Anime 37510 Mob Psycho 100 Ii Reviews Filter Check 2

(Slight spoiler warning in the third paragraph)

“There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”

When season 2 of mob psycho 100 got announced it would be an understatement to say that I was excited. I was brimming with excitement to see the continuation of Reigen’s, Mob's and all the other characters story. But now after it’s release and I’ve watched all the episodes of my oh so awaited season 2. I’m honestly not feeling it, and I’m very disappointed.

I’m in no way saying that mob psycho 2 is a bad show. Not at all. The animation ... is stunning, the direction is phenomenal and the voice acting is as good, if not even better than the first season. It’s noticeable that a lot of care and effort has been put into making Mob Psycho 2. But despite all of these amazing features it has, I feel as if Mob Psycho has lost what made it unique and fun. What made the first season of Mob psycho great in my opinion is three points: the lightheartedness, the sense of humor and the characters. Season 2 only hits one of these points, but actually improves upon it. The characters. Mob and friends have never been better. Mob actually has an arc spanning over the whole season, not one forced into the last few episodes (as in season 1). Mob wants to improve as a person and actively makes an effort to do so. Something you really can’t say he does in the first season. Reigen also has an amazing arc this season. I won’t talk much about it because it would be a shame if I spoiled it for someone. Reigen was more or less the same person at the end of the first season as he was at the start. In season 2 tho, he’s a changed man at the end. It’s not only Mob and Reigen that’s gotten better, but all other characters also stepped up in season 2. They all changed so much that some felt out of character. But I don’t mind since the most of the characters are very well written. And that’s the part of Mob I adore. The rest of it kind of sucks.

The two other points that season 2 doesn’t get is the lightheartedness and humor. Which mostly goes hand in hand. Mob psycho season 1 is a lighthearted slice of life anime about a boy with psychic powers that despite his lack of emotion tries to live out his normal life as good as possible. Mob psycho season 1 never gets serious and dark. It has its emotional moments but never something too serious. In season 2 mob literally comes home to find his house on fire and sees what he believes to be his family burning. Mob Psycho 2 is one of the darkest and most serious shows I’ve seen in a while. And I don’t understand why, Mob Psycho was funny because of how lightheartedly these situation that would be handled totally different in other shows. That’s why it’s funny. When the most serious thing ever happen and Reigen then laughs about it later isn’t funny. It seems more like a flaw in Reigens character. I feel weird saying this but Mob Psycho season 2 isn’t funny at all. Season 2 abandons the concept of the first season and it makes me really disappointed. The first season of Mob Psycho was an analysis of manchildren and more or less a parody of shounen animes. But the second season isn't a parody anymore. It’s turned into what it made fun of in the first place. I find it very hard to even call it a slice of life anymore.

To further prove my point that Mob psycho isn’t a slice of life anymore is the frequency and lengths of fights. There are few fights in the first season of Mob, meaning that when Mob went 100% and the fights broke out, it felt Impactful and epic. But in season 2 there are fights more or less every episode. The fights are longer, some spanning over something like 10 minutes. The animation might be great, but it gets overwhelming. I was finding myself sighing and thinking isn’t this fight over soon? Rather than being amazed by them as I was in season 1.
The most stupid thing ever happened as well. You know how the show is called Mob Psycho 100. Well suddenly mobs emotions can get ever 100% and he grew even more powerful. The point of the WHOLE show is that once the emotions get to 100% they overflow and Mob can’t control them anymore. But what’s the point of that if he suddenly can get 200%. It breaks the concept season 1 put up. Season 2 takes everything season 1 does good and throws it in the trash can.

What was once fresh and amazing is now just another My Hero Academia, and it’s a real shame. I had high hopes for this anime and I was let down big time. I would honestly rather watch the worst anime ever than rewatch this. The animes I feel the least from are the ones that are mediocre, the animes with extreme wasted potential. And Mob Psycho has sadly become one of them. I was expecting greatness and when what I got was very mediocre. It hit hard and my rating off this season of Mob Psycho suffered.

I like Mob Psycho for its unique take on the slice of life genre, but this season has been partially boring.

The story has centered around variety of incredibly dull events such as running for student council president, farming, chasing after molesters and washing dogs. This side of the series doesn't have much to offer as of currently to be honest. It's practically collection of empty ideas that don't really come with any real content not character-wise nor story-wise. There aren't even any jokes inserted inside these events. Thus far the pinnacle of the humor has been the animated movements of fat spirit guy's stomach.

The supernatural ... side of the series has offered only one decent scene seen in episode 01 when Mob opened up and it was hinted he would be going thru some type of self-discovery that would further lead to his character development when he questions his own purpose in life and what he really wants to do. Then this idea was put on-hold and the episodic side of the series started rolling, leaving me to drop few why the fucks out loud.

As for the action, the fights have been incredibly uninteresting thanks the "villains" being so soulless. Molester who wears a rain coat and likes to show off his dick. Some type of pseudo-insane woman whose sole character merit seems to be asking people if they are thirsty. Literally a piece of root that fucks with the farmer's shit for who knows what reason. I am not finding these characters and their practically non-existing personas/reasoning to be very interesting nor entertaining to follow.

