Welcome back Mob! And boy… I didn’t expect this episode to hit me so personally. I didn’t cry or anything but man, it certainly hit me where it hurt. Mob has always been really good at providing really good morals, especially ones that can be applied to every day life. But holy crap, I wasn’t expecting a swing on one of my most biggest insecurities. This episode started out slowly and it felt like it would be one of those feel good episodes where we see Mob go through his regular life all the while getting sprinkles of applicable lessons… I didn’t expect a gut punch of reality.
Mob is trying to figure out what he wants to do in the future and it’s always been pretty crazy to me how middle schoolers in Japan have to turn in a career path survey. Like, that’s SUPER young to be thinking about what you want to do in life. They’re just barely teenagers. When they were showing where each character ranked amongst their grade, it took me a moment to remember that the higher the rank, the worse off the students are in their studies. The entire Telepathy Club were in the 300’s and honestly, considering what they do, it honestly shouldn’t surprise me. I was actually surprised to see that Mob was in the middle of the pack. I know, shame on me for thinking he’d also be in the 300’s. Granted, we never really knew where Mob was in terms of studying before. He even outscored almost everyone in the Body Improvement Club. But I absolutely lost it when everyone was in 200-300 range except this one guy who was freaking rank NUMBER TWO. Just the contrast of it all just had me cackling. But good on that one guy. Be a vet, man.
When they mentioned that Tsubome was going to a high school where only the top 65 ranked students could apply to, I thought Mob would try to get his grades up so he could land himself in the top 65 in hopes of getting into the same high school. Which would feel like just a rehash of what he did for the marathon last season. Thankfully that was not the case and he ended up just being happy for Tsubome. I’m happy that he didn’t just immediately try and go to the same high school as Tsubome and instead was thinking long and hard about what he actually wants to do. Good on you, Mob! Don’t let your crush dictate everything that you do!
Now that Serizawa has joined the office, it’ll be fun to see what kind of new dynamics he’ll bring to the group. Already, he’s being played like a fiddle, being tricked into believing Reigen is this great esper. However, despite that, he’s already proving to be a great asset with his powerful psychic abilities and seems to be quite capable in his own right. However, just as Reigen said, he needs to learn to take initiative on his own more and shouldn’t settle with being told what to do all the time. Which is already a better lesson than what he was doing under Toichirou. And I have to admit that Serizawa’s anxious tendencies contrasting Reigen’s hectic but composed demeanor is quite a hilarious combo.
The rest of the episode has Mob wrestling over trying to figure out what do for his career path while getting various views on what characters are thinking for their future. The Telepathy Club and the Body Improvement Club seem to have ideas about what they want to do. In contrast, Mizato seems to want something exciting to come from her life and seems to be holding onto the fact that if she can make Mob into the cult’s leader, she would have been a part of something big. And I love how Mob rebuttles her comment that her life doesn’t need to be composed of big and loud life changing experiences. The small good things can also make a great impact, even if it’s not as bombastic as she wants to make her life. And while she didn’t seem to really understand what Mob was saying, Mob was definitely speaking truths. While you could argue that a lot of things he had to endure were big life changing moments, the biggest first step he took was joining the Body Improvement Club. And while it may seem like not a big deal, because he joined, he actually made a lot of genuine friends and developed the courage to try something different in his life.
And then the second half of the episode came SWINGING. This client probably was the epitome of a loser, blaming his life on not going the way he wanted because of outside forces and not taking any responsibility for it himself. Just everything he talked about just seemed like he COULD have done something, but he chose not to and that felt way too relatable. He made some pretty terrible choices and ended up becoming just a shell of a person. Just kind of existing rather than making something with his life. The garbage in his house was basically symbolic of him not wanting to do anything about the bad things in his life and instead just living with it even though he has a choice to be rid of it. And I think the scariest thing about this is that this is probably relatable to so many people, including myself. I see lots of things that I could change about my life, but I choose not to do anything about it. I’ve even caught myself blaming it on other things instead of taking responsibility for myself. And that’s probably why this episode hit me really hard.
