V Reviews Mob Psycho 100 - We are the angry Mob?

After it was pretty clear that One Punch man was becoming a hit, several studios started a "bidding war" to obtain the rights to animate the other ongoing series of web-comic artist gone mangaka "ONE", namely Mob Psycho 100.

But the expectations were set extremely high after the hype train that was One Punch Man. How do you top the over-the-top balls-to-the-walls phenomenon that was One Punch Man? Is that even possible?

Let's find out and get this show on the road!

V Reviews - Mob Psycho 100

A: Some brief backstory

I already talked a bit about ONE in my One Punch Man review, so I won't repeat what I mentioned back then.

But let's flash back to 2012 here. After the first hype started for One Punch Man (in 2012), web artist ONE started creating another series named "Mob Psycho 100" on Ura Sunday, an online weekly magazine. Publisher Shogakukan helped print the story and to this date the manga has resulted in 13 volumes already.

After the One Punch Man anime became a phenomenon, Studio Bones was quick to obtain the rights to animate Mob. And in summer of 2016 we ended up with the anime of Mob Psycho 100 Season 1 (of many, hopefully?).

Oh and what I didn't mention last time around, is that you can follow ONE on twitter (in Japanese): @ONE_rakugaki

B: Story!

Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama is an ESPer in an otherwise normal world. But he's so powerful he represses his emotions in order not to "break". Due to this repression, it feels as if Shigeo has no personality and easily blends in as a background character (which gains him the nickname of a "Mob" character.

Due to him becoming a teenager and feeling things he didn't have before (like having a crush on another girl), he notices that controlling his own psychic powers becomes more difficult and thus seeks out a mentor to help him.

When even eating becomes an issue, you might wanna seek some help

But in his search of a "psychic mentor", he ends up with self-proclaimed exorcist Arataka Reigen. Reigen is nothing more than a very talented con-man. But after seeing Mob's powers, he allows Mob to study under him (although it's only to abuse Mob's powers for his own profit). But one of the few lessons Reigen teaches him does stick around in Mob's head: "Never use your powers for your own gain, never use your powers to harm other humans."

And it is with good reason that Reigen keeps repeating this to Mob, because when he breaks his own limit (100%), he loses consciousness and his powers go out of control. The best way to compare this, is a limit break from the Final Fantasy games.

"There's an energy! When you hold me, when you touch me, it's so powerful!"

While the anime starts off with a series of misadventures of Reigen and Mob, the show slowly evolves into an action series, when other ESPers enter the field. First one is Teruki Hanazawa, who is the "gang leader" of another school whom Mob gets involved with. Then the evil Claw organization who wants to incorporate every ESPer into their ranks, in order to take over the world.

Mob finally shows cracs in his emotional "barrier" when one of the bad guys (Koyama) goes all out against both him and his brother, whose powers recently awakened. When Koyama has beaten both of them, he kidnaps Mob's brother. It's now up to Mob and a few unlikely allies to infiltrate the Claw organization and free his brother.

Can Mob uphold his own creed of not harming humans, while all of his opponents try to push him to his limit?

Pretty normal people, eh?

C: Characters:

	Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama: Main character. Has amazing psychic abilities, but 0 social skills and 0 athletic skills.He finds an unlikely mentor in the con-man Reigen. But while Reigen clearly exploits Mob and really is not quite the teacher Mob sought, he is also like a surrogate father and Mob does look up to him.
	Arataka Reigen: #1 con man in anime ever! Has 0 psychic powers, but that doesn't stop him from promoting himself as an exorcist. But while he clearly is powerless, he always is able to help his clients due to many other talents (like massaging, having psychiatric talks with patients, having a green belt in Shaolin boxing and many others) and obviously having Mob as an actual psychic helping him. While you know that you should despise this man since he's an obvious con artist, he makes it very hard to hate him. He's an excellent mentor and is able to tame Mob's inner turmoil.
	Ritsu Kageyama: Mob's little brother who has no psychic powers and is somewhat jealous of his brother's talent. To compensate for not having powers, he tries his best to become an honor student instead. He has A+ scores on everything, is very athletic and beloved by many girls. But when the student council stresses him out beyond belief and his psychic powers do awaken, we see a side of him even he never expected.
	Ekubo (Pimple): A spirit who possesses people and founded a cult religion called LOL (no, seriously named LOL). After Mob defeats him, he keeps hovering around Mob and his brother Ritsu, in the hopes of becoming stronger again and using the naive boys as a springboard to "godhood". While possessing people, Pimple is able to release the full psychic potential of its host.
	Teruki Hanazawa: A strong ESPer who uses his powers in his daily life to gain various benefits (cheating in gym, beating and ruling over bullies, etc). Is strongly opposed to Mob's way of using power in his daily life (or lack thereof), but eventually ends up becoming his ally when facing the Claw organization.

