Mob Psycho 100 II - Episode 8

NoSurprises

NoSurprises

Hunter
Pre-amble... I didn't really enjoy One Punch Man, I get that people do, but it just seemed a little too bombastic for me, but not in the Gainax bombastic way that I enjoy. It's a weird thing that I can't really put into words properly.

I was worried that the original series of Mob Pyscho 100 would turn out a lot like that, and while it did get pretty wild at times, it always seemed more grounded in a way too. I liked it for that, and while there was better stuff that year, I was happy I'd spent my time watching it.

Roll on season 2 and I feel they've knocked it out of the park almost every episode (though this could be down to a general lack of competition this season) with some real dark and humanising stuff, while not abandoning the more madcap action of season one. Reigen's backstory/deconstruction being a real highlight for me.

And then the end of episode 8 happened, which kinda caught me off guard. I guess you can't run a series off more subtle character moments forever, but if we're shifting into action territory now, I'm sure going to miss them.
 
I feel the exact same by the second season. So far it has really been nothing short of brilliant. The first few episodes I had my doubts, as it seemed to fail to capture the same feel season one had, but in the end, the slightly more grounded tone let to the magnificently handled episodes focused on Reigen.

Personally I think that's a strength of comedy focused shows, they can shift to a more serious tone and still rely on characterization/build up they've done in the comedic parts. All this time we all knew what kind of person Reigen was, yet we never really thought about it in detail. Now the real tricky part is how they'll handle things going forward. Obviously the coming part will be quite serious in tone (I assume), but at one point they'd have to introduce some comedic elements again. Seeing how things are handled up until this point, I have good faith that I won't be disappointed.

But that ending of episode 8.... I wasn't really prepared for it. There are only a handful of moments in anime that turned my stomach and this is one of the more effective ones.
 
The big bad turned up in the same episode in the first season.
I'm surprised that it took this long after the last scene of season 1 was the boss of the big bad coming to Japan, IIRC.
The action sequences are great so I don't mind the switch, although there had been no hint of it coming (unless you count that scene in the first season).
 
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