Mob Psycho 100: “Discord ~To Become One~”

This review was commissioned by @Alitur.


Damn has it been a while. Almost a year since I last touched this series. Where we left off, there were three main subplots going on. First, the reveal of a darker, more eldritch side to Mob's powers that his 100% releases are just a pressure valve to keep contained. Second, the complicated mixture of jealousy, sympathy, and concern going on between Mob and his brother Ritsu. Third, Mob's social circle expanding to include both positive influences like the bodybuilding club, and negative ones like the manipulative spirit known as Dimple. Well, Dimple might actually be permadead after recent events, but the point stands. So, episode six.


We begin with a childhood flashback. Mob is levitating a mass of water around, to the delight of Ritsu. It's easy to forget that Ritsu is in fact the younger brother, since he's so much taller and more mature looking than Mob, but seeing them as children is a good reminder. Babby Ritsu asks babby Mob if he'll have similar powers when he gets older, and Mob enthusiastically tells him that he's sure he will. They're brothers, after all. Why wouldn't he have the same powers?

Cut ahead to the present. Ritsu wakes up in bed from a dream of the childhood years when he thought he'd have powers to look forward to. He walks over to a sink, and tries to levitate the water, with no results. The implication being that he's been trying to get powers like his brother's to manifest themselves for the years since then. Perhaps every day, through elementary and middle school. Nothing. Roll intro. After the OP, we open on Arataka's office, where another customer is being fleeced.

It's been a couple of episodes since we did anything with Arataka, as I recall. I don't think he appeared at all in the JoJo-esque two parter of episodes 4-5, and he mostly just had a minor supporting role in the initial Dimple adventure.

A man named Hitoshi has hired Arataka to channel the spirit of his dead father. I didn't realize that that was a service Arataka offered, since we've only ever seen him and Mob do exorcisms before. I guess it's probably because Arataka doesn't need an actual esper on hand to do the TV psychic cold reading bullshit, so he doesn't usually bother having Mob show up at the office for this.. He apparently did this time, though, as Mob is standing in the back of the room watching his employer's performance. Arataka pretends to do a channeling ritual, and then does a relatively convincing performance of being possessed and addresses Hitoshi as his son.

Unfortunately for Arataka, the first question out of Hitoshi's mouth is how his father learned Japanese so well since his demise. Whoops. Arataka panics and pretends to have to drop the call due to server issues.

lol​

The customer's credulity is visibly starting to ebb. When Arataka nonchalantly asks where his father was from as he tries to repair the connection (in a transparent attempt to infer what language he should speak), Hitoshi replies that his father was American. And, it appears that Arataka is less than confident in his English, because he then says that thanks to his advanced channeling technique, the spirit's native language will always be translated through Arataka's brain as his own Japanese. Still, the customer is mostly onboard still, even if his faith has been shaken a little.

Arataka reconnects to the server, and channels Hitoshi's father again. And, of course, Hitoshi requests every cold reader's worst fear. "Remember that thing you used to do with the ball, when he played outside? Can you do it for me one more time?" Nothing to work off of. No questions he can ask that wouldn't be incriminating. Arataka tries a best guess and does some stupid dancing trick from a popular cartoon of the era when Hitoshi would have been a kid, and it doesn't work at all.

But it seems like this is a fail forward situation. Because, rather than calling the bluff, Hitoshi assumes that his father's ghost is mocking him. He loudly declares that he TRIED mending bridges, trying to start them off with a recollection of the good times when Hitoshi was little, but if he's not going to accept that olive branch then fine, we'll just talk business. What's the combination to the safe, asshole?

Arataka tries to vaguepost his way out of this, but that just provokes the disgruntled son into drawing a knife on him. I'm not sure why Hitoshi thinks his father's ghost would feel threatened by him attacking the psychic he's speaking through. I guess the sort of person who hires a psychic to help access their property isn't generally the rational type, heh.

It seems that Arataka has some fighting ability though, even if its useless against supernatural opponents. The narrator explains about another of Arataka's secret exorcist techniques; this one involves using his body as a spring to direct kinetic energy into his arm and then slam his fist into the opponent, inflicting blunt force trauma. Arataka and his fancy tricks. Anyway, he executes it well enough that the guy goes down instantly.