The battle OST's have been equally boring with the fight scenes. Few interesting, more uplifting sort of songs have played during the slice of life side, and the OP and ED are quality, but otherwise even the score has been disappointing and surprisingly lackclystery so far. The animation is based Bones same with the art of course. Some like it, some don't -- I do, tho whoever directed the opening animation deserves a medal.

I haven't nowhere near lost hope yet and hope it goes for better, but this is a weak start for lacking sequel that is not being nearly as entertaining or good as the first season.

"If it ain't broke don't fix it" [Warning: minor spoilers]

Mob Psycho proves how effective this can be as it soars in popularity, despite the story following the same formula it did last season with the first 1-8 episodes being slice of life comedy on Mob’s daily life doing mundane events. If this was another anime these episodes would be classified as filler, but since it's Mob psycho "everything is super important for Mob's personal journey!" The supernatural parts were episodic psychic hunts of the week against random, one note rumours, ghosts or urban legends such as a old granny running in a tunnel or a ... naked creep in a raincoat. They're just a bunch of over exaggeragated, random ideas that don't contribute to the overall story.

In the last 9-13 episodes the show focuses on Claw as it ups the scales with a bombastic "take over the world" arc, in a similar fashion to every ending in a typical battle shounen. The problem here is the setup is all rushed. There's no build up to this massive climax, no foreshadowing to what the boss's plans are, who the ultimate 5 are etc. It all just comes out of nowhere starting over a massive moment in the form of shock value to get Mob involved.

Fans praise Mob for how character driven it is, centering around Mob's personal journey. While Mob does receive a lot of character development, especially the two episodes focusing on Mob and Reigen's relationship and how much Mob has grown in comparison, it's not partially difficult to develop someone who's a blank canvas. Yes Mob develops emotions and becomes a better person, but that doesn't excuse him having the personality of a wet towel.

This season focuses more on Mob and Reigen, which as a result were the most interesting and developed characters. That's not to say that others such as Mogami and Serizawai didn't receive a good amount of development, however the rest of characters were either too simple or undeveloped. I know nothing more about Mob's classmates, Tsubomi or gym bros than i did last season. Mob's brother or Teruki don't receive much focus. The boss was a generic bad guy who wants to take over the world because he can since he's the strongest esper. Not the most compelling motivation now is it? The villains such as the Ultimate 5 or former Claw members were forgettable since the show didn’t spend time to actually develop them.

The animation is amazing, as expected of Bones and there's an abundance of sakuga throughout the show. I didn't find any of the new osts memorable, but the opening song and visuals were equally as catchy and creative as the first season.

The fights scenes were underwhelming, aside from the gang Vs Shimazaki. For example, Mob Vs Mogami was a bunch of flashy esper attacks compared to Mob Vs Koyama last season which had better choreography, animation, higher stakes and more intensity. I’m positive people only enjoyed this fight because of the animation. I'd like to add that since the Mogami arc was shorten, the payoff for what Mob went through weren't nearly as satisfying or impactful as in the manga.

The big final battle was hard for me take seriously. It felt rushed, the choreography was lacksuter and the way they upped the scales so drastically clashed with the tone set in the earlier lighthearted, slice of life episodes this season.

Look, I like Mob. I've watched the anime and read manga, but i can't understand all the praise. I mean, look at it's absurdly high MAL score. What does Mob Psycho do that's so special compared to other shounen? Because I'm clearly not seeing it.

Like you, I was waiting for the unknown entity seen in the "????!!!%" state in Season 1 to somehow be expatiated upon and it wasn't. This season was incredibly unsatisfying and lost it's reputation of breaking tropes and instead made the decision to follow every single Shounen trope. No ground breaking themes or events in this season, sadly.

Every single villain in Mob Psycho's universe starts out with certain convictions and beliefs. Maybe this is a disadvantage the Shounen format has, but I feel the writers really took the worst of the format's issues and exacerbated it beyond belief. Every time a villain shows up, you ... know for a fact that they are going to end up having a change of heart, or start having immense respect for Mob, specially when Mod reks them. Somehow losing makes the villain realize that he had been wrong about every single thing, and a little schoolboy (whose struggles are incredibly generic with loneliness and social awkwardness being the main themes) knows what the real way is to live in this world and enjoy it. The writers fail to understand that everything that bad happens in the world, isn't always going to be related to psychic powers. And not all issues can be explained away by saying, "You don't have the right attitude". Mob is never faced with an opponent that cannot be defeated with powers, or faces issues that actually make him rethink this beliefs or question them.

