Mob Psycho 100 (TV Series) Ochimusha ~Psychic Powers and Me~ (2016) User Reviews

High stakes, high pay offs

[wallbreaker-14390 · 10/10 · 10 January 2021]

This episode is the clash between two sides of the same coin: one fully blinded by power, and the other rejecting it; it's a beautiful take on how power affect persons and how it's use will affect others and, specially, themselves. As for the actual fight, absolutely marvelous, two god-alike powerfull boys in the arena (of the school), though one of them is playing as the predator and the other as the prey; greatly animated and even a bit gutwrenching, the fight ends in such a good note by showing both characters what they didn't want to see.

Hilarious, emotional, hyping, and pretty much awesome, this episode is the full package about what this show is capable of: great characters, amazing fights, super enjoyable rhythm and maturity with it's themes.

Conflicting ideologies yield great character development

[liammc-73274 · 10/10 · 11 November 2021]

This was a beautiful episode from a narrative and visual perspective.

Teruki serves as an interesting foil character for Mob initially. He appears supremely confident, is obsessed with his image, and isn't afraid to use his psychic powers to get ahead in the world and rise to the top of his observed "hierarchies of power". However, one confrontation with Mob completely breaks this image both literally and figuratively (he's left completely stripped of his confidence, as well as clothes and the hair on the top of his head). This all occurs due to Mob's mere existence in Teruki's eyes. It's actually a fairly nuanced portrayal of imposter syndrome. After rising to the top of a local hierarchy of power purely due to one innate ability, the facade of confidence crumbles immediately when faced with the reality that his ability isn't unique.

For Mob this confrontation was essentially the ultimate test to keep his emotions in check while holding fast to the moral compass Reigen instilled in him after his first serious accident with his psychic powers. Although his bottled up emotions get the best of him while he's unconscious, the fact that he regains control and tries to atone for his mistake by reconstructing the school just makes him that much more endearing as a character. We also see Mob deeply affected by sadness for the first time. It was the perfect place to reveal this aspect of Mob's character, and the conclusion with the clouds opening up and Teruki coming to grips with Mob's existence as well as his own image is beautifully done.

The influence that Hunter x Hunter had on this show is really apparent in this episode. From Mob's appearance when his pent up emotions start escaping his unconscious body (clear reference to Gon's transformation before confronting Neferpitou), to the intermittent narration, it's a pretty touching homage to watch as a huge fan of HxH.

This episode just continues the trend of supreme visual creativity. The use of different textures in the animation is super engaging and the combat is just a joy to watch. The visuals are definitely one of the show's strongest aspects. Studio Bones really outdid themselves animating this show.

The only knock I have on this episode is that the dialogue between Teruki and Mob was pretty ham-fisted at times. I feel like sometimes the show has a tendency to have characters spell out their motivations and traits outright through dialogue instead of subtly giving that information to the viewer. But this really didn't affect my enjoyment of the episode all that much.