Mob Psycho 100 II Episode 13 Discussion

ZaBici said:
This was disappointing. There was such a great build up and interpretation of duality only to have it end with the classical and not to mentioned over-rushed "good prevails".
Meaningless words thrown from both sides in the last battle and the antagonist was there just as a crutch for Mob's narrative.
Bleh. A guy's world domination goal foiled by a stray cat. How romantic.

At episode 5 I would have rated this 11/10, now, gonna go with a "at least you tried" 7.

hornetsentinel said:
the former you described would probably turn the series into a glorified battle shounen just for the sake of having a cooler boss fight narrative

at the end of the day, all of these arcs are meant to represent mob's growth and how he handles these scenarios. if the 'world domination' plot took a life of its own the story would get generic as fuck

ZaBici said:


So wait, you're saying we shouldn't soil the show with filthy shonen hands irrespective to the quality of the story? What am I even reading.

... Cooler boss narative, it's not about cool, I don't care about cool, that's something you imagined as necessary so side note, maybe you have some shonen? needs..., it's about a well built "boss" or better said anti-hero which grows the character of the hero. They grow each other, because nothing exists without its counterpart.

I was just left with the impression, throughout the show, that the mangaka was very aware of duality and was applying it in Mob psycho as well but the ending was like a spit in the face.

Also, just so we're clear, who the fuck cares what genre it fits into? I care about the story which up until one point I was seeing it in the leagues of The Dark Knight. I doubt any anime even comes close to that but Mob left that impression.

Seeing a guy that spent 20 years gathering energy for world domination throw it away in classic "stormtrooper" spray and pray while laughing maniacally about how exhilarating it is - The Fuck is that? This guy would have been the first gimp to get crushed by Mob and wouldn't have made it to super-villain status lacking that much self control.
Mob felt 0 pressure from him, 0!!!! And at the end we're shown a cat =)))))))))))))))))))))). Top kek.

Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it for me though, it's not what I signed up for.

L.E. Actually, sorry, there's quite a few that are up there, but I remember ranking it really high when I considered what motivated him to make this manga / anime.
Even that considered though, I forgot the king - One Piece. It will reign supreme for much time to come, way ahead of its time. Neon Genesis Evangelion is also really out there flying with the stars but anyway, you get what I meant.

hornetsentinel said:
i should clarify on what i meant better

the series isn't a battle shounen. in saying that, i don't mean that i have an issue with elements of the genre. the claw-centric arcs clearly have semblance to your run of the mill take on the genre. the reason this is worth mentioning is because the direction it takes is a subversion of what you, along with most of the audience, were expecting from this arc's climax.

its not so much about him being mob's counterpart as it is him being an alternative direction of what happens to espers when they aren't brought down from their belief that they are 'special'. its similar to how shimazaki represented an alternative route for teru (to strengthen this, his fight with mob in s1 even mentioned that he appeared to be teleporting). mogami represents an alternative route for mob if his circumstances had been different. serizawa represents yet another direction mob could have gone in as an esper. these ones are obvious because of how blunt they are, although some of them do appear more subtle.

to be more specific, what the claws boss represents is the exemplification of what every other esper, whom refused to grow up according to reigen in s1, idealized for themselves.




his motivation for 'world domination' isn't deep. just like the espers in scar's reason for world domination wasn't deep.

by snapping him out of the idea that he has to accomplish something significant because he's 'special', mob has successfully tackled the epitome of said 'delusion' that espers in the series have. this is proof of mob's growth as a person. all of this also relates to dimple's shallow motivation for wanting to become 'god'. without spoiling, this parallel will make more sense in season 3.

basically, its all about the parallels between antagonists, rather than each antagonist being inherently developed. its about the core themes and message above anything else. since i've read the manga, my perspective in how i view this is helped by the events that occur beyond the anime, so there will definitely be more proof of this for you in the future.

ZaBici said:

But wait, nobody is special? That's the same as saying everyone is special though. What's the moral of this story? Just a downer for anyone thinking he/she's special?

ZaBici said:
but not using your power is simply running away from it, not solving the issue.

hornetsentinel said:

its pretty much as the opening says "if everyone is not special maybe you can be what you want to be". while every esper is calling themselves the main character of the world, mob is giving them the lesson that reigen taught him


psychic powers or not, "your life is your own"

hornetsentinel said:


as for the overall moral of the story, this idea intertwines with people being able to change through their relationships with other people.

