A brief review (and opinion) of Mob Psyco 100

Some days ago, I watched the first and second season of Mob Psycho 100 an anime that is considered a great show as a result of its animation and the story that it tells us; after I finished it, I really wanted to share my feelings and opinions about this show.

Mob Psycho 100 is an anime based on the webcomic, with the same name, created by the Japanese drawer ONE, who is the author of another famous webcomic: One Punch Man. The animation of the first and second season of Mob Psycho 100 has been in charge of Studio Bones, probably one of the most famous animation studios in Japan, thanks to all the shows that it has produced since its creation; some of its most famous titles are Full Metal Alchemist, Soul Eater, Bungo Stray Dogs and My Hero Academia.

I must confess that before I watched this show, I was not sure about what should I expect about it; I mean, I had heard good comments about its animation, but I did not remember what was the story about. Basically, those recommendations from bloggers and YouTubers impulsed me to watch this show, and also that fact that  I had enjoyed watching One Punch Man and I was expecting to see something similar. The final result? I realized that Mob Psycho 100 and One Punch Man are not similar at all; in my opinion, between these shows are more differences than similarities, however, I was not disappointed after watching Mob Psycho 100.

This anime presents to us the life of Shigeo Kageyama (called Mob), a middle school student who is almost invisible for the rest of the school; he does not have any of those special attributes which become a middle school student popular: he is shy, he is not an athlete and does not get outstanding grades; nevertheless, he has a particularity that not many people in the world has: he is an esper.

Being an esper could be considered as a gift for the one who posses that particularity, nonetheless, in the case of Mob that is one of the reasons why he is so introvert and does not express his feelings like a regular person. His powers are highly connected with his emotions, and every time he is overwhelmed by these, his powers explode and he cannot control them, putting in a high risk to the people that he cares. As a result of the destructive potential of his esper skills, he avoids using them. While the anime goes on, Mob constantly fails to try to suppress his emotions and powers, but he is also able to show us that he is more than his powers (trying to achieve different goals without using his esper attributes) and keeps improving the control of his powers at the same time that he starts to give more importance to his feelings. 

Like he does in One Punch Man, ONE turns the skills of the main character against him in Mob Psycho 100. While the One Punch Man's protagonist, Saitama, is living a boring life as a consequence of his incredible strength, Mob is terrified because his powers avoid him to live a normal life, and he is afraid of hurting anyone. From my point of view, that is an amazing way to turn a script in a way that favours the development of any character.

It is important to highlight that Mob is not entirely alone, he counts with his master and boss: Arakata Reigen, an auto proclaimed spiritualist, who cheats the people while he makes them think that he is eliminating spirits; but when he faces real ghosts, he uses to Mob to rid them. He is a clever man who often can resolve his difficulties (many times by hilarious ways) and helps Mob to take care of his powers, teaching him how to use them (even when Reigen does not have esper's powers at all) and to be responsible with them, reasons why Mob admires him and appreciate him. Reigen is far from being a perfect man, but he helps Mob to accept his powers, teaching him that he is not a different boy because of his particularities and these will not interfere if he wants to become a good person.

Both characters have a great development during the chapters (especially on the second season), and I consider very valuable the fact that the author does not guide the evolution of its character to turn them perfect in every sense, but he turns them into better people than before. About the changes of the characters can be written a lot, then, if I would want to include an analysis of the support characters, this post would be even more extensive. I decided to leave the deeper analysis of the main and support characters for a future post; I think I should watch the show again to able to write about the complexity of each one accurately. By now, I just can tell you that all the characters that appear in the show have a purpose, and their appearance does not feel forced in most cases.

If you have not seen this show, by reading this words, you probably think that it is a very serious one, with high doses of drama and sentimentalism, however, that is really far from the truth. In most of its chapters, Mob Psycho 100 is filled with comic situations that always draw a smile on the face of its spectators. The humour of this anime is almost everywhere, for example, in the adventures of the characters, in their conversations and in their hilarious facial expressions. I think that Mob Psycho 100 represents the daily life of most of us, which is a mix of good and bad situations, of smiles, laughs and tears, situations that are very well communicated across the script of the author and the animation made by the studio. Now that I stop to reflex carefully about this show, I realize how emotional is this anime whereas its main character is a guy who tries to suppress his emotions.

Besides, I feel the necessity to spend some words to talk about the openings and endings. Both have an energetic rhythm (as in the first season as in the second one), but the sensations that each one transmits are different. The opening sounds like it is preparing us to see a dynamic show full of energy, sensation that is also transmitted by its animation, that is full of colours, lights and frenetic movements. Unless you see the opening several times or stopping it on each scene, it will be impossible for you to catch all the elements that appear on it.

On the other hand, the endings present an animation that could be considered as more simple than in the openings, but that is not a problem to transmit to us (helped by the music) the bittersweet feeling that almost every ending tries to give us. The designs on the endings are less dynamic, and its colours are less vibrant than in the openings, but that fits really well to express the opposite emotions that these do; in the endings, we assist the deeper and more intimate emotions of our main characters, and I will not be exaggerating if I told you that listening to the endings songs while you are watching the lasts scenes of some specific chapters will probably make you cry.

Before finishing, I must confess that at the beginning I did not like the way the show is animated, mainly because it is pretty different comparing with other animes that I have watched, moreover, I considered that the design of the characters was quite simple. But after some chapters, I got used to those aspects, and I surprised with the animation of each battle scene that appears on the show; the colours, the dynamic and movement of the scenes are incredible, full of psychedelia that catch our senses and give us a hype sensation, but I was also able to admire how through those designs that at the beginning I considered simple, the author and the studio were able to transmit a wide stream of emotions that really reached me.

Do I recommend you to watch this show? Sure. Mob Psycho 100 is one of the best examples to illustrate how animes can be considered more than just animated cartoons and to explain why there is a lot of people who see this kind of shows. In my opinion, animes like this one are comparable with some of the most popular and/or best-evaluated shows (animated or acted), talking about the quality of the story told and characters.

If you have not seen this anime, consider to give it an opportunity, even if you are not used to watching anime shows; I am almost sure that you will enjoy it. And, if you have already seen this show, please feel free to leave a comment and to share your opinions about it. 

Perhaps in the future, I will go deeper into the analysis of characters and other particularities of this anime, but I consider that is enough by now. I really appreciate that you took some time to read my post, thank you so much! If you want it, you can read some of my other posts.

*** If you detect some mistakes on my writing, please comment it. In my first post, I explain why I might be writing with mistakes***