Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Mob Psycho 100 II
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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This GIF made my day!<3
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Kistune_bride
Posts: 29 |
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Episode 6&7 made me realize just how amazing One is with adult themes such as wanting to be a somebody but losing your sights on what really matters.
I'm so glad to find out that Mob knew Reigen was a fake all along (seriously he couldn't be that dense) but stayed because of his friendship/mentorship with Reigen. It was both painful and entertaining to see this whole situation spiral out of control. Like yeah this was a long time coming since he's been conning people for years. And yet, Reigen never struck me as a person of malice. Yeah, this show spoils us with great animation, comedy, and sentimentality! |
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whiskeyii
 Posts: 2245 |
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I think it's also worth mentioning that even though Reigen was lying about being a psychic, both before Mob appeared and after Mob left, he doesn't seem to take on any actual exorcism jobs; he's more of a self-help guru/massage therapist at that point, and it's not til the TV program that he honestly bites off more than he can chew. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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When you think about it, it's been obvious almost from the beginning of the series that Mob had to know Reigen had no psychic powers. We've even gotten scenes with Mob looking over random people on the street to reveal to Tome Kurata if there were any espers around. I think Mogami has been the only one so far that could hide from Mob's ability to sense psychic power.
Which makes me feel like all those scenes where Mob would question why Reigen wasn't handling the exorcisms (like in the highway tunnel) was him giving Reigen a chance to confess. 
I'm not sure Reigen actually has any victims. He seems to have a code of conduct where he puts his clients' needs up front, and everyone seems to have walked away from their encounters with him mostly satisfied that he helped them. Until the press told them they shouldn't be. Kind of a gray area... At any rate I loved the ending of this episode. And ongoing kudos to Takahiro Sakurai's inspired performances breathing life into this internet sex symbol. 
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 712 |
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There are two things in particular that this episode did that are really interesting, I think. First, it showed that Reigen's former clients, who he never actually did anything bad to, get mad at him basically because the media tells them they're victims. Practically everyone who came into contact with Reigen walked away better off than before; even if he didn't have psychic powers he was still helping them with their problems. This seemed to me as almost a commentary of sorts on the modern victim mentality that's so prevalent; nobody thought they were scammed until the media told them to feel that way.
Secondly, and more explicitly, it showed the downside of social media in fuelling modern outrage culture. The whole thing very quickly turned from poeple having legitimate grievances to basically just piling on for the sake of it (or for the lulz, or for the social cred, etc.), and showed just how hollow it all is. |
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Gwydion
 Posts: 155 |
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While I will agree that Reigen is, as Mob says, a good person and does for the most part still help his clients rather than flat out scamming them, he's not completely blameless either. He has done his share of sketchy stuff and faked his way through things he's not actually qualified to handle (pretending to hold a seance, for example). And even though he knew Mob wasn't coming, he still took a job where someone said they needed an exorcism, and afterwards was relieved it wasn't a real exorcism case. That person may have been helped in the end, and that's great, but it's clear he's willing to chance these sorts of jobs even with the possibility of one of them being the real deal and him being unequipped to handle it alone. I haven't read the manga, so I'm interested in seeing if from now on he sticks to jobs he knows he'll be able to handle with his own skills unless it's guaranteed that Mob will be there to assist.
All that said, I adored these past two episodes! I didn't much care for Reigen at the start of season 1, but he grew on me by the end of it, and season 2 - these two episodes in particular - have really made me love his character. I'm glad we got to see more from his perspective, and hopefully his character development sticks and we get to see him grow and change in his own way to compliment Mob's growth. And on a technical level, we may have gotten a spectacle a couple of episodes ago, but all of the little movements and details in this one (the "character acting") really impressed me, and I was happy to see that brought up in the review. I was a fool to be initially put off by the artstyle - the animation in this show is just gorgeous! Can't wait to see what the rest of the season has in store! |
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Taifood
Posts: 44 |
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I don't think being "blameless" was something to be taken away from the end of the scene. |
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ChestPains
Posts: 101 |
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That's one of the things that really shows that deep down Reigen really is, like Mob said, a good guy. Sure he's a conman, but most of what he did really wasn't bad and he genuinely helped people. The only thing he'd lie about were the back pains and etc being caused by curses or evil spirits, he still helped them nonetheless, and his prices are actually not bad for what he does (despite the joke about him having different courses, it was still a fraction of the price a "real" psychic charged), so it's not like he was ever trying to get rich. Put it another way, your computer breaks down and you take it to the repair shop saying a vengeful spirit broke it. He fixes it and charges you the normal price, saying he exorcised it. Sure he lied, but it's not like you got scammed. |
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Gwydion
Posts: 155 |
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Oh, I agree! The dichotomy of "conman" and "good person" is definitely an interesting side to his character, and I wouldn't want to see that just go away completely, nor do I think these episodes were meant to handwave his behavior as "blameless". But between here and other social media platforms, I've seen quite a few people come away with a "Reigen did nothing wrong" mentality after these episodes, and my response was more directed at that than the review or episode itself. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2299 |
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Wow. Episode 8 was utterly stunning.