Mob, who's been silently watching from the corner, asks what the hell they do now. Arataka reassures him that they have a clear cut self defense case, so the guy isn't going to the police.

The topic of self defense gets Mob looking paler and more nervous than he did while the knife was out. Arataka asks him what's up. Mob asks him if, ethically speaking, self defense can justify shaving off someone's hair, destroying their clothes off their body, ruining them socially, knocking them unconscious, and demolishing their school. Arataka asks him what the fuck. Mob replies that this happened when he was unconscious, and that if this is how things are going to be then he doesn't want these powers anymore.

God, Mob has a whole process for blaming himself for things, doesn't he? The hair loss happened when he was deflecting Teru's knives away from himself, more out of carelessness than anything else, as I recall. The social ostracization was, likewise, a result of Mob deflecting Teru's attacks, not of him actually retaliating. As for the injuries and school destruction, it kind of lacks teeth considering the episode ended with Mob's superpowered demon side also being considerate enough to levitate everyone gently back to the ground and rebuild the school as if nothing had ever happened afterward. So yeah, Mob is getting on himself for what materially amounts to almost nothing.

Arataka tells him that while that might not have been a good use of Mob's powers, he's done a lot more good with them. Not just making Arataka money, either. Arataka points out all the victims of the various ghosts Mob has defeated who were freed or saved by his efforts.

Getting back to the theme of the Teru arc, here. Manipulators are bad, but the ones who at least help you out in some way and make you feel good about the situation - even for self serving reasons - are better than the ones who cause suffering on purpose. For all that he's an exploitative bastard, Arataka is actually doing a lot for Mob's self esteem and mental health here.

Of course, if Mob had a little more critical thinking skill, he'd realize that in attributing all those saved people to Mob's powers he's admitting that he didn't actually do shit himself. That was a slipup that Mob didn't seem to catch, though.

Starting the next day at school, Mob is followed wherever he goes by rumors about the event at Black Vinnegar. The delinquents try to recruit him. Various classmates - especially telepathy club members - ask what he did and propose grandiose projects he should take on next.

During one of these conversations, Mob speaks without thinking and says that Teru is the only other psychic he's met so far. The other person says "Wait, what about your boss?" and Mob has to think for a moment before covering Arataka's ass for him. In this case, by saying something not quite coherent about how Arataka's powers are "spiritual" rather than "psychic," thus making him not technically the same thing. Mob doesn't sound all that convinced himself.

So yeah, Mob knows, deep down. He might not know that he knows, but he's slowly coming to acknowledge that.

The final scene in this sequence is Mob actually getting a somewhat backhanded apology from that Josuke-looking delinquent leader who used him to bait out the bodybuilding club against his rivals from Black Vinnegar. It's not a very nice apology, though, and it ends with the delinquints throwing blows at each other while Mob kind of recoils nervously.

Then, there's a scene of his brother Ritsu in the student council, talking to the previously unseen council president. His vice president, Shogun Ieyasu, is oddly nowhere to be seen. El Presidente asks the council for recommendations on how to improve the school. Ritsu, with his brother's recent experiences in mind, comments that the delinquent gangs are causing some serious problems. The president seems to accept this answer and say that a crackdown on delinquency shall be forthcoming. He has really sinister framing and voice acting, so I guess he has some nefarious ulterior motive rather than just protecting the students. Okay then.

We continue following Ritsu as he walks home from school that afternoon, and is approached by an eccentric fellow with a poofy hairdo and an interesting proposition.

This sounds like another cult recruitment thing. However, given that this guy seemed to know Ritsu's name before approaching him, it's a much more targeted one if so. Word of Mob's abilities has gotten out, and Ritsu is also being thought about by those with something to gain from them. Ritsu assumes that this guy has him confused with his brother, but I'm not getting that impression.

