably has better overall animation than Kimetsu no Yaiba, because while Yaiba uses its cool flashing 3d lights and backgrounds as a crutch to make up for its okay at times 2d animation(like the case with many Ufotable works), Mob uses 2DFX that are just a good as the 2D itself, there is also this use of 3D in places that look like its 2D and it just makes my heart so happy.The fights scenes have such a raw quality about it that I love, it reminded me a lot of Kizumonogatari where the human body was just pushed to the extreeeme, but there is still some sense of composure in the fights.I want to get into the direction but I already have said much. Just see for yourself, it's so hard for me to give it more justice.
I don't really have much to say about the sound, most of it is the soundtrack from season one. The soundtrack varies so much depending on the situation. I don’t remember much of it, but I really enjoy it. If anything, I kinda like how minimal it can be, and cheesy, in a sentimental way.I love Mob’s voice actor in both sub and dub, everyone else did a good job as well.A bit of a controversial opinion, I still like the first opening theme more, don’t get me wrong, this second opening ,“99.9”, it's still catchy af, but it's more of a bop rather than a banger.While season one’s “99” is a banger that feels like you're on an airplane that is spinning and about to plummet into the ground.I don’t want to compare the two, because I love them both in their own way.That's kinda the same case with the ending themes too.
I’m honestly just at a loss for words. This may sound cheesy, but Mob Psycho 100 is just a reminder on why I watch anime more than many other forms of medium.Because when done right, anime can have an empowering story told by many charming, relatable characters. And can artistically present it in such a way that live action, or hell, even 3D animated films will never be able to pull off.Despite being over four hours of content, Going on this journey of watching Mob Psycho and ending it on such an epic note, gives me such a great feeling of shivers of anticipation and an overall takeaway that no 2 hour Marvel movie could ever do as well.There will be many moments in this show that I will never forget hyped me up so hard, I got intense shivers.And sure Promised Neverland, and Vinland Saga had those moments too, but Mob Psycho 100 II had those moments consistently throughout,and I was never ever bored. Not to mention just how funny as hell the show is and how emotional it can be as well, I really am thankful for everyone who worked on this show and I hope they were proud of what they made, because they really do have a masterpiece on their hands.
Overall-10
If you have not watched,season one also, I HIGHLY recommend you watch that first and then watch season 2.Meanwhile,
I’m gonna go hide now before the Yaiba fan base comes and disembowels me.