Mob Psycho S1E4: “Idiot’s Only Event ~Kin~”

This episode opens on an altercation between two gangs of really dramatic juvenile delinquents from rival middle schools. The group from Salt Middle School, which Mob attends, are the clear victors despite their opponents being both more numerous and more armed.

Then, the next thing we see is the salties laying on the ground unconscious, if not worse. The leader of their gang is crumpled below a big crater that's just been blown in the cement wall they were fighting near. The local toughs of Black Vinegar Middle School thank a kid named Teru for saving the day. Teru basks in their gratitude, and makes an internal villain speech about how he's indebting everyone he knows to himself as part of a master plan. In a dark echo of what Arataka told Mob at the end of the previous episode about being the protagonist of your own life, Teru is a classic narcissist who thinks he's the protagonist of everyone's life.

Roll OP. Then we return to Mob's bedroom as his mother shouts from downstairs to wake him up to get ready for school. To Mob's dismay, the diminutive remnants of Dimple are still haunting his room, and seem to think that they're his friend now or something.

After beating the spirit up a little to make sure he's not dreaming (lol), Mob asks it if it's come here so he can finish putting it out of its misery. Dimple insists that this is not the case; rather, he wishes to join forces with Mob. Together, he believes, the two of them can achieve world domination using Mob's psychic might and his own empathic influence and people skills.

Mob isn't having it, and asks Dimple if he has any last words while reaching toward him with a really eerily blank expression and cold voice.

He manages to convince Mob not to kill him, and promises not to cause any more trouble until Mob has consulted Arataka about what to do next. Mob gets dressed, and Dimple schemes to himself about how he just needs to wait for a good opportunity to possess Mob and use his psychic powers for himself, just as he presumably did to Miyamoto.

Meanwhile, Mob's brother Ritsu stops by and asks who Mob was just talking to. Mob manages to convince him it was just a phone conversation with a friend. Did we already know Mob had a brother? I'm not sure, it's been a while since I saw the first two eps. Dimple complements Mob on his brother (wuh???) and also refers to him in the feminine (WUH???) which just leads to Mob threatening him with disintegration again.

Mob heads to school, and Dimple spends the day trailing invisibly around after him, watching and trying to figure him out. He hopes that he can learn enough about Mob to gain his trust, which will presumably make it easier to possess him. This continues throughout Mob's classes and weightlifting session, before we flash over to his brother Ritsu leaving school and being approached by the newspaper girl who Mob rescued the other day.

She's approaching Ritsu, rather than Mob himself. Curious.

He asks her if she's sure she isn't looking for his little bro to ask him about his powers. There's definitely an undercurrent of envy and resentment in his voice there, though he seems to be trying to keep it under control (Mob's emotional and social problems are likely a mitigating factor). Mezato responds by handing him a notebook that presumably contains something related to recent events.

Then, we cut to Arataka's office. Mob will presumably be arriving soon to ask him for advice on how to handle the weakened Dimple. For now though, Arataka is using another of his special powers to remove a frightful apparition from a haunted photograph a customer gave him.

No comment necessary.

Mob and Dimple arrive, and Dimple immediately figures out what's going on. He senses no spiritual power from Arataka at all, and notable Arataka doesn't react to his presence until Mob mentions him, at which point he starts making bullshit excuses for himself that Mob buys as always. He considers telling Mob that Arataka is a fraud, but then decides that he can use this status quo to his advantage.

Cut back to Ritsu talking with Mezato. He tells her that there was no inciting incident to his brother's powers; as far as anyone in their family can tell, Mob was born with them. As children, Mob was always happy to show off his powers, and aside from having them he was a pretty normal kid. Then a change came over him; he stopped displaying his powers to other people, and he just went into emotionless zombie mode. Ritsu misses his brother, but has sort of resigned himself to things being this way now.

...

This hits a bit close to home for me. Not that close, but just one address removed. This was pretty much exactly what happened to a sibling of someone I know closely, minus the psychic powers part. She just seemed to lose her personality at some point in childhood, and their parents were too deep in denial about the problem to get her help. She's only just now starting to get treatment, twenty years later. 

...

Anyway, she informs him that Mob has displayed his powers publicly at least once since then, and that it's had quite the impact.

