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CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST FEW EPISODES AND GENERAL DIRECTION OF THE SHOW

I may sound a bit bitter in this review. But please make no mistake, I think this show is a pretty fun romp. But I’ve seen the elevator pitch thrown around for this show. It promises “a harem show where the protagonist is the best friend gag character instead of the Harem MC”.

That seems like the premise, at first. The Gentleman Gamer main character can’t get women to fall for him because they’re too busy drooling over his best friend. Given this, he tries to get laid by manipulating the femoids behind ... the scenes, all while dealing with the unwanted attention, possessiveness and manipulation of the one girl he isn't horny for (who happens to look like Saki from Emergence) as well as a supernatural malicious bench that appears out of nowhere to the tune of a bootleg version of Star Wars’ Imperial March (yes, that last part is real).

This all leads to the idea that we are in for some clever subversion of the genre, or at the very least an irreverent comedy with a fresh premise. Maybe it’s some sort of nasty teen drama, where all the characters are massive dicks, even? You may be getting all excited in your seat.

Do not buy into this filthy deception.

It rapidly becomes apparent that this is a classic harem show of the “prick with a golden heart chased by women with issues” variant (think Oregairu or Bunny-senpai). Women he interacts with start seeing the good in him and tripping over themselves to eat his meat. And all fertile females from his past or places certainly outside the plot start flocking to him from a 20 mile radius. All very standard Harem, and certainly not the subversion you may have been led to believe this was, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, of course. Same same. But different. But still the same.

So does it stand up to scrutiny as a “prick with a heart of gold, women with issues” drama-harem show?

Sort of.

Its characters are unfortunately for the most part too shallow and too tropey for it to really hit home in the same way something like Bunny-Senpai might. And some of the characters definitely do some horrible shit that we could maybe laugh at in a “wow these people are terrible” style of comedy, but that just makes them hard to root for in a show that expects us to care about them. Like how Pansy is essentially an emotionally abusive GF and a stalker, both of which are criminal offenses. Or the fact that Sun-chan makes an actual, unironic rape threat (with the definite indication that he is going to follow through on it) in episode 3. Yeah. Yikes. He’s supposed to be the goofy best friend character.

But is the show fun, at least?

Yeah, it is. It’s full of gags and charming, (albeit superficial) characters. I wish they would have made them bigger jerks in their everyday life, I think it would have made them funnier, but you can’t always get what you want. And that Darth Vader bench-gag does get me every time. I have to admit, I binged the first many episodes of this show in one day. It has a nice flow and can be pretty hot at times. And the mini-plots of each arc are pretty engaging and don’t outstay their welcome. It’s definitely an enjoyable watch, if you’re into something lighter.

So, should you watch this show if you’re looking for a high-concept comedy that takes the piss out of harem tropes by turning them on their head? Probably not, you’ll just be left with a bitter taste in your mouth as you discover the true harem nature of the show.

Should you watch this if you’re looking for a good Bunny-senpai style drama/comedy/harem/romance? Only if you’re out of other good options.

Should you watch this if you’re looking for low-effort-required fun harem with a main character that’s a bit of a prick? Yeah, probably.

TL;DR: Season 2 evolves the basic coming-of-age of season 1 into a breathtaking journey of Mob’s rapidly growing maturity and relationship with those around him, in a way that perfectly matches the increasing stakes and spectacle of the show.

I was worried going into Mob Season 2.

Mob season 1 was a story all about letting go of ego and rejecting spectacle, ego and pride, in favor of personal relations and self-improvement. But those things, that’s what shounen is all about. Shounen is about powering up, big displays of strength and willpower, loud proclamations of ideology and ideals. It celebrates chuunibyou. That is very anti-mob. And ... that was my largest gripe with the ending of season 1 as well. The over-the-top fight scenes, while very cool, seemed to directly contradict the thesis and heart of the show, by celebrating the violent flashiness which the show simultaneously mocked the villains for embracing themselves. How would season 2 raise the stakes and creep the spectacle, without being diametrically opposed to what ONE’s masterpiece is all about?

My worries were unfounded.

Where Season 1 was concerned with Mob fighting childish egomania, personified by claw, Season 2 sets Mob even higher demands on his maturity. He must not just realize he is not special, but also learn to care about others, find out what he wants and work towards it, protect the ones he cares about and fight the ones that want to ruin the lives of others. While, in season 1, the action represented the childishness mob had to abandon, the action of season 2 is the struggle of the adult world, which he has to embrace. Season 2’s flashiness is then not the flashiness of childish naivety, but of adult responsibility and struggle.

