Let’s say there’s a character that has no super ability to do everything, but is willing to do anything; then a character that has super ability to do anything, but could not do everything. This is—in esssence—the power dynamics in Mob Psycho 100.

There a total of four main human characters in Mob Pyscho 100 and two groups of Mob’s friends. One of the group is the Body Improvement Club: they have the ability to do heavy tasks and activities that require huge amount of stamina and strength, and the will to carry out. The other group is the Esper Club: they do not have the psychic ability to actually communicate with aliens and move things, nor do they really care about it.

And then we have Mob.

Insecure, socially awkward, physcially weak, and easily scared in public which made him stood 5 minutes standing on the podium in silence during his student president election speech. Yet, he is an all-powerful psychic user. He can literally do anything with the capacity of his power but he chooses not to. He wants to fight with not his emotions, but his judgements and his words; even against bullies that beat and tease him, ghosts that haunt and hurt him, and other espers that try to kill him.

Because in a world dominated by power, he just want to show that kindness is not a weakness. Even if the world rejects his compassion, even if he has no choice but to cry while being forced to unleash his power—he doesn’t want to kill. He never wanted to. However evil or overwhelming they are, in his heart, the scariest thing is to take a life with his uncontrollable abilities.

Every time he has to use his psychic powers to cause harm, his heart dies a little inside.

Then, there’s Reigen.

‘The Greatest Psychic of the 21st Century‘. Composed and emotionally intelligent at most of the time, he is the exact opposite of Mob. He has the wits and the courage to pull anything, and everything off in his services that ranges from spritual advices to eliminating cursed spirits, and even massaging his clients. He’s often the catalyst that prompt Mob to do more—either for his selfish reasons or for Mob’s sake—and would go out of his way to help Mob in his small goals like marathon practices, to boost his confidence even just for a little.

However, Mob’s brother, Ritsu knows how shady Reigen is.

Ritsu has always been the model of Mob as he is smart and athletic one in the family. But unbeknownst to Mob, Ritsu admires him for his powerful psychic potential because he himself can’t even bend a spoon. Ritsu was even at the point of obession for power that almost devoured him, due to his inferior complex that he’s created subconciously. He was afraid of Mob because he will be defenseless against Mob if he makes him mad. And this, slowly eats away at their relationship.

But at the end, he’s resolved this with Mob: after learning and accepting that power isn’t everything, he’s become more passionate in life like Mob, but still isn’t as kind-hearted as him and wouldn’t hesitate to act against any threat that befalls him and his brother.

Then there’s Teru: half as shady as Reigen, half as powerful as Mob.

Originally planned to kill Mob, he has eventually become one of Mob’s best friend. In contrast to Mob’s humbleness, he used to flex his powers around and show others the danger of messing with him. In fact, he is a dangerous esper. He’s almost like Mob if Mob is arrogant, has the experience, and the wits to improvise abilities during battles.

The three of them—Reigen, his master; Ritsu, his brother; and Teru, his friend—leads a different path inside the story and plays a different role to Mob. But eventually, these paths converges due to their somewhat likeliness, and differences with one another. They are brought together by Mob by his amiability, his naive but empathetic words, and made him a person worth trusting their lives on.

And Mob, chooses to trust them back.

Source: HERE!

Because no matter how powerful or weak one is, to Mob: “People needs other people.”

The interaction that these characters share, are the relationships that anyone watching it can find themselves resonate with. And they often lead to emotional moments, just because we’ve grown attachment to the characters and sometimes, cannot fanthom how the lack of any of them would affect the whole story.

Overall, Mob Psycho is one of the most enjoyable anime that I’ve watched, not only because of quirks of characters, but the development that is layered on top of it, and deep characters insights that are added at the bottom of it. Blending in a few drops of emotions and comedy, Mob Psycho is one of the prime examples that can portray characters dynamics well, instead of just dynamic characters.

Plus, it is one of the anime that I’ll always have a soft spot on.

Thanks for reading.