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Shigeo Kageyama (Japanese: 影山茂夫, Hepburn: Kageyama Shigeo), nicknamed "Mob" (モブ, Mobu) is the protagonist from One's manga Mob Psycho 100. Shigeo Kageyama is an average middle school-aged boy. Although he looks like an inconspicuous person, he is in fact a powerful esper with immense psychic power. To keep from losing control of this power, he constantly lives a life under an emotional shackle. In order to help learn how to control his abilities, Mob works as an assistant to con-man Reigen Arataka, a self-proclaimed spirit medium. Mob wants to live a normal life just like those around him, but a barrage of trouble keeps coming after him. With his suppressed emotions growing inside Mob little by little, his power threatens to break through its limits as he eventually encounters other espers like the Claws.

One created Mob as a contrast to his previous protagonist from One Punch Man, aiming to portray Mob as a weak hero who still gets involved in several fights and forms new relationships. The character is voiced by Setsuo Ito in Japanese and Kyle McCarley in English. Critical response to Mob has been generally positive for proving to be an unconvetional anime protagonist due to his rejection of his super powers and desire to focus on other parts of his life in order to become popular. Despite giving such dull attitude, Mob was praised for his dynamic with his mentor Reigen and how he often ends up taking part in interesting fight scenes or comedy.

Creation

Mob was created by manga artist One as a contrast to the strong character Saitama, who is the protagonist of his earlier One-Punch Man. Unlike Saitama, Mob is weak and delicate. As a result, he is supported by the rest of the characters starring in the series. Mob was written to come across as a nice person, fit of being an ideal protagonist; Instead of running away from scary situations people, Mob faces his nemesis to the point of being heroic. However, Mob is "somewhat standoffish or nerdy" to the point he barely comes across as cool. When Bones announced they would adapted the manga series, One requested that Mob's characterization be faithful to the original series.

Director Yuzuru Tachikawa said Mob carries realistic traits for an anime protagonist as he is only interested in becoming a popular student. Director Yoshimichi Kameda also relates to Mob due to their poor confidence on themselves and thus are unable to properly express themselves. For the adaptation of the manga, the anime staff wanted to properly focus on Mob's character and how, little by little, he starts relying more on his powers to defend himself. The second season was made with need of Mob facing more supernatural beings. Tachikawa also finds unique how Mob rejects his supernatural powers. Answering to Tachikawa, One said that the concept behind the series comes from Mob's kindness and connections. When it turned into a fighting series, One came up with the idea of Mob having esper powers for slice of life chapters. Nevertheless, the protagonist's kindess remained intact due to how he changes people's lives citing Dimple's changes of personality after meeting Mob.Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name (see the help page).

Casting

Mob is voiced by Setsuo Ito. He recalls being nervous during recording for the first episode of the first season, to the point he barely slept in the previous day. During the auditions, Ito was surprised by the other actors working in the series who kept supporting him. Still, the actor was not able to be more healthy until the eighth episode of the first season. Ito was glad that Reigen was voiced by Takahiro Sakurai as he admired him from a very young age giving him more parallels to the relationship between the duo. One was glad with Ito's performance, claiming he fits Mob's personality.Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name (see the help page).

According the actor, Mob's growth is moderate with one example being when he joins the body-building club and starts working out. That's just one example of how what you see on screen over time allow his character to change, which appealed to the voice actor. Since he was performing the same character in the plays, Ito's feelings involving the protagonist remained similar but with a different atmosphere as he was was working with from anime voice actors to stage actors. The atmosphere of being on stage and surrounded by an audience was also different. By the time the third season was green-lighted, Ito was glad with how much work he has been doing, feeling he became more confident in the past years and came to like more his character as well as his relationship with Reigen.

For the English dub of the series, Mob was voiced by Kyle McCarley.

Appearances

Mob is an eighth grade Esper with powerful psychic abilities. His bowl-cut hairstyle is his defining physical feature. He is not good at reading the atmosphere, and since childhood, has rarely felt or displayed intense emotion, typically having a dull expression on his face very similar to Saitama from One-Punch Man. He thinks his power is unnecessary in his life, so he avoids using it. He suppresses his emotions to keep his power in control, but when the percentage of his accumulated feelings reaches 100, he is overcome by the strongest emotion he currently feeling and unleashes the full extent of his powers. He works at Reigen's spirit counsel for 300 yen an hour. After being begged to join the Telepathy Club to prevent their dissolution, he instead chose to join the Body Improvement Club hoping not only to impress his secret love, Tsubomi, but also to improve himself as a person. He is credited as Salt Middle School's urabanchō (裏番長 is roughly translated as "secret school gang leader") known as White T Poison, but this remains unknown to many including himself. Mob also possesses an unknown power which far surpasses even the height of his abilities, but is uncontrollable and only awakens when unconscious, and is called ???%.