This can also be seen in how the animation has subtly shifted. While, as last season, the animation and art style are both technically stunning, its ethos has changed a bit. Season 2’s animation and art are more physical and tactile and also more willing to portray bombastic action frequently, whereas season 1 had a lot of experimental and psychologically expressionist styles, like the use of painted animation. This fits the shift in narrative, which is much more concerned with Mob “living in the real world”, than season 1’s emphasis on his psychological state. The exception is in the Mogami arc, which dips into fairly psychedelic animation, reflecting how Mob in many ways is subject to similar conditions during this arc as he was in season one.

The character writing in this season is off the charts, both for Mob, but also for the rest of the cast. Especially Reigen is allowed a lot of much-longed for fleshing out, which has arguably made him one of my favorite anime characters of all time. Again, this reflects Mobs growing real interest in and understanding of other people, beyond anything superficial.

All in all, this show delivers the only natural development of Season 1’s ethos, departing in style, for the sake of consistency. It is absolutely brilliant.

TL;DR: Mob is a visually stunning, wonderfully written show about self-improvement and reconnecting with others, and you owe it to yourself to watch it.

I adore this show.

Unlike it’s visually impressive, but (comparatively) shallow older brother, One Punch Man, Mob is brimming with personality. ONE’s vision comes together into a somehow deeply nostalgic whole, where every part seems integrated to tell a story of self-improvement and the denial of egoistic solipsism.
The art style and animation is breathtaking, all rendered in thick, luxurious linework which flows with a cartoonish smoothness that can be goofy when the show wants to land a joke and frighteningly crisp when ... it wants to deliver the dynamism and weight of a fight or the terror of a mental state, frequently both at the same time. It very much feels like what ONE’s art would look like, if he was – uhh – good at drawing.

The writing, much in the same vain, is loaded with humor, sincerity and flow. It bleeds directly into the lovable characters, that all have sharply distinguished personalities and beautiful character designs. We get an intimate sense of many of these characters’ inner lives, desires, delusions, and narrative arcs, which are masterfully spun without getting too contrived or overdone. It is not the painfully deep dive into characters that a show like Evangelion might offer. But it does not need to, as there is an underlying levity to Mob, that is willing to look at life at some of its tough parts, without ever dipping into the overly dark.

Some of the characters’ deeper selves are still left mostly unexplored, ripe for a deeper examination in material to follow – which handles this masterfully as well (see my review on season 2 if you are interested in hearing more). Not least is Mob, who slowly emerges from his stoic self during season 1, with much self-discovery still left on the plate for our deeply lovable socially stunted MC.

Mob Psycho will not necessarily leave you with any major revelations about the nature of reality or life. Some minor revelations, maybe. But that is its thing, it is not about big shouty egos, main characters going Super Saiyan as they ascend from small earth below and their bold proclamations of ideals and heroism. Mob is not interested in all that, but in small interactions, small attempts to empathize, small attempts to improve. That, if anything, is the general, and wonderful takeaway from Mob. The quiet rejection of Ego. In that way, I really wish someone had shown me Mob in my early teens.

So if you want a highly enjoyable show that will stick with you a long time, go watch Mob already.

So it has finally ended, what a ride it has been. This review will contain minor spoilers but will not refer to any specifics.

In the later half of the original Tokyo Ghoul, Ishida had begun to explore the maddening, fracturing psyche of Ken Kaneki. Tokyo Ghoul:Re is the natural continuation of this exploration and delivers an extremely satisfying resolution about halfway in.

However, things deteriorate after this. The second half of the Manga is sadly lacking in my opinion, delving into a long, uninteresting and poorly plotted arc (with a few standout sequences) which ultimately only leads to a sort of doubling down on the ... conclusion reached midway through the manga. This is a shame, and even the ending feels somewhat bland. It is almost as if Ishida reached the conclusion he had been building towards midway through and was then forced to keep on writing.

However, it must not be understated how truly fantastic the first half of this manga is. If the second half of the original TG and the first half of :Re where one piece, it would be a clean 10 for me, a masterpiece.

The exploration of Kaneki's psyche is alluring and intimate, punctuated by Ishida's fantastic art which can be both haunting and insane as well as loving and beautiful. It always manages to retain a poetic and calligraphic quality, dipping into the hellish and soaring into the serene, but never losing its cohesion in style.

Tokyo Ghoul:Re was a spectacular conclusion to probably my favorite Manga, offering a truly mature story of living with the horrors of the world, the cruelty one must embrace and an intangible, fractured self. I wish that conclusion had also been its ending, but it does not bother me anyway near enough for it to sway my recommendation.

Read Tokyo Ghoul, read Tokyo Ghoul:Re.