This anime's basic statement is beat your enemies to a pulp and suddenly their ideologies and convictions will be forgotten, and they will follow your beliefs and respect you. For a show that focuses so much on inner strength and moral platitudes, the moral of the story is always that if you defeat your enemy, they will yield to you. It's like a guy pestering a girl at a party, begging her to sleep with him. Following this anime, I bet if I use physical strength against the girl I'd be able to conquer her in mind, body and spirit. Because being beaten up made her realize that I was very empathetic or had a similar life or something. It is incredibly creepy how Mob treats his villain, instantly realizing their hopes dreams and ambitions and continuing to ignore the villain's convictions in favor of his own path, which requires that he controls his emotions in order to be a better person. The world somehow tends to literally revolve around Mob and what his most recent emotion is. Situations manifest that only serve as a teaching moment for Mob and to realize that great truth about life that you can find on a fortune cookie.

The villains have zero backbone. Even the horrible show that is My Hero Academia has respectable villains that actually touch upon the nature of evil. And how mere defeat and lectures from a school boy aren't enough to sway anyone's heart.

I swear to God if these people talked about their feelings anymore I'd feel I was watching a chick flick. Being a nice person does not have anything to do with how Mob behaves. He sets a very bad example to follow. Even though he is OP, he is hardly ever able to nip any problem in the bud. There are zero consequences to anything that happens in the story and everything works out perfectly in the end. Having empathy is a necessary part of living a full life, but not to the extent that Mob says it does. Sometimes things need to be resolved with extreme prejudice, not because we hate the sinner, but because we want to protect someone or something.
My interest in the second season was piqued by the inner "thing" that resided in Mob. The entity that was from another world. That moment was hair-raising and was amazing. I believe the most viewed videos on youtube have to do with that part of the 1st season. I was really looking forward to that this season and it is basically forgotten. I don't understand why there is a huge disconnect between the studio and the people.
I would understand if the second season was more slice of life and didn't focus too much on fights, but that isn't the case at all. There are dragonballz type fights and action galore but none of them scratch your itch. For once we had an anime that broke the tropes and showed people who were so certain and full of themselves being brought down into the ground by an awkward school kid. There was something very cathartic about that, but that never happens in this season. They literally have to remove Mob from the scene in the beginning of the final arc so that the plot can progress, therefore Mob only ever has to deal with the biggest of the villains, who is also dealt with in a very anti-climactic way.

Addition of so many espers to the show has also dampened the world-building. With every single esper that is added, the world of Mob-Pyscho becomes more removed from the fantasy we live in, therefore we end up caring a little less about the world and the consequences of living in a world with psychic powers.

People are sick and tired of anime MC's getting the ever-loving crap beaten out of them for 15 minutes out of 26 minutes and then having the fight resolved in a couple minutes with everything working out. Just how many times do we have to see Mob getting pummeled into the ground? It's sort of sadistic in the sense, it made me feel that the creators of the show hated Mob in some weird way.

I'm just very disappointed and I am happy that this season is over and I wouldn't have to see this again in my life.

It's taken quite a while to sit down and write my thoughts on Mob Psycho 100 II. For the longest time, I've been trapped in this limbo of not wanting to write but never finding anything remotely close to my perspective being represented. It's as if no one has any of the same problems I have with this season, therefore I’ve yet to find someone disappointed in it for any of the same reasons as me. As such, this review is born more out of a place to satisfy myself and bring peace to my perspective than anything I’ve written thus far. Keeping a measured ... and somewhat informed perspective is still integral to what is being written here, but the fact remains: this was the first of many anime from 2019 to disappoint me.

Let’s get the big positive out of the way. The visuals are some of the best in recent years. Season 1 already had stellar animation with its vibrant fight scenes filled to the brim with sakuga. The first scene alone was enough to set the standard for this series, which would be matched by several key fights in the show. There’s a sense of weight and impact to many of the attacks combatants use, from psychic blasts to superpowered fists slamming people into the ground. It’s not that the fights were ever exceptionally brutal or bloody since they weren’t, but they were heart-pumping with how they communicated each devastating hit and frenzied blow someone took. It’s the way characters would stretch and contort with every crushing blow, how environments would shatter upon impact and the camera zooms in at a controlled pace to create dynamic angles that sell attacks traveling at blistering speeds. The show’s simple, rugged art style allowed for all of this to be possible, and the direction by Yuruzu Tachikawa that allowed for a steady hand that could keep up with the frenzy being shown on-screen This second season continues this trend with several astounding sequences such as the main fight scenes of episodes 5 and 11. While nothing is ever quite as epic a slugfest as Mob vs Koyama in season 1, the animation in most of the fights here is top-notch. The camera is allowed to be taken to even wilder heights as battles get more aerial than ever before. Hakuyu Go, the man behind the monstrous fights from Fate/Apocrypha episode 22 and One Punch Man episode 12 came back and delivered another grand slam with his storyboarding and animation direction for this season’s 5th episode. Perhaps more so than any other fight in this series, it feels dynamic and larger than life in a way that’s hard to put into words. Few titles this year can keep up with some of the fights presented here, even as films such as Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel 2 step up to the plate.

Even outside of the monumental fights, the show’s rough art style and vibrant aesthetic make it interesting to look at even in scenes of characters just sitting around and talking. They never quite reach the levels of just having lip-flaps be the only real source of motion for minutes on end like with most shows that require exposition dumps or characters conversing, as there’s always a nice visual gag or a few gestures going around. The general aesthetic of the show is eyecatching in general, and the designs remain simple yet often vibrant just as before. The only moments I found awkward were in episode 9, including its big fight scene. Even then, it’s not like the show ever looked bad, so a few stumbles in animation quality still have the show looking better than many of its contemporaries.

