Boomstick: But being a prodigy can get to one's head, or ONE.'s head, if you know what I'm saying! C-cause, y'know, the guy who made both these characters is called ONE? So... yeah...
Wiz: Mob, the reluctant psychic powerhouse from Mob Psycho 100.
Boomstick: And Tatsumaki, the fearless, ferocious esper from One-Punch Man.
The fourteenth fight of season six brings together telekinetics unrivaled in their respective settings; products of both sheltered upbringings and the same creative mind. These two psychics, who use and cope with their powers through different extremes, may have vanquished several foes, but now they turn their tremendous might upon one another. With even their shared creator unsure of who would survive if Mob and Tatsumaki came to blows, this episode seeks to solve the dilemma once and for all, in the only arena tailor-made for such a showdown: a death battle.
The first of the two combatants covered this episode is Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama, one of the teenaged inhabitants of Seasoning City. While little is known of his youth, what history has been established highlights Shigeo's inner turmoils, terrified by the psychic abilities he possessed since birth. Due to his belief that these powers should not elevate him above others and fears of their potential misuse, Mob trained to control them under the aid of Arataka Reigen. Mob does his best to go about as ordinary a life he can in Seasoning City, spending his time at the local middle school to improve his physique and become a better person. Still, the nature of his psychic powers means Mob is regularly forced to confront and even utilize them when roped into the goings-on of the city. Cult meetings and facing organized crime syndicates are a few of the misadventures that befall Shigeo and those around him, yet these, much like his psychic powers, do nothing to stop him from living as any other person in Seasoning City.
The idea that Mob holds his powers in low regard is a testament to his moral fiber, though it also understates the vast destructive potential they wield. The teenaged student is only one of several psychically-gifted humans, but what makes Shigeo stand out is that he can perform multiple psychic feats at once. Such an example is that while forming a barrier of psychic energy around himself, he can also channel his powers for more offensive measures; these include long-range blasts, telekinesis, siphoning energy from other psychics, and conjuring natural disasters on a citywide scale. This sort of skill is linked chiefly to emotion; the stronger a psychic feels, the greater their powers become at the time. Due to accidentally injuring his younger brother with his psychic abilities, Shigeo suppressed his capacity to feel and thus restrained access to his powers. Circumstances can heighten his emotional state and the ensuing psychic breakdown when it reaches critical mass; for convenience, the progress towards such an event is displayed as a percentage that shows how intensely Mob feels. When the meter reaches a full 100%, Mob's psychic powers are fully unleashed, with his own mindset a variable based on the emotion that triggered it. These emotional explosions are the defining trait of Mob's powerset, and while intimidating in their own right, are the source to a greater form. By restraining his psychic powers, Mob inadvertently gave them the means to manifest in his subconscious and take over his body when under extreme emotional duress. This ??? form, when unleashed, amplifies Mob's abilities and acts upon whatever goals are part of his current agenda.
Shigeo is well aware of what his powers can do, and has every right to restrain his access to them. With his psychic prowess, Mob can fight and react at speeds of Mach 5, while he can set up his psychic barriers in time to block lightning. In the way of durability, Mob has survived a fight with Toichiro Suzuki, a crime lord and fellow psychic who can channel a force of over 80 tons of TNT into his own attacks. Mob, meanwhile, has been shown to telekinetically assemble a number of cloud formations; a feat measuring over 30 gigatons of TNT, or twenty times more powerful than the entire global stockpile of nuclear weapons. In short, the achievements Shigeo has performed give him the right to be considered one of and perhaps the most formidable psychic in the world, and it becomes all too easy to remember his own faults when doing so. Depending on how he feels when activating an emotional explosion, Shigeo loses self-control and his state of mind may lose rational thought. Without the aid of psychic augmentation, Mob is vulnerable due to being weaker than an average teenager. It is also possible to overtax his defensive capabilities; both his energy absorption and barriers have been overwhelmed by other psychics. Through these and other hardships, Shigeo managed to make peace with his past and accepted his powers and his emotions as parts of who he is, finally freed from the burdens he put upon himself.
