Mob: From Past to Present

Spoiler Alert

This article contains spoilers for both seasons of the Mob Psycho anime so please don’t give our names to the Claw organisation.

Mob Psycho 2 is one of the best anime released in the Winter 2019 Season. This sequel, which was highly anticipated because of the successful first season in 2016, made a good impression on the anime fans and featured one most intriguing aspect: Shigeo ‘Mob’ Kageyama’s character development.

Right from the first episode, we see Mob’s powers increase and him expressing himself more. He starts thinking about himself; he starts talking with his classmates; and he even runs in the presidential election to impress his crush Tsubomi. All of these improvements are found in the first episode, and later in the series, Mob will change into a different person than the one we met in the first Season.

From Season 1 to Season 2, Mob’s character undergoes massive changes. Now let us discuss a few ways in which Mob changed.

Body Improvements:

In Season 1, Mob joins the Body Improvement Club to impress his crush, Tsubomi. But we never saw any positive results of Mob’s efforts as he failed to keep up with his upperclassmen. However, in Season 2 we get to see slight changes in Mob’s behavior. Even his upperclassmen see he is slowly progressing and closing the gap between them. He also participates in the 5km marathon race to finish in the top 10, so he can confess his feelings to Tsubomi. He may have failed, but he ran faster compared to the last time. He never stops and continues training.

Mob’s Expressions:

In the first episode of Season 2, Mob expresses his desire to change people, which he continues to do till the end of the Season, where he fights the boss and successfully tries to change him from being bad to good. Mob also displays the drive to express himself in many ways so that he can change himself and others; he even gets to have friends which we never expected to have if he remained the person he was in the first Season. He also participates in the presidential elections. These were some things that Mob from Season 1 would never do.

Social Life:

Mob was all alone in Season 1 and spent most of his time working with Reigen. He never had any actual friends, until he joined the Body Improvement Club. His situation changed a lot in Season 2. After defeating Mogami, Mob starts to spend more time with his friends outside of school. His encounter with Mogami made him realize that he has family and friends who care about him. He also acknowledges how good a life he has.

Strength/Powers:

Shigeo’s powers develop very rapidly. He begins to sense human spirits and he can also imbue spiritual energy into plants.. He had no such powers in Season 1. Mob’s psychic powers have increased to such a high level that they can be noticed in his fight with Mogami. When it comes to the final fight against the Claw boss, we see that the power levels of Mob from Season 1 are nowhere near those of the new Mob.

Mob-Reigen Relationship:

Arataka Reigen is an important figure in Mob’s life. He is his psychic teacher despite Reigen not being a real psychic. In Season 1, Mob holds Reigen in high regard, becoming his disciple to learn how to control his powers. But unknown to Mob, Reigen is actually a con artist who uses him to maintain his Exorcism business. Despite his initial intentions, deep down Reigen holds feelings of concern for Mob. Reigen has a master manipulator side to him, but this seems to wear off towards Mob in Season 2. Suddenly, Mob refuses to work with Reigen, realizing his intentions, and in return Reigen pisses him off by saying that he has no friends. Like this, the relationship between them weakens, but as the story moves along, Mob knows deep down that his master is really a good guy. And at last he continues to work with him, since Reigen now understands how Mob feels and tries to be soft with him.

The Road to 100%

So like this, Season 2 has seen Shigeo ‘Mob’ Kageyama change in a drastic way. His character has developed a lot since the previous season. These improvements have paid off and the fans were very much hyped to see Mob row as a character. From the beginning of Season 2 right up to the end, Mob’s character has shown major developments in his social life, his powers, in the way he starts to express himself to others, and in the way he thinks he can change people from straying down the evil path. These aspects of him have caught the eyes of the fans, thus making Season 2 a hit among the Winter 2019 anime.