Review of Mob Psycho 100 II

It's always difficult to review second seasons because you're never sure if you want to review it for people who've watched the first season or people who are watching it without any prior knowledge. If you're like me and you always start eating from the food you hate the most, then you'd want to watch season one first. If you're going to eat the whole thing then you might as well start with the least appetising dish and finish with a good taste in your mouth. That being said the first season is by no means unappetising or boring. In fact, watching the first seasonwould be like eating two desserts instead of one.

But if you do watch this season without watching the first, the show is still very much enjoyable. The good thing about Mob Psycho is that the premise is not hard to grasp. If you've ever been a kid and played in your backyard imagining you have superpowers, or pretending being able to see things others can't then you kinda already understand the premise of the show. ESPers are not exactly unique to Mob Psycho. Obviously there will be characters you won't recognize but storywise you won't be confused or lost when watching this show.

Now to the review:

When you watch Mob Psycho II, your heart grows 3 sizes that day. It's impossible not to love this show. It's just such a wholesome, heartwarming show. Like the first time you ride your bike or a surprise birthday from your friends, it just gets to you. But Mob Psycho is more than just a good story, the story is a big part but when you combine it with stunning visuals, amazing soundtrack and on-point directing, there's enough love and labor put in this show that it can sedate an elephant. Watching this show, there just never seems to be a dull moment, it was really well-directed, has incredible pacing and on cue timings. It's such a good show and it tells you a lot about the vision of the original creator ONE. I know exactly what type of person ONE is, a good person (and a good writer!)

There's a lot more character development in this season compared to the first. The first season is more like an introductory season. The focus of the show was to introduce the viewer to the Mob Psycho universe. The second season also introduces a few new characters, but there's a lot more focus on character development, particularly many of the main characters, and it's very noticeable if you've watched the first season. The show is typically divided into multiple short stories focusing on one or two characters, and because the first season focuses more on introduction, the characters usually have a set outlook on life, there's little room for character development. But because the characters are already introduced in the first season, these short stories which focus on one or two characters have a larger focus on character development. Although because there are so many characters, and the show is only 13 episodes, a lot of minor characters are ignored which you could say is disappointing but personally I don't mind it because the story is so well-written that even if only a few main characters got major character developments, it was still very enjoyable to watch and I never felt disappointed that the other characters weren't seen as much.

The art of the first season was already pretty good to begin with. Making the art even remotely decent is actually a feat in itself if you've seen the source manga. I'm not even sure if the characters look human in the manga (yes, it's really that bad). But obviously this wasn't enough for Studio Bones. They took it a step further and had to GO BEYOND, PLUS ULTRA! Sorry for the reference, I had to do it. But seriously I don't think any other studio could have done it as well as they have. The art of Mob Psycho looks simple because most of the characters are drawn in a style which makes them look 2-dimensional, they actually almost look like cut-outs. This is done intentionally to imitate the style of the source material where even the background looks 2D (imagine flat buildings and trees). But there's a lot of work done between motions and especially during the fight scenes which isn't so simple to do especially with your characters looking like cut-outs. I don't know what magic studio Bones pulls out of their hats but they managed to make fluid motion fight scenes with cut-out like 2D art. Obviously since this is a second season, the art style will be similar to how it was in the first season. But in terms of animation, lighting, shading and the overall fluidity, I'd say the art of Mob Psycho II is a tier above the first season, and as I said it was already good to begin with.

Sound has also improved. It's always difficult to talk about sound because everyone has different tastes in music. In terms of background music, most of the soundtrack is reused from the first season but with the addition of a few tracks, I'd say it's slightly better. What really improved the show in sound is actually the ending song. Ending songs are usually overlooked or not talked about because they don't usually add anything significant to a show, however this is different in Mob Psycho II. The usage of the ending songs has to be the best if not one of the best ways to end a show. It's always satisfying to hear the ending song used while the show is still going on towards the end, but it's not always good because it's hard to time it correctly and it may get boring if it's overused too much. The song though just fits so perfectly with the theme of the show it should be a crime to for a show to end so well, almost like it's too good to end.

I used to build jigsaw puzzles with my mother when I was young. As much as I loved this season, I have to point out that the last episode really felt like an out of piece jigsaw puzzle, which is annoying because I really want to give this series a 10/10 but I can't. I don't mean to say it's bad but I guess the series was just so good that I expected more from the last episode. There was just too much going on and needed to be done in the last episode that the pacing felt off and it wias obvious when they weren't able to show the villain's motives clearly, it didn't seem like enough explanation was given to why he did what he did. Don't get me wrong, the episode is still really good, there were a lot of excellent fight scenes and the writing isn't terrible, it just feels off-putting when you get to watch a 10/10 show and the last piece just happens to be something between an 8 and a 9, you want to say it's perfect but it'll always be in the back of your head.

This show can literally save lives. Maybe you work at the gas station in the worst part of town, and you have to deal with pricks everyday. Watch this show, you'll get the courage to speak your mind and get them to stop. Maybe you have an abusive boss who overworks you to death. Watch this show, it'll give you guts to stand up to your boss. Maybe you're a student with several thousand dollars in debt looking for a way out. Watch this show, you'll make it somehow. Maybe your relative has cancer. Watch this show, no it can't cure cancer unfortunately. But you can watch it together and it can give you something to talk about.

You're missing out half your life if you haven't seen this anime. All I can say is

SASUGA BONES!