While Teru and Ritsu fight against the Scars, Mob is stressed whether to use his psychic powers to save his friends or to run away as advised by Reigen. Reigen eventually calms and somehow absorbs his powers.

Mob, showing his kindness to Toichiro, redirects the power into his body, leading to a seemingly smaller explosion that keeps the city safe. In the aftermath, Toichiro admits his mistake and allows himself to be taken into custody, after apologising to Sho. On television, it is shown that the apparent huge explosion actually caused the sudden growth of the broccoli seed that Mob kept in his shirt pocket, forming the Divine Tree.

Reception

Mob's character has often been the subject of positive response by journalists for manga and anime. Den of Geek stated that he might come across as the standard anime hero due to the concept involving his powers, he subverts expectations as he spends most of his screentime rejecting his powers and instead working out to improve his physical condition and be more popular. The fact that his emotional state change when dealing with experiences was also noted to stand out in the series and felt that his mentor Reigen was nearly his opposite. Espinof found Mob easily likable due to how he deals with comical cases with Reigen and how across each episode he matures. The fight scenes he is involved were often praised too due to how well they are directed by Bones.

Otaku USA also liked Mob's powers and how much build up the narrative gives to each encounter he has. The same site contrasted him with his predecessor Saitama due to how the humor often relies on Mob's social life but Reigen's antics manages to balance the series' comedy. Anime UK News also found several differences between Mob and Saitama despite their similar designs created by One as they noted the two protagonists do different things with their powers. On a more negative point, Anime UK News felt that the supporting cast, most notably Reigen, was more interesting than Mob. Nevertheless, the way the series explores Mob's and Reigen's relationship was also the subject of praise due to their caring natures and how honest the former comes across. In a feature article of the series, Otaku USA said that Mob's character carries several lessons aimed towards the viewers such as dealing with his emotions, appreciating their own worths, among others. By the end of the anime's second season, IGN wrote that the series has been developing Mob's personality across each arc with his own powers leading to a comical way to start the third season: knowing what to do when graduating. ign praised this story for giving the protagonist ideas with what to do with his life while also generating commentary about identity crisis with jokes included.

Otakuzine Anime Magazine listed Mob as one of the best exorcist in anime history, comparing how his powers contradict his weak personality. In a Gin-Iro-Neko Tea Salon in Ginza during 2020, tea was served with Mob's image.

Analysis

In the "Existentialism and the beauty of sublime in manga and anime Mob Psycho 100" Khawla Khelaifia from Larbi Ben M'hidi University of Oum El Bouaghi explored the character's personality. Khelaifia states the series delivers a proper message with Mob's social form as he seems to act like a normal teenager who relies on classes to attract his crush. In contrast, in the manga, there are unprecedented emotions which can be magnified into something lethal. However, despite experiencing these emotions, Mob proves his superpowers do not make him character, but rather his kind demeanor that allows him to form friendship. Praise was given to One's writing for how Mob is able to interact with other members from the cast as well as how he understands that his powers as dangerous to use. Through this writing, Mob is seen as a teenager capable of committing wealth and never becomes selfish and be immune to selfish.

References

1. "One on One interview". Weekly Shonen Jump. Viz Media.
2. ""Mob Psycho 100" Creator ONE and Director Yuzuru Tachikawa Discuss the New Anime!". Crunchyroll. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
3. ^ "Interview: The Staff of Mob Psycho 100". Anime News Network. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
4. "INTERVIEW: Mob Psycho 100 VA Setsuo Ito's Most Anticipated Season 3 Mob Scene". Crunchyroll. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
5. "Crunchyroll Appears to Be Recasting Mob Psycho 100 Dub Actors Over Union Dispute". Otaku USA. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
6. "Mob Psycho 100 is an Anime Must-Watch". Den of Geek. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
7. "Mob Psycho 100' es uno de los animes más explosivos del momento, y también de los más emotivos con un protagonista que se hace muy fácil de querer". Espinof. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
8. "Mob Psycho Might Just Be The Single Coolest-Looking Anime Show of 2016". Otaku USA. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
9. "Mob Psycho 100 Season 1 Review". Anime UK News. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
10. "Important Life Lessons from Mob Psycho 100". Otaku USA. September 8, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
11. "Important Life Lessons from Mob Psycho 100". IGN. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
12. "Best Exorcists". Otakuzine Anime Magazine.
13. "Ginza Tea Salon Brews Up a Tantalizing Mob Psycho 100 II Inspired Tea Menu". Anime News Network. December 16, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
14. "Existentialism and the beauty of sublime in manga and anime Mob Psycho 100". Larbi Ben M'hidi University of Oum El Bouaghi. Retrieved October 22, 2022.

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