Webcomic / Mob Psycho 100

Get ready, wake your psyche up, Mob!
Get ready, dig your anger up, Mob!

"Listen. Just because you have psychic powers doesn't make you any less human. It's the same with fast people, people who are book smart, and people with strong body odor. Psychic powers are just another characteristic. You must embrace that as a part of yourself and live positively. The truth behind one's charm is kindness. Become a good person. That is all."

— Arataka Reigen

Mob Psycho 100 is a Japanese webcomic created by ONE, the author responsible for One-Punch Man. It began publication on Weekly Shōnen Sunday Web Comics on April 18, 2012, and ended at Chapter 101 in December 2017.

Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed "Mob", is a 14-year-old boy attending his second year at Salt Middle School. He tries to lead an ordinary life, despite having been born with telekinesis. As he undergoes the turmoil of adolescence, the suppressed emotions grow inside Mob little by little, and his emotion-fueled power threatens to spill over its bounds.

On December 1, 2015, an anime adaptation by Studio Bones was announced for release, which premiered July 11, 2016. Said adaptation is directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa, written by Hiroshi Seko and its music composed by Kenji Kawai. It's licensed by Crunchyroll and distributed by Funimation as part of their partnership deal. The simuldub, produced by Bang Zoom! Entertainment, premiered on Funimation's site on December 11, 2016. The anime also received a Compilation Movie focused on Reigen's point of view, titled Mob Psycho 100 Reigen ~Shirarezaru Kiseki Reinōryokusha~, which premiered in March 2018, followed by an announcement of the anime receiving a second season, which premiere in January 2019. [adult swim]'s Toonami block announced they would begin airing the show on October 27th, 2018.

2018 saw to the release of a Reigen-focused Spinoff title, also titled Reigen, that ran on the Shogakukan Manga ONE app. The spinoff is also complete with seven chapters and one volume.

A twelve-episode Live-Action Adaptation was broadcast on TV Tokyo's MokuDora 25 timeslot from January 18 to April 5, 2018 and released internationally on Netflix.

An OVA, Mob Psycho 100: The Spirits and Such Consultation Office's First Company Outing ~A Healing Trip that Warms the Heart~, was released on September 25, 2019.

On May 12, 2022, Studio Bones announced an October 2022 release date for the long-awaited third season, which premiered on October 6th at midnight^note or October 5th @ 24:00 in Japan (October 5th in the US). This season saw Yuzuru Tachikawa move into a supervisory role, with Takahiro Hasui now in the director's chair.

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Tropes 100%:

