Mob Psycho 100 S1E5: “OCHIMUSHA ~Psychic Powers And Me~”

Unfortunate place to have taken that long of a break, I know. Unfortunately, that's just how the commissions shook out. As a reminder, Mob has just come face to face with another middle school psychic by the name of Teru in a whimsically JJBA-inspired youth gang subplot. Teru is a narcissistic little bully on a psychic power trip. Mob is himself, and his awesome bodybuilder friends are in jeopardy. They're going to fight or something I guess.


Teru is shocked, perhaps even terrified, to meet another genuine psychic with powers like his own. The narrative he's weaved for himself, to the point of his entire worldview resting on it, is that he's the only actual person in the world, and his unique powers are the proof of this. If they're not unique, then everything he's been thinking and doing is wrong.

He's also disturbed by the "creepy little ball of energy" hovering over Mob's shoulder. Right, Dimple is still following him around. Mob assures him that Dimple isn't his, he just kind of started "haunting" him and he's not sure if he should be bothered by this or not.

Teru says that he has a lot more questions to ask Mob, but first he's going to have to beat him up and prove to himself that he's still the only one strong enough to count.

Even adults often fail to resist the impulse to destroy the thing that threatens their worldview. I'm not sure how that brain bug got into our species, because I don't think it's ever done anyone any favors. Anyway, Teru is an exceptionally violent and self-absorbed 13 year old, so he's obviously not going to pass this particular INT check regardless of how many other people could. Roll intro.

I'm interested to see how this confrontation plays out. To be honest, I'm sort of dreading the possibility that Mob will wipe the floor with Teru the way he's done with all his nonliving opponents. I've already seen One Punch Man, I don't need to see a repetition of it. So yeah, if Teru is actually a real challenge for Mob, that'll be a pretty strong message from ONE that he's doing something substantially different this time.

Well. If that IS the case, it's at least not going to be easy for Teru either. His usual touch-telekinesis trick is completely ineffective against another telekinetic.

Mob tells him that the two of them have every reason to be friends, and tries offering Teru his hands, but Teru dashes away as if expecting a counterattack. He zips around the courtyard, as if dodging projectiles that aren't coming, seeming unwilling to trust his eyes when they report that Mob isn't fighting back.

Is he just assuming that Mob will behave the same way he himself does? Or is he hoping that Mob will attack, so that this can be as simple a contest of strength as possible? Probably both.

Dimple tells Mob that he's going to have to fight back if he wants this punk to stop. Also, he asks Mob why he never uses his TK to give himself effective super speed the way Teru does. Mob explains that he's tried that in the past, but it gave him motion sickness. Fair enough. He also is resolute in his rule of not using his power against other humans, regardless of the circumstances. Even these ones.

As Teru changes tac and starts supercharging some rubble to launch at Mob, Dimple uses this opportunity to keep trying his corruption shtick. Just look at how happy Teru is. Look at what a fulfilling, self-actualized life he lives by indulging in his powers and using them at his whims. Nevermind that Dimple and Mob only just now met Teru and neither of them have any idea how his life has been going, come on, Dimple's got to work with what he's been given.

Mob's reply is intercut with some really solid, idealistic moral lessons about his powers and how to use them...from Arataka.

That's something alright.

Arataka seems to have once told Mob that its important to remember that psychic powers are like any other kind of natural talent. It has its uses, but it's not more important than any other skill or gift, and it has its proper and improper uses. Arataka compares it to a knife. What do you not do with a knife? "Point them at people" a younger Mob replied. Arataka seems pleased at this answer.

That's pretty good advice. Even if Arataka probably gave it for the most selfish and manipulative of reasons (keeping Mob controllable and exploitable).

Also, Mob muses aloud in response to Dimple's continued urging, he doesn't want to spend his whole life relying on his powers to solve every problem. He wants to be a person with special powers, not special powers inhabiting a person.

