Reigen’s not your ordinary human. He’s just a fraud running an exorcism business that tricks people who may or may not have run into spirits for cheap. That’s why the story is not about him.
The story’s about Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama, who’s a real psychic in Seasoning City with a ton of power…and normal adolescent issues, which involve getting the attention of the girl he likes in school, worrying about what to do with himself, and trying to make friends despite having superhuman powers.
That’s definitely the story that interests me the most about Mob Psycho 100.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen season 1 of the anime, and for the most part, I did forget most of the things that did happen outside of the beginning and the end. Reading Mob Psycho 100 in manga form, therefore, is a good way to jog my memory on why I liked the anime so much. It does require a bit of an adjustment visual-wise (which I’ll elaborate on later), but it’s pretty much the same — while Reigen continues to live his lies, Mob’s trying to find something to rally behind in general. It comes in some unexpected places — from Reigen, who simultaneously provides the truth yet also hides said truth to Mob on him being a fraud psychic, to Mob meeting the Telepathy Club at his school, and to Mob joining a club.
But one of the big arcs happens when he discovers a cult. Determined to improve himself and how he acts — and also continuing being naive — he meets a group called (LOL), and he finds a decent amount of people who have fallen to the cult’s schemes. But while they may have been in a depressed or bad state, that’s due to a powerful spirit brainwashing them, and Mob picks up on that…after all of the events made his emotions go overboard.
Mob Psycho 100 is an excellent look into general worries growing up. Everyone has thought about their futures, or they just wanted to try and enjoy the life as a kid before responsibilities tore that away as they grow older. For Mob, it’s different — he has powers, and he has repressed them. Growing up that didn’t seem to fly with the girl he liked, and his emotions didn’t mesh with the kids his age. This has left with Mob with him struggling to know what he wants to do — which is why he ends up joining Reigen’s sham spirit job, despite the low pay and Reigen calling him all the time to exorcise actual spirits. But through all of that, we see how Mob grows up, and how he starts to interact with those around him. And that’s great to see.
There is one major difference from the anime compared to the manga — the art style. It’s visually unappealing. There’s no sugarcoating the fact that it looks like a school kid drew this work at times, from most of the character faces to even some of the limited action that happens in this volume. And yet…it gives the manga its charm. It also makes its comedic timing stand out — the staring contest after drinking milk killed me — but also moments where the characters reflect on something that happened to them, either seriously or jokingly. While the art won’t appeal to everyone, it’s ONE’s style that, if it was drawn more slickly, might not have worked out with what’s happening with the story. This is one of the things that makes this manga unique, and there’s enough going on here to make it a great read.
So even despite me jumping in from watching the anime, Mob Psycho 100 is still pretty good. While I’m curious if the battles will get better in manga form, since I’m watching the anime, there’s definitely more of Mob’s (and even others) stories to read, and that’ll be worth finding out.