Mob Psycho 100 III

Episode 12

Mob's casual stroll to the park has ended after four long and city-flattening weeks, as has our tenure with this soft-spoken psychic lad. While it hurts to say goodbye, it's fitting for Mob Psycho 100 to take a bow with some final flexes of its two strongest muscles: a parting exaltation of simple kindness, and a brilliantly animated display of Reigen getting the everloving crap kicked out of him. There aren't many surprises in this finale (maybe one big one, depending on how gullible you are), but I like that. This feels like the series going out on its own terms, in an adaptation that has maintained its trailblazing spirit and quality for over six years. This is the farewell Mob deserves.

Per usual, it's kindness that saves the day. There is, for example, the simple yet absurdly stalwart kindness of Tsubomi sitting on her park bench despite the tornado inching closer and closer to her. While she's going to reject Mob, she wants to do it as a friend, face to face. There's also the more heroic kindness of Reigen bearing the full brunt of his underling's power in order to extend his hand and find Mob's shoulder on the other end of it. This, however, gains its power not from Reigen's increased physical stamina, nor from Dimple's last-minute assist, but from Reigen's determination to do the right thing. For once. It all comes down to simple actions and gestures that anybody can do—provided they possess the conviction.

That's easier said than done, of course. Finding conviction is an internal battle, and that's why these final conflicts are intense psychological ones. While on the surface, it might seem like Reigen and Mob are at odds in this confrontation, the real battles they're fighting are within themselves. We see both sides of Mob locked in an argument only he can hear, but the presentation is subtler for Reigen. He gets whipped around hither and thither to a cartoonish level, which is admittedly very satisfying to watch and very unsubtle. However, I see these scenes not just as Reigen going toe-to-toe with the most powerful telekinetic nexus on the planet, but also as a symbolic representation of his own personal struggles. When he comes clean to Mob, he looks absolutely haggard, like this is the most difficult thing he's ever done. It probably is.

Speaking from experience, it's staggeringly difficult to accept yourself. It's a struggle that I don't think ever truly ends, or maybe it's better thought of as a process instead of a terminus. It helps, though, to have friends and family who can guide your inner eye to see what they see from the outside. Reigen had me tearing up alongside him as he described his own ongoing self-loathing, but I also loved his realization that even his scummiest instincts let someone like Mob into his life. Mob unknowingly turned Reigen into a better person by showing him the aspirational side of his lies. Mob made Reigen want to be the mentor he claimed to be. And in a sense, we're all just a cascade of facades without one true self, yet we still have the ability to choose which facades to focus on. So Reigen returns the favor and gives Mob the final push he needed to stop repressing and start reconciling with himself. This is exactly the climax I wanted: just two wonderful characters having a productive heart-to-heart conversation that reveals how much they've both grown up.

And Dimple helps! This counts as the “big surprise,” but like I said earlier in the season, I never fully counted him out of the ring. Mob Psycho 100 has never been a show to fully commit to a tragedy, and that's not a terrible thing. The series has always found drama in other places, particularly in the aforementioned eternal struggle to improve and accept oneself. So I'm cool with a little Dimple-ex-machina. Same goes for the feel-good epilogue, where we see the city restored and everyone back to their usual shenanigans. The psychic power spectacles were only ever there to further Mob's development as a person. Now he's earned some corniness. Would you want to wipe that smile off his face in the end? Are you that much of a monster? No, I didn't think so.

And that's it for Mob Psycho 100, an anime that will stand as a testament both to ONE's skills as mangaka, and to the sheer amount of power that animators can infuse into an adaptation. It's an increasingly rare feat, but with the right team, under the right circumstances, provided the right supervision and guidance, manga adaptations can be bold, fun, full of character, and full of surprises. It's the kind of anime that, like Mob himself, can convince you that better things are indeed possible. And somehow, it can convince you of this while it also shows you a gratuitous closeup of Reigen's bare foot. That's poetry. Thank you, Mob Psycho 100.

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Mob Psycho 100 III is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Steve is a regular freelance contributor to ANN and also the guy who called Arataka Reigen an internet sex symbol that one time. Feel free to roast him on Twitter about this. Otherwise, catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.