Tropes A to M

• Achievement In Ignorance: The Kuchisake-onna is immune to the attacks of anyone afraid of her and due to her nature as an Urban Legend, a lot of people fear her intuitively. Mob can kill her because he was sheltered from urban legends and thus doesn't know about her to be scared.
• Action Prologue: The anime adaptation begins with a battle between ???% Mob and several massive beasts. It's a tease of the mental battle against Mogami's evil spirits.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Pretty much everyone in the anime, which is not only based heavily on the later art of the Manga (see Art Evolution below), but the art is further cleaned up by the animation team - of particular note are Tsubomi, who's drawn much closer to a standard anime style to accentuate how Mob sees her; and Reigen, whose enhanced handsomeness was even noted by Miyo Sato, the animator for the end credits.
• Adaptation Expansion: The anime opens with what seems to be Mob at ???% power fighting Mogami's army of huge spirits, which is something that only lasted for a couple of panels in the manga, before somehow increasing his Explosion Counter to 100% in ???% mode. A short story about the spirits of bikers lurking inside a tunnel is also moved to the first episode. In this version, Mob spares the leader and kills the evil monster who was in charge of the place so the bikers can move on peacefully.
• Alien Abduction: After the alien summoning ritual, Inukawa got abducted by the aliens they met, and lived among them for ten days before being sent back home. Apparently he ended up being fawned over by the aliens during one of these days and clearly liked it there, but he starts to become anxious when his game system runs out of power while his charger is on Earth, and by the sixth, he snaps and wants to go home.
• Always Someone Better: An important point of this series is that it's painful knowing that someone out there in the world is better, but this doesn't invalidate your own abilities. This is ultimately what saves Teru and changes him into being a better person; his humiliation by Mob makes him realize how he was acting towards others, and he resolves to change himself.
• Arc Words: "Your life is your own" is said in both of the anime's openings, as part of the chorus in the former and as the last scene before the end card in the latter.
• Art Evolution: Even though somewhat sloppy artwork is something of a trademark for ONE, his art has noticeably improved over the course of the comic.
• Art Shift:
  • As in One-Punch Man, the fine composition and paneling of the manga is coupled with sloppy artwork that turns detailed when things get serious.
  • The Aliens that debut in Ch 98.11 have faces that look straight out of a Shoujo manga. The rest of their bodies are still recognizably ONE's style, however.
• Asshole Victim: Mob, Reigen and several other espers are tasked with exorcising an evil spirit out of a girl named Asagiri. It turns out she's a spoiled Alpha Bitch who used her popularity to ruin the lives of other kids who couldn't stand up for themselves. Inside the mental world created by Mogami she's forced into acting much worse, to the point of stabbing Mob while Mogami tries to convince him she's not worth saving. Once Mob wins and frees her, Asagiri has the nerve to try to laugh the entire experience off, only to break down crying and beg Mob to forgive her.
  • The Dragger attacks a creepy guy who was flashing young girls.
• Badass Normal: Arataka Reigen regularly goes up against evil spirits and powerful espers with no fear, and even wins a good portion of the time, despite not having any powers of his own.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Reigen walks right into Claw's base with no resistance simply because all the mooks assume that he's the boss. Made even better by the fact that he wasn't even trying to do so.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Do what you will to Mob, but do not hurt his family.
  • The Body Improvement Club are poster boys for Lovable Jock but don't threaten Mob if you know what's good for you.
• Bittersweet Ending: Mob Did Not Get the Girl, as Tsubomi rejects his Love Confession. While Mob cries about it, this event ultimately completes his character development, with Mob having rejoined with his ???% Split Personality and promising not to feel embarrassed about any part of himself any more. Even though he's experienced romantic rejection for the first time, Mob still has a legion of loving friends and allies who will stick with him no matter what, and he's finally at peace with both his psychic powers and the fact that they're ultimately part of who he is as a person. The final panel of the series is Mob honestly laughing for the first time in the series, which shows just how open he's become with those around him.
• Book Ends:
  • The first OP begins with a Pink and Cyan Neon Cityscape with electronic billboards showing Eyedscreen shots of the main characters, and ends with the title fading out to that same cityscape with the billboards now showing various production credits. In fact, the fade-out is so precise that the OP can be seamlessly looped.
  • Teruki's second appearance early on his arc has him turning a tv on. The arc ends with Ritsu turning a TV off after watching a newscast of what had transpired that day.
  • The first season of the anime both begins and ends with Mob and Reigen going out on a relatively low-stakes job. Likewise, both episodes feature the Kageyama family sitting down for dinner, with Mob bending a spoon with his power, and Ritsu fixing it each time, but the second time Ritsu uses his own powers to unbend it, and Ritsu's care is genuine.
  • The last few arc villains are thematically the first ones in reverse. Touichirou in Teruki's place as a selfish esper, Dimple under the guise of Lord Psycho Helmet, and then ???% to adress the self-identity issues Mob had since the beginning of the series.
  • The Reigen spinoff ends with him over the phone with a client and stating "I, Reigen Arataka, will accept your request!", much like how he was first introduced in Mob Psycho 100's first chapter.
• Bowdlerize: Mob's torment at the hands of Minori and her friends in the manga is significantly toned down for the anime: he gets stabbed and loses teeth, among other indignities. His consumption by the spirits released from Mogami is also... much more literal.
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • Dimple's MO is using Hypnosis to get people to worship him as a God.
  • Food made out of the Divine Tree drives people to worship Lord Psycho Helmet and his cult. Fitting, since Lord Psycho Helmet is just a disguise for Dimple once again.
