I was re-watching the final episode of season 2 and it really hit me why I love Mob Psycho 100 so much, personally.
The strongest relationships in the show are prioritized as bonds with certain types of chemistry, rather than specific “types of relationships”.
Instead of writing Reigen and Mob as a Father-son type bond in mind first, it feels like it was written as a realistic depiction of how these two characters would interact based on characteristics like their personalities, experience, and age, which then falls into that type of parental relationship. It doesn’t feel forced or tropey, but a natural development of two characters that both impacted each other in important ways.
It also comforts me, as someone who often doesn’t care for romantic relationships in media, that I can watch a show where all types of relationships are crucial and valued. Teru and Mob can be close friends, or lovers, or in a QPR, depending on how you read and relate to them. None of these interpretations are wrong in any way, but do seem to vary depending on the viewer and their perspective. But it’s clear to the audience that this relationship is important to mob, regardless of how it is read.
In the final episode, Mob says to Touchirou that the most important thing he was missing was bonds, people who understood and cared about him. Any of the bonds in his life could have steered him off the path he was on, way before Mob fought to do it, whether it was with his son, his wife, or his subordinates (super 5). But he didn’t value/create them, and that almost caused his destruction.
That is the core heart of the series, and it’s one I hope more media embraces in the future. It’s rare to see, and it’s important to say.
