The butt chain goblin. Hello and welcome to are we there yet? In exploration and education and anime. I am your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I am an anime expert, dana hollander.

And I'm brenda mccullough. Your anime, Jennifer Love hewitt.

Where did that one come from?

Because this shows about ghost.

She's a ghost bookie one.

I'm mean, I could have gone Patrick swayze, but I feel like that's even old for my references.

Yeah, I think most would get it. But Jennifer Love hewitt is good.

Yeah, that's what she's most known for. Maybe so. Yeah.

We are in the spooky Halloween spirit.

And watching Perfect Time. I didn't even plan that.

Are you okay?

I just realized like yeah, it's October. This makes sense. Sorry.

Yeah. Yeah, it's been October.

I guess so.

So we are watching a Spooky show this week. Well, sort of. We are watching Mob psycho 100.

Yeah, it's a good and it's my pick.

Yeah. So Brendan, walk us through how you picked this one for this week.

So this series is from the same author known as One. He's also the guy who did one punch man. So right around the time when One Punch Man, the anime was coming out and exploding, everyone started looking into his other work and were like, hey, this is pretty cool. Why don't we turn this into an anime as well? And this came out, I believe, maybe a year or two after One Punch Man and also got huge acclaim and recognition and people really loved it. Yeah, I probably put this up in my favorites. Maybe like top 30 or so. Maybe top 20.

Yeah. So this guy is just a web comic artist, I believe so.

He started out just drawing this, I guess in his free time. And I mean, I'm no artist myself, but his drawings are pretty bad. Like they're not great. And I don't know if it's because he was pumping him out like every week and just rushing or just didn't have enough time to it or whatever. And that's how One Punch Man started as well. And at least with One Punch Man, he was going to be like, hey, guys, this is taking too much time up. I can't keep going up with this. It was a fun little project. It all lasted. And I don't know exactly who, but it was like a bigger animator said, hey, or comic artist, hey, if you keep writing this stuff, I'll draw it for you and I'll make it look great. So he took on the burden of drawing a form and that's what kept the comic going. And then with the success of One Punch Man, mob psycho kept going as well.

The power of teamwork.

Yeah.

And tossing out the proper task for the right person who has the right skill set for it. So he's a good writer and he gave it the art to a good artist.

What a concept.

Yeah.

Weird. How that works. dana, do you have any experience with this show?

I think I watched the first episode a very long time ago with Paul. I don't remember a lot about it except that it was strange. So I just wrote down, like, what I think it is. I wrote down, from what I understand, when his stress is at 100, some weird shit goes down.

That's about right.

That's what I understand.

Yeah. I have a weird experience with this where I sort of skimmed the back half of this show because this is another thing that I worked on a little bit. I was trying to make casting materials for this one tertiary character in the second half, and dude had no line. So I had to skim through the entire show to find anything to have someone read for casting. And it was a nightmare. So I vaguely get what's up, but I did not pay attention because I was like, where is this guy? He's not in this episode.

I've already watched all of this, and yeah, I can imagine because there are a lot of just, like, throwaway characters where you'll just never see them again. So I sympathize you with that on that.

Yeah, they're everywhere.

There's a lot.

We are watching the first three episodes. And let's hop right in, shall we?

Yeah. They're surrounding us at all times.

Ghostbusters with a small child.

The dream again.

Oh, man. Guys, ghostbuster babies. Let's make that happen.

Yes, please. Ghostbuster Jr.

The feminists are taking over. How?

The babies are taking over.

No.

Oh, and slimer is the nanny, and.

He'S got to take care of them all.

We are not going to post this because we don't want anyone stealing our IP. Download our IP based on that very.

Popular movie franchise, our IP. Not theirs, not Bill Murray.

No.

So, yeah, we just finished watching the first three episodes of Mob psycho. I watched all three dubbed.

How did you two I watched the first episode, episodes one and three subbed. And then the second episode dubbed.

I watched all of it. Dubbed. Found it on verve.

Yeah, that's where I watched it. Not sponsored.

Hashtag.

Not sponsored yet.

I also watched on verv.

The quality is so good.

Yeah. So episode one, this is a pretty simple world in the universe. It's just our world, but there's ghosts and psychics. That's about the only real difference. And everything's super gross looking.

So arguably it's the same as this world.

We just don't know that side of this world.

Some people do. And they have network TV shows called Ghost Hunters.

Yeah. This show is what I would call hideously beautiful.

I agree.

Yes. It is very clearly hand drawn, which is incredible. But it can be very grotesque.

Yeah.

I just think every part of it is neat.

Yeah, that's a style they wanted to keep true to one. The author. I always have to preface with the author because it's just not saying. It's just weird calling him one. They want to keep that true to the author's style because that's how he drew a lot of stuff and even some of the reaction shots we see. So this is the only one I know for sure. But in the third episode, there's a reaction shot of a character, and that's how the author or artist drew them. And they wanted to keep that exact same shot even though the quality is much higher now because it's an animated show. So they wanted to keep a lot of that pure to the comic because that added so much to the characters. And honestly, the reactions of the characters are some of my favorite parts because they're just so over the top and then they're drawn in such a unique way. We don't see too often really leaning into that making it ugly for a reason versus just making everything beautiful just to be appealing. Yeah.

It also plays into we tend to get like with the jojo episode, everyone's a beautiful boy, but we need to show the reality that there are ugly people in the world, too.

Yeah.

In fact, most people are not beautiful.

A lot of people in this show are really ugly. Opening up episode one, it's just this weird planescape of this black and white world. And it's just this person being attacked by all these monsters. And this person is just cutting through them left and right with this godlike power. And we don't really know what's happening. He's just kind of crushing everyone until they hit 100. This counter hits 100 and they just kind of purge that world. Just like everything is wiped clean.

This was very reminiscent of the Shinigami realm in Death Note where it's all very, like, black and white and then all of the shinigami are really cool looking.

Yeah.

It's a similar situation where all the creepy ghosts guys are very colorful and cool.