After the psychic researcher leaves Ritsu with his business card and walks off, Ritsu is approached by the shogun. I guess he WAS at the student council meeting, he just kept uncharacteristically silent and didn't draw attention to himself. Seeing him standing around and staring at the card in his hand, Tokugawa remarks that it's interesting to see that even a genius overachiever like Ritsu just stands around staring into space on occasion. Ritsu protests that he's nothing special, just an average, normal high school freshman. Tokugawa matter of factly replies that there is no such thing as a normal, average high schooler.

Huh. That's a much more nuanced and humanistic take than I'd have expected from the shogun, given his general demeanor up until now.

He goes on to tell Ritsu that, like Mob, he seems to have a neurotic compulsion to downplay his unique gifts. They might not be as extraordinary as Mob's, but still. Ritsu is a star student, with an accumulation of academic and student government achievements almost unheard of for someone his age. He should stop being such a shrinking violet, and actually take credit for his accomplishments and use his skills proactively.

The delivery is all in Tokugawa's cold, military-like monotone, but the sentiment is very much the opposite. And it seems like it's something that Ritsu needs to hear.

So, spurred on by this, he turns around and heads to the address on the business card. I guess it's easy to get to from where they live. Which makes me wonder why mob and/or Arataka haven't stumbled into it yet, but I suppose Mob is too passive and incurious, and even if Arataka did know about it he'd probably keep it secret from Mob, so I guess it makes sense. The address brings Ritsu to a shady looking apartment complex that appears to be empty and abandoned, though at least most of the entrances aren't boarded up. When the weirdo psychic researcher jumps out and greets him exuberantly, it definitely feels like he's going to kidnap him or something.

But...it turns out that he wasn't bullshitting after all. Inside the empty apartment building is this:

Apparently, this guy bought an old apartment complex, hollowed out the main building, and is using it to conduct his research without attracting unwanted attention. He's not a representative of any government agency, and though he is a businessman he isn't doing this in corporate capacity either. He's a billionaire with a personal interest in psychic research, and he hired a team of neurobiologists, psychologists, and theoretical physicists to come here and make it happen.

He's also had some success, apparently. The "esper kids" are on the top floor, which he left more intact. He asked Ritsu if he'd like to come upstairs and meet some others like himself. I'm getting bad vibes again. Are they all going to be kidnapped psychic kids plugged into alcoves or something?

For his part, Ritsu just looks nervous. Like he isn't sure if he's a fraud or not for even entertaining the possibility that he might have latent powers to activate.

Cut back to Mob, who the telepathy club girl has convinced to go out looking for other psychics with her. He's been frustrating her by pointing out people with unusual clothes and hairdos so far without any psychic discoveries, but suddenly he pings another psionic presence. For the first time, he feels psychic power radiating from an adult rather than a child or teenager (Arataka's powers are spiritual rather than psychic, so he isn't detectible of course ). However, it gives him a bad, creepy feeling. In a way that not even Teru the violent psychopath did.

Major arc villain? Major arc villain. I suspect it's a possessed person like Dimple's cult leader host, but inhabited by something even worse.

Back at the psi-lab Ritsu is brought upstairs and introduced to the superteam. And I do mean superteam; they're even drawn in a more typically shonen superhero style, like MHA characters or something. They present themselves like an actual superhero team, complete with posing, and demonstrate their powers one by one. There's a touch-telekinetic who can bend spoons with sustained effort, a clairvoyant who can pick the correct card out of a deck with 62% accuracy, a pyrokinetic who can produce a split-second spark over his finger if he strains himself, and a pair of telepathic siblings who can coordinate their movements without seeing or hearing each other out to a range of several dozen feet.

I guess these artificially induced powers are barely even a pale shadow of what natural psychics can do in this setting. Or else, minor powers like this are just much more common than people like Teru, regardless of how they developed.

I say "people like Teru" instead of "people like Teru and Mob" because at least much of Mob's power appears to come from some other entity contained within him. He seems to be something fundamentally different from the other psychics, even other powerful psychics.

The bossman also provides more information here. He was born into vast wealth, and while he's been fairly successful with his inherited property, he still isn't exceptional given the privileges he started with. He wants to have something unique and impressive that isn't external like money, which is why he's studying these psychic kids (ah, so he didn't empower them himself, or at least not fully) in the hope of reverse engineering psionic powers. Not to make psionic augmentations for sale, or to distribute freely. Just to use on himself.

