Genki Life Magazine 35 - Spring 2019

school bullies and stops short of putting up any
meaningful resistance toward them. These predicaments
posed challenges to Mob’s worldview, still
impressionable, still developing. They were challenges
about the larger implications of humans
being awful to him and others, challenges that he
left unaddressed because other people solved his
problems for him before he snapped. Reigen protects
him from the college students. A combination
of Dimple, the Body Improvement Club, and
Ritsu, his younger brother, protect him from the
school bullies. Mogami revives these challenges,
more severe than before, and throws them back at
Mob’s unscuffed face.
Mob becomes isolated and alienated. He gets
bullied and beaten. No one comes to his rescue
like always, and the temptation to use his powers
as payback grows. His old memories of people’s
kindness track more distance each day, their
examples of kindness tracking mud over his
disposition with each indignity. He holds
out for six months, and then his bullies start
targeting a cat. Mob impulsively uses his powers
to stop them, and then relents he sees them
frightened out of their minds. The leader of
the bullies shoves his mercy aside telling him
he should drop dead. Distraught over her cruelty
even when he’s shown he’s holding back,
Mob begs her to tell him what he’s done to
deserve this. She smirks and continues
mouthing death wishes, making the purpose
of asking her why moot. He dared to finally
ask and he received no answer. The apparent
meaninglessness of her cruelty and everyone
else’s gets to him, finally. Wound up, he starts
letting his reservations go, hair strands standing
on end, ready to snuff the girl he’s suffered
so much to save. Mogami reclines back from a
distance, savoring the results of his experiment.
Once he passes this point of no return, Mob will
be his to throw at The World.
Mogami’s approach to Mob in Mob Psycho 100
shares many similarities to the Joker’s approach
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