Yeah. It's really highlighting the spiritual world, I guess, of this world.

Or, like, a legend of korra. If you ever watch Legend of korra, it's like that, too.

My favorite anime.

We'll get into that someday. So yeah, that's how we start off. And then it cuts right to Reagan, who is not the main character, but definitely a main character. He is this guy who's helping with exorcisms in the local town. And oh, God, the lady he's assisting. Oh, boy, that's a face.

Yeah.

This is the clearest example of yeah. They're going for the artistic style and not looking for appealing character design.

Yeah.

That's how they pick and choose who's going to look like that.

It's clearly like reagan's of Me recurring character because he's comfortable to look at. This other woman is not because she's hard to look at.

No one's going to be scared away if this character looks like that.

Yeah. And then her boyfriend comes up and he's got like, tomato hair. He's got, like, a stem coming out of his Big Apple top head. They're all just very cartoonish looking, caricature looking, and it's something I love, but it's also like, oh, boy, you're tough to look at for a long period of time. So, yeah, this woman wants help exercising a ghost that's been haunting her dreams and kind of terrorizing her. And her boyfriend thinks this exorcist Reagan is just full of crap and just swindling her for her money. So he goes off to hunt down the ghost. And when he goes to hunt down the building, he points to the wrong building, like, immediately showing he's full of shit and he's just lying. And he's exactly what the boyfriend thinks.

There's spiritual energy everywhere. Sometimes it just gets so hard.

Yeah, there's also a ghost in that.

Building, and he tries to scare the boyfriend. I was like, oh, no. Evil spirit just walked past you. It's possessing that man. He's like, oh, you mean the butt chin goblin? And it's a dude with just this huge ass chin. Like, it looks like an ass.

I don't know why, but the butt chins in this guy's, in the Author's one stuff is so prominent. I have also seen a little bit of one punch man, and there are many butt chins.

It's a funny bit. So they go to the right building with the ghost and they find out, like, oh, damn, it's actually real. Like, there is actually a ghost, and he materializes himself in front of them. And I really like the way they show this ghost forming. And it's kind of like the only way I could describe it as, like, a stop motion painting. He looks very painted on. I loved that increments. And then he fully forms and he's animated like everyone else. But the way he feeds into the scene is something that's really cool and something I really love about this show.

And you can see all of the brush strokes as they're moving. It's so cool.

Yeah. The animation style is, like, very textural because it sort of plays with different mediums and stuff of, like, paint, and sometimes it's like, pencil drawings, and sometimes it's clearly digital.

There's a movie called The Tale of Princess kaguya, and there's a part where she gets really, really upset and the animation kind of all falls apart and it's very pencil and just, like, hard drawing. And that's what it reminded me of a lot in this show, all of the pencil stuff. And I love that part. I think it's the coolest part in the movie. So this was really neat to me. I like all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, and it's great because we see a lot more of it. It's not just like a one off thing.

Yeah.

So to defend against the ghost, reagan started throwing salt at it because that's an old, wise tale. And turns out it's just table salt. It's not purified or blessed salt at all. So it does nothing.

The ghost calls him a buffoon, kills him, an idiot.

He's like, well, what do you do now? And the ghost is a guy who was so terrified of a roach when he lived in that building, he jumped up through the ceiling and killed himself. He threatens to do that to everyone else. And once the salt fails, Reagan calls it in, his sidekick, his secret weapon. And we find out it's a small middle school boy who just comes in and just wrecks shit immediately. It just dissolves the ghost into nothing with the flick of his hands. And this is mop, the titular character.

Yeah.

Woo.

He's a very simple another son to add to our son collection.

Oh, that sounds weird.

Well, let me dust off the shelf so he can another spot.

He's very deserving of it because he is a very good boy. He's a very good boy. We will learn. Soon learn. And yeah, he gets rid of that ghost with a flick of his wrist, and then we get the opening. God damn, do I love this opening sequence.

It's a good opening.

The song is a banger. The animation's crazy and weird, and it shows, like, all the characters and some of the plot, but it's so insane and strange. It doesn't spoil it. It's just like, oh, that's okay. This is happening.

I was a little bit hot and cold on it because the counting made me very anxious. I thought it would be like spaced out a little bit more. Not straight up counting to 100.

And they started counting. I was like, they they can't they're not going to do that, are they?

Oh, yeah, those mad men.

But they did craig, you absolute madman.

They skipped around.

They jump a few numbers, but in the form they'll go through one to 100 sequence.

Yeah, it definitely made me anxious.

But apart from that, you feel Mob stress.

Yeah, exactly.

It's part of the experience. I just did not love the experience.

Yeah, sure.

And this was performed by the Mob choir. So I think this is a group. Like, the song was composed specifically for this opening sequence, which is not something at least I see too often.

I would be very confused if someone already had an awesome song where they just count to 100 and they say.

Mob all the time.

Mob.

It's a very convenient song.

Well, I can't believe we found this. How lucky are we?

Oh, no, a different anime is already using it.

So after the opening sequence, we see Mob and Reagan back at the office after Reagan got paid. And he just drops Mob like pennies, the cool one of just like maybe a dollar or something and change.

Yeah.

And we find out that he gets.

Paid $3 an hour.

That's how much that's how much I made delivering pizzas. It's super legal. So we find out mob's, reagan's assistant, and he's helping him out. And it's pretty clear that Mob is that Reagan is a con artist, and Mob is the one who's actually doing the heavy lifting of this exorcism practice because he's the only one with actual powers. Yeah.

Reagan is the face, because you can't really advertise have this middle schooler clean.

Your ghost with the most basic automotive face on the planet. But Reagan is also teaching Mob kind of emotional growth and how to act along with people and kind of principles. There's a quick line, but it comes up throughout the series that Reagan tells Mob never to use his powers on people. That's a really hard line he draws.

I wrote that down. I was like, he shouldn't use his psychic powers on people. Like, that's a legitimately good lesson to teach this kid.

Yeah. Which is not I didn't expect a lot of ethics to come out of this con artist, but yeah, that's a good one.