-_-

Well, he just got much less sympathetic. Being the man who ushered in the next singularity in human history would make him a hell of a lot more impressive than being a psychic in a world that already contains psychics. Also, he'd only have become psychic by using his money, so...yeah, this guy's just an egotistical moron.

Ritsu feels the same way about this that I do. However, if these experiments were able to help these other psychic kids develop their powers - even if the progress thus far has been meager compared to what his brother can do - then he might as well participate. If he has any latent abilities, he doesn't mind helping with some rich asshole's ego project if it means activating them. Fair enough.

Next there's a scene of the creepy student council president, Go-Yozei, being chewed out by his parents for not being a good enough student. I'd think being SBA president would require good grades, but apparently they're not as good as his brother's, who was also SBA president before he graduated. Ah, that kind of parents. Go-Yozei goes into his room and has what looks like a panic attack, but then gets up with a purposeful look in his dark, soulless eyes. This is paralleled by another scene at Mob and Ritsu's house, where Mob accidentally bends a spoon during dinner and gets scolded for it. The parents tell him he should try to be more like Ritsu, who behaves well, performs well, and "doesn't do anything weird." Mob submissively agrees with them, and apologizes. Ritsu looks ambivalent.

Hmm. Interesting mirror here. The key difference being that we don't know what personal skills or traits Go-Yozei might have that his parents aren't properly appreciating, but it can be assumed that he has them.

The next morning, Go-Yozei calls Ritsu in to school early, and meets him in a certain classroom. Go-Yozei looks creepier than ever, with bloodshot eyes and an expression that flickers between robotic and manic, complete with eerie music. He tells Ritsu that he called him here because Ritsu brought the delinquent gang situation to his attention, so he figured Ritsu would be happy to help him resolve it.

Of course, when Go-Yozei paraphrases Ritsu's suggestion back at him, he makes it sound less like more careful discipline policies and more like he's planning a delinquent genocide.

He's stealing the mouth pieces from a bunch of girls' recorders from the music room, and hiding them in the drawer of whatsisname the Josuke-lookalike's (Nosuke) badly carved up desk. Get the leader and primary instigator of the school's gang activity in trouble for something that his peers will see as uncool, and that clearly enough happened within the school building that the school itself can expel him for it. Apparently, despite being a moron, Nosuke has been fairly clever about avoiding serious consequences from the school.

Ritsu is hesitant, to say the least. But the emotional calculus changes when he asks Go-Yozei what an upstanding elite citizen like him would be doing engaging in this sort of skullduggery, and Go-Yozei tells him that our reputations are not who we truly are. People praise or deride each other based on superficial perceptions of them, and smart people can take advantage of that. Ritsu thinks of all the people telling him about how perfect, proper, upstanding he is. About how, unlike Mob, he never does anything "weird." Of course, he doesn't seem to realize that Mob is even more passive than he himself is; all that Ritsu sees at the moment is "prim and proper" versus "free and exciting," with Mob's identity falling into the latter by virtue of his powers rather than his personality.

So, though torn up about it, Ritsu agrees to help with the frame-up. It's not like Nosuke wasn't asking for expulsion anyway.

Cut to Nosuke, who is still trying to get the weightlifters to tell them what actually happened at Black Vinnegar High and who it was that solved his gang's Teru problem. Everyone else in the school seems to know that it was Mob, at this point, but Nosuke has established himself to be a moron when it comes to anything besides getting in trouble so that's not terribly surprising. In order to keep up with the bodybuilding captain, Nosuke's having to run after him during his exercise routine, and ends up impressing him with his ability to keep pace even though it exhausts him. So, he tells Nosuke that the one who won that battle is currently busy in conflict with himself.

Muscles also senses that Nosuke, likewise, is having an internal conflict going on. I guess biting off more than he could chew and not being prepared to comprehend the consequences really is tearing away at Nosuke. Hence his uncharacteristic apology to Mob for getting him captured, and how antsy he got with his friends when it came to blows with them just moments later. Muscles invites him to join the bodybuilding club, and Nosuke thinks about it for a moment before agreeing.

