17%: Ekubo's Selfish Panic
The whole first half of the season was reserved for bringing a conclusion to the Psycho Helmet Cult sub-plot and Ekubo's goals that were revealed way back in the first season. This arc starts with showing us Mob's daily life and his goals for the future and evolves into a more serious event with Ekubo finally putting his plan into action. Psycho Helmet Cult is used only as a tool that helps Ekubo to try to make Mob join the dark side, and I can't decide whether this is a good thing or not. On the one side, not giving this cult a greater role in the arc after teasing it for almost twenty episodes feels like wasting a nice potential. But on the other side, it would look weird if they suddenly became a major driving force of a big arc since the idea behind this cult never got developed properly. Nonetheless, I still would like to see them more because of the eerie atmosphere during eps. 4-5 that was established through this cult was startling.
On the other hand, Ekubo doesn't have any of these problems. We saw the interactions between him and Mob in almost every episode since the first season and watched how his character shifted from "just a bad spirit who wants to control Mob to fulfill his own dreams" to "a familiar-like spirit who protects Mob and acts like a secondary mentor for him" So, the events in the later parts of this arc was very touching. His dialogues with Mob in eps. 5-6 and the events that happened afterward were some of the best moments in the whole series thanks to the emotional pay-off. The second season also had its high moments, but I think this one is the peak of Mob Psycho 100 in terms of character writing. It encapsulates the characters of Mob and Ekubo which are carefully developed through three seasons in a near-perfect fashion and gives us an excellent climax. I even would nominate this arc as the best of the series if it wasn't for the utterly boring second episode.
40%: Telepathy:Aliens:Memories
This mini-arc with two episodes contains a grim mistake, unfortunately. This season tries to bring conclusions without developments, and the telepathy club is one of the victims of this attempt. This arc revolves around the telepathy club's president Tome's final shot at meeting with aliens together with her club. She is in her final year, and the entrance exams are getting closer, so there isn't much time left for her in this school. The story of the arc keeps moving forward with the addition of a new character who was an old member of the telepathy club and getting concluded by club members encountering aliens and spending time with them. This encounter is a bit weird, though. The whole sequence feels like a dream, so we are not sure whether these events happened or not, and the production staff accomplished this feature by creating a bizarre atmosphere through the different usage of animations and sounds. However, when you look behind the production values you see this whole arc has no weight since we didn't get a chance to know the characters in the club. They were always a shadow of the Body Improvement Club's members and served as comic relief aspects. There should've been an arc for us to know these characters better, and we should've seen them more in the slice-of-life parts of the show to get used to them even more. Without these, this arc is nothing but an example of style over substance.
56%: Mob's Feelings for Tsubomi, Or Perhaps It Is
And here we are, the last story arc of Mob Psycho 100 which consists of four episodes. In the first episode of this arc, Mob learns Tsubomi will move away at the end of this school year, so he finally makes his mind up and decides to confess his feelings for her. However, he gets hit by a car while trying to save a random stranger when he is on his way to meet up with Tsubomi, and as a result, his "???%" form gets fully unleashed. This is the true nature of the final arc of Mob Psycho 100 III. Despite being the main premise of the arc, Mob's love confession to Tsubomi isn't the focus here. This is Mob's confrontation with his other self, and Mob being the final boss of himself is probably the best idea for the final arc of a series about self-improvement. However, I hate this is the only real confrontation Mob has with his monster-like side throughout the whole series. All the other times where he went 100% or ???% were used just for the audience can say, "Omg! He is so powerful and cool/scary!" those were nothing but scenes that people can use in "Badass Anime Scenes" compilations. That was also the reason why I loved the Mob vs. Ekubo fight this much. Because instead of getting another "Mob goes 100% or ???% and annihilates his opponent!" we got carefully written character drama. A similar thing happens here too. Instead of him entering the beast mode and destroying everything, we see he finally is facing his other face that he doesn't want to confront. Seeing this made me wish it had happened in the previous seasons too. It would add an extra magnificent moment to those seasons and also make the whole thing even more impressive—because this scene lacks development too. Yes, Mob's friends and old opponents try to stop him, and this gives us incredible moments since all of them had significant interactions with Mob in the previous seasons that helped Mob to grow as a person. However, we never saw Mob interacting with his monster side before. If these two had shared a couple of discussions before this arc, their conversation here would have been even more meaningful. In short, the final arc of Mob Psycho 100 is a good arc on its own, but it could've been better—also would be more befitting as the final—if more development had been provided in the previous seasons.
84%: Back to The Better Artwork
One of the things I hated so much about season two was the downgrade in the visuals. The passion was lost, the unique techniques used in the first season were either absent or used rarely, and the artwork was so cheap. Sadly, the passion being lost continues in this season too. The unique techniques from the first season are still rarely seen. However, thankfully, the animations during the SoL scenes and artwork are back to their original quality. Shadings and highlights are as good as the first season, the character animations are better, the characters' faces have details, and the backgrounds don't look like they have been made on MS Paint in five minutes. Other than the improvements from the second season, the animations in the action scenes are still as excellent as ever. And I have nothing new to add to the auditory part of the show because the comments I made in my reviews for the previous seasons remain valid.
94%: The End of A 6.5-Year-Long Journey
And with this, the anime adaptation of Mob Psycho 100 comes to an end. It was a production that started as a passion project to aim for visual ideas that hadn't yet been seen in anime but turned into just another Bones show after the first season. But still, despite having ups & downs and even losing its "anti-thesis of battle shounens" identity by becoming a battle shounen itself for a brief moment, it ended its run as a good series thanks to this season.
101%