• Break the Cutie: The manga attempts this on Mob several times, as he's frequently the victim of attacks - anything from triggering bad memories, attempting to choke him to death, several attempts at brainwashing, kidnapping his brother, attempting to kill Reigen in front of him, making him think his parents and brother have been murdered and his house set on fire. He comes out of everything tired, but maintaining his kindness and innocence.
• Break the Haughty:
  • Teruki believed himself to be the "protagonist of the world" because of his powers. He felt forced to duel Mob to prove himself, but is unable to harm him and even goes bald from his own misfired knives. Teru then gives up on his own terms for the fight and starts choking Mob to death with his own arms, only for ???% to come out and thoroughly humiliate him. Teru admits that like Mob he really is nothing without his powers, but then realizes even Mob had people who cared for him. He leaves with grace, but spends the next few weeks sick with depression as he comes to terms with his loss. Once that's done he becomes a much kinder person and a mentor to other espers, but also seems to feel like he can't even be the protagonist of his own story anymore.
  • When Ritsu has his latent psychic powers unlocked by Dimple, he quickly gets Drunk with Power and goes around beating the crap out of everyone. Then he gets to see his brother get the snot kicked out of him while being beaten badly himself, kidnapped, imprisoned and eventually overpowered completely. Then Mob won't even allow him to apologize for his Jerkass behavior, driving Ritsu to remorseful tears.
  • The separation arc is this for Reigen. He's become so full of himself that he insults and pushes Mob away, causing him to quit, and Dimple tells him that Mob is not only happy without him, but doesn't care about him at all. He attempts to achieve his goal of becoming somebody, only to be humiliated on live television and harassed by the media. He manages to redeem himself by the end of it, more or less apologizing to Mob and earning his forgiveness. He becomes a more Benevolent Boss after that.
• Call-Back: The Psycho Helmet arc begins with a narration about yokai creatures in the same way as the one on espers from the beginning of the story. Mob and Reigen then help a yokai hunter fight on the building they once fought Ceiling Challenger. The former LOL Cult and Dimple are also major players in the story once again.
• Calling Your Attacks: Everyone with a notable fight scene in the show, except maybe Mob, calls out the name of their special techniques. Reigen's exorcism techniques - while not always for fighting - also receive this treatment.
• Central Theme: There are no substitutes for being a well-rounded, functioning human being, not even supernatural powers. While extremely powerful, Mob is unhappy with his life and seeks to improve physically. His development is also centered around gaining better control of his emotions. Most espers are treated as pathetic for acting like their powers make them special in everyday life, with claw and the Scar subunit being treated as people who need to grow up and face the real world. The stand-out example is Ishiguro, who through an Art Shift is directly compared to a whining baby when he rants about how his powers make him special and deserving of praise.
• Character Exaggeration: The anime tends to make everyone more expressive and bombastic. Reigen for example, while already jumpy in the beginning of the story, makes loads of wild gestures along with his Blatant Lies and acts more cowardly.
• Coming of Age Story: The final arc of the series and the ending comes full circle in settling the entire story was truly this. Every person Mob meets, every new friend he makes, every battle he wins, all served to make Mob slowly but surely learn new things to break through his repressed emotions. The series' climax appears to be Mob having one final challenge: confess his feelings to Tsubomi in hopes he becomes her boyfriend. However, the true climax was Mob having to finally face ???, the part of himself Mob has denied for so long. In the end, he accepts ??? wholeheartedly as part of himself, rather than some secret failsafe personality only used to win battles and then tuck away. Rather than saving the day and getting the girl like most coming of age stories, his true reward at the end is becoming a person in touch with and accepting of his emotions, shown in the last scene when Mob is able to freely laugh with his friends.
• Darker and Edgier: Season 3 has much less funny moments than previous seasons, and that also counts the beginning episodes usually being lighthearted comedy. To put it simply, the season starts with the Psycho Helmet cult becoming the main antagonist faction through a power-hungry Dimple who exploits all of Mob's insecurities and brainwashes everyone into worshipping him, followed by two lighthearted episodes with the Telepathy Club that's more about the group's heartfelt wishes to see aliens rather than being fools about it, which is then followed by a massive serious arc in the form of the ???% arc, which involves a string of serious life-threatening battles to all the major espers trying fruitlessly to stop ???% and its unstoppable rampage on its way to meet Tsubomi.
• The Day the Music Lied: The Last Episode Theme Reprise plays out as Reigen sprints through ???'s psychic storm and climaxes just as he's about to reach his goal, only to be abruptly slammed into the ground and left behind.
• Deathbringer the Adorable: When Mob and Reigen seek out urban legends, the one about the human-faced dog turns out to be a kids' prank using a friendly mutt named Terror.
• Deconstructive Parody: Similar to ONE's other series, One-Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100 is a comedic deconstruction of the overpowered shounen protagonist often found in anime. It takes the concept of having a protagonist with incredible abilities and turns it into a story about how one is not defined by their abilities that make them unique but rather their abilities to improve themselves as an individual. Mob's arc is about learning to gain self-satisfaction out of life and learn to be content whether he has his powers or not.
• Decoy Protagonist: The series starts off in the first chapter with con man Reigen trying to exorcise the evil spirit with his fake psychic power, which ends up in failure. He instead calls his assistant Shigeo "Mob" Kagayama, who has real Psychic powers, to help him.
  Narrator: This boy's name is Shigeo Kagayama aka Mob and he's an assistant of Arataka Reigen, He's a real Psychic and also the hero of this story.