Outside, Mob and Dimple find another of these posters. Dimple is excited by the potential here. Mob is not.

Back to Mezato and Ritsu. She asks him for a full interview about Mob and his powers from an intimate family perspective, and Ritsu refuses, saying that Mob isn't some sideshow to be commodified (by the school newspaper, lol). He leaves. Mezato recounts her notes about Ritsu; top of his class, attractive, popular, athletic. He's got everything that Mob doesn't, except the powers.

We then go to Ritsu, sitting in his room looking exhausted after that meeting. It turns out that he's not Mob's older brother like I thought, but his younger brother. He's just taller and more mature-looking. He reminisces about his childhood. With Mob as an older brother, psychic powers were just part of his expectations about what growing up would entail. When he discovered that he would never have them, well...he never really got over it.

I wonder how much of his desire to keep Mob out of the spotlight is genuinely for Mob's sake, and how much is down to him having come to envy Mob's powers (despite being happier and more successful in life in general).

The next morning, Ritsu joins Mob on the walk to school. This is unusual, as Ritsu usually goes in earlier for student council stuff. Dimple is still just hovering along by Mob's head. As they walk, Ritsu starts asking Mob some long-held questions.

Mob explains (over Dimple's over-the-top objections) that his powers aren't really any good for getting him the things he actually wants. Muscles. Social skills. Maturity and wisdom. Dimple screams in his ear that if he just makes himself a celebrity or cult leader he won't need any of those things to get adoration and love, but Mob just ignores him. Later that day, in class, Mob muses that his powers can't even do something as simple as solve a math equation, and Dimple despairs at Mob's lack of vision in not realizing that he doesn't need to live anything like a middle schooler life at all.

After class, the beaten and battered Salt Middle School thugs (who fortunately seem to at least not be dead) express an interest in joining the bodybuilding club. The weightlifters aren't receptive to the likes of them joining, though, as they know they'll just use their improved strength to get into even more street fights.

The delinquents get pushy, and the bodybuilders literally shove them off. Though not before the leader of the former group notices the one member of the team who isn't yet musclebound and imposing, and seems to be plotting something.

Dimple keeps whining at Mob about how this is all a waste of his time. Mob's psisplosion meter rises to 28%.

We briefly see that creepy Teru kid at home, preparing for a rainy day. Then, we go back to the Salt Delinquents, who are trying to figure out how they can get their school's bodybuilders to beat up the rival school's delinquents, especially Teru (who may or may not be telekinetic himself; we didn't see exactly what he did when he beat them bloody earlier). They start having a stupid argument about all the words their leader is misusing from their recent history classes as he tries to apply them to strategy talk, and this leads to him beating one of his already-beaten-up lackeys up with his flurry of "demon punches" or whatever (it's just normal schoolyard punches). I love how these dumbass kids think they're actually in a shonen battle manga.

The next day, Mob finds a love letter in his locker. Or, maybe a hate letter. It's written like a love letter, and is inviting him to meet the writer at a certain time and a certain place, but it also says that they "abhor" him. Either it's a sarcastic hate letter, or the writer misspelled "adore." Also, Dimple points out that this handwriting looks distinctly unfeminine, and advises Mob to dismiss this as someone with really bad spelling trying to play a prank on him. He also tells Mob that he's too wooden and unlikable for any girl to ever REALLY send him a love letter, and that he needs to use his powers to build a personality cult that will attract women. So, I guess it's good that Mob won't be falling for this thanks to him, but he's not exactly helping him either.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Black Vinegar delinquents gets a written challenge from his opposite number, challenging them to a rematch at the same time and place Mob was invited to. Also, he tried to call them "rat bastards" but misspelled it as "rice," because he's shit at words.

Cut to the Salt Typo Guy being all smug about his "perfect" plan.

Why does he look like Josuke Higashikata?

One of his underlings asks if he's sure Mob will fall for it. He insists that he will; he did, after all, include the words "I am a girl" in the letter, and drew a heart next to it. Flawless.

Mob does end up going to the park, it turns out, despite Dimple's urgings not to. Just on the off chance that there actually is a girl, so that he doesn't keep her waiting. If someone is waiting to beat him up or something, that's not a problem for him. If he's just being stood up, eh, it's not like he had much better to do right now.

