Common Name: Mob Psycho 100
Score: 10/10, 4/5
Length: 2 Seasons of 13 Episodes, 1 OVA
Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama, Supernatural, Slice of Life, School Life, Shounen
Summary: Ever since he was a child, Kageyama Shigeo, also known as Mob, has been tormented by his unreasonably powerful supernatural abilities. Intrinsically tied to his emotional state, Mob attempts to protect himself and everyone around him by suppressing his emotions, making him merely a powerful psychic rather than one that could level cities. Yet this dampening of his abilities might be doing him more harm than good. Now a high schooler, Mob's thoughts and feelings are more erratic than ever. Once he breaks under the stress of it all, because he most certainly will, there's no telling what harm he might cause. Luckily, Mob is generally a good kid at heart. Though he could cheat his way through life with his psychic powers, he wants to actually earn his strength and will do everything he can to become a better person. So, under the watchful eye of his con artist mentor, Reigen Arataka, Mob tries to strike a balance between controlling his powers and just being your average high school wallflower.
Review: It's always a bit of a surprise for me when I run into a series I adored but never actually got around to reviewing since it originally aired prior to my creating this blog. The downside to this discovery, however, is the simple fact that I'll feel the need to rush as I work to cover the general premise and movement of two whole seasons. All the more so when the second season proves to be better than the first season in every way. In the case of Mob Psycho 100, though, that's not too much of an issue since the story as a whole is grounded in a very simple and accessible premise that is, over the course of the two seasons, explored to the fullest. So, without further ado, let's dive into the series that is just as weird and quirky as it is heartfelt.
After all, it's always a rough time when you see a cinnamon roll like Mob get dragged through the mud.
Created by the original author of the much-loved One Punch Man series, known simply as ONE, Mob Psycho 100 has a lot in common with its predecessor but uses it tackle a much different topic. Where One Punch Man's Saitama deals with the difficulties of being so physically strong that his dream of being a hero has ended up becoming hollow and meaningless, Mob's problems are grounded in his vain desire to be a normal kid. In other words, while Saitama's struggle speaks to the experience of every adult and college grad out there struggling to find meaning in their life, Mob's story discusses the rigors of growing up and learning to find a balance between your individuality and societal norms.
Of course, like most teens, Mob is anything but a balanced individual.
Put plainly, Mob Psycho 100 is your basic coming of age story taken to an extreme for the sake of variety and nuance. Over the course of the show's two seasons, we watch Mob slowly and gradually develop as a human being as he comes to understand his own powers and how he can still fit in in spite of how dangerous he might be because of them. Specifically, at the show's start, we are introduced to Mob that has decided that the best way for him to approach being normal is for him to wholly deny what he is and keep his psychic abilities secret. Since his powers are intrinsically tied to his mental state, this also means that he works tirelessly to suppress any strong, negative emotions. This tactic of his ends up doing him much more harm than good, though. As anyone with even a basic knowledge of human psychology can tell you, though, trying to suppress your emotions and deny the fundamental parts of your identity can lead to a build-up of stress and, eventually, a volatile explosion of negativity aptly referred to as a psychotic break. Aware of this fact, the show expresses the harm Mob is doing to himself through a stress meter that gradually builds up as Mob struggles to deal with the world around him and keep his emotions in check. Little things like embarrassing himself in class to massive events him actively being attacked cause this meter to keep ticking up until he reaches 100% and finally snaps, letting his powers and emotions run wild on anyone and everyone near him at the time.
And, oh boy, this show gets tense whenever Mob finally cracks.
Functionally turning Mob into a vessel for his pent-up rage and suppressed powers, his breaks give the show a level of action on par with the first season of One Punch Man. From wiping out threats with a single attack to turning his surroundings to molten slag under the pressure of his power, these segments make it abundantly clear just how strong Mob really is. Yet, cathartic as his breaks might be, these shows of strength also justify why Mob is so terrified of his natural abilities. While his powers might increase with his frustration, his true breaks always result in him getting lost in his own power and losing all control over where his rage might be directed. Under extreme conditions, he essentially becomes a mindless avatar of wrath that can and will kill anything that gets in its way. With that context, it obviously makes a lot of sense why Mob might rationalize that his emotions are a danger to everyone around him. Yet, despite his fears and the risk of putting himself out there, Mob is still a kid. Like any other teenager, he wants to be popular, fall in love, and have friends that understand what he's going through. More generally, though, he wants to be a better person--someone who can rightfully earn all those things without using his powers as a handicap.
Though, in Mob's case, it might have been more fair for him to cheat a little.
What makes Mob particularly compelling as a character, though, is that, despite all his personal weakness, he does actively acknowledge a need to better himself and take steps to do just that. At the start of the series, he's already gone a fair way in doing so as he volunteers to become the "apprentice" of a psychic con man, Reigen Arataka. While their relationship Mob and Reigen share might seem one-sided at first, in that Reigen is just using Mob to function as a legitimate psychic, it slowly becomes clear that they both have a lot to learn from each other. From Mob's vulnerability, Reigen is unconsciously reminded that it's important for people to help one another, rather than falling wholly into the corrupt, jaded cesspit that his job would normally engender. As for what Mob gains out of their partnership, he's given countless opportunities to better his social skills and acclimate himself to some of the worst aspects of humanity. Whether any of these benefits were something either was aware of from the start, it's hard to say, but by the show's second season it becomes clear that Mob and Reigen value each other's company far more than they let on.
Where Mob is the goodest boy, Reigen is pretty much the best asshat in anime ever.