It definitely puts into perspective what you want to do with your life. Are you content with just being where you are or do you want to aim higher? Both Serizawa and Mob felt like they could relate to the client because if they continued shutting the world out and just did things as they were told, they probably could have ended up just like him in the future. Lots of regrets, blaming it on circumstance and not putting in the effort to help yourself. I feel like so many people can relate to this and it definitely hit me where it hurt. There was so much symbolism in this episode, especially when it came to the evil spirit that was actually there. However, unlike what he said about the evil spirit afflicting him, he brought it onto himself with how he was “living” his life. Though from the looks of it, he really hadn’t been really living, just existing. And even though Mob and Serizawa were able to get rid of the evil spirit, that doesn’t mean his mind had been changed. While he says he can live his life positively from now on because the evil spirit was gone and his house was cleaned, it depends on whether his actions will follow through and maintain this new lifestyle. And it certainly felt rather foreboding when he just picked up those manga volumes on the street and went back in, almost as if he was just going to end up falling back into the same cycle.
I also feel like it’s interesting to note that both Mob and Serizawa didn’t even realize an evil spirit had emerged from the guy. They probably were so focused on how his problems were so close to theirs that they didn’t even notice.
The truth is, I don’t know where I want to go in life. I feel like I’m particularly passionate about anything and it does bring me a huge amount of anxiety when I look back seeing that I haven’t done as much with my life that I hoped to. And when faced with pretty big choices, I’m always too afraid to act. I enjoy being comfortable, but being comfortable doesn’t mean happiness. I related so hard to both Mob and Serizawa when they looked back at the client and saw a lot of themselves in him. It definitely felt like it was bringing attention to how does one want to live their life and are they truly living a life they can be proud of? Thankfully Mob is still very young and has a lot of time to figure himself out. Not to mention the fact that he’s starting to question these things now is a whole lot better than if you’re an older adult.
I’m proud to see Mob isn’t willing to settle into a comfortable life and actually wants to search for one that he can be proud of. But I won’t lie about feeling really called out from the line “If I get too comfortable here, I think my age will be the only thing that changes.” UGH. That HURT. I’m happy Mob is willing to search for something he can be truly passionate about, but man, he didn’t need to come for me like that lol. Initially, I was a pretty annoyed over Reigen commenting that Mob is most likely just going to end up continuing to work for him. I was like: Bruh, I thought we were past this! What happened to not chaining him down anymore! Thankfully he was just joking. I’m glad that Reigen supported Mob in not wanting to continue working for him in the future and even told him to just live however he wanted to. Not gonna lie, I did feel a bit emotional from Regien’s speech at the end. And I had a pretty good laugh when Mob just walked out before he even did his work XD.
This episode hit HARD. I didn’t think much about the topic of Mob choosing a career path too deeply since I’ve seen other anime go over that topic. But wow, things got way too real real fast. I had to pause the episode so many times because I was just writhing in emotional turmoil because wow, they really hit on something I’ve been struggling with. No wonder it gave me such a visceral reaction. How all of this was portrayed gave me a lot of anxiety, but also felt like it was giving me a little push to try and do more with my life. Mob really coming out here with the real life lessons. And after what Mob has gone through in the first two seasons, this definitely felt like the next best step for him as a character… even though I felt attacked in the process. What a way to welcome best boy Mob back. I can only wait and see where Mob’s character goes from here and if he’ll find his own passion in “living out his life.” But things certainly may be taking a drastic turn for the worst as Dimple seems to be contemplating his own life as well. Especially since he actually forgot the whole reason he was with Mob in the first place.
Also can we just talk about the opening real quick? When I first watched the new OP on youtube I was kinda eh about it, but watching it again, it sounds SO MUCH more dramatic than the first two OP and not gonna lie, it’s pretty dang catchy.
Possibility of blogging: 100%
Possibility of watching: 100%
