Episode 3

An Invite to a Meeting

~Simply Put, I Just Want to Be Popular

As we left off last episode, Mob has joined the body improvement club (BIC). He’s not doing very well. He collapses after running with the other members of the club. The reason he joined the club was to become a more appealing man. I don’t think he will succeed in becoming an appealing man this way. The president of the body improvement club, Musashi-san, carries Mob into the room formerly home to the telepathy club.

President of the telepathy club, Tome Kurata, is still surprised that Mob didn’t choose them. However, the BIC simply wanted to utilize the room for their equipment. When Mob awakens he explains why he choose the BIC. He shows the telepathy club his powers. Tome asks him to help her communicate with extraterrestrials. She tells him that he can’t become popular no matter what he does. She suggest he should just read the minds of the girls he likes.

Walking home, Mob encounters a creepy woman in a smiling mask. She easily manipulates him into joining a new religious order called LOL. She gushes over their leader, Dimple-sama. She claims that he can make anyone laugh immediately. Mob is completely disinterested and simply wants the secret to popularity. Mob is lead to a room full of people wearing the creepy smiling masks. When forced on stage he joins a old man and a classmate named, Mezato Ichi.

Dimple-sama arrives and tells the people to remove their masks. They are clearly under his complete control. They laugh and stop on command. He offers to unlock the hearts of the old man, Ichi and Mob, through laughter. The old man and Mob are put in masks. Meanwhile, Ichi questions the likelihood that a new religion can recruit some many people in only a month. She is skeptical of LOL and doesn’t believe forcing herself to laugh is sincere. The smiling mask is put on her and she is forced to smile by it’s effects.

She still attempts to resist those effects. Mob on the other hand is immune. Dimple tries to convince Mob that he needs to laugh. He challenges Mob to a laughing contest. Mob agrees because he loves milk. He defeats the top 3 smiles. Dimple challenges him and gives him spike milk. Mob begins to become upset and his power ends the effects of Dimple’s hypnosis. Dimple doesn’t understand why he can’t make him laugh. Mob releases that Dimple has powers, but they still fail to work on him.

Dimple keeps picking at Mob. While he does Mob’s, “progress toward Mob’s explosion,” continues to increase. Dimple finally decides that he must kill Mob, and he turns the crowd against him. The narrator explains why Mob explodes. Locking away his emotion, Mob will eventually explode with emotion. This is the first episode were Mob reaches 100 and explodes. Mob’s hair now stands on end as an aura appears around him. The evil spirit manifests itself as a green muscle bound spirit with pink cheeks and purple lips.

Unsurprisingly, this is the moment when the animation really picks up. Like, One Punch Man there’s no sense of urgency regarding whether Mob is in danger or not. Watching is mostly a visual spectacle. Dimple tries to no avail to defeat Mob, but is thoroughly outclassed. Mob feels badly about ruining the fun of the members of the cult. Reigen tells him that he saved people who couldn’t save themselves. This was another good episode. Several of Mob’s classmates are now aware of his powers and he finally reached 100. It appears that the destructive force of reach 100 isn’t always the same if you compare it to the opening scene in episode 1. Hopefully, we’ll get some clarity in the regard.  

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