Yeah.

He's maybe a heart of, like, brass.

It's kind of like that's his biggest redeeming quality. Everything else, that might be nice, but overall, you're still kind of a sleazeball. But yeah. So he's helping Mob grow kind of as a person, because Mob is kind of dull and bland and stilted. He's kind of like a robot brought to life. He has kind of no personality whatsoever. And on his walk home, we see him looking at the change and thinking about what Reagan said. And it's kind of the first look we get at mob's counter, where it says he's at 22%. And then after this moment, we meet his family, and they're kind of run of the mill family. dad's giving a little jokes. mom's chastising him for bending spoons without meaning to.

Whoops.

Yeah. Kind of showing he has so much power. He's in pretty good control of it most of the time, but then every now and then, something will slip out, and the little bit that slips out is already so powerful, I can just casually bend spoons without him realizing it.

Mob, stop bending spoons with your brain. God damn it.

Not the nice silverware, I guess, coming over.

And then this is where we meet ritsu, his brother, who is just the idealized child. He's just the perfect brother. We don't see it in these three episodes, but we see a little later. He gets perfect graves. He's doing well in all the sports. He's very popular with his classmates. He does his chores. He's a good son. He's just, like, the perfect child.

He's his younger brother, right?

Yes. Mob is older, so it's not to say that Mob is a bad kid, but just everyone is compared to ritsu.

He just doesn't live up to leadingly mediocre. That's what it seems like.

Yes. He's not actually bad. He's just not good.

Yeah.

He's not proficient in really anything. And then the next day, we see Mob going to school, and we get a little hint at subami his crush, who is so beautiful to Mob that every girl around her just looks like a vegetable.

That's why it was like, yeah, I.

Didn'T pick up on that.

It's a little subtle. It's real quick, but it's the only time we really see it. But I thought that was a fun way of showcasing how beautiful she was.

Yeah.

And then we see Mob in his regular school day, and we see him struggle at everything.

It is cemented how mediocre he is.

He's really not good at sports. He's not good at class. He doesn't study. He's not popular. He's kind of a weirdo.

He's just a dweeb.

Yeah. Which is great for a shonen story. That's what the audience relates to because we're all dweeb. We're dweeb weeds. And then Reagan calls Mob, saying, hey, I got another job for you. We're going out to this highway tunnel in a mountain that's supposed to be haunted, and everyone that goes in there has never heard from again. And as they're going in, Mob is like, oh, yeah, this is definitely haunted. There's, like, a lot going on in here. And they started getting attacked by a gang of ghosts that Reagan can't even see because he just has no 6th sense whatsoever. And Mob just quickly, you know, bats him all the way at the flick of his wrist. And that's when Reagan bumps into the boss, the big biker.

Big, scary boss man.

Yeah.

With another butt chin.

He got that good butt chin, and then he's wearing one of those sumo like thongs. So you also just get to see his butt butt.

Yeah. I was also kind of thinking at this point, I was like, does Reagan believe he has powers, or is he just super committed to the bit? And then he said something literally a second later that I was like, oh, he's just super committed to the bit.

Super committed. Yeah, because he's also lying to Mob, saying he has powers. And he's always saying, like, oh, I'm so powerful, if I did anything, I would destroy them out inside. You have to do it and take care of these small fries. Yeah.

He keeps saving the weak spirits for Mob, which is every spirit they come across.

Yeah. So as this big biker goes is about to attack Reagan, mob is able to put up a force field and stop him and then just dissolves them away, just starts tearing them apart. And right before he gets rid of the ghost, mob stops because it goes to saying, like, oh, wait, there's a bigger, even worse ghost further in the mountain. It's, like, 100 years old, and it's, like, destroying killing everyone that comes into it, and just people are never seen again. And, like, that's who's doing all this? Don't go any further down this tunnel.

And I'm not the big bad. I'm the mini boss.

Yeah. So he's like, we're only doing it because we're getting bullied by this Ghost. And at that point, Bob starts going further down the tunnel to investigate by himself. And the little Boss Ghost and Reagan are sang back, trying to figure out why Mob is doing this and if he's going to survive the encounter.

I would also like to point out that this Boss Ghost, he was part of a motorcycle gang where they all died because the front person slipped on a banana peel in the tunnel and they all crashed and died.

Their bike slipped on a banana peel?

Yeah. When he tells him about the bigger ghost behind them, reagan asked is like, oh, is that what killed you guys? He's like, no, we just we slipped and then just had a 15 bike pile up and all died.

Everyone else was killed by the spirit. We were just befud.

We're idiots. So Mob goes further into the tunnel, and we see this big, slimy, melty, teeth eyeball ghost that just munches him. Just takes a big ol bite into Mob and just swallows them whole.

And once again, that's the end of the series. And that's thank you for joining us on this.

What a great show.

Now we're following Reagan, trying to cope and explain to his parents why his son is dead. that'd be terrible. And then once again, we see Mob just barely move, barely react, and the Ghost is gone. He just dissolves the ghost. And like, these are strong ghosts. And that's just showcasing how strong Mob is, that it takes so little effort to do this. And after he defeats this big Ghost, he finds a photo of the biker gang right before they all died, and he gives it to the biker Ghost. And with that, they're able to all peacefully lead into the afterlife.

What a nice boy.

He's sympathetic even to Ghost, even the Ghost that attacked him.

I did like that it wasn't sort of, oh, we have to kill every ghost we come upon. It's, oh, let's resolve it however we can.

There's other ways to resolve issues besides violence, which is weird for a shonen. And then at this point, they head home. And Reagan, I wrote down that regular was chastising Mob, like, hey, let's go out for some ramen. But if you're going to get pork, only get two slices. And then one of the final shots we see is mob's tiny, insubstantial bowl of ramen. And then Reagan getting just everything there is on the menu, just filling it up with pork and corn, onions and all this stuff. Also showcasing reagan's kind of a dick. He takes advantage. He's very aware of his exploitation of Mob and his powers.