Unfortunately, animation does not a good anime make, and I have a more complicated assortment of feelings towards everything else about the show. The easiest to cover would be Kenji Kawai’s OST, as I didn’t notice a single new background track. All of the music that plays during the fight scenes sound exactly as they did in season 1, and find themselves feeling overplayed here. If any new additions were made, it’s unnoticeable in the show itself, which is criminal for a Kenji Kawai score. This man did the music for Ghost in the Shell 1 and 2, as well as Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Even his Gundam 00 OST had a few memorable pieces that got expanded upon with each installment. I’m not sure what happened here. Luckily, we still have a banger of an OP theme with “99.9” by Mob Choir feat. sanjou no Hana. It’s a more adrenaline-pumping, energetic tune that captures how much more action-driven this second season is compared to the first. The show also has 4 EDs, but the only one I care about is the song that played at the end of episodes 1 and 7: “Gray” by sajou no Hana. It’s easily the most tender and emotional track, fitting for some of the beautiful moments that cap off those two episodes.

This brings me to some of the emotional climaxes in the first half of the show. Episode 1 was a beautiful and hilarious reintroduction to Mob as a character, with him being roped into running for student council (and failing miserably) before someone asks him out. We follow him as this new girl, Emi, as they struggle to connect before Mob eventually reveals his psychic powers in one of the most genuine scenes in the show. The way he uses it to repair a piece of writing her so-called friends tore up in front of her really brings to light how committed the show is to accentuating how much of a sweet person Mob is and how beneficial his powers can be. The show has always been about self-improvement and recognizing the benefits of your gifts while never losing sight of how everyone has one so no one should let their gifts define them as some supreme being. While there are a lot of moments like this peppered throughout the series, it’s when the show decides to quiet down in its more human, slice of life moments, where Mob Psycho 100 is at its best. There’s no better example than the Reigen arc, which comprises episodes 6 and 7. Finally taken to task for his slimy conning and how he puts himself before even Mob, the one person who looks up to him for all the advice he has given, Reigen is at wit’s end. It’s only when he finally owns up to what a scummy douchebag he can be that he’s saved from the ultimate character assassination which had been catching up to him, before Mob lets him know that he understands who Reigen truly is beyond all of the fronts and scams he put up. It’s hard to do this moment justice without spoilers, but it’s the one time this show nearly brought me to tears. Mob and Reigen by this point, have become a perfect duo for exemplifying the core themes of this show, and their dynamic, ever-evolving personalities are a joy to watch.

Sadly, there’s the rest of the show.

Episode 2 is a perfectly fun joyride of explosive animation and cute comedic scenes, so I’m got gonna dog on this one. Episode 3 is where the cracks really begin to form, as Mob has to choose between doing his job of exorcising spirits or sparing them as they just want to live their lives. This feels like a plot that should have been handled as early as the 3rd or 4th episode of season 1. It’s the most obvious story to tell with this kind of premise, and the way they execute it feels so melodramatic and hamfisted, like the show keeps shouting “FEEL BAD” without just letting the emotions play out naturally. It feels sophomoric for how late into the series this plot comes in. Then we get episodes 4 and 5, which make up the Matsuo arc. Matsuo possesses a teenage girl and a bunch of espers are summoned to exorcise him, including Mob and Reigen. Once Mob holds his own against Matsuo, he’s effectively transported to a nightmare scenario where for several months, he’s powerless and put into a school where everyone hates and bullies him, that way Mob’s idea of self-improvement and how his powers don’t make him who he is will crack. It’s amazing how in a show about absurdly durable superhumans that something like this can still test my suspension fo disbelief, but sometimes this second season does that to me, especially since it feels like the show wants to go to extremes to get its point across compared to season 1. It’s going this far just for the classic fight between self-improvement/the human spirit and nihilism and chaos. It doesn’t exactly feel earned, and when Reigen’s voice finally reaches Mob after months in this simulation (probably a couple of minutes in real-time) and suddenly makes him remember all of his values so he can stand up to Matsuo, instigate the epic fight scene, and win the literal and ideological battle. It all feels hamfisted and not nuanced, even compared to season 1 which never had to go overboard to get its point about self-improvement and foregoing entitlement across. It all starts to get across the idea that the show is gonna keep suffering from these issues as it progresses into its second half, making it all the better when the Reigen arc avoids these pitfalls.