This show just keeps getting better. I feel bad for everything else airing this season having to compete with it. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Unpopular opinion: I don't think Reigen got enough comeuppance in his arc. What really bothered me wasn't really that he was actively misleading his clients by going along with their delusions and claiming ordinary problems have spiritual causes, but that he looks *down* on them. The scene in the bar was damning. I considered that Reigen might just be saying that he doesn't care about the other bar patrons out of spite, but he doesn't seem to regret it. He really seems to condescend to them simply because they are likely to buy his BS. That's the worst kind of low, and the opposite of what Mob stands for. Mob gives everyone a chance, despite their egos or weird beliefs. He doesn't give up on people unless it's clear that they are out to hurt others, and even then would give them another chance if they regretted their actions. He would never simply look down on people because he wanted to feel superior.
By the end of the arc, I don't think we got any indication that Reigen recognizes that his attitude was wrong or why, or that he should change how he views people. He was brought to a low point, embarrassed, his ego publicly bruised. But Mob swooped in to save him before he had to really face the consequences and publicly admit he was wrong. Now he's rightfully kinder to Mob, but did he learn his lesson about everyone else, including his bar "buddies" he used to feel better about himself? That's not to say he's not a good person---I agree that the dichotomy between conman and good guy mentor is interesting, and I love Reigen as a character. But I think he got off easy last week. This week: Excellent episode! Look how much Mob---and Reigen! have grown!!! Just a trying-your-all even when you're not the best sports episode. I'm so glad Mob has so much support! Wait, what? ...I'm scared and hoping that ending was a red herring! Why can't Mob be happy?! |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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That's sort of a requirement for being a con artist. You can't con people you consider your equals. And yet despite that, he still wanted to help them as his clients. Reigen is large, he contains multitudes. Sometimes literally! 
As for episode 8, all I have to say for now is 
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Revolutionary
 Posts: 601 Location: Too Far South |
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Yeah, that was a dramatic tonal shift from the rest of the episode and the rest of the entire series. That's too depressing.
I actually agree with Agent 355 that the conclusion of the Reigen arc left me wanting more. Although my problem is actually less with him being a conman in general, but more with the fact that he has manipulated and used Mob for his own means all of this time. He deserved everything he got, including his clients turning on him. They were a little off-base on why they were claiming him to be a fraud, but they were still right in the long run. He has no psychic powers and has been using a child who he manipulated to trust him to do his jobs. Mob being like "I've known all along.... That you're a good person" doesn't really do anything for me. I realize that Reigen is not a complete monster and that Mob has benefited from working with him. But even that is messed up. Reigen may have said some good things to Mob when he came to him for help, but it was all with the intent of manipulating him to do his work for him. It is a messed up dynamic. Surely this is not where the development of that plot ends? (Don't spoil it for me) |
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Merida
Posts: 1945 |
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Aww, give our sexy internet phenomenon a break! Seriously, Reigen is not your conventionally "good person" (and i wouldn't want him to be!) and sure, he used Mob's powers for his shady business, but he also gave Mob a way to use said powers for helping people and to become better at controlling them in the process....which in turn made Mob become more self-assured, able to make friends and express himself better. So i'd call it a mutually benificial arrangement. Their relationship would probably be more problematic to me if Mob was the stereotypical anime orphan Reigen took under his wings in order to raise him for his own benefit. But Mob has a loving family and a brother who adores him, so he never really was dependent on Reigen in any way, but stayed with him of his won free will. |
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NeverConvex
Subscriber Posts: 2299 |
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I could've done with Reigen's arc somehow giving him an eventual out from the extreme censure, but also without giving him an out on being widely recognized as a con-man / non-psychic. That would have required some pretty dramatic alterations to the story going forward, though. I still thought they did a pretty good job putting him through the ringer, for the most part in proportion to his misdeeds.
Really, though, what I took from that arc was less about Reigen's seed of good and more about Mob's incredible growth as a person and heretofore uncelebrated capacities for insight & forgiveness. I saw Mob accepting his master's core goodness despite his many warts, and the double entendre of acknowledging that he has known all along what Reigen is, as making Reigen's arc much more about Mob than about Reigen, despite who got most of the screen time. |
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