Review of Mob Psycho 100 II
Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 starts off with a masterpiece of an opening episode before tripping over its shoelaces and tumbling down, falling flat on its face before it even gets the chance to start running. It gets you right into the action. Reigan and Mob are still taking weird ass jobs, Reigan's still a sympathetic guy at the end of the day, and Mob's advancing his powers through adversity and ingenuity. We see Mob's school life, where he's still unpopular, but has a close circle of friends he can trust and rely on. Reporter girl is up to something no good, and manipulates Mobinto doing something that he ends up failing at, because Mob is still Mob. And at the end of the episode, we get a hard hitting but amazing sequence where we see Mob finally stand up for himself and take care of what he treasures.
After that though, Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 falls flat as incredibly one dimensional and bland with some minor redeeming points. Episode 2 is almost all filler, slowing the pacing set by episode 1 to a screeching halt, though I did enjoy the gag behind the running grandma. Episode 3, 4, and 5 are alright, but only from the standpoint that it's setting up something for the future, which it doesn't, at least not within the season. They aren't especially impactful or otherwise important, and none of the characters introduced within the last few episodes of being built up ever show up again. One such character seems to be the main antagonist but then is surprisingly sympathetic and understanding before whisking off away and briefly showing up again a few episodes later. Like, literally a few seconds. There's 1 minor event that seems important but is just undone a few episodes later. Maybe he's important to the next season, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still take away from this season.
After that arc finishes without any consequences, Reigen's arc takes up the next 2 episodes where he briefly acts like a toxic terrible human being to Mob by manipulating him and pushes his priorities and ideals onto him. It seems like it's building up to an emotional redemption arc where Mob and Reigen grow, but instead of that, there's no real resolution between the two of them, and all is forgiven after Reigen says something remotely nice. Despite seemingly important developments in the story, none of them end up leading up to anything and Reigen miraculously is now not a terrible human being despite not really showing any change over the last 2 episodes. The consequences of Reigen's actions are kind of glazed over and nothing comes out of them in the end. If anything, they seem to have benefited him. At least it's shown Mob is a little more independent now.
I won't spoil any more than that, but I think you get the general feel of the show by now. Important things happen but they're not actually important (yet?), Reigen grows out of being a filthy manipulative lying prideful conman by just suddenly being cured of all his character flaws without any difficulty or struggle overcoming them, and literally every villain in the show is cured of their evil and villainy by Mob saying "hey don't do that". It's incredibly preachy and eye-rolling-ly on the nose. The last few episodes is basically summed up in a compilation of Mob saying "friendship is important, you should find value in love instead of being a psychopath who murders people and uses them as tools" and then the psychopath villains who were otherwise prideful and unsympathetic to human life immediately being like "ok yeah I believe you" and do a 180 personality change in a manner of minutes, joining Mob and friends and saving them a few times because a middle school boy beat them up and told them to be good.
For example, Episode 8 ends on a huge cliffhanger that seems like a crazy development, but nothing that happens ends up mattering and it's resolved within the next episode. And then, of course, a character from the last season who seemed to be building up to be an important antagonist with a cool personality ends up not being that and is just an unimportant character with minimal impact or involvement with the story comparatively.
Overall, all the messages, developments, and themes lack any nuance and end up having less maturity than certain episodes of One Punch Man. Considering how much I loved season 1 and shared/pushed it onto my friends, season 2 is a major disappointment comparatively and often regresses in certain elements of storytelling and character development. It's incredibly frustrating because we KNOW that ONE can do better. Episode 1 is a clear example of that. That all said, it's still a "good" anime.
Even though it's pretty unvaried and uses the same tracks a lot, the score does its job and is memorable. The opening and secondary ending are also both top tier. And, of course, Bones does a great job recapturing and going above and beyond that season 1 animation magic. The animation is high quality and it's evident that corners weren't cut. The production is top notch and it shows.
It's a show that has the markings of a masterpiece but falls flat in pretty much every area outside of production. The writing is juvenile at best, the characters are underdeveloped, and the overall impact and consequences of the story aren't evident yet. Important events end up being not actually important, and the tone of the show is inconsistent and overly preachy at times. 8/10.