• Demon Head: Anime episode #2 "Doubts about Youth - The Telepathy Club Appears". When Mob goes undercover to meet with clients at an all-girls' school, he encounters three girls who aren't his clients. They get angry at him and one of them has her head balloon up to large size as she yells at him.
• Demoted to Extra: The Reigen side story focuses on the titular character and his secretary Tome. Mob has left the Spirits and Such office by this point and an extra strip in the first chapter lampshades how he's not a part of the plot this time.
• Disguised in Drag: Mob and Reigen do this so they can exorcise a spirit haunting an all-girls school without causing any alarm. Reigen, due to being a clearly adult male, fails to pass; but Mob manages to enter without incident and exorcises the ghost.
• Disney Death: Every time Dimple is assumed to be exorcised in the manga, he always returns no matter what happens. For example, after Mob defeats him in the LOL Cult arc, he returns the next day. He also returns after Teru presumably exorcises him in the Mob and Teru fight. Most recently, in chapter 100, as an example of Not Too Dead to Save the Day Dimple returns after being literally eaten alive by Lord Psycho Helmet, as a result of "Mob keeping him in his heart", and keeps Reigen from getting killed by ???%.
• Distant Finale: The final chapter takes place some 6 months after the end of the ??? arc, where the cast celebrates Reigen's birthday and shows a day in their lives.
• Dub-Induced Plot Hole: During a fake seance, the client expresses surprise at the fact that his father's spirit, aka "Reigen doing a funny voice", speaks such good Japanese. The otherwise excellent English dub translates this to "speaks such good English" (despite the extremely Japanese setting) and then promptly contradicts itself by revealing that the man's father was from New Jersey.
• Dumb Muscle: We're shown stat cards of each member of the Body Improvement club and it seems most of them are Book Dumb except for Jun, whose weakness is his thin eyebrows instead. When the club is forced to score well on an exam to keep afloat, he's the only one who properly focuses on his studies while the others get distracted by their physical training.
• Early-Bird Cameo: When the narrator introduces the concept of espers to the viewer, the anime shows several characters who will appear through the story.
• Edible Theme Naming: All of the schools in Seasoning City are named after condiments, naturally.
• Establishing Series Moment: One that serves as an Establishing Character Moment for both our heroes. After an introduction to the concept of psychics who fight against supernatural threats, we see Reigen taking on a job to exorcise a spirit... and as he goes about it, it quickly becomes clear that he has no psychic powers whatsoever. Unable to defeat the ghost, he calls in Mob, who gets a standard Feet-First Introduction with a massive blue aura before exorcising the spirit with a wave of his hand... and reminds Reigen that he wasn't supposed to call Mob in on such short notice.
• Everyone Laughs Ending: In Chapter 101; after Reigen's cake flies into his face, the cast round up to laugh at his expense. But special emphasis goes to Mob's laugh, since we've never seen him laugh like that in the series.
• Evil Counterpart: Teruki (who abused psychic power to excel over normal people), Mogami (a ruthless cynic who became consumed by his own negative emotions) and Lord Psycho Helmet, who's initially just Dimple in disguise, are this to Mob.
• Evil Twin: To take over the Psycho Helmet cult, Dimple takes the form of a humanoid being that looks like the sketch that the cult had made of Mob's face. After Mob convinces Dimple to stop his plan, the sentient Divine Tree begins spewing Psycho Helmets on its own to protect itself.
• Expository Theme Tune: The opening themes "99," "99.9" and "1" are custom-made for the show.
  • The lyrics in the first throw in random bits of the techniques seen in the show (including Reigen's "secret" exorcism techniques) like Salt Splash, Wraither Beam, and Psycho Wave alongside Mob's troubles, such as "love" and "not getting a clue". The earworm chorus echoes the conflicts the characters are facing (not only Mob, but also Ritsu, Teru, and yes, even Dimple and Reigen): "If everyone is not special, maybe you can be what you want to be" and "Your life is your own, okay... But will you only be okay if you're special?" Lastly, the count from 1% to 99% gets progressively charged throughout "99", reflecting the build-up of Mob's emotions just before he explodes at 100%.
  • "99.9"'s chorus offers the refrain "Wake your psyche up, Mob / Dig your anger up, Mob" to remind you Mob's at the peak of explosion, while the song itself hints at the story's more serious arcs.
  • Against a portentous musical backdrop, the third season's OP "1" continues this tradition by diving straight into the turmoil at the heart of Mob's psyche and spelling it out, with lines like:
    • ｢焦燥の正体は不明｣ "I don't know where my impatience is coming from",
    • ｢後ろの正面は誰？｣ "Who is behind the façade?"
    • ｢裏表・背中合わせ｣ "Inside and outside / Standing back to back".
    • ｢一つになれたなら｣ "If we could become one".
  • Contrasted with the ending theme, "Refrain Boy", which plays the Anime Theme Song trope fairly straight for having only the slightest connection, if any, to the show.
• Foreshadowing: The opening to the anime has tons, like alluding to Teru's ridiculous wig, The Divine Tree, as well as Dimple's connection to it, the Seventh Branch of Claw, and Ritsu developing his powers. Given that some of this foreshadowing concerned events that hadn't even been released in the manga, it's also possible that the final shot of Mob exploding a cityscape behind him and uprooting the pavement around him could be a reference to how the same thing happens in Chapter 100 when ???% Mode emerges and starts wrecking Salt City following Mob being hit by a car on his way to a meeting with Tsubomi.
• A God I Am Not: A recurring theme in the series is trying to keep to this mentality, and Mob instilling this mentality in other Espers who think otherwise. Reigen's first advice upon meeting Mob is that being exceptionally skilled at something doesn't make you a better person than anyone else - it's being a good person that makes you great.
• Handshake Refusal: Happens several times in the series:
  • Dimple offers a handshake to Mob but gets slammed around instead.
  • Mob then starts to offer one to a hostile Teruki, who jumps back on instinct. A reformed Teruki then successfully gives one to a Drunk with Power Ritsu, scaring him away with the intensity of his aura. And then when Ritsu seizes Dimple with the intent of exorcising him, Dimple asks him, "What? You want to shake hands?".