Yeah, mob asks him why he didn't do anything, and he's just like, the small fries. Yeah, not worth my time.

I got to hold it back. And yeah, we don't see the ending sequence of this episode, but we hear the ending theme to it, and I'm not as big of a fan as the opening one, but I still really enjoy this music. This is right in line with my taste. So good episode for me.

Yeah.

And that's episode one.

For episode two, we get a cold open of the terrible, awful curse. A client comes in with the curse that Reagan describes as the one click curse that you get from watching Internet porn. The only way to exercise this terrible curse is a massage, because reagan's true specialty is massage.

I was like, Why doesn't he just own a massage parlor? And then I realized that what's so special about that, you know?

Yeah, he's actually a really good masseuse. Like, if he did open a massage parlor, he'd probably do pretty well besides just lying to people.

He could play up that angle, but he's like, no, this is an ancient exercising technique and just rubs the guy's shoulder. He's friendly and melts the stress away, freeing him from this curse.

Oh, I want to point out, while he's talking to the client, we see Mob in the back, a quick shot of him reading a comic, and that's a one punch man comic. That's the original art style for when one was drawing them.

Yeah, they drop references to it all the time that I was seeing. But, yeah, he sort of scams, this guy. He rids him of his porn ghost and sends him on his way, thank God. And Mob gets his two cent for it, and he starts to question they start to have lunch, and Mob is questioning what he's doing there. Reagan thinks he's realizing that he's being scammed, but Mob is just worried he's wasting his youth, because adolescence is a time for romance and friendship and finding.

Hobbies, but this is completely insignificant. But I just wanted to say that takoyaki being very hot is so relatable, because I've only had takoyaki a couple of times, but it's always been so hot.

I have never had it.

Takoyaki always looks so fucking good in anime.

Yeah. I don't actually like it, but it looks delicious.

Yeah, I've had it, like, once or twice. I'm like, I'm not a fan, but every time I see it, I'm like, oh, I want something so bad.

You two have fun without me.

Often they're octopus balls. Oh, they're like fried octopus balls.

Got you. Okay, now I got it. But, yeah. He's starting to question if he's wasting his youth, and Reagan says, no, you should be working. It's great. Working is awesome. It's amazing because he doesn't want to lose his only ghost hunting skill he has, which is a different person.

His way to make money. Yeah, I feel like when Reagan says, like, oh, do you want to be a rock star or dance? Mob looks like Charlie chaplin, who I guess is the most iconic dancer. I guess that's just a weird drawing.

We then cut to the school's telepathy club, where we see one of the members leaving because he no longer wants to be apart. So the five member group is now down to four, and they cannot be a school sanctioned group anymore with just four people. Almost immediately, the student council vp, tokugawa, shows up to basically get rid of this nuisance of a club because he wants the room that they use for.

Anyone else, anyone more productive.

The group is led by the president, tome, who is very into telepathy. Everyone else is sort of just hanging out.

They do want to have some snacks and chill.

Yeah, it's just a clubhouse.

I do want to point out one of the members has deku hair.

The green outline.

Yeah. I saw him in one of the background shots of when Mob was being mediocre in school, and I was like, he's back. I'm glad he's a bigger member. Our other son Story.

It's a crossover episode.

Finally.

Wow. Mr. peanut horseman.

I was watching it last night.

This is a crossover episode. Sorry.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

So, yeah, they need to find a new member in quick. So they go on a montage of basically begging everyone in the school to join, and everyone is like, no, that sounds creepy. Why telepathy? You could do anything else. I have a girlfriend. I have a job.

Literally anything else. Just not being in telepathy club would be better. Yeah, I really like the shots. Like, the reaction shots of them going around asking everyone. Some of them are really good, just.

Getting, like, grosser and grosser.

Yeah.

So, yeah, they keep hunting down everyone, and they realize no one who actually has a life is going to join their club. So what they need to do is hunt down the one person who doesn't do anything else, and that is Mob.

I like how the last person they asked to join the telepathy club is the one person in the school with telepathy.

Yeah, because it's established that the member who goes and gets him is like, hey, I remember this kid from grade school. He could do telepathy, and he just kept that in his back pocket because he assumed anyone else would join before the telepath.

Yeah, and I don't think if I were her, I don't think she does this, but I'd be like, Why didn't you bring him here first? dumb bit.

Wasting the entire day. They pull Mob in and beg him to join, and he is not at all interested, but he's a polite young lad, so he feels obliged. He calls up Reagan to say, hey, I'm going to be late. I need to join this club. reagan's like, do you want to be in it? He's like, not really. Don't.

Hold on, I have to call my dad. Hold on, I need permission.

I need to call business dad.

I just called my dad. Oh, your real dad? No, my shitty dad.

So, yeah. tome and. Reagan start to fight over the phone, saying that we need this kid. He's the only thing that's going to keep this club going. The member who pulled in, Mob, pulls him aside and says, hey, we don't really believe in telepathy either, but Tome is really into it. We just use this time to hang out in a school sanctioned room, and we eat snacks and goof off.

It's not that he doesn't believe in it because it exists. Like Mob has telekinesis. It's been proven, but he's just kind of like, we're not interested. And I was just thinking, like, how are you not interested in telekinesis? It's like the tripod thing.

Yeah, there's this thing where people can make stuff float, but I just really want to eat chips.

Gosh, me. Honestly, I think telepathy is cool, but I don't think it's possible to learn.

How to do it or just sit around appreciating the concept of it.

What a good idea.

Mob, when they say, hey, just join and hang out, sort of flashes back to his conversation with reagan about how he's wasting his youth, and he wants to waste his youth by goofing off instead. So he agrees to join the club, but that has to wait, because before he can sign up for the club, he has to go on a job with reagan. And this job is at an all girls school that they are not allowed in. So naturally, they pull a bugs bunny and they dress up like girls.

We stand drag queens.

Number one in our lives are mine.

Yeah, anime and drag.

This checks all the boxes for you.

I like how they don't get changed when they get to the school. They walk through the city and drag.