I should mention that at no point in these first 7 episodes is Claw, the evil organization that wreaked havoc in the second half of season 1 while threatening to make a return, even mentioned. In season 1, this made sense as we were getting to know the world and what kinds of enemies and struggles Mob would face before the evil organization stomped onto the scene to test our heroes and further solidify the show’s main themes. Season 2 tries the exact same structure, with the first 7 episodes being primarily slice of life comedic or dramatic escapades as well as encounters against one asshole psychic, before episode 8 onwards has the big bad Claw organization jump into the fray. However, this set-up doesn’t work as it completely undercuts the looming threat they’re supposed to have. It would be fine if maybe there were a few encounters planned out by them or even passing mentions to remind the audience not to get too comfortable as the bad guys could come back at any moment. It ends up just having these guys retroactively leave no impact on the story or setting from their first arc back in season 1, undercutting what tension they could have. I get that maybe their reintroduction with the sabotage of Mob’s family in episode 8 is supposed to come as this wham-episode cliffhanger surprise to end all of the endearing hijinks the first 8 episodes had, but it felt so obvious that it was never truly earned.

Everything afterwards has its own set of issues. There were some nice scenes with some of the supporting characters such as the members of the Body Improvement Club that Mob joined and had tried to keep up with back in season 1. Long-since reformed Teruki Hanazawa and the reformed Claw members along with Reigen taking on the teleporting Shimazaki, one of the top dogs of the organization, made for a fun and creative action setpiece. However, the first hurdle outside of the untwist that the son of the big bad of the organization very obviously did not kill everyone in Mob’s home and instead hid them and tried to awaken Mob’s power to help him fight the dad, was the first lame thing to occur here. Killing them off would be rather out of character for the show, which makes this so obvious that it genuinely feels cheap. Another awkward move was everyone’s decision to leave Mob with Reigen and Dimple when he was rendered unconscious, given that Reigen isn’t even a psychic, Dimple is still pretty weak after his encounter with Mob back in episode 3 of season 1, and they’re facing a group of superhumans who want to track down Mob. I get that this is supposed to show that Mob’s closest friends who aren’t the ultimate non-Mob badasses are with him to help, and that the plot still needs to get from point A to point B. It does feel like this show writes itself into a corner, though.

Then the final episodes pull a few sins that I never thought possible: they made me stop caring. I no longer cared about the conflict, and I even stopped caring about Mob. I get that Mob is this pillar of self-improvement, the kind of guy you should want to root for all the way as he goes from the small kid you wanna protect to the badass who can protect you all the same while remaining true to the nervous dork he’s always been. Up until this final arc, the show has managed that, but with how hamfisted the show gets and how Mob becomes the center of almost everything, I felt ejected from what was going on. I was no longer immersed. When Mob faced the penultimate bad guy who was clinging to the main antagonist’s coattails cuz he finally felt valued and useful, I didn’t care. When the show blatantly spelled out multiple times that the dude was basically being used and that he needed to learn to truly value himself so he can stop being a shut-in loser who clung to people, it went in one ear and out the other. Season 1 was never the most subtle thing on the planet, but it never felt this preachy. That’s not to say that these lessons aren’t worth teaching, as they absolutely are. However, season 1 did most of them better. I get that this is all meant to be payoff as Mob does what Reigen did back in season 1 by bitch-slapping to sense into misguided and/or entitled espers, but by the end he basically becomes Jesus, going as far as to attempt what seems like an ultimate sacrifice when trying to save the main antagonist of the show, who wants to rule the world.

That brings me to the big boss man himself, the boring man Toichirou Suzuki. He views people as lesser and beneath him, so he wants to rule the world. While the show does make fun of the generic nature he announces his plans before he and his goons proceed to tear up the city, he still remains the boring bid bad guy who wants to rule the world cuz he’s the coolest and best while everyone else is boring and lame. There’s basically nothing else to him. He feels the least like an actual person out of anyone in the show, more akin to a typical Fairy Tail antagonist than even some of the lesser Mob Psycho 100 side-acts. His fight with his kid was only barely more interesting than his fight with Mob, as at least that one had personal stakes and build-up despite that being a fight designed to job the kid who was already a mysterious, untrustworthy powerhouse. I genuinely felt bored when Toichirou and Mob threw buildings at each other, as this climax barely had any build-up to pay off. The fact that afterwards the dude’s wife and kid are there to forgive and support him despite all of this, comes across as utterly asinine in context. Sure, forgiveness and reform are part of self-improvement i.e the core of this show, but there is a level of believability that can be strained before the show’s decisions regarding its themes and messages become hamfisted and ridiculous. The dude treated his wife and kid like shit due to his callous nature, and his kid wanted revenge on the man. For them to just quickly forgive him, resulting in everyone turning a new leaf, is a bigger stretch than when Teruki immediately went from an entitled jerk to a chill dude who gets everything without warning in season 1. There’s a way to make a quick and dramatic character change work, but that requires evidence that the character is starting to crack beforehand, and we have to spend time with them during the change. Otherwise, it’s like when Kirito got super depressed at the end of SAO episode 3, only to just become a generic OP badass in episode 4.

