I actually heard that this upcoming arc was labeled by the manga readers as the “Sad Reigen Arc” and that alone made me feel a bit uneasy and concerned. I fully expected this episode to be the cool down episode after last week’s SUPER INTENSE ACTION THRILLER. And I was right in a way but by the very end it basically catapulted us into the next arc with hardly a delay. And after such a character developing arc for Mob, it seemed about time to put another character into the spotlight. And we all know how much Reigen likes to hog it.
We’re first shown a little bit of Reigen’s backstory with him having been a Water Dispenser salesman. And judging from his coworkers, we can tell where Reigen got his charisma from. It seems like this workplace really drove how to sell things into their heads. Everyone were very expressive in their motions, expressions and tone.
Now, Reigen made some pretty bad mistakes in this episode especially when it came to Mob. Mob has certainly come a long way from how he was in season 1, even making it to 35 push ups! That is SO MUCH more push ups that I can manage. He’s even able to keep up with the others while running now. Good on you Mob! However, the way that Reigen essentially brushed off Mob possibly having a social life was SUPER insensitive. Especially when he claimed that the people Mob were hanging with were just using him and that couldn’t have been further from the truth. We see how much the body improvement club supports Mob and cheer him on to do the very best he can do. Even launching him into the air in celebration for his new push up record. THEY’RE ALL SUCH GOOD BOYS. Even Dimple can see Mob’s improvement physically and emotionally. The former Telekinesis club even seem to be treating Mob like a friend and seem to genuinely enjoy hanging out with him. Even if Kurata is still using him to try to find other Telekinetic people from time to time. It was actually really great to see Mob just be a regular middle schooler and hang out with a fun group of friends. Especially considering what happened last episode. This was also the first time we got to see Mob in such an environment and I felt so happy for him. And for Reigen to dismiss all of that without really knowing was terrible especially when he essentially dragged Mob away from spending more time with his friends.
I liked the visual representation of Mob looking on at Reign, who was seemingly covered by a spider web. Just showing how Mob is starting to be disillusioned by Reigen and also that Reigen is still covering his true self from him. Reigen was the gateway to help Mob develop as a person, giving him someone to talk to about his problems and a source of encouragement and direction at times. However, believing that he was still the only one Mob had was naive. Reigen definitely came on a little too thick about how he’s the reason Mob is who he is now and why he should continue working for him. He unknowingly insulted his friends’ kindness and even told Mob to just drop them if they got in the way of his job. Come on Reigen…. I thought you were better than that. I appreciate that Mob stood up for them and himself because Reigen was totally running his mouth where he shouldn’t and overstepped his boundaries. I also like that Mob of all people called him out on it and even decided to not go in for work for a while.
Because Mob has been thinking about things a little more seriously, he realizes that he had been blindly following whatever Reigen did and said because it was easier and he didn’t need to think about anything. And while Reigen had definitely given him good advice, it’s time for Mob to start thinking for himself and walking a path of his choosing. It was also really cute to see Mob spend more time with his brother and just be genuinely happy.
It was actually surprising to find that out of the two, Reigen turned out to be the lonlier one. He keeps deluding himself into thinking that Mob will come back to him, not even considering the fact that he could actually have friends and a social life. He certainly got a wake up call when he saw Mob genuinely having fun with a couple of his friends. However, while I’m still mad at him for what he said to Mob, the fact that Reigen has no actual friends was pretty sad. Especially when no one wished him a happy birthday outside of his mom. Even the happy birthday from his mom felt so half-hearted as she ended the statement in a simple period rather than an exclamation mark and went on to lecture him about what he should do with his life. Not to mention her freaking gift to him was a job brochure. That was honestly super messed up. Talk about mood whiplash. First I was super mad at Reigen and now I’m feeling bad for the poor guy.
He doesn’t even have real friends and ends up going to a bar to try and spend his birthday with others. What a way to spend a birthday…
Despite not being drunk, Reigen starts throwing up and seems to be losing himself. I feel like it could have been the great amount of stress he was under that caused this mini breakdown. I almost thought he got possessed or something. Though it seems like he was able to use this a springboard to try and make his situation better by taking on more earnest jobs. Even started life counseling to try and broaden his field of work. Though I’m not sure how I feel about him “exorcising” a player killer by making several accounts and whatnot. Was that really worth it in the end, Reigen??? But it seemed to boost his popularity, earning him the title of “the Bro of Seasoning City” lol.
However, some dark clouds may be heading his way again since one of the psychics from the last arc, Jodo, seems to want revenge on him because Reigen kneed him in the stomach to release the possession. Like, COME ON man, Reigen did you a FAVOR by getting that spirit out of you. I feel pretty worried about Reigen getting exposed in the worst way possible, especially since he’s on live TV and the next episode is called “Cornered.” That certainly isn’t foreboding at all…
This episode definitely shed a lot of light on what goes on with Reigen when Mob isn’t around. He acts like he has everything together, but he’s actually a lot more alone than he lets on. Poor guy… It almost seems like Mob was the one who made his days a lot less lonely than the other way around. Well, maybe it worked both ways. But it was definitely necessary to start having these two start to grow as people outside of each other. And I’m sure when they join forces again, they’ll be an even stronger force.
On a sillier note, I enjoyed all the callbacks to the past exorcisms in the first season with the new jobs nearly identical to them XD.