Understandable. Although, if any situation called for the use of psychic combat rather than something else, I think that this would probably be it. Just my opinion though. :/

Teru takes advantage of Mob's introspective moment to hit him with that shrapnel attack he was charging and send him flying back across the schoolyard. Then, while Mob is dazed, he manages to get a telekinetic grip on him and starts...well, I don't think this can be anything other than attempted murder. He bangs him against buildings and trees hard enough to break them, holds him under a lake, bashes him over and over into the ground from immense heights, all while screaming about how stupid it is not use your powers if you have them.

Damn, Mob's ambivalence about his own powers seems to have struck an even more sensitive nerve than him having those powers in the first place. The possibility that Teru's choice of how to live wasn't actually the only choice might be a distressing one, perhaps.

Mob doesn't appear to be too badly injured, but he is injured, and seems to have lost consciousness by the time Teru slammed him down for the last time. I guess I got my wish, then. Hopefully he can still shield his body from harm as an autonomic reflex while unconscious, because otherwise this could get really ugly.

Surprisingly, Dimple tries to intercede on Mob's behalf now. Telling Teru that it's pretty clear by now that Mob's just not going to fight back, so this is the closest thing to a victory he's going to be able to extract from Mob.

And...it seems like the depths of Mob's idealism might have actually had an effect on Dimple. I was completely expecting Dimple to follow that up with a request to become Teru's sidekick instead of Mob's. He wants a powerful psychic to possess, and Mob's reluctance to use his powers has been making it frustratingly difficult for him to get inside, so you'd think he'd do everything he can to court Teru now. But, no.

We've never seen Dimple care about protecting anyone's life but his own up until now, and he was trying to corrupt Mob for the eventual purpose of stealing his body until just a few minutes ago. Yeah, something about what just happened must have awakened Dimple's long-ignored better nature.

On that topic...was Dimple ever actually human? Most of the "demons" Mob encountered in the previous episodes were actually ghosts, but there were one or two that seemed like they might be exceptions. Dimple hasn't told Mob anything about his previous life, which most defeated spirits do, so he might be such an exception.

When Teru refuses to stop, Dimple returns to his humanoid combat form. In his own words, while he still hasn't recovered to anything like his full strength, he's still recovered enough in the past few days to fight.

Mob wakes up just in time to see Teru disintegrate Dimple down to the last spark of energy, giving him what looks like it might be a final death.

Dimple's prominent appearance in the OP suggests that he'll stick around for longer than just two episodes, but that could have been a trick on the creators' part. I'll assume he's actually permadead for now, though I won't be surprised if that turns out to not be the case.

As Mob's explosion-counter rises, he thinks back to all the great times he had with Dimple over the last few days. Sad music plays as we see Dimple swearing at him, being openly lecherous about Mob's underaged classmates, and asking if he can possess his body for just a second he promises he'll give it back right afterward. Lol. Ironically, the only ACTUAL good thing we've seen Dimple do happened just now, when Mob was unconscious.

Teru tries to taunt Mob about how his "pet" just got destroyed. Mob clarifies that, no, he isn't actually bothered that much. He'd have rather no one gotten killed, but it's not like Dimple was his friend. Or even necessarily a non-enemy. Heh.

Teru tries to leverage this any way he can despite this. Monologueing about how pathetically weak and worthless Dimple was, how it's only fitting he would have been following around someone as pathetic as Mob, losers like them shouldn't even try to aspire to actual personhood, etc. Meanwhile, Mob thinks back to the unctuous praise and manipulative compliments and promises Dimple had been making to him, juxtaposing them with Teru's insults and derogation. Then, he tells Teru that he just realized Dimple might not have been such a bad guy. At least, compared to Teru.

I'm not sure if I'm interpreting that correctly, but given the earlier thing with Arataka...hmm. I think Mob might be musing that if you're going to selfishly take advantage of other people, it's better to at least make them feel like they're getting something in return instead of going out of your way to maximize their suffering. Arataka and Dimple are both (to different degrees) terrible people, but their terribleness is of the pragmatic, self-interested sort. Teru, on the other hand, is a completely irrational actor whose end goal in and of itself is to crush other people underfoot.

Something like that, at least. I think.