Hmm. I guess this is supposed to be a "he was just on the brink of redemption before the student council frames him and gets him kicked out," but if so I'm not really feeling the desired impact. We haven't seen him ACTUALLY get better. Just think about it. He's still violent, unstable, and generally a threat for his classmates to be around. If the show had given us a chance to see him actually start putting in effort and making progress toward not being a thug before this event, it would have worked better for me.

So, classes start, and there's an uproar when the band girls find that someone stole all their recorder mouthpieces. Go-Yozei takes Ritsu from classroom to classroom, investigating desks and backpacks, and finds them in the desk of Nosuke, where they hid them scant hours previously.

Nosuke defends himself by saying that if he were to do something like that, he wouldn't be stupid enough to leave them in his desk. That's when they open his book bag, and find many more of them.

Go-Yozei does a Phoenix Wright twirl and point toward Nosuke, accusing and condemning him. The girls are all glare at him, and whisper about him being as pervert. Thanks to his generally unpleasant behavior throughout the last few years of his life, no one is willing to step up to defend him (there's a funny bit where he thinks one girl in particular will stand up for him thanks to their history, and then his flashback of their "friendship" shows him shouting at and calling her names). And, whether or not Nosuke might have started wanting to change this, he still has a very short temper, massive ego, and inclination toward violence. His conduct in the following few minutes make him look guiltier than he did before. Outright unhinged, in fact.

Granted, the way he gets launched around the room by his own thrashing motions while the scene goes monochrome and everyone in the room starts chanting "pervert" in unison is fundamentally unhinged. But that's just Mob Psycho 100 being itself.

Later, Ritsu is sitting morosely in the psi-lab's top floor lounge, staring distantly at a spoon. He thinks of Go-Yozei cackling about their black op after the fact, taking glee in seeing Nosuke confront a problem that he can't solve by punching and totally losing it. With every second that passes, Ritsu seems to get more regretful and morose.

The bossman comes in and tries to cheer him up. It doesn't work.

Finally, Ritsu throws the spoon down across the table and says that he's quitting. He doesn't have psychic powers, even latently. He's a fraud, and he's been wasting their time. The boss man tries to convince him otherwise, but Ritsu just storms out of the building without another word.

On his way home, he's approached by Arataka, of all people. Arataka asks him if he could give him a hand with an exorcism he's performing in this neighborhood. Ritsu tells him to fuck off. Weird. Wonder what's up with Arataka now, if he's harassing Mob's brother?

Back at the psi-lab, one of the unimpressive psychic kids comments that this might not be much of a loss given Ritsu's apparent lack of any sign of the spark aside from having a psychic brother. The bossman's expression changes, however, when he sees the spoon that Ritsu threw before leaving. It has been bent into an unnatural, curled shape that couldn't possibly have happened from hitting the table or floor.

Well. Damn.

Cut back to Ritsu. After shooing Arataka away, he sees a strange, hovering thing that he initially mistakes for a balloon.

Dimple, looking battered and diminished but still extant, slowly turns toward him. He can see him. In his torrent of conflicting emotions, Ritsu unlocked something. End episode.


Mob Psycho 100 just started having a plot! It really didn't, up until now. It was just Mob bumping into problems and very gradually creeping toward character growth as he solved them or failed to solve them piecemeal. That started to change with Teru's introduction, but that situation was resolved pretty quickly and it didn't seem like it would necessarily lead into anything bigger aside from having introduced Mob's secret passenger. But now, with a whole world of other espers and psychic researchers introduced, Ritsu's own powers awakening, and Dimple potentially now having access to him as an unwitting host, things are starting to actually Happen.

Is Ritsu going to get possessed? If not, preventing it from happening will have to take some proactivity from Mob. What role the other players might have in the unfolded story, I couldn't guess, but at least now I'm sure that there IS an unfolding story.

So, while I don't think this episode was necessarily better than the others I've seen on its own merits, it signals a major change in what kind of show MP100 is. And seemingly in a more engaging direction, though it's also not dropping the usual ONE flavor of silliness anytime soon.