“Your Life is your Own:” A Look into the Animation Techniques In Mob Psycho 100 II‘s Opening

Mob Psycho 100 is an anime that was released in 2016. It was based on the manga with the same name and created by ONE. The show is currently ongoing and just had its second season released in 2019. I can talk a lot about the show itself, but I’ll save that for another article. For this article, I want to talk about the opening of Mob Psycho 100‘s second season. The opening is called “99.9” and sung by the Mob Choir. The song is amazing and is very fitting for the show, but we’re going to ignore that for now. Mob Psycho 100 has been known for using unique animation techniques, especially throughout their openings. The first opening for the show was praised for the visuals, use of colors, and unique techniques.

The creators of the opening seemed to step up their game for the second opening. The second opening is visually appealing and flows naturally. It also uses all kinds of animation techniques that have been around for years. Those techniques were what caught my eyes and made me want to discuss this opening. So, for this article, I’m going to discuss some of the techniques I saw and give a little history on some of them. I will also talk about some of the personal choices that the animator took for this opening..

The opening starts with an animation technique that has been around since before the film. The technique is known as Zoetrope. Zoetrope has been around since the 1830’s, it originated as a device that is able to produce an illusion of movement. It can trick the audience that static pictures are moving with rapid movements. The device is a cylinder with slits that are cut vertically in the sides. The inside has the pictures that appear to move when the cylinder is moving. The animators were able to bring this technique to life with figures of Mob Psycho 100‘s main characters.

One thing I’ve noticed was that the animators of this opening seem to like using older techniques. Another technique that I noticed was called the barrier-grid animation. This technique has been around since the 1920’s (maybe even earlier) and just like the Zoetrope, it creates the illusion of movement. It seemed to have taken inspiration from a Zoetrope but doesn’t use a big device to create the illusion. By having a grid of transparent lines pass over a graphic image, it provides the illusion. Bringing back these older techniques for the opening, continues to make the opening completely different from other anime openings.

Just like the animated techniques, color choice plays a role in making this opening unique. For most of the opening, the color is vibrant and stands out. However, at one point in the opening, all the color is taken away. The main character goes from a regular 2D animation and turns back into line art essentially. This paints the whole screen black and white. It is as if the blackness is sucking up the main character until he disappears into nothingness. This choice could have been used for foreshadowing an event that happens during the second season. Either way, it is a beautiful sequence that shows the talent of the animators who worked on the opening. Also, the sequence of decomposing the main character’s face before putting it back together was amazing.

This opening utilizes all kinds of amazing, animated techniques. However, since I am not an animator myself, it’s hard to find out what they are all called. I tried describing some of the techniques I saw, but I could not narrow down the exact names of these techniques. I was only able to find out the names of the more unique techniques that has been around for ages. It just shows that I need to learn a little more about animation to fully appreciate this media. I’m happy that I was able to do a little bit of that by learning about Zoetrope and the barrier-grid animation. I thought those techniques were cool before I even knew what they were called. Now that I know a little bit of the history behind those techniques, I’m even more amazed at what the animators behind this opening was able to do. The animators made amazing artistic choices when creating this opening, which is why even nonfans of the show can learn to appreciate the work that went behind it.

Work Cited

David. Optical Illusions, 30 Oct. 2012, https://www.opticalillusion.net/optical-illusions/animated-moire-or-scanimation/.

Liborek. “Mob Psycho 100 II Production Notes 1.” Sakuga Blog, Sakuga Blog, 23 Jan. 2019, https://blog.sakugabooru.com/2... & Praxinoscope.” Zoetrope RSS, http://www.zoetrope.org/zoetrope-history.