They got to get their backstory, which is walking to the school.

They want to go into schoolity ready.

They walk up to the school, and of course, as soon as reagan walks in, the security guard is like, no, you're neither a child nor a girl. What are you doing? Get out your goddamn purse.

How did you catch me? Oh, I'm not blind. It's very obvious.

I loved Brendan. Is this the one you watched in English?

Yes.

I loved the little valley girl voice. He did reagan. I'm just trying to get into school because it was really subtle, but I don't know. I'm a big fan of the guy who played reagan. I thought he did a really good job. His voice was, like, super casual, which is not something you hear in anime usually.

So reagan has to hit the bricks, but Mob is let in because he does not have any masculine traits going on. So he is let in without any hassle.

He's like the default character and a customized character customizer in a video game. Like, he's just a blank slate.

Very smooth.

He is an egg avatar.

Yes.

He is let in, and he has to go meet the contacts on the roof of the building because the school did not sanction this. It's two students who have noticed a poltergeist floating stuff around, causing mayhem.

Ruckus.

Also, I should mention his stress meter is about 35% when he is led into the building to do this job on his own.

Yeah, he go up a little bit each not each interaction, but a few interactions he has throughout the days.

Yeah, I thought he was going to get super stressed from having to pick between the club and reagan, but that didn't really affect him too much.

Yeah, the club was sort of put on hold.

Yeah, he wasn't too invested with the club. He didn't really care.

Yeah.

I love the little jabs that the two students that hired him give him of saying, like, yeah, we needed a ghost hunter, so we found the cheapest one and it was you. I guess you middle schooler, you get.

What you pay for.

Why did you sneak in? Well, we couldn't get in. understandable you don't want a weird, creepy guy coming into a high school out.

Of nowhere in all girls high school less.

Where'S takao and anita?

Yeah. Stand guard.

We track them as they hunt as ghosts as it moves through the building. And it leads them to the basketball court where the basketball team is practicing. Because what ghost doesn't love the opportunity to mess with a basketball as it's going into the hoop and just stopping it? midair.

Just deny that shot, Miss Ha.

You'll never win your division this way. Mob traps the ghost in the basketball court so it can't escape. And it gets very mad that this tiny child has thwarted him. He goes on to fight the dang thing where it tries to take hostages, but he is too strong.

He's a set ghoul.

He's a sniffing spook.

Yeah, he's gross. He looks like a dried up sponge.

Absolutely disgusting.

He curses Mob for taking away his sweet spot. And it's very gross because he's like this middle aged sounding ghost.

He like, tries to make Mob sympathize with him. He's like, you're just like me. And now that I'm dead, I've actually been having a good time. And you're taking that away from me. And it's like you were at an all girls high school spying on girls.

In the bathroom, specifically noting that you were playing with their bras and making them float in the air. Yeah, creep out.

Maybe you should be having a good time in your afterlife then, you creep. Jesus.

I do like when he was defeated, we get that stop motion painting style again. The ghost is fading away.

Yeah. Ghost transitions into in and out of the physical space is all this paint style, and it is very good and very appealing. So, yeah, he vanquishes the spirit. And the ghost questions if he is living his life to the fullest because he's running around dressed like a girl hunting ghosts.

Maybe that's what he wants to do.

Yeah.

Kink shame.

Yeah. King shame. kink sane.

I love it.

Thank you.

He hunts down this ghost, and then he goes back to the club because he needs to sign all the forms to join and become a member. But just as he arrives, the student council vp, tokugawa, has the new club that is going to take this room. He didn't want them to keep the room, so he's already shopping it around.

Yeah, he's already set up.

The vp questions Mob if he really wants to join this group and asks what he wants to do with his life. And then he sort of flashes back to his crush subami and how he wants to be with her, and that's what he wants to do with his life. So rather than join the telepathy club, he turns around and joins the bodybuilding body Improvement Club.

Yeah.

We don't get into it in these three episodes, but these are the best boys. They're very good boys. Even beyond their muscular stature, they're very good people. I love them.

I'm surprised to hear that because they seem very jockey and broy, so I couldn't imagine them being sweeties.

They're very good boys.

I think the fact that they like, at the end of the episode when Mob is like, I'm going to join your club, they're just like, hell yeah, dude. You want to get buff? heck yeah.

Going to make you into a soul boy.

Going to get big. But yeah. And that's sort of where we leave off on episode two.

Yeah. And we actually get to see the.

Ending this time, which is incredible.

Amazing.

It's all done in that painting style.

Yeah. I love the part with the cat. It's very, very short, but it's just like a cat walking. And it's just like, ooh, it's lovely.

Reagan throughout his day. And it's all black and white until we see Mob. And then there's color in it.

Oh, I didn't think of that. That's so cute. Oh, my God. Okay.

It's a good relationship.

Yeah. So in episode three, it starts off with the Body Improvement Club, and Mob is on a run with them. Gonna get swolle, but it's not going so well.

Trying to get swollen.

The way the animation when Mob runs is just like, same man. Like, that's what I look like when I run. Just completely disgusting.

A zombie shambling behind these buff, masculine olympians.

Yeah. And there's another little peek at these guys being good dudes because he faints. And they're like, oh, he must be anemic like, let's take him back. Help to the room.

I tried going for a run earlier this week and it was like three minutes of running and then like 45 minutes of dry heaving.

Yeah. I just do walks. I don't run.

It's not good.

Yeah. So they take him back to the club room where the telepathy club is still hanging out.

Yeah. This also points to how they're sweet boys. They don't really need a room. They just use it to store their equipment. So they still let the telepathy club meet, even though they technically aren't a club.

Great. They're just like, oh, thanks for letting us use the room. And he's like, yeah, sure, of course. And then they're like, he fainted. Please take care of him. Don't let him kind of like, maybe don't leave him with them, though.

Maybe the nurse.

Yeah. So he wakes up, and Tome, she's kind of like, I don't believe you're a psychic. Prove. Prove you're a psychic. So he picks up one of the body improvement club's dumbbells and floats it across the room, and he holds onto it, and then helepathes it telepinesis, is it? And he just goes, oh, it's heavy. Like, really?