  • When Mob finally meets Touichirou Suzuki he also offers a handshake but the Leader of Claw refuses as well, however in the aftermath of their fight and being arrested by Joseph, Touchirou thinks about Mob's words and moves his hand as if he was about to accept Mob's handshake earlier.
• Human Hammer-Throw: Thanks to his strength and size, Musashi Goda is able to do this to his opponents. When he and his Body Improvement Club go to Black Vinegar Middle School to rescue Mob, Musash grabs one of the students by the heels and spins him around before throwing him to one of his classmates. When Dimple possesses Goda's body in order to get the proper strength to take on Hiroshi Shibata, he tries to take him out by grabbing his hands, crushing them and then spinning the Psycho-steroid abusing Esper into the air.
• Hunting "Accident": Ritsu insinuates that he plans to get Reigen into one in the "Substitute" omake, after which Reigen decides to never let Ritsu sub in Mob again.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Whereas Mob wants to live a mundane but fulfilling life, a lot of the cast are foils to him who envy his powers and do bad things because they're also looking for a purpose in life.
• Improvised Lockpick: When Ritsu and the others need to break out of their cage, Ritsu uses a spoon to unlock the lock on the cage. He has Gou use his pyrokinesis to make the spoon soft so it can stick into the lock and then has Takeshi use his telekinesis to twist the spoon so it fits the lock.
• In Name Only: The "Telepathy Club". Only one member actually believes in telepathy at all, and mostly they just spend their time slacking off and playing video games. It's later revealed that a former member of the club, Takenaka, does have telepathy, but he quit after seeing how the other members don't really care about using telepathy.
• Last Episode Theme Reprise: During the final episode, the opening song for season 1 plays as Reigen sprints through ???'s psychic storm.
• Like a Son to Me: For all his duplicity, Reigen does have genuine parental affection for Mob, and a Freeze-Frame Bonus in the second season OVA shows that he's written a will identifying Mob as his heir.
• Lovable Jock: The Body Improvement Club are a group of genuinely nice and friendly people. Not only do they let the former Telepathy Club use the club room (since they only need it to store their equipment) they're also one of the few people in Mob's life aside from his family who are not looking to use him for their gain and see him as one of their own.
• Love Confession: During the Chapter 99 chapters, Tsubomi is revealed to be leaving after the year is through, so almost every single boy in Salt Middle School resolves to confess to her before it happens. This, of course, includes Mob, though with the twist that he has a bunch of his friends backing him up, but also being hit by a car on the way there causes ???% to emerge and start destroying Salt City while trying to make it to the meeting.
• Mean Boss: Reigen exploits Mob for his abilities, underpays him and keeps calling at the most inopportune times. Some of the advice he gives him is also done for selfish reasons. However, as the story goes on it becomes clear he cares about Mob and once he comes to realize he's not being a positive influence on him he turns into a Benevolent Boss.
• Meaningful Echo: When Mob and Reigen first met, Mob was conflicted over his nature as an esper and asked Reigen for advice. Reigen told Mob that his powers make him no less humane and all that matters is that he remains a good person. Later on, after Mob helps Reigen with the fallout of his scams being exposed, Reigen asks Mob what he thinks of him now that he knows what he really is. Mob replies he had always known that Reigen was, in fact... a good person.
• Mind Rape: When trying to save Asagiri from Mogami's possession, Mob becomes trapped in a mental world where he is alone with no memories or powers and surrounded by people who make his life a living hell at every turn for several months. Mogami believed that to be the true nature of the world and wanted to beat Mob's naive attitude out of him. Had Dimple not come to Mob's aid, he would've succeeded.
• Mistaken for Badass: When Mob attempts to exorcise "Dash Granny", he fails and panics, claiming that she must be so powerful The Dragger doesn't even compare. Turns out "Dash Granny" really is just some very athletic old lady who likes to run really fast. Presumably Mob's powers didn't work on her because he was targeting her as he would a spirit, rather than a human.
• Mistaken Identity: Since Mob stands out so little, most rumors of a psychic Kageyama boy wind up attached to Ritsu instead. As a result, Ritsu is mistakenly scouted by Mitsuura for research at the Awakening Lab, as well as kidnapped by Claw right in front of their intended target, Mob.
• Mood Whiplash: The Marathon Mini-Arc focuses on Mob's friends coming together to support him achieve his goal of making it to the Top 10 of The Big Race so he can confess to Tsubomi. Despite passing out in the middle of the race, Mob takes his loss with grace and is eager to go home since his family is preparing a big dinner to celebrate. Unfortunately, the mood changes for the worst when Shou Suzuki shows up at the Kageyama's house signifying the return of Claw.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • Whatever Reigen does is given a fancy name and gets referred to as his "Secret Techniques" by the narrator. Examples include doing massages to make his clients relax, throwing salt at people, performing dropkicks... photoshopping spirits out of pictures and breaking computers that were full of porn...
  • For the Chapter 99 and 100 chapters; going off to confess your love to a girl before she moves shouldn't be that dramatic.
  • The Reigen side story begins with a random girl who's Late for School and with a typical Toast of Tardiness in her mouth... and then we see Tome running after her like that's some impressive sight. Even Reigen becomes curious when told about it and asks if Tome had a Crash-Into Hello when she came across the girl.
• Mutual Envy: Mob and Ritsu were both envious of each other. Mob envies Ritsu for being more athletic, sociable, and popular than him, while Ritsu envies Mob for having psychic powers. Ritsu drops his envy once he awakens his own psychic powers.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In the past, Mob and Ritsu were mugged by older students who then knocked Mob out cold by pushing him into a wall. Mob later woke up to see all of them, including Ritsu, all unconscious and blood-soaked from ???%'s rampage. This caused Mob to deeply fear his own powers and made him into the emotionally repressed boy seen at the start of the series.