The Black Vinegar punks approach him, and ask if he goes to Salt. He answers in the affirmative. Crap.

Meanwhile, a third misspelled letter has been left where the bodybuilders can find it, telling them that "we have Mob" and giving the same location. So, the plan is for the Vinegars to beat up Mob, and then for the muscle guys to catch them in the act and beat them up. This counts on a lot of timing working out, but it's been established that this particular criminal mastermind isn't the sharpest.

Then, we cut to Teru and some extremely tiny girl who he's on a date with. Teru gets a text message, and frowns at its contents. Then, we go back to Mob, who has allowed himself to be tied up and brought to the enemy base. Maybe he's just into that.

And um. One of the boys actually licks Mob's cheek. I guess if he's digging this, he isn't the only one. :I

Dimple tells him that thugs, politicians, and others of his own ilk are very image conscious, so Mob should use his powers at the perfect moment to cause maximum humiliation as opposed to mere efficiency of escape. Mob contends that he's been told not to use his powers against humans, and that he won't do so unless absolutely forced.

Hmm. Maybe there is a bit more significance to him having levitated all those cultists, then.

Anyway, news arrives that some ridiculously overmuscled Salt students have shown up demanding Mob's release, and that they've effortlessly flattened the handful of Vinegarettes who tried to interdict them. So, the remaining hundreds of Vinegarettes (is every single member of this junior high part of its gang scene?) go out to confront them, as the predicted rainstorm begins to roll in overhead and lightning flashes.

The bodybuilders demand that Mob be released. Mob, who apparently wasn't tied to that chair but just had his arms tied to his body for some reason, walks out from the throng on his own power. The Vinegarettes realize that they've been had; these guys have nothing to do with Josuke and his gang. Unfortunately, just like Dimple said, they also are too image-obsessed to let this go now.

It doesn't go too well for them, as the bodybuilders whittle through them with superhero-like drama and visual embellishment.

I don't know if ONE just can't do non-superhuman fight scenes, or if he's just deliberately crossing those wires here for intentional lols. If the latter, it's successful.

Unfortunately, Teru has been on the way this whole time ever since receiving that text message. He arrives on scene, performatively beats down the old Lord High Vinegaroon while declaring himself the new boss, and tells the bodybuilders that he's not going to allow them to leave. It's pretty clear that he sees beating them up as his big opportunity to cement his claimed leadership status.

Okay, maybe this is just me seeing JoJo everywhere after having spent a year and change writing fanfic of it, but...between the one kid's Josuke haircut and coat, and now Teru's talking and acting almost exactly like kid!Dio while also sharing his bushy blond hair and purple jacket, I'm having trouble not seeing this as deliberate.

The bodybuilders tell Dio they don't want to fight. He megalomonologues at them for a bit, and then sends them all flying.

Josuke, who's been watching all this from hiding, charges Dio while his back is turned and starts raining punches on him...but none of them have any effect. It looks like they're not actually landing; like Dio is using some sort of point blank telekinesis to block each impact. Then Dio backhand slaps him so hard he goes flying across the playground with the cloth and skin torn off of his forearm where he tried to block.

The bodybuilders pick themselves up and complement Dio on his strength, especially for someone so slender looking. He just mocks them, and cruelly beats them all down again. This time, we see him doing this from Mob's perspective, which means we can perceive the sheaths of energy surrounding Dio's fists. He isn't actually touching anyone when he fights; he's using that same short-ranged telekinesis to do damage as well as absorb it.

Is this another evil spirit in disguise, or have we actually met another real human psychic this time? Well, Mob seems to think it's the latter as he speaks up.

Dio asks him what he's talking about. Mob tells him that he knows exactly what he means, and then uses his own TK to unbind himself.

The two stare each other down beneath the storming sky. End episode.


Definitely more entertaining than the previous episode, and a return to form as far as ONE's style of heavy-handed satire is concerned. It's also stronger as far as story and character development goes, now that Mob has a human enemy who could potentially stick around for a long time, and that he's being faced with a conflict in his own ethics in having to deal with him. The hilariously stupid delinquents, hilariously heroic and powerful weightlifters, and scenery-chewing Dio-esque villainy of Teru all made great sideshows for this actually pretty solid and impactful character development.