Mob Psycho 100‘s second season continues with yet another impressive, yet hilarious shout out to pop culture. The series has played around with its art style and presentation before, but this latest one should be familiar to video game fans.
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During one confrontation in the episode between new character Shinra Banshomaru and a wandering pervert, Mob Psycho 100 hilariously turns into a round of Street Fighter briefly. You can check it out in the video above.
The scene begins when Shinra is asking some children in a playground about a recent ghoul sighting, and just when he realizes how creepy he must be coming off to the people around him a real creeper appears. The creeper, naked under a red raincoat, is dubbed “Akarain” (a parody of his red raincoat) and is angered at the fact that he wanted to prey on the children that Shinra creeped out.
The fight between them quickly shifts to a “versus screen” in which the two of them taunt one another. Shortly thereafter, the two are in a 2D plane trading blows. It’s stiffly animated (complete with kids in the background moving stiffly as well) and looks a lot like Street Fighter II’s animations. The lifebar HUD greatly resembles it as well.
The two of them then use some “special moves” and the reference is over as quickly as it began, but this is just another hilarious reason to keep an eye on Mob Psycho 100‘s second season. There’s no telling what will come next. If you want to check it out yourself, you can currently find Mob Psycho 100 II streaming on Crunchyroll, and Funimation will be adding the series at a later date. Crunchyroll is also going to stream the English dub of the season at a later date as well.
Crunchyroll describes the second season as such:
“Shigeo ‘Mob’ Kageyama is an ordinary 8th grader who just wants to live a normal life. Although he can disappear in the crowd in a flash, he was actually the most powerful psychic. The lives of those around Mob and his numerous feelings that softly piles up for the eventual explosion. The mysterious group ‘Claw’ stands before him once again. In the midst of his youthful days, where will his roaring heart take him!?”
Originally created by ONE, webcomic artist best-known for creating One-Punch Man, for Ura Sunday magazine in 2012, Mob Psycho 100 tells the story of Shigeo Kageyama, an eighth grader with Esper ability. Kageyama’s powers grow more powerful as the years pass, so he buckles down his emotions to keep a lid on his powers. However, as more threats continue to pursue Kageyama, the boy learns how difficult it is to keep his emotions under lock – but the fate of the world depends on him keeping a straight face. Making things worse was his hilarious mentor, Reigen, who has his own goals and wants for Mob.