Okarin_Kyouma said:

I think "people can change" is the real main idea of this show(MP100 Season 2).

hornetsentinel said:


look forward to season 3

Okarin_Kyouma said:

You have a completely different perspective about the show. "Being (not) special" is only a background story for me.

ZaBici said:


--
Man.. being the protagonist of your life is the same as saying you're the main character of the world. The world is what you make it. Sure, the world can exist without you (probably, you can't be sure without outright faith) but as long as you exist, you're the main character. Again, these are redundancies. Everyone is the main character of the world, but individually, there's no accounting for someone else because that someone else is nothing more than an image of you.

Well, if you subscribe to this thought current but I haven't been able to see anything as deep as this or past this. Yet anyway.


Btw, I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but I'm thrown away by your image replies *praise*.




--
That's... true, in the same redundant way. I won't dispute it therefore but I just want to add that people have both a good and bad side to them. At any point in time one of them dominates. So yes, if we define change by being able to be present on either side. Therefore, people can change, in any direction. So what.

Maybe the answer is in the characteristic straight faced portrayals of MOB and Saitama, there is no point, this ending is just an image for those that need to see it.
Yeah, ok, I kinda see it, I'm just waiting for a picture of the bad side as well to be fully convinced this guy didn't con me into watching 2 seasons just to feed me candies at the end. Sorta' ok with kitties though.


--
You're the second person to tell me this in an argument... I won't call you out on it then and just wait and see. I'm not that patient though, is the manga finished?



Glad I'm not alone in that. But you lost me at "being able to change".

I guess we're each at our own point in our journey

hornetsentinel said:
the distinction is that one claims you're the protagonist of YOUR own life, whereas the other is saying that they are the protagonist of everyone's life, meaning that everyone who is not "special" like them are nothing but background characters.

for example, here's teru mocking the idea that an average person can accomplish what the protagonist can through hard work and effort. this implies that people can't dictate their roles in life because you're either born the protagonist or you're born a background character.

for reference, mob (mobu) in japanese means background character, so there's great significance in him saying that particular phrase.

yes the manga is finished and the anime ended at chapter 91. if you're wondering specifically about mob not accepting his psychic powers as apart of himself, that is in the last arc.

ZaBici said:


And I'm saying it's the same thing. Also "meaning that everyone who is not "special" like them are nothing but background characters" that's your take on it and not in any way true. Everyone that isn't special simply hasn't put in the effort to get what they want, hence not being the protagonist of their own life, hence not on the same level of commitment. That doesn't mean that they don't have the same capability of being "special", which again, "special" is just an umbrella term for any sort of positive trait. Focusing on the word special will not help you understand the bigger picture. You need to piece the puzzle together to see which type of special is being used in this story. If I'm coming down as condescending, I'm not, I don't care for anything other than the argument.
When I say they are the same thing, I mean that once you are the protagonist of your own life, the people around you are part of your own life, therefore, you are the main character. There is simply no way for you to not be the main character unless you give the main character to someone else and that is, not living your own life. This does not contest the ability of everyone else to be the main character, but in your own life, you are!! And no matter what happens, you still are and everyone else, is playing in your own game.


Teru is just a archetype villain for Japan, I've heard that shit way too many times to not recognize it as some deep seated trauma for them. It's nothing more than that, holds no value in the above conversation. The whole Teru transformation is an archetype that was presented as is without any real understanding as to why it is the way it is and it just ended up being phony; Which it very much is. But I skipped it because the flow of the anime was nice and I filled in the blanks. I guess I just got over-hyped for some reason.

Also, about mob, I had my own take on it, and used the english meaning for it to see the show as a metaphor for today's "mass sleep" situation and the OP's "wake your psyche up mob" was a rather obvious ~ alignment with the #awakening current. That being said, the Japanese term (which I didn't know what it means) builds into the same theory. So it's probably a double entendre.

Kish0 said:
Wait what? it just ended right here? There were so many loose ends on this, this can't be the final arc right?

Mob's relationsihp with Tsubomi was not even settled yet.

And the strange entity inside Mob's body is not yet even discovered. If this is how it ended it was so disappointing.

DumpsterKing said:
There is more in the manga.