(Discussed further in Episode 25 of the podcast I am in, Digitized Desperadoes. Here’s a link- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr4J1a5x_hw )

A psychological action-shounen originally written by web manga artist ONE, now well-known for both his work on One-Punch Man and Mob. Mob is an interesting little story, considering that it throws away the blatant parody and framing of One-Punch Man to tell a more straight-forward narrative, branching out amongst a large cast of characters.

At its core, Mob Psycho 100 is an exploration of many characters’ psyches and relationships with one another, sometimes represented through action, sometimes with just dialogue and simple scenes of interpersonal interaction. This description probably makes it sound really serious, but it’s as goofy as you can get… to a point.

The beginning follows middle school psychic Mob as he tries to improve himself. He’s a “mob character,” someone who is so quickly forgotten that hardly anyone even calls him by his name, and he wants to move up in the world on his own strengths, rather than use his psychic abilities. That’s a lot of the core of the story, finding the self-ideation and reliance while still trying to maintain a moral code. Each major character is confronted with a problem or personal struggles that they must overcome in their preferred method.

This concept goes pretty quick into societal criticism and parody, and there are many scenes where extremely serious issues are tackled, such as abuse of power in adolescence, and self-esteem problems that lead to depression. That’s where the show shines for me: it uses the framework of “psychics” to tell and engaging and thought-provoking tale of middle school students figuring out themselves and their future. It’s endearing to watch them succeed, and even the villains are redeemed or defeated completely.

But where the show sours for me is when it devolves into the blatant action/shonen tropes that every other series has been doing for the past 20 years. There are talks of power levels, training, secret, villainous organizations that want to take over the world, unnecessary one-sided fight scenes, and excessive torture of some of the main characters, just to make the viewer get invested in the story more. I wouldn’t say this is the majority of the show, in fact it just feels like episodes 8-11 have this problem. There’s a fight at the halfway point that actually subverts this, the fight scene is very lengthy but it’s clearly not just a physical battle. It’s a clash of wills, of moral philosophies, and even though Mob “wins” he feels like he failed because he found a hole in his ideation. It’s great, really satisfying, and there’s a lot to unpack. But then around episode 8 it just gets into typical shonen trickery, and those scenes where the main character is beat up a lot just to show that he’s a badass… like, seriously, ONE, you can do better than that.

The animation is great, and most of the characters have distinct and interesting arcs, but I’d say that the range of episodes from 8 to the end are really lackluster and underwhelming compared to the intro, completely deflating the points I felt they were trying to make. The sound design is wonderful, and I don’t need to echo what’s already been said: the OP is one of the better ones, in anime in general.

Despite everything, it’s incredibly charming and I wouldn’t mind eventually checking out the second season. 7.5/10.