Tear Jerker / Mob Psycho 100

Moments to make you reach 100% Sadness very quickly.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• And on that note, 100% Sadness features Mob crying his eyes out because after his ???% mode hands Teru his ass, he has flashbacks to the incident that led to his desire to suppress his esper abilities in the first place, a period where a bully knocking him unconscious led him to believe that he seriously hurt his little brother. He continues to cry uncontrollably, hunched over on all fours, looking as if he's begging for forgiveness as Black Vinegar Middle School rebuilds itself in the background.
  • He did seriously injure his little brother, at least enough to deeply traumatize both of them. Mob completely blames himself for his actions while unconscious. While generally accepting responsibility for actions we take while, let's say, black-out drunk is the right thing to do, here a child expects to be fully in control of himself at all times, expects to be in control of other people's reactions to him, and doesn't see any of his unconscious retaliation as even remotely justified. Teru had caused a ton of property damage on school grounds with Mob's body before he choked the boy out, and yet Mob blames himself for all of it.
  • Speaking of the fight against Teru, his Unstoppable Rage against Mob after he gets his "haircut" feels almost as if he's trying desperately to convince himself that he's right almost as much as he's trying to convince Mob. Even as he chokes Mob to death he begs him to use his powers, almost crying. Just so he doesn't have to admit that his entire life is a lie.
  • Also from this 'battle': Mob's self-descriptions when comparing himself to Teru in the "Reason You Suck" Speech that shatters Teru's sanity. He truly sees himself this way.
  • The school itself after ???% blasts it apart. The anime relegates the implications of this to Fridge Logic territory, but the manga spells it out: Mob is able to use 100% Sadness to rebuild Black Vinegar Middle School more or less as it was, but all the cracks remain. What is broken can heal, but scars will still be present.
• To a lesser extent, 100% Rage, the first explosion we see. It's undeniably badass to see Mob kick around the super-powerful Dimple like a football, but throughout the whole thing, Dimple's hurling insults at his enemy, accusing him of being an emotionless monster... and Mob never once responds. It's a subtle reminder of just how much he hates his powers, and to some extent, himself. And then there's his line as he finishes Dimple, showing just how far from a typical shōnen hero he is:
  Mob: I'm... terrible.
• The kickoff of The Great Cleanup — the student council decide to get rid of their delinquents by any means necessary, and their first victim is Salt Middle School's Banchou, Tenga Onigawara, by way of framing him for stealing and licking the female band students' instruments. The way the whole school turns on him drives him out of the classroom, including a girl who he felt he could always trust to have his back, leads him to run from the classroom, ruining his perfect attendance, and the next scene features him with a Thousand-Yard Stare as he seeks refuge in the meeting room for the Telepathy and Body Improvement Clubs.
• Mob's attempt to be elected as President of the Student Council. There are four candidates and each one gets five minutes to campaign. Mezato has written his speech and helped build up Mob's confidence to build his appeal to Tsubomi. Mob gets onstage... and goes completely still for five minutes. Poor Mob goes into a state of total embarrassment. Even the Body Improvement Club can't pull him out of his misery afterward.
  • Near the end of the episode, Emi's "friends" poke fun at her writing talent and tear apart her script for laughs while Emi passively allows them to. Mob walks in and picks up the pieces despite the girls insulting him for his pointless endeavor, thus leading to the image above. This also counts as a Heartwarming moment since Mob's kind words and actions leave an impact on Emi.
• The months spent inside the Lotus-Eater Machine. Mob is transported to a world where he has no friends, no family, and no powers. The events he experienced are all but stated to have happened verbatim to one of Minori Asagiri's victims, and Mob is just experiencing it in first person. It's equal parts horrifying and depressing to watch.
  • Asagiri was completely conscious too, but since Mogami only made recreations of memories, she can only sit back and watch as she slowly realizes what a horrible, horrible person she's been most of her life. When she's finally exorcised, all she can say is that she really is that terrible in real life... and then she immediately breaks down, says she's sorry, and asks for forgiveness over and over and over.
  • Despite the awful and vile person he's become in the present day, Mogami's backstory and Freudian Excuse can make more than one person feel sorry for him and shed a tear at the circumstances that molded him into a monster. He began his career as a genuine and good-willed psychic who helped people with exorcisms and advice on TV shows, eventually making him famous enough to be labeled as "The Greatest Psychic of the 20th Century" by the media; however, all this fame didn't prevent Mogami's life from taking a sharp turn when his mother fell sick due to an unknown illness, and the obscene medical bills forced him to become a Professional Killer for people who took advantage of him and only saw him as a tool. When his mother died anyway, she turned into an evil spirit and blamed Mogami for her death, claiming that his actions were what plagued and brought evil around her in the first place. Understandably, this was enough to break Mogami's mind and swear revenge on people who take advantage of others for their own gain, since those were the ones who ruined his life when he needed help the most.