From Mob, the episode moves on to Tatsumaki, one of the strongest champions in the Hero Association. Ever since childhood, her natural proficiency in telekinesis was so adept that she was taken from her family at the age of seven. Her new caretakers were scientists interested in studying the depths of her abilities. These circumstances she grew up in, being bribed into cooperation and otherwise trapped in a cell when the scientists had no current need for her, left her isolated from real human contact. Indeed, it would not be until a monster attacked her cell and the world-renowned hero Blast fought it on her behalf that she had any meaningful interactions with other people. This meeting would prove to shape Tatsumaki's outlook on life, as Blast left her with the advice to be her own hero, not to rely on anyone else's help. Inspired by his actions, Tatsumaki took Blast's words to heart and enrolled in the Hero Association. The advice she models herself after and the tremendous power that she wields may have left her with an impetuous, haughty demeanor, but even after climbing through the Association's numbers and establishing herself as its second-highest-ranked heroine, she has committed to using her abilities for the side of good.
With powers like those Tatsumaki has at her disposal, little question remains as to if her reputation is a justifiable one. Her telekinesis can be used on all manner of objects ranging from buildings to planes and even herself so as to achieve flight. She can also alter the pull of gravity and create town-sized force fields; so overwhelming is Tatsumaki's psychic ability, that she is canonically the world's most powerful esper. Further backing this claim is that she has demonstrated a more refined control over her powers than her younger sister and fellow telekinetic Fubuki, who could create earthquakes measuring roughly 8.0 on the Richter scale. Being superior in her control over telekinetic powers in comparison, Tatsumaki can in theory match and surpass the scale on which Fubuki operates. Such precision aids her in fighting other espers, in that she can use her psychic energy to counteract theirs and even negate the powers of those espers outright. As if Tatsumaki was not already versatile enough, she can also tap into the life energy of others, psychics included, and immobilize or otherwise bend them to her whim. Her most iconic power, however, is the usage of her psychic powers to control the wind, creating high-pressure tornadoes; her aforementioned anti-psychic barrier is fashioned into the form of a whirlwind whenever Tatsumaki performs the technique.
It is easy to make sense of how Tatsumaki has cultivated this status with a powerset such as hers, especially with the finesse and potency she displays. Even the act of drawing in meteors from space, while non-canon, is within her range of potential due to other feats that she has performed. As an example, Tatsumaki's telekinesis has lifted over 3 billion tons of weight, while she herself can react to artillery salvos nearly two thousand times faster than the speed of sound. Similarly, the second-greatest hero of the Association is durable enough to withstand psychic gravitational fields three hundred times more intense than the earth's own gravity. Feats such as these emphasize the vast scale and might of her abilities, but Tatsumaki is far from perfect, even if she herself views the truth as otherwise. Psychic powers takes a toll on the user's stamina, and even the most proficient espers like Tatsumaki struggle to use their powers should they suffer head injury. In addition, she has to actively focus the nature of her telekinesis when fighting; attacking while also protecting herself is impossible. Shortcomings such as these proved pivotal in her own struggles and defeats, eventually humbling her if only to some small degree. By being forced to confront and accept her weaknesses, Tatsumaki was began to put some trust in others. Overall, however, she remains as proud as always, a hero to the world just as much as she is to herself.
Saitama: (staring at Tatsumaki in confusion) What's with the attitude from this lost child?
These two psychic prodigies have been given their due as best they can, and the violence awaits. One advertisement for the Blue Apron cooking service later, and now, it's time for a death battle!
Roaming the dilapidated remains of an abandoned metropolis is one Shigeo Kageyama, the teenaged psychic known best as Mob. Stranded amidst the desolate urban wasteland, Mob laments his situation, only for a second figure to belittle his presence. Tatsumaki, the Hero Association's tornado of terror, may greet Shigeo with her trademark arrogance, but her pride gives way to indignant fury as Mob mistakes her for another teen. The emerald-haired esper shoves Mob into the neighboring building, but to her shock and Mob's growing consternation, the Seasoning City native is none the worse off. His progress towards a breakdown climbing to 62%, Mob only provokes Tatsumaki further by scolding the reckless misuse of her powers.
FIGHT!
Tatsumaki reaches a breaking point well before Mob, best shown by her condensing a skyscraper into a stream of psychic energy which Shigeo swats aside. As the building is redirected back at Tatsumaki, the second-strongest member of the Hero Association forms a bubble to dispel it. Again does she carry on her attack as she attempts to crush Mob into the pavement. Just as his foe wrapped herself within a force field, so too does Mob conjure an ovoid barrier to protect himself from Tatsumaki's psychic waves; his status towards losing control reaches 75%. The meter only continues to climb as Tatsumaki blasts Mob through several collapsed buildings and drags him into the skies above. With a snap of her fingers, Tatsumaki sends Mob rocketing back to terra firma with enough force to shear another building in two. This continued aggression, this unrelenting display of violence against his person is enough to finally send Mob into full 100% rage mode.
