Mob Psycho 100 IIIhas been exceptional this Fall anime season as the plot progresses in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Claw terrorist group after the leader’s defeat at the hands of Shigeo. This third season of the show is similar in structure to the first and second seasons, which both start with some episodic but not necessarily disconnected events which build up to the overarching theme of that season.
In season three, a huge element has been the theme of ambition – Mob and several characters in a season where they are looking to improve themselves and achieve personal goals, andlook forward towards their own future. This theme is prevalent in the first few episodes, which, again, seem somewhat disconnected but eventually build up to this season’s antagonist: Dimple, powered by the giant broccoli left behind after Mob’s climactic battle against Claw leader Toichiro Suzuki. The pacing of this season has been exemplary as the episodic, slice of life atmosphere is emphasized greatly in the first three episodes, culminating in a well paying-off confrontation between Mob and his former friend.
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The Future
One of the main aspects ofMob Psycho 100as a narrative is the emphasis on people’s agency. Everyone has a different path andtheir life is their own, and this does not change in the third season, which kicks off with an episode where Mob is mulling over his future with regard to a career ambition form he needs to turn in at school. As is the case with the other major anime and manga title written by the author ONE,Mob Psycho 100is about the mundane aspects of the life of a protagonist who is in some way, exceptional beyond anyone or anything else in their respect.
HowMob Psycho 100remains grounded in this mundanity while being exceptionally colourful in its presentation of supernatural elements remains one of the series' most enjoyable surface-level aspects. In the first few episodes, while Mob mulls over things like his career ambitions,other characters, like Serizawa, Dimpleand even a client of Reigen’s Spirit Consultation Office all have their own things to think about regarding what they want to do next. In episode 1, the old man clearly suffering from depression and a highly unsuccessful, unfulfilled life turns out to be harbouring a very powerful evil spirit that makes all it comes into contact with lose all motivation to do anything with their lives.
Episode 2 ofMob Psycho 100 IIIfeaturesthe yokai hunter Haruaki Amakusa, a character brought in that further emphasized the episodic, slice of life atmosphere of the series while also remaining in the same pocket as the first episode where the characters all have some kind of life path of their own.
Reigen initially dismisses Amakusa, but after they encounter the Demon King and his generals, Reigen realizes that the man was a genuine yokai hunter, and that people have vastly different lives. The conversation even stretches to Dimple, who after being defeated early in the first season ofMob Psycho 100,had a resurgence of his initial ambition. He disappears for a large part of the first three episodes after being noticeably impacted by Mob asking himself what it is he wants to do with his life. The cogs turn very naturally regarding how this season turns out a few episodes later, and it is this central theme of ambition that has carried through very profoundly this season.
The Everyday
In the second episode, after they defeat the Demon King, Amakusa is amazed at Mob and Serizawa’s abilities and promptly tries to hire them as full-time yokai hunters. The man has access to wealth because his parents fund his lifestyle, so he would definitely be able to compensate them handsomely, which greatly threatens Reigen (because he does not pay either of them well), but they both refuse for their own, very normal reasons. Mob refuses the offer because he is busy with culture festival stuff at school, which is a hilarious insight in Shigeo as a character and how important it is to him to be able to experience a normal life in all of its mundanity.
Serizawa at that point had just spoken to Reigen about working around his new schedule since he has decided to go back to school, which he attends in the evenings. Having just decided to do that meant that Serizawa had absolutely no interest in being a professional yokai hunter, he simply had a different journey he wanted to go on at that point. The third episode had Mob questioning if he has finally become popular with girls, but that is also the same episode where a huge gathering of people who have formed religious narratives about the giant broccoli now dubbed “The Divine Tree”, culminating in the setup beforethe big confrontation in episode 5, an absolutely dire situation in which Mob finds himself alone and at odds with someone whom he’d called a friend.
The slice of life atmosphere in the first few episodes, while episodic, was clearly not without connections between episodes. While Mob and everyone else focused on their own lives, things were developing in the background. The roots growing all over the city were a feature long before the series revealed the Divine Tree’s parasitic nature, and Reigen’s own personal situation – having nothing lofty or significant to work towards like Serizawa or Mob – is what causes him to dismiss various job requests to investigate the roots growing across the city and causing damage, in favour of more exciting quests. The way this season ofMob Psycho 100goes about depicting how “normal” everything whilesomething sinister brews under everyone’s nosesis extremely well done and reflective of the series' rooting in “the everyday”, and it is what makes the pacing of the current season especially well-connected to the actual events within the story.
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