Because his telepathy or his telekinesis is very strong and his body is very weak.

Yeah, but I just love the way he said it. Like, it was just like all one word, like, whoa was heavy.

Well, he even points out, he's like, I always use my telekinesis for everything, so I've never had to train my body. That's why it's so exceptionally weak.

Yeah, but it makes sense. A mediocre boy. Yeah. So Tome, she tells him that the reason she's so into telepathy is because she wants to communicate with aliens. And I thought that was kind of interesting because I was like, that doesn't really seem like a Mob thing.

It makes sense.

Yeah. I don't think that's in his wheelhouse. And he says, I'm sorry, I can't help you. I've got to go pump some iron cat. Oldest excuse in the book.

Excuse me while I get swolle, young lady.

Yeah. And all he really wants to do is just get popular, like, get more appealing to people.

Well, specifically his crush.

Right. Sue bomi subami tome suggests just reading girls minds. And I was like, Why? No, don't do that. That's a bad way of doing it, I think. Let's not read teenage girls minds.

Don't be Professor X. Don't be a creep. But also, Mob has telekinesis. He doesn't have telepathy. He can't read people's minds.

Yeah, I know.

So he couldn't if he wanted to.

Yeah. So he goes and talks to reagan. I guess I didn't write much about that scene, but, like, happens. Yeah. What it really comes down to, and this is what I like about reagan so much is that even though he is just a gross con man, he is so supportive and so nice to Mob. He's just like an older brother to him, and I think that's so sweet.

He clearly cares about him, but not in the financial sense of he will pay him a fair wage.

Here's your $3 for the day. Get out of my hair.

But, yeah, he doesn't want him to suffer because he cares about the lad.

Yeah. He kind of tells him, like, puberty. I remember that and he's, like, telling him about stuff, and it's just nice it's a nice relationship, and I'm into it.

I'll teach you morals and take all of your money.

Perfect. I'll teach you morals while also being a huge liar.

Well, having the rest of the money goes to your lessons.

So Mob is walking home, and a woman approaches him in a weird mask that's just a smile and two very perky eyes. And she kind of goes through, like, a laundry list of, like, oh, you're having problems at home? And he's like, no. And she's like, oh, your grades are suffering. Yeah, your grades are suffering. And then eventually she gets to know it's your love life. And he goes, how do you know?

That's the coldest, cold read that person has ever given.

Yeah. And she's like, Why don't you come with me to this fancy new religion that I've been a part of? And he just goes, I don't know. And she says, you'll be popular. And he says, okay, let's go.

I'm in. He's so easy to sway.

So on board.

So she takes him to the lol Organization. It's it's a religious group that was started a month ago.

Yes.

Fresh. Got to get in on the ground floor.

Yeah. They go down an elevator, literally the ground underground floor.

I think it was, like, basement six.

Yeah, they were way down underground. And she just goes, oh, make yourself comfortable. lol is in no way a suspicious group. That sounds a lot like something someone would say if they're in a suspicious organization.

Yeah.

It's just very clearly a cult.

Yeah, without a doubt.

Yeah. So the leader is this guy named Master Dimple, who has the ability to make anyone laugh. And because Mob is new, they put him up on stage with a man that someone apparently found sleeping on a bench with newspapers in a park and a classmate of his, who again, I did not write down her name.

Mizado.

Yes, that's it.

Mizado. Okay.

I didn't write down either.

And she's actually there to investigate it. She has, like, a little camera. She's like, a little fluth.

She's a journalist.

She's a head waiting for the school newspaper.

A Nancy Drew.

Charlie Boys. Is that it?

Hardy.

Hardy.

Did you say? Charlie boys.

Charlie Boys.

Charlie Horse.

Charlie Horse. Horse detective.

Oh, my BoJack horseman's. estranged cousin. Charlie Horse.

I want that show to take a new R. Oh, that'd be great. It's just people and then one horse.

Perfect.

Oh, real quick. I like when Dimple, Master Dimple comes out. Just fingers, guns just locked and loaded. Just already just pop up.

Absolutely the sign of a true leader.

Yeah.

His mask is very no Face mixed with the puppet from Five Nights at freddy's, if either of you know what that looks like.

Yes.

Very spoofy.

Very reminiscent of that stuff.

I love a good cult, so this episode is good for me. cultured cult. I don't remember who says it. I guess Mizuto says it. She just goes, man, what a creepy group this is. No, it's the man. It's the homeless man. He says that?

Yeah.

He's just like, man, this is creepy. I don't know if I'm into this.

I'm homeless. But you guys are weird.

Yeah. So Master Dimple has come out, and he's just like, laughter is happiness. You laugh through the pain. You can laugh through anything. And it's just like, oh, boy.

A lot going on.

There not a good coping mechanism. And all of their masks look like creepy shy guys.

Yeah, they're all laughing.

Shy, creepy shy guys. And they all take off their masks, and they're all still smiling underneath. It's all very icky and spooky. They bring them back out into the crowd. Mob mezao. I'm going to call her Nancy Joy.

Welcome to my hell.

I know I should have written down her name. I don't know why I didn't. I, like, missed it when she said it, so I didn't write it down.

You can say Nancy Drew.

Yeah, I'm going to call her Nancy Drew. And then the homeless guy, they bring them down into the audience, and they put a hood on Mob, and they put a hood mask thingy on the homeless guy. But Nancy Drew is like, I don't know about this. And they're like, what's up? And she's like, how did you gain so many followers in just a month? And he's kind of like, oh, I'm just really powerful.

You're asking a lot of questions.

Yeah, you're asking a lot of questions. missy not into it. So she says there was a rumor about hypnotism, and he's like, if I was hypnotizing people, could I do this? And they pull off the homeless guy's mask, and he's, like, smiling. He's already smiling.

He's joined in. If I could hypnotize people, would I hypnotize people like this? Yes.