Where there once stood buildings around Mob's point of impact, a smoking crater soon takes their place. Shigeo will put up with Tatsumaki's insolence no further, a clear warning that he acts upon immediately after. Enveloped in a luminous fuchsia aura, Mob delivers a beating unto Tatsumaki just as brutal as her own attack as he telekinetically launches her back and forth across the ruined landscape. Even as the esper attempts to process how drastically the fight has turned against her favor, Mob pushes the offensive as he repeatedly slams Tatsumaki into the remaining buildings. A second before Mob can smash her into the pavement, however, Tatsumaki creates a second barrier to provide herself with distance from her aggressor. This is a setback that fails to deter the repressed teen. Releasing twin streams of psychic power, Mob attempts to land a hit on Tatsumaki even while she swerves around them. The tornado of terror merges the streams and forces them back to their original sender, only for yet another barrier to absorb the counterattack. Tatsumaki realizes how futile her current showings of power have been and pushes the fight by hoisting a chunk of land skyward.
For a second, the male esper is taken aback by this feat, only for the S-class heroine to retreat from the battlefield, glowing an even brighter green as she tears the floating landmass clean in half. Mob shields himself, but the two halves merge back together with him in the center. Tatsumaki turns her back upon the scene, certain that her victory is assured; this turns out to be another hasty assumption when she senses an influx of psychic energy originating from the floating mass. The enormous bundle of earth and rock is blasting into nothingness, as Shigeo's psychic powers take over in an act of desperation. The ??? form has awoken. Dozens of buildings surround the two espers before Mob primes the barrage. Tatsumaki's levitation allows her to outspeed the ensuing hail of skyscrapers as she closes the distance and collides with Mob. Reduced to undignified screeching, the furious Tatsumaki slams the ??? form between two buildings. A deep purple void dissolves the skyscrapers into nothingness, yet it still gives the esper enough time to direct a psychic call to the heavens. Whatever ploy Tatsumaki may have in mind is cut short as the ??? form Mob closes in on her and repeatedly pummels her with fist and car alike.
The tornado of terror is caught helplessly in the attack as Mob sends her careening across the wasteland. A final overhead punch is enough to send Tatsumaki plummeting back into solid ground. After taking a second to assess her injuries, Tatsumaki attempts to retaliate, but the previous chain of attacks has left her unable to draw from her powers quickly enough. Mob's own violet glow soon radiates from Tatsumaki as her arms are bent and twisted around her torso by his own will, contorted into a grotesque straitjacket. Even in the midst of her blood-soaked agony, Tatsumaki's prior gambit pays off as she mocks Mob for his single-minded fixation upon her demise. A meteor closes in on the fighters' position, and from one of her bound hands, the esper directs her psychic energy towards Mob. The teen prodigy's attempts to shield himself are dashed as Tatsumaki shatters his defenses, leaving him exposed to the satellite's impact. The dust continues to settle as the esper undoes her impromptu bindings and corrects her anatomy. Gazing upon the helpless Shigeo one last time, Tatsumaki condemns him to oblivion, summoning a psychic whirlwind to dissolve his body as she comforts herself with her own superiority.
K.O.!