Whether or not you can really get into the dynamic of Mob and Reigen's partnership depends on how much you're willing to put up with all the crap Reigen pulls throughout the series. I might have glossed over it initially but there's no real arguing the point that Reigen is using and manipulating Mob for the sake of making money. He is, for all intents and purposes, scum. But, true as that statement might be, Reigen still dedicates himself wholly to being a kind of life coach for Mob. Whenever Mob is struggling with something or in any kind of physical danger, Reigen is more than willing to put his own safety on the line for his "apprentice." So, again, whether you can learn to like him depends greatly on how much you're willing to forgive at the end of the day.
Personally, I'd go to bat for this desperate, cunning dork any day.
If Reigen isn't your style, though, there are a few other comrades that Mob picks up along the way. From his younger brother, Ritsu, to his enemy-turned-frienemy, Teruki, and the malicious spirit. Dimple, Mob's dualistic dedication to pacifism and courageous selflessness earn him a lot of potential allies as time goes on. Though he has the power to force virtually anyone into submission, like Teruki does during their first meeting, Mob always tries to handle matters as peacefully as possible. On principle, he prefers to let his inaction speak far louder than his words. As Mob steadily grows to understand that his powers aren't necessarily a bad thing or even something he needs to hide from the world, he comes to take on a philosophy that naturally draws other people to him. Namely, he comes to believe that his powers are hardly the only thing that can or should define him. Rather than seeing himself as some kind of special threat to humanity, his encounters with other psychics come to reinforce the understanding that psychic abilities are just another kind of skill people can be good at. For example, as strong as his powers might be, he'll never be able to smooth talk his way through sticky situations like Reigen. No matter how much he studies, he'll never be as smart as his brother. On the opposite side of that coin, though, he understands that Ritsu will likely never be as powerful as him and he comes to accept that that's perfectly alright. In his mind, having and lacking any particular skill doesn't make you less important to the world as a whole. Rather, he comes to appreciate the role everyone plays to keep their complex society functioning.
It's a deep lesson but one that he went through a lot to learn first-hand.
Of course, all the connections he makes and personal growth he undergoes doesn't come easily. As Mob himself would readily admit, he's not exactly the sharpest or most reliable tool in the shed. Rather, he suffers and agonizes almost constantly to work out what he is, what he can/should do with his life, and where his powers fit into it all. And, as you might expect, he regularly makes a misstep or reaches a faulty conclusion along the way that is just as likely to harm him as it is others. The classic example of this is mainly how he deals with his powers throughout the first season, suppressing them until he cracks under the strain. With this half-baked solution to the problem that is his own powers, it becomes a foregone conclusion that he'll eventually end up causing damage, hurting people, and failing to live up to his dream of living a normal life. Yet, as soon as he realizes that his powers also have the power to protect and save, he also learns that he can hardly save everyone. More importantly, though, he comes to learn that he shouldn't necessarily work to save everyone either. As Mob comes face-to-face with greater and greater threats, some more set in their ways than others, he learns the limits of what he and his powers can do and the necessity for people to ultimately save themselves. The best he can really hope to do is protect those he can and try his best to show them the errors of their ways, whether that be through force, kindness, or his obvious weaknesses.
If those tactics fail, though, there is always Reigen's patented Plan B: Let someone else handle it.
All that being said, though, it should be noted that Mob's development over the course of the series isn't the show's only strong point. Rather, particularly in the second season, most of the main cast are given that same kind of attention to detail and growth. For example, Reigen, for all his faults, actually comes around to realizing what a shitheel he's been for most of his adult life and starts to see just how much Mob's friendship matters to him. Teruki, for his part, similarly learns the errors of his ways and comes to take on a philosophy similar to Mob's but still values his strength as a solution to most problems. Even the show's cast of villains, Looney Toon characters and murderous bastards alike, are given a level of depth that doesn't necessarily validate their actions but makes their motivations reasonable. All of this then, as you might expect, feeds into the conclusions Mob comes to draw about his place in the world and what he can do to make it a better, safer place for everyone.
And a lot of other people's, considering the literal cult following he has.
On top of all this, though, one of the other things Mob Psycho 100 should be praised for is its overall execution. Where the first season did wonders to establish the show's cast of characters and give me several good reasons to care about them, the second season took that groundwork and built it into something fantastic. From the pacing and motivations of the action to the pace of the drama, everything in the second season hit like it was supposed to and gave purpose to what was initially just an interesting twist of what ONE had built on in One Punch Man. Yet, like One Punch a lot of this show's overall success can also be attributed to the team that worked to adapt ONE's raw but understandable manga into a veritable work of art. From the animation to the audio/visual effects and the sheer variety of styles used to express certain emotions and elicit certain feelings, everything about Mob Psycho 100's production was, in my opinion, flawless.
The show's action sequences are some tense sakuga goodness but most of my favorites
are the ones that are just meant to express a particular feeling.
Yet that doesn't mean that the series as a while is perfect in its own right. There are a number of crutches the series leans on for the sake of its story that can detract on the overall experience. The most notable of these is simply the way Mob's power builds up to an eventual explosion. Particularly during the first season, watching Mob lose it becomes a regular highlight of the show but also a clear eventuality. For people who just want the action, then waiting for those moments can be understandably grueling. On a similarly obvious note, most of Reigen's redemption arc leans on the assumption that he's always had a heard of gold. For some, this belief is enough to justify Mob's dedication to him. For others, though, it's impossible to look past the objective fact that he is a terrible person who used and abused a young boy's trust and scamming dozens of people for the sake of making a profit. So, as much as I will praise this series as a masterpiece, it very clearly isn't one that's going to appeal to everyone and succeed on any kind of universal level. Be that as it may, though, Mob Psycho 100 has proven in my eyes to be one of the best coming of age stories the world has ever offered.