Would this guy immediately be hypnotized?

She gets got to they put a hood on her, and when they take it off, she can't help but smile. And she's like, oh, God, I don't want to be smiling, but I am, and I hate this. This is so weird. But Mob, he has had his hood on for a little bit. He is not susceptible to the hypnotism.

He's got the strong will.

He's the moon.

So he's just like, this didn't work for me. I'm out of here. I'm outy. And Master Dimple isn't happy with that.

It's never happened before.

So yeah, he says he made this religion because it was, like, the least violent way he could sort of get a powerful group. But since there's an outsider, you got to crack a few eggs to make an omelet.

But I did like, you got to.

Kill some middle schoolers to start a cold.

Yeah, that's a good religion.

I think when Mob was trying to leave, master Dimple was kind of like, but you're missing out on all of this, you could be so happy. And then Mob says, yeah, well, my dad says that people who don't smoke are missing out on half of their lives. So I think people define missing out differently. And I was just like, Hell yeah, Mob.

I wrote that down. That's a very good line.

Yeah, this show delivers such good little quips like that of just like that. That's so ingenious. I've never thought of that. But it's so cool because it's true.

I thought about it longer and I took it in as people who never smoke are missing out on half their lives. Because if you smoke, you're only going to have half your life versus a full life. The more I thought about it, I was like, oh, that's clever.

Yeah. Hell yeah. Damn. So Master Dimple gets pretty mad. He's like, if you don't join, my whole thing is to be the religious leader of the world. And it's like, yeah, not a cult at all. This is fine. So in order to leave oh, and at this point, his stress is at 58%.

Yep.

So it's getting up there. In order to leave, he has to have a staring contest with three of, like, the I don't know why I'm thinking of giggle Leaders.

Appropriate names. It was a laughing contest, though.

Yeah. So they had to stare at each other with a mouth full of milk, and whoever spit out their milk would lose. And Mob did it because he just.

Loves milk or he's dead inside, but yeah, okay. Milk too.

No. The narrator says, coincidentally, Mob loves milk.

I must have missed that. I was wondering, though, why couldn't have just been water?

I don't know.

Because it's so gross.

Maybe Master Dimple knew that he just loved milk so much that he would do anything to have the sweet, sweet cow juice in milk.

Just like them spraying milk at Mob repeatedly. It's like, gross each time.

I hate milk.

Because as they go through, he gets more and more covered in milk.

It's like lime time live, but with milk.

Yeah, but so the three giggle Leaders come out and they try to make Mob laugh. But Mob is just an impenetrable wall. He will not laugh.

The most stoic middle schooler in existence.

Yeah. And they just stare at him and they crack up. And again, this is a recurring theme in some of the things we watch, like with deku and bakugo and just people overestimating people's intentions. Like, Master Dimple is like, oh, this kid is like, trying to ruin my cult. And it's like, no, he just wants to leave.

Let him go. It'll be fine. He won't tell anyone.

Master Dimple is like, well, now you have to face me. And they put a little something I couldn't tell what they did if they made his milk spicy or put something in it.

Yeah, they just said he added something to the milk, but they didn't specify what it was. I don't know if it was a visual thing I missed as I was writing notes.

Yeah. Or maybe it was like I don't think they were kind of a special psychic thing. Mob takes a sip of the milk, and he immediately spits it out. And that's another cool shot where it looks like he's, like, foaming at the mouth and the eyes.

Yeah.

But it's, like, kind of hand drawn. It looks really neat. So for a minute, all of the people kind of get like, we won. Well, their brain is like it's taken out of, like, the hypnotism.

Yeah.

But just for a minute, mob's reaction.

To that kind of lets lose some of his power, and he dispels the hypnosis across everyone.

Yeah. So it shows that Mob has the potential to fix these people. And then he kind of starts having flashbacks of being on the playground with these kids, and they're all kind of joking and laughing, and he's like, what's wrong with you, Mob? Like, Why don't you laugh? And he's like, I don't know. He says, Are you having a good time? And Mob was like, yeah, I am.

If you're bored, just go home. He's like, I'm not bored.

I'm not bored. A fine time. Just not laughing.

My face just doesn't do movement.

Yeah. I just can't do that.

I was born of botox in my face.

Yeah. So after those flashbacks, part of the flashback is his first crushed Tsubami, saying, yeah, Mob, get a clue. And that triggers something in him. And his stress level raises to 74% quick. So he's getting there, and he kind of starts, like, taunting Master Dimple. He says, like, Bet you can't make me laugh. You want to make me laugh? Try. And then it is revealed that Master Dimple is actually a psychic user.

Yeah. That's how he does hypnosis.

Yeah. So he's, like, challenging him, and he's like, do it. Make me laugh with your psychic powers, then. And I'm just like, Hell, yeah, mob. Oh, my God. And then it's kind of revealed how it all works with the counter. Mob kind of holds in all of his emotions. It's not just his stress. He just holds in every emotion he has. And then eventually, it all just comes out as just, like, a big, huge outburst of rage. And I really like rage mob. I love how sassy he is.

Extra quippy.

Yeah. It's just like, oh, shit. Here we go.

I'll point out, since we don't get to see it in this episode, it's not always rape. It's just 100% like, whatever motion he has at that point breaks open. This one just happened to be rage.

I'm into it.

It's very good.

Yeah. And he's just like, again, just, like, super taunting this guy. And he's like, Your shit's weak, man. Destroy me if you want. You couldn't make me laugh. Let's see if you can destroy me. So Mob pretty much just wrecks his shit and gets rid of this guy.

Just tears them apart.

Tears them apart. All of the people are free from the hypnotism. And Mob leaves, and they're like, maybe we should go find him. Maybe he is like a prophet.

He is the one true leader.

I kind of like that because people with the messiah sort of not messiah complex, but like the follower complex, that's the kind of mentality that gets people roped up into cults. Like, that is they're always looking for the leader to follow, and then as soon as one is dispelled, they just find a nice leader.