That’s ultimately the problem I have with this second season of Mob Psycho 100. While its visuals are outstanding, it frequently overreaches when it comes to delivering its messages and thematics. It’s often hamfisted, sometimes extremely questionable in its writing. It’s a shame because a lot of the show’s lighthearted and comedic moments are incredibly charming. The subplots regarding the girl Mob pines for, the girl from episode 1, and Reigen’s arc are wonderful just as the slice of life and comedic elements in season 1 were. There are some sweet payoffs present too, and the show has a good heart to it. There are some shounen titles people believe work better when they’re purely in slice of life mode such as Fairy Tail, and I think I can say this applies to the second season of Mob Psycho 100. When the show wants to be more profound than that, it stumbles pretty heavily more often than not. It hurts to say because I was genuinely hyped for a continuation of a great series, and there are several wonderful moments and elements here. It just bogged down by all of these issues to the point that I somehow managed to stop caring. I could not have imagined that happening prior to the last arc of the show, let alone before I even got to season 2, but here we are long after this mixed bag ended. Where it counts, this season is not as consistent or effective as its predecessor, which is the opposite of self-improvement. That’s some cruel irony.

*Covers both seasons*

As someone who quite liked One Punch Man (the creator's other work), I had high hopes for Mob Psycho 100, especially considering its popularity. Honestly though, I feel like the main thing I got out of the experience was the lesson of tempering your expectations based on mass opinion.

Mob Psycho 100 is about a reserved and lonely middle school student, Mob, who possesses incredible psychic powers which he uses to help out a local self-proclaimed psychic, Arataka Reigen, perform exorcisms while trying to change himself for the better and get more enjoyment out of his relatively dull life. It's an honestly brilliant premise, ... as even though the main character is ridiculously overpowered, his personality prevents him from ever wanting to use his powers, with more focus being placed on characters and development rather than the progression of an overarching plot. It sounds great on paper, but I really don't think it ended up doing enough with it to truly set itself apart from other shonens.

The problem with Mob Psycho is that it tries to do way too many things with this premise with relatively poor execution, leading to a lack of focus and shoddy pacing. It jumps from being an incredibly slow paced slice-of-life to a character drama to an off-the-wall action show multiple times throughout, and it somewhat fails to do any of these particularly well.

The slice of life sections suffer from slow pacing and don't contribute much to the main plot, and can honestly feel like quite a chore to sit through. You could describe most of them in one sentence and immediately move on to the next episode without any impact to the overall experience. The action sections, while visually appealing and technically impressive, are flashy without substance and unengaging. How? Fights are simply a matter of power level and who can hit harder. There is absolutely no strategy to any of them. You never really have to worry about the outcome of most of them because most fights involve Mob, who is ridiculously overpowered and can take care of any enemy quite easily. If he does poorly in a fight, it's because he "holds back." However, Mob doesn't like to hurt other people, so he tries to fight as little as possible, instead trying to talk to most of his enemies. That sounds more interesting than it actually is. Most of these conversations go like this:

Mob: "Hey, you can't do bad things! Bad things are bad!"

Enemy: "No, I'm justified because I'm cool and society is lame."

Mob: "Nuh-uh, you're the one who's lame!"

Enemy: "Wow, you're right!" *changes their entire life philosophy*

It just felt really lame and forced most of the time. There was one interesting section where this didn't work and his naive morals were challenged, but it was immediately solved by "the power of friendship," so yeah.

Onto what was probably the best part: the character drama. I think that Mob Psycho's characters are quite good for the most part (minus the villains, they're pretty much just evil for the sake of being evil). They're pretty varied and have interesting qualities, so most people could probably find something to relate to among them, and a lot of them do undergo genuine character development. There was one plotline with Reigen that was particularly great. However, quite a lot of characters got sidelined or simply existed for quick gags.

Mob Psycho is a bit more deep than your particular shonen, but I also feel that that is a bit sullied by the overall presentation of the show itself. I'm probably being just a bit too nitpicky here, but I feel that Mob Psycho is honestly a bit too juvenile for its own good. It felt like I was watching a show for little kids most of the time. The art style is simple and goofy, the jokes, which I really didn't find funny most of the time, are something that I would laugh at if I were in fourth grade, and the themes/overall message is stuff like "just be yourself, don't change yourself for other people, you can rely on friends," etc., which are good themes, but they're shown pretty directly and without the nuance of, say, Re:Zero, which makes it feel a bit kiddy. I really just couldn't take it that seriously, even when it tried to be more mature.

That's not to say that Mob Psycho is flat-out bad. It's enjoyable enough most of the time, with good characters, solid animation, some nuanced themes, and a lot of unique aspects that set it apart, but overall, in my opinion, it's really just a basic shonen that isn't particularly special.

Mob Psycho 100 just fell off and lost the tone that made S1 likable. Me personally I didn't find much interest in it but still I felt like completing it because I hoped it would get better over time but it really didn't.

The story is mediocre. The pacing has shifted quiet a bit. The focus also has changed. The tone of the series becoming more dark and the comedy and light heartedness basically is non existent or is super weak compared to how it was in S1. You can't expect to shift this fast in a short period of time and expect it to be ... okay. This is like making One Punch Man a crime thriller. Constant dialogue, fights that don't have any weight, and episodes that barley captivate me because it feels like a big joke. Mob Psycho 100 is suppose to be silly and the comedy is the aspect that should be the strongest but it never was.

