Mob Psycho 100 vol. 4

Are you ready for a BLOOD FEUD?!  It looks like that’s where the story’s headed not too far into vol. 4 as Mob’s brother Ritsu fully awakens to his own powers (with some questionable help from Dimple).  Unfortunately for him, this has come along at a time when his emotional stability has taken a hit, thanks to Student Council President Kamuro’s morally dubious efforts to clean up the school.  Rather than use his powers to turn this around, Ritsu decides to commit to this plan in a way that frightens even the president and attracts some unwanted attention.  First from a group of thugs hailing from other schools, then from an organization that’s been keeping an eye out for people like him and his brother.  Between these things, Mob finally catches up with Ritsu and decides to teach him a thing or two about the the responsibility he believes these powers should be treated with.

I wasn’t expecting their discussion to go in the way that it did, which was a nice surprise.  The problem is that after all the buildup the Mob/Ritsu confrontation gets in this volume, mangaka ONE abruptly puts it on hold.  Now the title character is teaming up with an old rival to take down the above-mentioned organization before any harm comes to his brother.  It’s a decent enough direction for the story to take, only I liked where the story was going before this happened and the organization in question appears to just be generically evil at this point in the story.

Still, I’ll give ONE credit for making Ritsu’s actions come off like a natural extension of his character.  His ongoing thoughts on the nature of these powers and how they should be used are also delivered well here, alongside some bone-crunchingly intense fights.  I have to say that after four volumes, the mangaka’s art style continues to leave less doubt in my mind that it’s a stylistic choice as opposed to being outright amateurish.  It’s not without its problems, but vol. 4 is another solid entry into this series that I hope Dark Horse will see about releasing just a little bit quicker.