Yeah. And then Mob goes to talk to reagan about it, and he's kind of like, oh, I feel bad. Like, they were all happy, and now I feel like I kind of ruined it for them. And it's like, no, honey.

You stopped them from being brainwashed.

I know they were brainwashed, honey. And reagan kind of does that too. He's like, not homes. You got it. You did a good job. You did a good thing. And then at the very end, we see Mob wake up, and he has a very slimmer looking dude hanging out in his room. And he's just like, hey, man, what's up?

It's me, Dimple, the guy you just murdered.

Oh, is it?

Yeah, because he has the same, like, rosy cheeks as the leader did because it sort of is glossed over. But Dimple, the cult leader was dimple the spirit possessing the leader.

Yeah, the leader was they see him.

Unconscious, and they're like, he doesn't look like how he did before.

Well, all right. I didn't know that. But that's where episode three ends.

We got to see one other little one. Punch, man. Easter egg is on the soda cup of the fast food reagan was eating in that last scene. You see a little one punch man on there.

Oh, I didn't even see that.

Yeah, I didn't notice it.

I was going to say there's another one where back in the telepathy club, when they're reading comics and, like, playing video games, one of the comics they have is just saitama from One Punch Man. And it just says one above him and then one on his shirt because one is the author, and then One Punch Man.

I like that.

So I guess there's an Easter egg maybe in every episode.

It's fun.

I love Easter eggs. So those were the first three episodes of Mob psycho 100.

I love it. Are we there yet?

Yeah. Let's see how everyone dissects.

Yeah. Actually, in the first episode, a note I wrote down was, I am having trouble taking notes because I just like this. Like, I'm just watching it and I want to be paying attention. I actually really enjoyed it because this is just a comedy for now. Straight up and down, it's just a comedy. And I love that.

Yeah. And also, the art style is so unique and interesting that it was hard to look away because you were afraid of the quick cuts in and out of, like, hand drawn animation style. It's very beautiful in its grotesqueness.

It's very similar with One Punch Man in the premise of this singular character is so overwhelmingly powerful that there aren't really fights. It's kind of like at least One Punch Man is more of a parody and a satire of those actions shown in tropes of all the Dragon Ball Zesque fights. Whereas Mob psycho is kind of like, he's so powerful, the fight scenes can't really go on for too long because he'll just obliterate whoever the opponent is. So they really have to work with it and kind of change how they would traditionally view that fight and choreograph it, so they have to really be original with it and not just do trophy stuff. Yeah.

I like how it sort of cuts to the chase because we know the hero is going to win. Especially in the first few episodes where it's all lower level people. It's nice to sort of get like, oh, they're fighting, and 15 seconds later, the fight is over and Mob wins.

Cool. Yeah. Even with the biker ghost, it's like you get the backstory bit and Mob just like, all right, let's get wrap this up. We got to move on quick.

There's a plot to get to wrapped.

Up nicely with a bow.

So what do you guys think? Would you continue to watch it?

I would say based on since I scrubbed through a lot of the later stuff, I don't want that to influence it too much since I didn't actually watch it, but I feel like it gets a little bit more into classic anime territory, so that makes me a little bit weary. But seeing the I loved the art in this, and it was so interesting that I feel like I may continue at least a little bit just to keep I need to look at the.

Pretty pictures, give me the shiny images.

I'm definitely interested in watching more just because I like Mob and I also like reagan. I want to see how their relationship progresses and I want to know what else happens. So I would keep watching it.

And it's only twelve episodes, so we're a quarter of the way through.

I didn't realize it was that short then. Yeah, I will probably finish.

Yeah, I love a good short. Lovely show.

Yeah. They're working on season two, but as of right now, it's only the first season. Same with one punch. Man like, the second season is in the works, but there's a lot of parallels between the two series and a common one. Is it's kind of a parody or a satire of the genre? It's kind of poking fun at, but only while the main character is there. So for one punch, man, if Saitama the main character. Isn't in that scene. It's pretty a standard action shown in Fighter series, but then when he's there, it's kind of a joke like parody of it. So some people do have that complaint where when that titular main character isn't there, it's kind of the run of the mill same stuff. So it's only good when that main character is around.

Seems good for now.

You can only circumvent those tropes for a little bit.

Yeah. Can't be parody 100% of the time.

Yeah, eventually you run out of things to parity.

Look at Mad TV.

Anyway, what a dated burn.

I was coughing to try and cover up with. Who the hell would get offended by that?

Well, thank you all for joining us this week on Are We There Yet? Brendan. dana, where can people find you online?

People can find me. My handle on everything is Queen Weebu, but with different punctuation in the middle. So my Instagram is queen, period. Wihu. My Twitter is queen, hyphen wihu. And my tumblr is queen underscore weebu.

Get the full range.

Yes.

Waiting for the asterisk queen Weebu. I am on Twitter. Primarily. I don't really think I do anything else. I would stream on twitch, but fucking Time Warner is garbage and a nightmare.

Wow.

No, we don't want their money. That's a lot of money. So, yeah, Twitter. I am aBTS Brendan, and that is because I also have another podcast called Almost Better Than Silence, so you can check that out. That's primarily videogate based and just incoherent rambling. Just a lot of dumb bullshit. So there's reward.

Is that not what you do?

I mean, you listen, you'll get it.

In the first episode and you can find me at Mr. Patrick dugan on Instagram and Twitter. And I don't really do anything else. So just as you can find the show on Are We There Yet? On both Twitter and Instagram. Please. It would be very helpful if you could write a review on itunes if you love the show, or even like the show, or just tolerate it again.

If you don't like it.

Keep seeing yourself.

Eat my ass.

Do get anything else with your time. Just don't write a negative review.

Don't review us. You don't have to be positive energy elsewhere.

You don't have to be positive. Just don't be negative.

Love that.

But yeah, seriously, it's very helpful for shows starting out like this since we have less than ten episodes right now. And we need to thank camille ruley for our beautiful artwork and Louis zong for the song's stories off the album Beats. You can find all of louie's music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you again for joining us, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Bye soon.