Mob Psycho 100 vol. 10

Based on the way vol. 9 ended, it looked like Mob’s biggest challenge for this volume was going to be placing in the top ten of his school’s 5K run.  All so that he could get enough confidence to confess to the girl he likes.  That’s… not the case here as this is the volume where Claw finally makes its move.  It was clear that the organization of evil psychics that we last saw in vol. 6 would be back some day, and that it wouldn’t be another branch office trying to flex their muscles either.  No, Claw and its leader Toichiro Suzuki have come for all the marbles as they make it clear they’re coming to take over Japan itself.  Their first order of business:  Stomping out all resistance.  Starting with the Kageyama Family.

I’m not going to lie:  The first few chapters had me genuinely on the edge of my seat as I wasn’t quite sure if mangaka ONE was actually going to pull that trigger.  It’s a brand-new storyline and one where the stakes look to be higher than ever before.  The act of violence that’s shown here is certainly something that would drive that feeling home, awful as it is.  Fortunately, Dimple, of all characters displays some impressive seat-of-his-pants thinking that manages to get Mob re-focused on the real bad guys.  It’s a great character moment because it plays into his untrustworthy nature, in that he might be lying about this for the best of reasons.

The rest of the volume is all about building up the threat posed by Claw, and ONE sells that pretty well.  We get to see how their rank-and-file can make short work of police and Self-Defence Forces, how their Ultimate Five have abilities well above other psychics we’ve seen, and how they deal with traitors (it doesn’t end well for those guys).  They’re a big threat, but they’re going to have to face down a multi-pronged resistance from other psychics led by the surprise return of someone who looked to be a major antagonist, and none other than Arataka Reigen.  In short, Claw’s victory is anything but assured and I’m looking forward to seeing how they struggle in coming volumes.