The characters are alright and have gotten some development. Including the main character Mob who had some solid development. The other supporting characters and main characters are still mediocre. I had no attachment to them and still can't connect to them. So when some parts of the season shifted their focus towards them I tried my best to stay interested but couldn't.

The visuals are pretty much the same from last season. Unique and aesthically pleasing, very abstract and "scratchy". With heavy penciling. The animation is sub par compared to One Punch S1 . The music is also good and has gotten better.

Mob Psycho Season 2 has more of the good from Mob Psycho Season 1...but also puts more focus on more of the bad that was present in it as well. As a result, you have an anime that's still enjoyable to watch, but at the same time had my enjoyment of it hindered since it felt unnecessary.

To not be overly negative, I'm really glad that we get to see more of these characters. Thankfully, Reigen and Dimple also get more spotlight after feeling pretty underused in Season 1 despite also being the faces of the anime alongside Mob. It has a mix of little ... odd jobs and activities as well as a character arc or two, all while continuing the messages represented in the first season. It's nice stuff. Then, like Season 1, it suddenly pivots into the "plot," which has some cool fights, but it's also where it kinda started to lose me.

I think the big problem with Season 2 is that it seems to have a lot more fighting and action in it. Granted, the fighting was a mixed bag for me. Some times I was invested in them, but other times they felt like pure spectacle and I was wishing for Mob to just finish them with his overpowered, nondescript abilities already. More fighting also means more psychic abilities that didn't feel like they were rooted in being psychic and instead existed for variety. However, that's a mixed bag because they're cool abilities most times...but also don't stick to the psychic theme which would've been more interesting and creative. All of this culminates to the final fight at the end, which unfortunately had no weight to me because it felt like stuff was just happening for the sake of looking cool.

Mob Psycho's second season amplified more of the things I didn't like in the first season, and I think Mob Psycho would've left more of an impact if it ended with Season 1. However, that doesn't mean the second season is bad, and you should watch it if you want to see more of the cast.

Short Review

Good-
Animation as good(if not better) as S1
Fights were over the top and dope
Body Improvement Club

Bad-
Poor pacing
Season to short
... Missed opportunity for easy tear jerks
Mediocre ending
Not as funny


Overall-
Pretty boring. I felt like the start of this season mostly had what made season 1 so good but then this season just fell flat. Suddenly it just shoots to typical shonen and when you blink the anime is over. They didn't finish up on a lot of things and there are plenty of questions left unanswered . Maybe if the anime was 20-24 episodes they could have fleshed out more but instead the settled with a dry 13 episodes that I couldn't emotionally attach myself to. I'm just as confused as when season 2 started as when it ended if not more confused. Personally I feel that its REALLY hard to top what was season 1 so I may be a bit harsh here.

I loved the heckkk outta season 1. Just fantastic, and hit me in the perfect spot.
This one is a little bit less good.
Not bad, i did very much like it, and would watch it again, but not that good.
People rate it high. I have no idea why. Compared to the first season this is a bit of a mess. Its storylines are all over the place. So many times, we head somewhere for a sidequest, and it literally has no significance, except for a little bit of character development. I feel like so little actually useful stuff happens. Like, why not develop Mobs relationship ... with the photographer girl? That matters as a central plot for mobs life. But instead they do some wacko monster hunting.
Story is up there for me because of the ending fights. Otherwise, its a 5.
other than the first episode. First episode of this season is just 100/10 Mad crazy freakin awesome good. So sappy but so perfect.
other storylines are not even interesting enough to remember. I remember like 3 of the maybe 7 storylines.
Good ones are awesome. bad one are bad.
One of my biggest issues was the plot with Mob vs Reigan. I thought it was resolved too quickly with too little conflict. man, that could have been sooo cool, but it was really chopped together quickly. The development in that one lacked. Maybe it was just the way i watched it, but it was sooo underwhelming when the conflict barely happened and the resolution was lame af.

Ok anyway thats my review. I still like this season, and most like this more than season 1, but I would disagree.

Mob Psycho 100 II (2019)

Season 2 of more hype than needed. It is a much better showing than season 1 but still, it just isn't worth the hype it gets from people for being so fantastic. It still is full of bland, dreary scenes, and backstories no one asked for. Also especially for its finale, we have the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP WINS OVER EVEN THE MOST POWERFUL FOE IN JUST MINUTES. Caps because that is about how exciting it gets.

Art is much the same but maybe more detailed. It is more flashy than before but that's about it.

The sound is the same and ... with all the flashy fights I really expected some booming sound but it is like they forgot to add it.

Characters don't really change and they do explain some but in a way that is just sort of skip skip skip.

Overall, an okay show that just sort of exists.

Mob Psycho 100 II is a mixed bag. While it keeps the ball rolling around the character writing coming from the first season and even elevating it in some points, it's utterly disappointing in the production qualities compared to the first season—because all the passion that went into the first season is lost here—and chooses the easiest and laziest way in its last arc.

