Mob Psycho 100 vol. 9

The battle with Keiji Mogami is all but over, except for the cracking of Mob’s psychic shell to see the ultimate power that lurks inside.  I’m sure mangaka ONE will be back to show us the implications of this later on, but the focus for this volume is on the relationship between Mob and his mentor Reigen.  Or rather, the lack of it because the psychic hustler has finally pushed his luck too far and now his protege has decided that he’d be better off hanging out with his friends instead.  Reigen is stunned by this development and is at a loss for what to do next.  Until he realizes that he started this business without Mob, and he can continue it on his own by sticking to the cases that he knows how to solve himself.  This works well for the man, leading to him securing a spot on a live TV exorcism special.  It’s something that should propel Reigen to the next level, assuming it was all set up legitimately…

Reigen already had his own spinoff manga published by Dark Horse, and it was fine for what it was.  Think of it as a volume of this series with 99% less Mob.  The thing is that, after reading vol. 9, I’m looking at it now as more of a missed opportunity.  What ONE puts the character through here is far more interesting than anything we saw in that volume as he’s forced to confront the consequences of his actions and take stock of his life.  While the man can get by on his power of bullshit for a good long while, even that has its limits and we see him come up against them here.  The end result is that it becomes clear that it’s not Reigen who makes Mob, but the other way around.  Even if the outcome is kinda obvious, it’s still carried off with the style and gusto ONE has been putting into this series on a regular basis.

It also sets up something even more challenging for our protagonist:  Trying to place in the top ten for his school’s 5k run to muster up the courage to confess to the girl he likes.