There are other characters like the Psychic club members, the Body Improvement club members, the other psychics and the members from the evil Claw organization.

D: Animation

There's a LOT to talk about here. Bones assigned Yuzuru Tachikawa (director of Death Parade) as director and Yoshimichi Kameda as art director. Together they gathered some veteran animators, together with a bunch of young and upcoming talents. Then they told the animators to go crazy, wild and creative in their animation style.

What we ended up with was not only a great story, but some of the most creative animation I've seen in years. This show is not only one of the best anime of 2016 (if not, thé best), but will serve as a bookmark for the following years to show people where certain masters of the craft have started.

Not too long ago, animation fans were starting to worry that several masters in animation were either dying or growing old and sickly very rapidly, while younger generations were more "meek" and "copycats" at best (and I'm not even mentioning the worst). But with Mob Psycho 100, we can now flip that page with confidence. There IS a new generation of animators that are willing to take risks and do new and inventive stuff with animation. As long as we allow them to run wild.

And if you want some proof? When people were discussing suggestions for the Crunchyroll awards, two fight scenes of Mob were suggested for the category "best fight scene" (only one got through). The one that got in the Crunchyroll awards ended up being the Mob Vs Koyama fight. The other one that people suggested was the "special" fight in the last episode (no spoilers here). And guess who won the award?

E: Sound

One name is all you need: "Kenji Kawai". *drops mic*

Seriously, if you do not know who Kenji Kawai is, you don't know much about Japanese music composers. Kenji is one of thé most famous names among composers, both in anime and in Japanese Live Action movies. I'll just list a few and wait until you picked up your jaw from the ground. Next to Mob, he also did: Ranma 1/2, Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell (both movies), The Ring (the Japanese movies), Fate/Stay Night (+ the UBW movie), Gundam 00, Death Note, Eden of the East, Joker Game and many many more.

So yes, he created the soundtrack for Mob. And he delivered another great work!

Next to the regular soundtrack, there's also the opening theme. It is not just any random OP, it is THE single best opening song of 2016.

The mysterious Mob Choir with 99. The composer is sound engineer Junichi Sakaki (which is weird, but interesting). The Mob Choir itself are a group of musicians who work in the industry and consist of both "unknown" people and people with several credits (like sound composers Takeshi Masuda, Kana Yabuki, Satomi Kawasaki and others). For the full list of people singing in the Mob choir, check the VGM database: http://vgmdb.net/album/59425

F: Any negatives?

Well... Let's be honest here. If you take away the "rule of cool" from this anime and discard the amazingly animated fight sequences... then there's not much left but an average story with a crude character designs that look like a beginner drew them (to copy the web artist's crude drawing style).

I personally like the fact that the animation studio tried to copy the web artists crude designs and only slightly improves on it for animation purposes. But I can understand that the people who give this anime a negative review are pointing to the crude art style and average story as negatives.

Also, a lot of haters are pointing to the many similarities between Mob and Saitama from One Punch Man (the other ONE manga). And I can't blame them for thinking that way. Mob kind of looks like Saitama with a bowl haircut of hair and they both have a disinterested look on their face (though for different reasons) and both are amazingly overpowered in their own right.

Final conclusion

I personally loved this anime from beginning to end. But then again, I am a sucker for shonen action series. And this is a great shonen action series you can suggest for anyone to watch

But if you don't like the character and art design of this anime (which is entirely possible) and if you are looking for a greater and more amazing story, you can pass on this.

