OH SHIT! :D
So! Here we are. After doing up a list of my predicted favourites for this season,
and another specific video on why I thought Mob
Psycho 100 will be amazing, we finally have ourfirst episode. And MAN is it a doozy. Or rather
the first few minutes are a doozy. The rest of it is a fairly standard introduction, but
whatever. So if you are like me and didn’t bother
to go out and read any of the original material for this series, let’s have a quick talk
about what this show is about. The world in which this story takes place is home to two
major things: spirits and psychics. Spirits that cause trouble, and psychics who have
the mental superpowers to rid the world them. The title character of the series, Mob, is
one such psychic. He becomes apprenticed to the self-proclaimed psychic Raigen, who is
actually little more than a simple con-artist, and not a very good one at that. How these
two met and became companions in the first place has yet to be explained and quite possibly
will never be explained, but the relationship of Master and Apprentice allows for Raigen
to call up Mob whenever he receives a high paying exorcism job, and then has Mob do all
the actual work as part of his “Training”. It really makes me wonder if Mob knows that
he’s just being used. It’s either he knows and he’s going along with it, or he doesn’t
know and for some reason can’t piece it all together because wisdom is his dump stat
or something. All in all, the show’s premise may sound
extremely simple and I would agree that it is, but this is coming from the same original
author that made an entertaining story about a superhero that could kill everything in
one punch, so I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt for now.
Not much else happens in this first episode to give you a sense of what the show is going
to be about beyond that. There’s no foreboding precursor to any sort of enemy attack or cataclysm
that will befall the city. All we have is this less than conspicuous counter at the
bottom of the screen every couple of scenes counting up to 100% when apparently Mob will
explode. Considering how there was a black entity in the opening fight scene that looked
like Mob’s silhouette, I can only assume that something similar to that will be happening
in the future. Not exactly like that, like not that exact scene, as I think what we were
viewing is something that happens in the far future, if it happens at all. But I’d imagine
we get to see Mob pitted up against something he can’t handle and then hit 100% causing
him to explode in a wave of overpowering psychic energy. Looking forward to that!
Really though, the two stand out elements of the series are the humour and the art style.
The humour, as you’ll recall if you’ve seen One Punch Man, is this kind of wacky
but very dry joke style. So far it works off visual gags and the somewhat awkwardness of
the characters. Raigen covering his ass when people question his con would be one example.
The animation is worth talking about because the series has decided to go in the direction
of having a rather unique style. Most of the character designs are almost carbon copies
of what we’ve seen before from the original mangaka ONE, but unlike the Madhouse adaptation
of One Punch Man last year, we don’t have this constant switch between that casual art
style and the more traditionally detailed one. There are even many times in this first
episode when the art is little more than scribblings on blank paper.
But in the more special effect heavy scenes, we see that simple art style used to “great
effect”, as the more slipshod art is used in tandem with the rest of the art, to help
give off this feeling of immense power. It reminds me a lot of older 90’s anime that
would dip into this sort of style anytime there was this giant kind of energy blast
and they wanted to show buildings or beings just melting away. It’s actually quite clever.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that the show’s opening is extremely addictive, though I expected
that since BONES has a habit of doing such things. I think I’m still going to need
some time to decide if it’s an OP that will really stick with me, but I’ll know for
sure by the end of the season. We’ll also know by the end of the season
if the show is going to get one of those dreaded Bones endings, which I think some people might
fear more than me. When people talk about BONES endings, specifically the bad ones,
it’s things like FMA 2003 and Soul Eater that pop up in conversation, but I personally
didn’t mind either of those endings so, in actuality, I feel that BONES endings are
more of a danger for people who have read the manga and know of another way the ending
could be done and might actually prefer that. But for people like me who have never and
probably will never read the original material, it’ll be fine. I hope…
So, the moment of truth, should you watch Mob Psycho 100? Yes. I have seen nothing in
this first episode that would lead me to believe that most of my pre-season hype was not justified.
Sure things might change as the series progresses, but I have a feeling that even if it does
start to dip in narrative quality, that the insane art style will make up for a lot of
it. But what did you guys think? Let me know down
in the comments and as usual, if you have read the original material or are commenting
from the future when more than just episode one has been released, no spoilers please.
If this video has piqued your interest, then at present Mob Psycho 100 is available in
North America from Crunchyroll, and as of yet we don’t have a home video licenser,
so that might come into play by the end of the season. Still time for that though. As
usual, if you click on the link in the description crunchyroll.com/glassreflection you can grab
a free trial of Crunchyroll’s premium service which will be required to watch Mob Psycho
100’s most recent episode every week. I’d also like to thank Crunchyroll for sponsoring
this video, and also giving me the freedom to basically say whatever I want about it
with little fear. Not that I had much bad to say as I did personally pick Mob Psycho
to talk about, but the freedom was still appreciated. Thank you for joining me on this First Reaction.
If you like this sort of thing, hit the like button to let me know and if you have a suggestion
for what you think I should talk about next, let me know down in the comments, though chances
are I’m doing it anyway. And until next time, ladies, gentlemen, and others, Stay
Frosty.