Mob Psycho 100. I still remember when I first heard about what was supposedly the spiritual successor to One Punch Man, which had blown its way onto the scene after being released in 2015- Jesus, am I really that old? Both were written by the same manga artist One, and while I and nearly everybody else enjoyed the shit out of One Punch Man, Mob Psycho was… a bit of a tougher sell, in my opinion. You see, while the previous had badass character designs that would go on to become damn near iconic, the latter looked as if it were drawn by a 3rd grader off their anxiety meds using their non-dominant hand. So yeah. I would go on to watch the first episode in the summer of 2016, and while I will admit I thought the animation was pretty cool, the talking potato heads were a little distracting, so I happily returned to my 3rd rewatch of Highschool DXD. What I didn’t realize at the time, is that the show I had left on the backburner for years, was actually one of the few anime that I would come to consider as damn near perfect. Between the masterful fight choreography and shot composition that blows almost all other pieces of animation out of the water, he hilarious yet vulnerable characters we come to meet, or the heartfelt themes of self-betterment and loving oneself, this show is about as amazing as it gets, and without further ado, Mob Psycho 100. Mob, our main character, is an extremely normal middle school student. In fact, his nickname “Mob” roughly translates to “background character”, because to the people around him, he is just that forgettable. To them, he’s just a shy kid that has no friends, hobbies, or any semblance of social awareness. And they wouldn’t be wrong. He really does have no friends, hobbies, or semblance of social awareness, but the viewer quickly comes to realize that there’s more here than what first meets the eye. You see, Mob is a psychic, and an especially powerful one at that. From a young age, he would use his natural-born gifts to impress anybody and everybody around him in order to become the “hot shit” of the neighborhood and pull the baddest hoes on the block. However, just like any other party trick, shit gets old after a while, and once the initial cool factor wore off, as harsh as it sounds, Mob didn’t really have much going for him in terms of a “personality”. Because of his latent gifts, he never really had to worry much about developing those key social skills, because shit, I can bend a spoon with my mind. His psychic powers would only continue to grow in strength over time, and while this meant that he could finally pee without using his hands, it also meant that any sort of emotional outbursts could have really dire consequences. To prevent this from ever happening, Mob would go on to actively suppress any strong emotions that may cause his powers to go out of control. Toss in a bowl cut only a mother could love and you have the recipe for an emotionally stunted, easy to bully main character that is essentially doomed from the get-go with no clear path forward in life. This is the starting line, and as Mob learns that apparently nobody gives a fuck if you can make a dog float 20 feet in the air, he also meets characters such as the body improvement club and Reigen, who show Mob that there is so much more to life than psychic abilities in their own unique ways. The genius to One’s writing is that by making the main characters completely unbeatable in their own right, there’s no suspense or tension once they enter the scene. Whenever he begins to take a fight even somewhat seriously, it’s just over. Yet despite Mob being literally the pinnacle of strength in this world, the irony is that he still finds himself leading a boring and unfulfilling life. He wants to learn how to get along with people so that he can make new friends, to hit the weight room so that one day maybe his crush will look his way, just completely mundane things that all people can relate to to some degree. These relatively normal topics very much contrast with the talking fart cloud that follows Mob or the ludicrous situations our characters find themselves in, resulting in a bizarre viewing experience that at first glance, sounds like absolute pure chaos. Which it is, but the one thing tying this whole kit and kaboodle together, is Mob and the underlying themes of self improvement. Watching him fight and struggle to become the person that he wants to be, to find out what it is that’s important to him and learning to speak up for himself. We aren’t rooting for him to win a fight, as we already know the predetermined outcome; Mob is going to win, but rather hoping that he’s able to stand by what he thinks is right. He goes on to fail, loses his composure and does things that go against everything he thought he had learned, but rather than giving up after encountering the first setback, he just gets up and tries even harder the next time. Watching the people he interacts with slowly come to realize what an incredible person he is, not because of his powerful psychic abilities, but because of his innate kindness and determination is where the real payoff of the show lies. And while there is some semblance of an overarching plotline, the development of our flawed main characters is far and away the best part of the series. Of course, while I could continue sucking off the writing of the show until my lips are chapped, none of this works as a piece of animation, unless the animation is actually somewhat good. One reason that I think the art style actually ends up working to the show’s benefit, is that because of the simplicity of the character designs, it’s easy to exaggerate the shit out of their reactions without losing too much detail. Everything, from the way the characters walk, talk, and punch each other with fist-fulls of salt are oh so vibrant and full of life. It’s impossible to visually convey feelings of sadness or anger if your character moves like a 2x4 plank of wood with a finger up its ass, but thanks to the animation team’s efforts, they are able to command the tone at will through the use of either overblown or more subtle shots, and regardless of their choice, it still fits into the world they’ve established. And while I stand by my statement that the art style really can be a pretty big turnoff for a new viewer, I also believe that once you’ve seen it in action, like what you’ve been watching on the screen for the past couple of minutes, it becomes a little bit clearer as to why it works for so many others. The character animation is on point, the fight scenes are out of this world and would take an entirely separate video to break down, and the heartwarming narrative can be related to no matter where you come from. Because of all these different factors, Mob Psycho 100 really does feel like one of those special, one-off kinds of shows. The team had the perfect situation, in which they had all the talent, source material and passion needed to create something truly special, and then they actually went and did it, which is all the more impressive. I could sit here all day and try to unpack why this show made me and so many others care so damn much about these goofy characters, but for now, I think this is all I’ve got. What I’m really trying to say, is that this show had NO RIGHT going as hard as it does…… but I love it, and I think that anybody else who gives it a chance will end up loving it as well. Also, the openings are bangers.
