MOB PSYCHO 100 (Mobu Saiko Hyaku), by ONE. First published in 2012 and first published in North America in 2018.
PLOT:
Just looking at him, Shigeo would seem like just another anonymous teen boy. He doesn't much in the way of looks, ambition or hobbies. Even his nickname, Mob, refers to the fact that he's just another face in the crowd. What they don't know is that Mob has great pyschic power, although he keeps it mostly repressed. The only person who does know is Reigen, a wanna-be spirit medium who exploits Mob's powers to hide his own lack of them. Even then, Mob can only put up with so much frustration before his emotions and powers explode, and when they do the results are unpredictable.
STORY:
Honestly, I couldn't sum up Mob Pyscho 100 better than ONE does himself in the thank you notes: "Even a superhuman goes through the anxieties of adolescence, and maybe they deal with the stress building up too - that is how this manga was born."
Much like One Punch Man before it, ONE has managed to tap into something very basic and relatable and transform that into a superhero manga, even if the superheroism isn't as obvious this time around. In many ways, Mob Pyscho 100 is closer to a slife-of-life manga. We see him dealing with pushy high school club, trying to transform himself to impress a girl, dealing with a crappy boss, and so on. The fact that he's largely unimpressed with the histrionics of others is the core of a lot of the comedy in this book. It also makes it more impressive at the moment he DOES lose control, because it's both an emotional and literal explosion and it's cathartic to behold.
As good as that was, I was amused the most with his interactions with Reigen. He's the perfect foil to Mob's complacence, a fast-talking hustler who is always on the verge of being exposed as a fraud and gets buy mostly through bravado and massage skills. He sees himself as a sort of mentor to Mob, urging him to be as selfish and half-assed as he is, and Mob mostly goes along with it so he can get paid. It's such an interesting and funny dynamic, yet it's also kind of the emotional heart of the story. It all adds up to a story that's quirky, human, fantastical, and funny, a combination that is quickly becoming ONE's specialty.
ART:
One Punch Man had the advantage of Yusuke Murata's amazing art, but Mob Pyscho 100 is purely ONE's work. That means that the artwork here is a lot more flat and rough, but not without its charms. He's still great at deadpan reactions, and there are moments where he plays with shading to great effect. Mob's pyschic explosion is the real stand-out piece of the book, as it displays the sort of visual ambition that makes you understand what drew people to ONE's work in the first place.
RATING:
Mob Psycho 100 shows that ONE is more than capable of carrying a great story by himself. His wonky art is far less a failing than it is a quirk, and his character writing and dry sense of humor more than makes up for it. The fact that Dark Horse isn't pushing this harder is shameful.
This series is published by Dark Horse Comics. This series is complete in Japan with 16 volumes. 1 volume has been released and is currently in print.
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