Tropes N to Z

• No Name Given: Unlike Tome, the rest of the Telepathy Club have only been known by their surnames throughout the manga. Only by the Chapter 100 chapters do they finally get their given names revealed to the audience.
• Only Six Faces: Well, it's ONE. Seems to be lampshaded in one omake where Mob and Ritsu switch hairstyles and they made virtually no difference.
• Outclassed at the Gym: Played wholesomely. Out of a desire to make something of himself the skinny introvert Mob joins the Body Improvement Club, a group of incredibly muscular jocks, and is initially the runt at the end of the litter in all their exercise routines. The Body Improvement Club adores Mob and is nothing but supportive of his attempts to improve his fitness.
• Phony Psychic: Reigen runs an exorcism agency and mentors Mob but has no psychic powers at all. He manages to help people in his own way but has to sic Mob on the actual supernatural beings he comes across. Mob pretty much knows Reigen is no Esper but assumes that, as a "Psychic", Reigen has powers of a different nature than his own.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Tome is the only member of the Telepathy Club who actually believes in psychic powers, and everyone else is just there to goof off and eat junk food. Come Ch 98, they decide to get off their asses and actually make an effort to find other telepaths, and they manage to actually contact some aliens.
• Power Levels: Parodied in the Reigen spinoff, where Reigen starts assigning Dragon Ball-style "spiritual levels" to some psychics he's meeting with. Nobody has any idea what he's on going about, but he announces everyone's "spiritual level" with so much confidence that the real psychics assume it's some inside baseball jargon they've somehow missed and start using the entirely made up metric themselves to assert their legitimacy.
• Psychic Powers: In terms of power, the story generally focuses on Espers, who have strong psychic abilities.
• Psychic Radar: Espers in this story can sense the presence of other nearby espers at a glance. Mob, under great emotional stress, figures out how to widen his antenna by several kilometers in order to find possible culprits for the torching of his home in the second season.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: The aliens Mob, Reigen, and the Telepathy Club come into contact with in Chapter 98.11 turn out to be a strange version of The Greys— they are clearly alien, but they have the large eyes of Shoujo characters and wear school uniforms.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Whenever Mob is severely injured and falls unconscious, his incomprehensible latent power is unleashed upon the world. His power level at that point reads as ???%.
• Recessive Super Genes: Psychic powers appear to have at least a partly inherited component, as siblings and children of espers are more likely to develop powers than average and have similar abilities as their psychic relatives, as shown with Toichiro and Shou, the Shiratori twins, and the Kageyama brothers.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In anime episode 8 "The Older Brother Bows", an organization of evil espers called Claw sends an operative named Koyama to kidnap Shigeo. While Koyama is fighting, he has red Glowing Eyes to show that he's an evil and powerful esper.
• Rescue Arc: The 7th Division Arc, which deals with Mob, Teru and Dimple raiding one of Claw's facilities with the sole intent of rescuing Ritsu from the Scars.
• Rigged Spectacle Fight: When the (LOL) Cult finds out Mob is immune to their (psychically amplified) peer pressure to laugh, its leader Lord Dimple challenges him in front of the cultists to a series of milk-drinking duels and whoever laughs first loses. Mob's last milk has something mixed in, making him spit it out.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge
  • Subverted for comedy. When Teruki seemingly kills Dimple, Mob becomes shocked and has flashbacks to his recent time alongside him... and then he says he doesn't really care. His explosion meter doesn't increase at all.
  • At one point Mob finds his house burning to the ground and inside are what appears to be the corpses of his family. He goes ballistic over this, with his explosion meter increasing far beyond 100%. Dimple has to desperately convince him that what he saw was an illusion made by some esper so Mob doesn't destroy the entire city out of grief.
  • When a newly empowered Ritsu is being beaten up by a Claw enforcer intent on kidnapping him, Mob goes on one of these without hitting 100%; this is also notably the biggest jump in his meter being filled up to date.
• Sand In My Eyes: Reigen says he has "hay fever" while he cries and finally admits to Mob that he's a fraud.
• Sailor Fuku: Female students at Salt Middle School wear the classic navy and white sailor uniforms with red scarves, while male students wear gakuran.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Mob does the vast majority of his fighting and much of his exorcism work in his gakuran, as circumstances requiring his overwhelming psychic power occur more often in-story on his way home from school.
• Shout-Out:
  • There are some nods to One-Punch Man, like Reigen having a picture of Saitama as his cellphone's wallpaper or Mob dreaming of training so much that he goes bald. Mob's homeroom teacher in the first episode also looks a lot like how Yusuke Murata draws himself.