For everybody else, this is a must-see. I'm giving this a 9/10.

Onto the next one, now.

Until next time, V out.

V Reviews - One Punch Man: One hit wonder, or something more?

Let's go back a few years. 2015 was a mediocre year for anime. Only a handful of titles were really good, with lots of the "best of" rewards going to a select few, or to second/third seasons of an ongoing anime (like JoJo), or even to anime that started airing in 2014 (Like Shirobako and Your Lie in April).

The few new titles that ended up being above average were Assassination Classroom, Food Wars, Death Parade... and obviously the phenomenon called One Punch Man.

And One Punch Man truly was thé hype anime of 2015. It only took one episode until people started loving it and started jumping on the hype train.

So let's get back to this one and review it properly.

V Reviews - One Punch Man Season 1

Backstory? The Dream of EVERY webcomic artist ever

The story of web artist turned mangaka "ONE"is truly is a Hollywood story of how a Japanese guy making web comics somehow created one of thé hypes of both 2015 and 2016 (and if Season 2 of OPM is any good, then even 2017!).

Lots of people like to draw comics and many of them publish those comics on the internet. And you can call yourself pretty good if a few thousand people are reading your stuff on a daily/weekly basis. You can call yourself amazing if you end up having a million readers or more, let alone do that for several years ongoing.

But how did a webcomic like One Punch Man slide under our radar for so long? Well, it's the same reason why so many other great comics (both on the web and on paper) slide under the internet radar: it's in the author's native language instead of English. In this case thus: Japanese.

To give an indication of how popular it got in Japan: The web comic got launched in 2009 and after the peak of its first hype (back in June 2012), the site already passed 7.9 million hits... from a limited audience that can read Japanese. It's a number that many comic creators can only dream of, even if publishing in English. And that was only the beginning.

In 2012, Eyeshield 21 mangaka Yusuke Murata was looking for a new hit after his Eyeshield manga ended and his next attempts all "misfired". Let's put it like this. He's an amazing artist, but his storytelling skills are... ehhh....

Yeah, I re-used an image. It's still relevant!

After reading the One Punch Man web-comic Yusuke contacted the web comic creator with the pen-name "ONE". They started collaborating and made a few one shots. And after they figured out they could work well together, Yusuke started creating a manga variant of the One Punch Man web comic. Same story, but with actual top-quality graphics. It got quickly published in Shueisha's Weekly Young Magazine online edition and it became an instant hit.

After that, it quickly got picked up by Viz for an English release and in 2015 it was picked up for an anime release as well. And from that point onward, more and more people were looking at the series for the first time and started falling in love with it.

So now, there's a 12-episode series, a special, a 6-episode OVA which was included on each DVD release and a second season in the making. So the hype-train is once again set on full force!

On a side-note, if you want to read the original (crude) web comic, you can visit ONE's original website: galaxyheavyblow.web.fc2.com

Story

Saitama is a jobless guy who took it upon himself to train his ass off to become a hero. And after three years of intense workout (so intense he lost ALL of his hair), he somehow obtained godlike powers.

An amazing workout routine

Saitama is suddenly able to take enemies out with One single Punch. What does he do with those powers? Nothing, really... He had hoped to become a superhero, but forgot a few of the basic steps to become a registered superhero (you know, like actually trying to register).

He does fight the monsters in his neighborhood. But since he can take them out in one punch, the fights usually bore him.

"Okay". The face of many memes

After being annoyed by a mosquito and trying to kill every single musquito he sees, he encounters and incidentally saves the Cyborg Genos.

Saitama hunting a mosquito is the most satisfying thing ever...

Genos is so impressed by Saitama's powers that he instantly wants to become his apprentice. And while Saitama is initially opposed to the idea of him being a mentor (he doesn't see himself as very special), he's convinced pretty quickly when Genos suggests he will cover the rent for their apartment.

Together they have a mission (somewhat) to turn Saitama into a registered, popular and respected hero.