Mob Psycho continues with the usual stuff in the second season; exorcism requests, dealing with spirits, and Mob's daily life. As in the first season, the first half focuses on Mob's everyday life & character development, and the second half revolves around ... the quarrel with Claw. However, we have heavier story arcs this time. They still have the wholeheartedness of the first season from time to time, but most of the first half deals with the more serious stuff. Mob faces conflicts that make him grow as a person even more. And his character development that carries over from the first season is written as good. All the various events and the people he encounters affect his character in one way or another—be it him meeting with the most powerful esper of the 20th century or a dilemma on whether to exorcise a spirit family. However, despite there being no major problem with Mob's character writing, Mob Psycho 100 II has a grim mistake that season one didn't have. In the first season, whenever Mob grew as a character and a person, the show didn't bring any extra effort to shove it into our eyes because it wasn't necessary. Any viewer who watched the show carefully would easily see Mob was growing. But the second season comes with one of the most unnecessary additions. In this season, there are some scenes where a side character will comment on some of Mob's actions with something like, "Wow, Mob, you really grew so much!" despite it being as clear as day, and they are trying to make his growth more extraordinary than it actually is. Yes, Mob really grew, but the amount of this growth and the reactions from the other characters don't match. It's like the author wanted to conclude Mob's character arc in these arcs but wasn't able to write a development that is enough to achieve this and tried to cover it with reactions from the other characters. And this causes a massive contrast between the themes and the narrative. This series is about Mob gaining self-confidence, yet the author's pen is full of insecurity.

Other than Mob's character arc, we finally get a deeper look into Reigen's character in the first half of this season. We learn how his life was before opening an office for exorcism jobs and meeting with Mob, what was his ambitions, and the people he met; we also get a chance to see how he holds himself up without the help of Mob. He gets a solid character arc for two episodes and makes us remember why he is such a lovable and charismatic character. However, this character arc ends on such a weak note. Although we watch his struggles for two straight episodes, the spotlight during the climax of this mini-arc is dedicated to Reigen praising Mob for how much he grew. Yes, as I said in my review of the first season, most of the characters serving as catalysts to Mob's character development is a good technique to use in a series like Mob Psycho. But Reigen is the second most important character in this series, and I'd like to see him shine in his character arc instead of ending up as a tool for Mob's character development.

All of the things I talked about in the last two paragraphs were about the first seven episodes. In the last five episodes, we get the continuation of the quarrel with Claw that's left from the first season, and, unfortunately, the Claw arc isn't good this time. Firstly, the shift between the previous episodes and the Claw arc isn't as smooth as the first season. In the previous season, the transition that had been done with Ritsu's character arc and Mob raiding the Claw's base was done naturally with the addition of different plot points through the episodes in the middle of the season. But this season, we got only one plot point used to establish the transition, and it's a very cheap shock value event. This is the first blunder of the "World Domination Arc" and it is also the less infuriating one. There are various blunders in this arc, and we can summarize most of them with one statement: Generic Battleshounen Tropes. All the characters, except for Serizawa and Mob, are one-dimensional space wastes. Especially the main antagonist is such a disappointment. After all the characters I saw in the first season, I expected the boss of the organization to have strong ideals and compelling personality traits. But what we got is an "I seek world domination because I'm the most powerful person in the world!" type of villain that doesn't bring any intriguing element to the table. The author tried to give him some personality in the last episode, but a 50-second flashback isn't a way to do this.

Other than the characters, the dialogues in the action scenes are also bland and generic. The action itself is still very creative and animated very well, but most of the dialogue is full of typical, "I'm stronger than you!" "No, I'm stronger than you!" type of guff and the unnecessary explanations of the things we already can see on the screen. It's very sorrowful to see a show that should've been the parody of battle shounens comes up with the most generic battle shounen tropes in its biggest arc.

Well, even though the writing has some ups and downs this season, it's still Mob Psycho 100 at the end of the day, so the production qualities should be impressive, right? Yes, it still looks and sounds way better than most of the TV anime, but it also is definitely worse than the first season and kind of a disappointment.

First and foremost, the passion is lost. The animation style in this season is way too bland compared to the first season. The unique techniques used in the previous season (fluid character actings, different types of shadings like cross-hatching and smudging, etc.) are either absent or used rarely, the character actings aren't as expressive, the shadings & highlights are worse, and the artwork is less detailed. As I said before, the action itself is still very creative and animated very well, but other than that, only episode five stands out. The animation in this season is still exceptional, but it doesn't feel like the same people who made the first season made it. Here, see some screenshots from the second season; if you think I cherry-picked these ones, you can open two random scenes that belong to two random episodes from both seasons and compare them, and you will see the difference very clearly unless they are action scenes or from episode 5 of the second season.

At least the auditory quality of the show is still somewhat the same. The voice-acting performances are still good, despite not having any striking moments. Kenji Kawai brought us new fantastic soundtracks. And since the comedy has reduced so much, the mismatch between the soundtracks and the sound effects happens way less than in the first season.

I'm aware this review was shaped negatively overall, although the season is somewhat okay. But I can't get over how big a disappointment this season was. It has very high moments like the climax scenes of episodes 5 and 7, but the downsides I talked about are overshadowing the good parts.