  • The second episode shows Mob reading a One-Punch Man manga, so it looks like both series are a Show Within a Show in each other's settings (one scene in Murata's OPM remake had Saitama wearing a "Mob Psycho 1000000" shirt).
  • The third episode has Saitama making a cameo on the back of the "MobDonald's" soda cup, and in the fourth episode as well.
  • In the fourth episode the character Tenga Onigawara looks like Josuke Higashikata from part 4 and his special attack involves rapid punches referencing Crazy Diamond. He even shout's Josuke's battle cry of "Dorararara" the first time he does it for good measure.
  • At the end of chapter 98.006, the MENACING katakana pops up as well.
  • Mob at ???% looks awfully similar to Boros in his Meteoric Burst mode. His fight against Koyama also heavily references the fight at the end of OPM's Alien Invasion arc, where Boros goes all-out against Saitama.
  • At one point, when Ritsu is trying to use psychic powers, he strikes several poses. These are shout-outs to A-Class hero "Biting Snake Fist" Sneck, Caesar Zeppeli, and Dragon Ball.
  • Dimple's LOL Cult promising happiness may be a reference to the Happy-Happy cult from EarthBound. The Smile Masks even look a little like the masks worn by the Insane Cultists who attack Ness.
  • Episode 6 of season 2 has a shot of Reigen performing a live-streamed exorcism, surrounded by lots of dolls. Chucky can be seen in the range of his flashlight.
  • In the dub of season 2 episode 4, Reigen says "M'boy" in a very particular way.
    • At the end of the next episode, he claims that no good comes out of drowning in wealth, fame, or power; a sly nod to the first pre-opening monologue about Gold Roger in One Piece.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Leaning on the idealistic side.
• Spoiler Opening:
  • The anime's opening hints at several events from almost every arc of the ongoing story, such as the LOL Cult, Teruki being overwhelmed by ???% Mob, Ritsu awakening his powers, the Claw Organization and even a certain broccoli. Plus it is filled with gags from various other minor moments.
  • Mogami's arc is one of the few that is not foreshadowed in the opening, but you know that fight scene with no context that opens the first episode?... Well, wait for it. The man in question is also seen among the Early-Bird Cameo esper people shown during the narration at the beginning.
  • The closing credits for the first season draw heavily from a later arc focused on Reigen's life and his relationship with Mob.
  • The closing credits for the second season end on a shot from the next-to-last chapter.
  • The second opening shows: Shou, Koyama, and Sakurai fighting against Touichirou and Claw's Super 5 rather than with them.
• Spoon Bending: A Running Gag where Mob has trouble eating food, since he always subconsciously bends his spoons with his mind.
• Sudden Video-Game Moment:
  • In episode 2 of the second season, the scuffle between Shinra Banshoumaru and a flasher in a red coat is briefly represented as a 1-vs-1 fighting game, complete with lifebars and special moves.
  • Later in the season, Shou's recounting in episode 9 of how he got the Kageyamas to leave their home before his lackeys torched it is depicted as an 8-bit dialogue screen.
• Superpowered Evil Side: ???% Mob acts solely on his survival instincts and has limitless power to tap into. Mob is very afraid of what he can do when under this power, as this power caused him to hurt his younger brother by mistake. When facing Teruki, who had almost choked Mob to death, ???% absorbs his powers and starts lifting the guy and the entire landscape high into the sky. Mob wakes up just in time to prevent everyone involved from crashing down and also rebuilds the nearby school.
• Super Mode: 100% Mob. While Mob is usually a very strong esper, at 100% Mob becomes incredibly powerful, with the current emotion he's feeling influencing his thoughts, appearance and powers. The series notes these as "explosions". Notable explosions include:
  • 100% Anger, the first time we see Mob explode, during his time with the LOL Cult that results in him decimating the crowd of onlookers and shattering Dimple.
  • 100% Sadness, the aftermath of Teru's battle with Mob that results in Vinegar Mid repairing itself.
  • 100% Courage, which appears during the Mogami and Touichirou fights.
  • 100% Gratitude, which causes Super-Empowering and boosts Reigen into the unstoppable Reigen 1000%
  • 100% Rejection, an explosion which was unnamed in the manga, causes Mob to unconsciously amplify an illusion directed at him and send it back to the caster. While this results in said caster falling into a coma due to a considerable amount of brain damage, it also backfires on Mob who promptly collapses afterwards and wakes up with absolutely no recollection of the event whatsoever.
  • 100% Friendship, Ecstasy, Shame, Compassion, Resignation, and Kindness appearing during the second Claw arc, allow Mob to, in order calm an incredibly distressed esper, give him a massive power boost, let him create a barrier by surrounding himself with storm clouds, lets him see into the mind and heart of others, uninhibits his psychic powers to a strong degree, and finally allows him to redirect so much psychic energy and the pain that it was causing to its user that it results in the creation of the Divine Tree.
