Mob Psycho 100 vol. 1

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Dark Horse’s manga launch of the year!  Not only does it hail from the creator/writer of “One-Punch Man,” but it has also spawned an anime series successful enough to get a second season (the first episode of which will be premiering in American theaters).  With that kind of pedigree it’s honestly a little surprising to report that this is a strange, down-to-earth series whose style suggests that it would be destined for nothing more than cult success.

“Mob Psycho 100” begins by introducing us to Arataka Reigen a spiritual exorcist who couldn’t appear more shady if he was operating out of the back of a van.  He offers exorcisms on a sliding payment scale, with the most expensive one offering a 99% reduction in spirits. Because ghosts are like carbon dioxide emissions according to Reigen.  Then he goes on to mistake the building that needs to be exorcised, claims that a random passerby is actually the “ass-chin boogeyman,” and determines that the building is actually possessed… by roaches before the actual spirit shows up.  At which point Reigen calls in the title’s actual protagonist.

That would be Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed “Mob” because of how he tends to blend into the background mob of people in any situation.  What makes him the lead in this series is the fact that he also possesses incredible psychic powers that (in this volume at least) allow him to handle any kind of supernatural threat with ease.  While Shigeo has no problems facing supernatural threats, he’s at a loss as to how to navigate the swirling cauldron of hormones and insecurity that is junior high. It’s more difficult for him because when his emotions reach a peak Shigeo unleashes a psychic assault that can steamroll anything-or-one in his path.

“Mob Psycho 100” is a weird mix of conman shenanigans, slice-of-life highschool storytelling, and psychic ghostbusting action.  Throwing all of these things together into one series sounds like a recipe for a schizophrenic mess. That it actually does wind up working comes down to two things.

The first is the throughline that mangaka ONE has found for the series.  It’s all about Shigeo and how he relates to these weird, disparate situations he finds himself in.  In a way, Shigeo isn’t too dissimilar from Saitama, the protagonist of ONE’s other series “One-Punch Man.”  Saitama’s a guy who wants to have a great fight and be recognized within the superhero community, but his overwhelming power has made it next to impossible for him to fit in.  Shigeo wants to fit in with other students in his school, except it’s not his power that’s getting in the way. It’s his utter inability to read a room and go along with the flow.

Most of the drama in this series comes from that friction between Shigeo’s social issues and what people want from him.  That leads to some amusing situations at school as he finds himself the target of the telepathy club — not for his powers, but because they need a fifth member to keep from being disbanded.  Then there’s his encounter with a cult whose leader wants to take over the world with laughter and finds himself frustrated by Shigeo’s inability to laugh. Tying these situations together is, believe it or not, Reigen.  He may be exploiting his young apprentice, but it’s clear that he actually cares about his mental well-being from the way he offers some surprisingly credible insights into the aforementioned situations when Shigeo talks to him about them.  While most of Reigen’s scenes are played for strict comedy I was honestly impressed to see how he and the series itself display some surprising depth at certain points.

The other reason I think this series works, and this is going to be divisive for some, is because of the art.  While ONE was the original artist of “One-Punch Man” when it was a webcomic, Yusuke Murata took over artistic chores when it came to print.  Theirs has been a fantastic partnership and now that I’ve seen ONE’s actual artistic skills I think it’s telling that series didn’t become a phenomenon until Murata came onboard.

ONE’s art in “Mob Psycho 100” is simplistic almost to the point of amateurishness.  His linework may be solid but there’s a haphazardness to the way his characters and their environments look which gives the reader the impression that he hasn’t been doing this “drawing” thing for all that long.  There’s also a certain stiltedness to the way his characters emote that doesn’t help things either.

Normally all these things would be the artistic kiss of death for a series.  For me, though, once I got used to his style I thought that it actually worked for this strange little series.  Given how odd the mix of tones and storylines is for this series in the first place, ONE’s amateurish-looking art actually starts to work in its favor.  It also helps that, as the volume goes on, the art starts to stop looking amateurish and more like a deliberate stylistic choice by the mangaka.

I can’t say exactly when this happened for me, but I’d like to think it was around the time Shigeo started mixing things up with the cult.  Those scenes are a mix of the comedic and sinister, with the latter becoming increasingly predominant as they go on, that I found to be communicated quite well in spite of my initial impressions regarding his art.  Then Shigeo gets angry and things get crazy in some impressive action scenes that effectively communicate his destructive power.

I was convinced by the end of the volume that it wouldn’t have worked as well if someone like Murata had provided the art.  “Mob Psycho 100” is absolutely its own weird beast and ONE’s art is perfect for communicating that. It’s definitely not going to be for everyone, while the story’s jarring combination of storylines and oddball characters may doom it further to only cult success in print.  After this first volume, I can say that it’s a cult that I’d like to be part of.