REVIEW: ‘Mob Psycho 100 III,’ Episode 1 – “Future Career Paths”

Mob Psycho 100 is almost objectively one of Studio BONES‘ best-adapted works. The series follows Kageyama Shigeo or “Mob” and his daily life as he tries to juggle his mundane middle school duties and his bizarre life as an absurdly powerful psychic under the employment of the psychic conman Reigen. Some of the best aspects of the series are how it blends its comedic bizarreness with high-octane action, brilliantly animated action scenes, and surprisingly deep dialogue. Luckily, all these attributes carry over to Mob Psycho 100 III, the anime’s third season.

The first episode manages to be fantastic without including any incredible action, bizarre fight scenes, or intense monologues with supervillains. Instead, it starts with Mob and his torn feelings when he’s forced to ponder his future despite his young age after he’s given a career survey form from school asking about his plans after middle school. Mob doesn’t know what he’ll want to do, so he decides to ask all his friends. He learns some will chase their dreams while others will settle for a simple life. This still doesn’t help Mob decide, but this quickly changes when he accompanies Reigen and the newly employed Serizawa on a new job.  

Without spoiling too much, the job surprisingly blends seemingly into the other subplot and skyrockets Mob’s anxiety about his future. Luckily Reigen steps in and reminds him how unreasonable he’s being as he’s just a middle schooler and what he wants to do in life can always change. This episode surprised me by being incredibly introspective and showing how well the anime’s characters are written. Specifically, it displays and drives home the point that at his core, despite his godly powers, Mob is just a regular kind-natured kid who, like us, is trying to live his best life. 

The dialogue earlier in the episode with his schoolmate Mezato showing how little interest he has in being revered for his power especially drives home this point. It shows how little his power matters to him as thinking about the things that really matter in life has always been and still is Mob’s great defining trait.

Visually, season three looks about the same as every other season. There is no big leap in visuals, which makes sense as it’s being directed by the same studio adapting the same aesthetic. However, several comedic and aesthetic cuts and frames occasionally display a different look from the anime, like a poorly drawn sketch to emphasize something goofy like a funny face or an intense painting of an action scene.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t point out the new, amazingly animated, dynamic, and vibrant opening theme most Mob Psycho 100 fans are probably already familiar with at this point, as it was released separately a while ago. It also notably features another banger-opening theme song, “1”, by the incredible MOB CHOIR, that cannot be ignored

Overall, the first episode of Mob Psycho 100 III does not start off with a bang, but it is incredibly entertaining regardless. The episode was adequately able to boast its well-written characters while still being humorous and proving the series can be entertaining without having explosive fight scenes.

Mob Psycho 100 III will premiere on Crunchyroll on October 5, 2022 with new episodes every Wednesday.