  • 100% Trust is a Subversion, as it causes Mob to discard his power and reduce himself to basically a normal human, leaving him completely unable to fight or defend himself.
• Take Over the World: Claw is an organization of espers who seek to dominate the world. Reigen finds them to be a bunch of immature society rejects and chews them out about that.
• Take That!:
  • The way the Telepathy Club is presented is basically a potshot at the numerous Slice of Life and Schoolgirl Series anime based around school clubs that don't actually do anything club-related and use a vague goal as a thinly-veiled excuse to just hang out and have fun after school. Though the club members try to claim that they need to keep the club running to "enjoy their youth" and "create fond memories", it's pretty clear that Tome is the only one who really believes in telepathy, and all they do is waste their time by playing video games and eating junk food. Fittingly, once they actually start working towards the goal Tome initially founded the club for, they succeed very quickly.
  • (LOL) is likely a stab at Happy Science, both being New Age movements centered around "human happiness". Happy Science is often viewed as a manipulative scam cult by the public and mainstream media in Japan, which is exactly what Dimple was doing.
• Technician/Performer Team-Up: Mob is mostly calm—if shy and lacking social skills—even while exorcising spirits. Reigen, however, has a way with words, so he can easily bring people under his sway to sell his Phony Psychic act.
• Theme Naming: All schools in Seasoning City are named after spices and condiments - Salt, Mayo, Peppercorn, Soy Sauce, Highso (a pun on shiso), etc.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Telepathy Club, despite having a stated goal are depicted as lazy slackers who don't do anything except play video games and eat junk food. The student council tells them that they'll have to disband if they don't recruit one more member, so they try to recruit Mob, but Mob ends up joining the Body Improvement Club instead since he wants to improve himself. In the end, the Telepathy Club is officially disbanded and their funds are cut by the student council, but fortunately for them, the Body Improvement Club still lets them use their club room since the latter club just uses it to store their weights. Once Tome starts recognizing they've strayed from their goal, the other members of the club, as well as Mob, start pulling some weight into fulfilling their goal of using telepathy to contact extraterrestrial life - and even manage to succeed!
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Mob tells Dimple in their first meeting after battling to call him "Shigeo", not "Shige-Chan". This later happens when Dimple introduces himself to Ritsu.
• The 'Verse: ONE has implied this and One-Punch Man share a verse (He was asked and answered a question on who would win between Mob and Tatsumaki from said series, along with Tatsumaki making a brief cameo during the LOL Cult arc).
• Town Girls: Tsubomi Takane's the Femme, Tome Kurata's the Butch, and Ichi Mezato's the Neither.
• Translated Cover Version: The ending theme, "Refrain Boy", well sort of. The ending theme for episode eight showcasing the English version of the song was done by the same band ALL OFF, so it's not a cover. However the translation was impressively close, at least to a thematic level, to the original. It was sung in English, too. Justified in that the lead singer of ALL OFF was raised for a time in California.
• Unusual Chapter Numbers: At times, the manga will have decimal numbers for chapters. This decimal system takes center stage for Chapters 98 and 99, and "Chapter 100" is in reality over 200 pages running across multiple weeks under 100.1 and 100.2.
• We Interrupt This Program: The season 1 OVA ended with an announcement on the bar's TV about the greenlighting of season 2.
• Wham Line:
  • From the climax of Episode 7 (said by Mob) comes an example: "Ritsu... What are you doing?"
  • "Here... after all... because this is an important moment... as I thought, I have... become necessary... so... let's go. Everything that stands in my way will be removed..." - Said by ???%, Ch 100.1
• Wham Shot:
  • The last panel of Ch 98.10, in which a UFO appears in front of Mob, Reigen, and the Telepathy Club.
  • The end of Chapter 99.4, which has Mob hit by a truck after saving a little kid.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Mob refuses to use his powers on humans due to Reigen's influence, but he annihilates obviously-sentient spirits without the slightest hint of hesitation or remorse. Later on in the story, Mob comes to realize that he has used his power so far for the benefit of humans, and gets deeply bothered by the thought that if ever he turns against humans, then there might be no one to stop him.
• World Tree: The Divine Tree created out of broccoli seeds from Mob's pocket when he was dealing with Touichirou's power meltdown becomes the center of attention and faith from the entire city and its roots threaten to destroy it all.
• X-Ray Sparks: Anime episode #2 "Doubts about Youth - The Telepathy Club Appears". When Reigen is giving a client an intense massage to cure his curse, the power he puts into it causes the client's skeleton to become visible inside his body.

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