Teru takes that as well as you might expect. He takes it even worse when, after he shoots more rubble at Mob and this time Mob is aware enough to just deflect it with equal telekinetic force, Mob tells him to be careful, if that was anyone other than Mob he was shooting at he could have actually hurt them.

Teru just fucking explodes. I thought he was going all out and giving in to his madness and rage before, but no, not even close. The fight goes from typical shonen superheroics into full-on OPM fight scene. Teru rips the entire courtyard into meters-thick plates and launches it all hundreds of feet into the air. He blasts Mob through the wall of the building, smashing it wide open, and then follows him inside and lands another TK attack that blows out every window in Black Vinegar Middle School and breaks half of the inside walls. He conjures enough heat to melt through a steel-lined wall and then explode it as well. He lifts multiple sets of kitchen knives from the cooking/homeroom place and fires them with enough force to impale a tank.

Mob whispers "don't point knives at people." Meanwhile, Teru is saying to himself that he really isn't trying to kill Mob, just trying to force him to fight back. Erm...could have fooled me. Maybe he's also fooling himself.

Through this all, Mob is looking as tired and strained as Teru, plus a little bit banged up wherever a little bit of force seems to have gotten through his shields due to negligence. He's still just answering everything Teru does to him with an equal counterforce, no more, no less. I guess he wasn't actually unconscious before, just dizzy from that motion sickness he mentioned earlier.

A final escalation comes when one of the launched knives that Mob deflects goes flying back toward Teru. Teru either had his own shields down to concentrate on offense, or he just had them a little too close to his skin. But when he sees his new haircut in the mirror, he reaches yet another singularity point of crazy.

He forgets what he was thinking before, and roars that he just wants to kill Mob now.

...

I wonder how the rest of the city is reacting to this. A series of explosions just all but completely leveled a major school, and something tore out its entire courtyard and flung them across the neighborhood. Hell, those fragments probably destroyed other buildings where they landed. There's probably at least a couple of people dead.

...

Teru...turns his tie into a lightsaber...and advances on Mob where he's stuck in a cratered wall. He realizes that he looks like a disgraced samurai, with his partially shaved head and his sword-like-thing. As old timey Japanese folk music plays, he asks Mob for his full name. He provides it, and Teru gives him his own as well. Mob asks if this means they can be friends now, and Teru tells him that no, he's just gone full-on manic delusional and thinks he's a samurai having a duel to regain his honor and/or die.

Okay then.

He goes to town with his tiesaber, no effect. Not even when he shouts "ora ora ora" while attacking. No joke, he actually does that for a bit. After finally backing off and actually begging Mob to fight back, to no avail, Mob finally says something other than rephrasings of "please stop." He realizes, aloud, why Teru hates him so much, and why he's so invested in this. It's because Mob is a reminder that without Teru's powers, he's nothing. Teru uses his powers to solve every problem, to get all the attention and acclaim and success, without ever using any honest effort. He knows, deep down, that he's not special, he's just a mediocre kid who was arbitrarily handed the cheat codes for the universe. Seeing Mob not using his powers is seeing his own ultimate mundanity and weakness.

Teru advances on Mob, and strangles him. Not using any powers at all. Just his biological normal kid strength. Mob tries to fight back the same way, but he hasn't been in the weightlifting club that long yet, and Teru is stronger than him. He throttles him as he chokes, gasps, and tries to plead for him to stop. Still not using his powers. His explosion meter ticks up, past 80%, higher, higher, until he loses consciousness.

There's a sort of confusing blur of imagery here. A flashback, I think, that Mob is experiencing as he passes out from asphyxiation. Mob and his brother, as early elementary school children, being bullied by some older boys. Then bodies strewn across the street, Mob - splattered with blood - looking in horror and disbelief as his brother's voiceover says "it hurts." I thiiiiink Mob used his powers recklessly and ended up hurting his brother as well as injuring (or possibly even killing?) the bullies? I think?

Then a shot of his brother in the hospital, with his head bandaged. Is...that the reason why he didn't manifest powers himself? A head injury he sustained from Mob in a "friendly fire" incident? Maybe?