The entire show has a "Monster of the week" formula in terms of storytelling, but the ongoing story of Saitama's journey to become a respected hero while being overshadowed by Genos. And boy, the dark comedy that's layered all throughout the series, make it very enjoyable to watch and keep watching.

Characters

While there are lots of minor characters in this series, the following can be counted as the main cast:

	Saitama: The hero of the story. If you need to cut this character open, you'll see pieces of Luffy (One piece), Gintoki (Gintama) and even Takashi Kamiyama (Cromartie High School). Overall an interesting character who can act very weird and lazy at one moment, jealous and greedy at other moments, but heroic when needed.
	Genos: The lone survivor of a brutal assault by a crazy cyborg. Became a full-body cyborg himself to get revenge. But when faced with Saitama's power, he decided to become his apprentice to become a better man himself. Gets (partially) destroyed a few times throughout the series, but due to him being a cyborg he's restored (and upgraded) prety easily.
	Speed-o-Sound Sonic: The Redundant redundancy ninja. Is an assassin/bodyguard for hire and the most recurring antagonist of the show. He has a fixation on killing Saitama, but is obviously unable to do so. Watching Sonic and Saitama interact is like watching the Roadrunner cartoons with the roles switched around (which is actually just as hilarious to watch).
	Mumen Rider: A parody on Kamen Rider. Is a guy with a bike who tries to save people. He somehow always shows up where Saitama is saving the day and sometimes even gets credit for the work that Saitama does. Though all in all, he's just a nice guy!
	Bang: The Martial arts master. The third ranked S-class hero and one of the first who sees through Saitama and recognizes his immense power. He wants Saitama to inherit his martial artist "school", but he obviously doesn't feel like it.

Art and Animation

You know that animation can either make or break a good anime series. But goddammit, they REALLY nailed it with this one. Studio Madhouse has taken the license for the anime (a name that is a quality label by itself).

Boom! Nailed it!

But if you hear people say One Punch Man is more of a Bones anime than a Madhouse anime, that's mostly due to Madhouse getting in contact with Bones regular "Shingo Natsume" and his book of talented (freelance) animators. Shueisha and Madhouse wanted top notch animation and absolutely wanted Shingo on this, since he has become a brand name by itself (animating/directing series like Welcome to the NHK, Ikki Tousen, Guren Lagann, Space Dandy and others).

And you see throughout the series that this has been directed by somebody who has been an animator for his entire career and can communicate very well with his fellow animators. The show flows really well and there are some animation elements visible from Guren Lagann and Welcome to the NHK).

On a side-node. If you want to know more about Shingo and his book of animators, Youtuber The Canipa effect did a two-parter focusing on the animation of One Punch Man. Go watch part one and part two here. Go give it a watch. He deserves it!

Sound

The soundtrack sounds good, but it's really the Opening song ("The Hero" by The Jam Project)that stands out!

There's only a limited number of Opening songs I'm willing to let play without pushing the "skip" button on my media player, but this is certainly one of them. A song clearly made for the show, but it's full of power and invites to sing (or yell) along.

Personal opinion and conclusion

In a year that was overall pretty mediocre, this is the one show that rose above it all and ranked in the highest position for many best-of-the-year lists (including mine). This is an amazing show I've loved watching from beginning to end without breaks and has lived up to its hype.

Is it for everyone? Probably not. This is and remains a somewhat dark comedy with superheroes and monsters. It's seinen by nature. So if you're not into hero shows, or if you're more into lighthearted and moe-type animes, you probably won't like this as much. But it's a must-see for everyone else!

My score: 9.5/10: Near perfect! Can't wait for what Season 2 brings this coming fall.

On a side-note: This review came out nearly two years too late...

Yeah, um... I have to apologize for this review. This is a review that has been sitting on my "to do list" since 2015. This has been fully written and was supposed to be published after my Fate Stay Night review and my Ghost in the Shell Arise review (which is also still in "concept mode" on this blog).

But due to season two being in the works and an upcoming review for Mob, I wanted to get this out of the way first.

So next review is Mob Psycho 100. Until then, V out.