To give Mob his due, it is said that the fight was incredibly close, to such an extent that he could win nearly half the time, however, there are a number of reasons why Tatsumaki would theoretically win more often. First among them is the matter of experience. Mob has actively refrained from using his power since childhood, while Tatsumaki was forced to train at the age of seven. As she is 28 by the time of her series' present story, Tatsumaki has been actively using her powers for longer than Mob has been alive, let alone suppressing his. In the way of speed, Mob was able to react to lightning, but there is more to this feat than an on-paper assessment would suggest. A closer look at the lightning in question suggests it was not a lightning strike proper, but rather the ionized air current mapping the strike's course. This puts Mob's best speed at Mach 286; Tatsumaki redirecting artillery fire, meanwhile, is measured to be at least six times faster. The question then becomes whose psychic powers had greater offensive capabilities, and again, Tatsumaki is proven to be Mob's better. Mob's energy absorption has been overwhelmed before, and in one specific incident, he had to redirect the overflow into a packet of broccoli seeds. Measuring the resulting broccoli sprouts amplified by the excess energy suggests his defensive capabilities in 100% Mode have a limit around 1.6 megatons of TNT. Tatsumaki's artillery feat in comparison, is measured as redirecting a force worth 470 gigatons of TNT, almost sixteen times greater than Mob's cloud formations. Tatsumaki may have been unable to simultaneously attack and defend like Shigeo, but she would be quick enough to adjust her strategy to match Mob's and subsequently overwhelm his defenses. From there, she had a much more diverse array of psychic powers to finish him off with, helped by the fact her skillset is more offense-oriented by nature. Tatsumaki would have some difficulty taking the win in most cases, but her powers were versatile and strong enough to see her through to the end.
Wiz: The winner is Tatsumaki!
Mob vs. Tatsumaki contains examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: Tatsumaki is certainly a Smug Super Bratty Half-Pint who attacks people for insulting her but she generally has more self-restraint than her portrayal in this episode. For example, when Genos (an S-Class Hero and extremely durable cyborg) called her a brat, she threw him into a stone wall and then generally left him alone. Contrast this with her portrayal here in which she throws Mob, a mere middle schooler, into a wall and then proceeds to increase the gravity affecting him, send him into another wall while he's defending himself, drag him up a skyscraper and then throw him through that same skyscraper before Mob has actually let out an attack of his own.
- Body Horror: The climax of the fight sees this fate befall Tatsumaki, as ???% Mob traps her in a straitjacket by contorting her arms and twisting her spine around. She uses her own powers to fix the damage once she wins.
- Continuity Nod: Of a sort. The in-universe pitch for the next episode is started by Wiz recalling the many, many, many Deadpool-related intrusions the series has been plagued with and deciding to do something about it.
- Colony Drop: One of Tatsumaki's most famous feats is her summoning a meteor from outer space to kill a monster, and though the hosts note that said feat is technically non-canon due to a misunderstanding of ONE's words she has plenty of canonical feats to suggest this is very much within her capability to perform. In the fight proper she uses it as her Finishing Move to defeat Mob once and for all.
- Curb Stomp Cushion: While Tatsumaki's stats in speed and power did far outweigh Mob's, his ???% mode gives her probably one of the toughest fights she's ever had. He even manages to get her into a bind and almost kill her by twisting her body in disturbing ways. Had she not been able to pull off her Colony Drop, it's likely Mob would have succeeded in killing her.
- Mythology Gag:
- This isn't the first time a psychic opponent twisted Tatsumaki's body into an unusual shape, as the lead Tsukuyomi agent did the same to her. As before, she comes out of it no worse for wear.
- Just as she did against the Ancient Lizard King in the anime, Tatsumaki defeats Mob by dragging a meteor from orbit to slam on top of him.
- No Body Left Behind: Just to show that he's truly dead, Tatsumaki disintegrates Mob's body after he was crushed underneath a meteor.
- Psychic Powers: The main theme of the episode. Both combatants have a variety of psychic powers they use for combat but the main ones that they share are telekinesis, Flight and barrier creation.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Tatsumaki wins and thus proves she is the superior esper... to a boy half her age. In doing so, she rips part of a city out of the ground and uses it as a weapon against Mob, which despite the city's derelict appearance could have negative repercussions on her career. Though she won the fight, things probably would've worked out better for her if she just didn't engage.
- Shout-Out: Seeing Shigeo compress a number of buildings into a giant ball is enough for Boomstick to do some light shilling for Katamari Damacy.
- Strong and Skilled: Ultimately the reason this fight ended in Tatsumaki's favor. While Mob certainly has abilities that could potentially give him the victory, he is ultimately outclassed by her superior stats and combat experience.
- Stylistic Suck: Several of the hand-drawn scenes for Mob and Tatsumaki have less detail, in reference to ONE's drawing style.
- Villainous Breakdown: As the fight progresses, Tatsumaki becomes increasingly irritated at Mob's ability to keep up with and damage her. It reaches it's peak when ???% Mob enters the fray and destroys the buildings she threw at him.Tatsumaki: You think you're a big shot?! Try this!!