The tickers goes up to 90%. And past it.

Teru drops the unconscious Mob to the floor, staring in shock. Refusing to believe that Mob had actually let himself be strangled to unconsciousness without using his powers to free himself when he so easily could have.

Slowly, shakily, he turns and leaves Mob unconscious in the ruins of Teru's own school.

Then there's a blast of white energy from behind Teru, and he turns to see Mob standing upright, eyes blazing.

Oh.

Oh god.

Mob isn't just a really repressed psychic kid. He's the can that evil has been sealed in, and anger is the can opener.

...Dimple would have regretted it if he'd tried to possess Mob himself, wouldn't he have? This thing would have just eaten him, the end, no more Dimple. Teru probably gave him a kinder final death than that.

The thing in control of Mob's body blasts Teru with something that throws him over backward and incinerated every bit of clothing on his body, and everything in his pockets. It's pretty clearly all he can do to protect his body (and what remains of his hair :/) itself. He realizes that Mob is still unconscious. He's unconscious, but something is walking him around and overclocking his powers. Or, perhaps, Mob only ever had access to a fraction of this thing's power.

Whatever it is, it sucks Teru's powers right out of him. Either temporarily or permanently, I'm not sure. Then, it sends him, along with what used to be the school and everything around it, into the middle atmosphere.

As he slowly freezes and asphyxiates, Teru admits that, really, he's nothing special. He's just an average person.

Also, it looks like those are the bodies of the bodybuilding club and delinquent gangs floating up there with him. Holy...if they all just died...

Back at ground level, where the school used to be, Mob realizes that despite all his years of practiced repression, he still hasn't changed. Really, I think he's going about this the exact wrong way, but eh, it's not like he has anyone giving him better advice on this front.

Mob is overcome by sadness, the intensity of the emotion breaking through and making him cry. As he reaches 100%, he uses his surge of impulsive power to catch the falling debris and rebuild the school and grounds. Which he can do, apparently.

Also, he was just reaching 100% now. That meant that he was only at ninety-something when that other thing took control while he was unconscious. So yeah. The title and initially stated premise are a decoy. Mob reaching his cathartic superpowered outbursts every so often isn't the actual problem, it's just a symptom. A filtered glimpse at the wrathful god sharing his body with him.

Also, everyone is back on the ground and alive. They wake up with no idea of what just happened.

O....kay. Either that godmonster imprisoned inside Mob is surprisingly merciful after all, or Mob can resurrect the dead during his 100% outbursts, or death just plain doesn't exist in this world. The last one is honestly the best fit, after some previous showings. I'd been making heavy allowances for cartoon physics, but I think I might have still been undershooting it and this show is actually full on Loony Toons in terms of bodily harm and what it means.

Although...there are other scenes that DON'T fit that reading. Hmm. Not sure how to interpret what I just saw, then. Too many possibilities for what might have prevented or reversed their deaths.

Teru tries to stammer an apology or a confession or something to Mob, but can't. Also, he's still naked and half-shaven. He seems glad to have been defeated, though. The bodybuilders make sure Mob is okay, and then take him back to their own school to resume training.

Okay then.

Cut to later that day. Mob roams the city in the rain. Cartoony faces on posters and the staring eyes of a passing frog catch his attention, but they aren't what he's looking for.

Huh. He actually cares a little about Dimple. Or at least feels responsible for him. Maybe he was aware when that exchange between Dimple and Teru took place after all.

He eventually gives up and goes home. His brother Ritsu tells him he was worried about him; he's back late, and apparently there was a surreal supernatural incident involving the destruction and reconstruction of a middle school not too far from theirs. Mob assures him that he's fine, and then asks him for more details about the incident when they were younger.

His brother assures him that, just as he's always said before, he was badly beaten by the older boys before Mob drove them off and saved him. His delivery is...a little wooden. Mob doesn't seem to buy it.

The episode ends with Ritsu watching news footage of a school being blasted above the cloud layer. And he wonders.


I have no idea what to say about this one. More information needed before I can do any sort of analysis.