• Reigen becomes quite depressed when he and Mob get into a fight, Mob leaves his employment, and he realizes that Mob is perfectly fine without him. It doesn't help that Dimple tells him that Mob doesn't care about him. The arc gets sadder from there; it seems that Reigen is actually doing well in getting the attention that he craves, only to be publicly humiliated on live television, called out for being a fraud, and stalked and harassed by the media.
  • The anime starts playing “Gray” by Sajou no Hana just as Reigen encounters Mob and Dimple, which was more than enough for this scene to be emotional. The character acting is extremely realistic, with Reigen tightening his fist in anticipation before Mob says the next line, surprising Reigen to the point of tears. Essentially, the combination of the rawness of emotions and the music make the perfect pair.
    I've always known... from the beginning. My master is a genuinely good guy.
• Mob's panic when he comes back from Salt Mid's Marathon Festival to see his house burning down in flames, complete with the charred corpses of his family. The corpses turn out to be psychic constructs, and his family is actually safe and sound, but for a moment, the sheer rage and sadness he feels drives his emotions up to their ???% levels without Mob falling unconscious.
  • The anime’s execution of this scene is also astounding, conveying all the emotions the manga did. You could feel the anticipation when the door opens and the music stopping abruptly. You could hear the desperation in Dimple’s voice as he warns Mob to not look at the charred corpses of his family. Then, Mob’s eye flashes red with rage, as everything reverted to a monochromatic color scheme. The percentage goes far beyond 100%, too. It really sends chills down the audience’s spines. Thankfully, they’re fakes.
• Serizawa's Dark and Troubled Past. He was born with incredible powers but without a master to properly guide him, he easily lost control of his powers and endangered anyone who was close to him. This led to him isolating himself in his room for 15 years and was only able to leave after finding a master in Touichirou Suzuki. After Mob points out that he's being manipulated, Serizawa breaks down in tears over what he would do with his life if he didn't have Claw anymore.
  Serizawa: Like a kid who still has his whole life ahead of him knows how I feel. Then tell me... WHAT IN THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THEN?! No one ever understood this power I was born with! People thought I was creepy so I'd lose control and destroy things! Then they'd scold me and I'd lose control again! I even accidentally sent my mother flying before. I never knew when I might totally snap. There was never anybody around who I could talk to. Because I just wanted... I don't know... I just wanted... I just wanted to have friends.
• 100% Shame. When Touichiro points out that Mob is enjoying himself in using his power, he looks down to see Ritsu's face and is immediately ashamed of himself.
  • Afterwards, Mob loses the will to fight and accepts that he's unable to help out Touichiro like he wanted to. The Tyrant King refuses his defeat and violently lashes out at him, demanding that he still fight. All Mob can do it take the blows before achieving 100% Resignation.
• Most of the "Dream" omakes are pretty funny, with the exception of Shou's. Shou flashes back to him first revealing his psychic powers to his mother, who apparently bursts into tears offscreen, most likely horribly depressed that her son has psychic powers like her husband, who has become distant and cruel.
• The Divine Tree arc is extremely sad for Mob, featuring things like his beloved younger brother and Reigen both being hypnotized and abandoning him.
  • Mob's fight against Dimple/Lord Psycho Helmet is very emotionally draining. Perhaps the height of this is Mob being forced to hurt his friend Teru, and the emotional pain of doing so and knowing that he is most likely going to have to kill Dimple eventually causes Mob to cry.
• Following 100% Trust, Dimple tries to get Mob out while Lord Psycho Helmet tries to take him down. When Mob comes to, temporarily blind and barely conscious, he asks if they are home to which Dimple replies that Mob needs to make it back himself because he has somewhere else to go. When Mob says he can't move Dimple keeps encouraging him, eventually casting hypnosis on him for the first and only time in the series to help him run away. He then tells Mob that there's something he needs to take care of, as the panel zooms out to reveal that part of Dimple's body has been blown away.
  • Mob walks out of the Divine Tree while unable to see what was really going on even as he turns to wave goodbye to Dimple. The spirit then makes his last stand against Lord Psycho Helmet, and although Dimple is eaten he appears to overpower it. The Divine Tree is ripped out of the ground and hurled into the ocean, with Dimple's fate left unknown. Mob watches the event on the tv, but like the rest of the citizens his memories have been wiped out. Despite this he ends up crying himself to sleep, subconsciously knowing what Dimple did.
    Dimple was a friend.
  • In the manga, the above quote is said by the unnamed but omniscient narrator. The anime always had Dimple speak the narrator's lines. Thus, fans who have also read the manga have wondered how the anime would adapt the narrator's line "Dimple was a friend" if Dimple himself is out of the picture. Studio BONES decision' to have Mob speak the lines instead is a clever choice. But it also makes it even more gut-wrenching hearing Mob declaring it as he cries himself to sleep.
    Mob: Thank you, Dimple. Dimple, you were my friend.

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