Manga Review: Mob Psycho 100: Reigen–The Man with Level 131 Max Spirit Power by ONE
Aritaka Reigen is the head of the Spirits and Such agency, which investigates and deals with apparently supernatural phenomena. His track record is pretty good, even if he himself seems a little fishy from time to time. Somehow, when Reigen’s involved, things turn out okay. Admittedly, most of the heavy lifting seems to be done by his assistant Serizawa, but Serizawa heartily endorses his employer. And that’s why Tome Kurata is working part time for no pay as his secretary.
Despite having no supernatural gifts herself, Tome is obsessed with the occult, and wants to see it in action. So even though Mr. Reigen has not asked her to, and indeed has strongly hinted he doesn’t want her to, Tome continues to volunteer at the office. She may come to regret that decision.
This is a side story to the popular Mob Psycho 100 manga, and takes place after the end of that series. Mob himself is busy doing other things, but Reigen is still at the same stand, still scamming people with the notion that he’s a powerful psychic. He’s aided in this by the fact that a large number of people’s problems that they think are supernatural actually aren’t, and practical skills can fix them. (Like using some plumbing knowhow to repair noisy pipes.) If it is supernatural, he can get actual psychics to assist him. (One of the things psychics in this world cannot do is detect how powerful another psychic is or even if someone actually has psychic powers.) And he’s a good talker and fast thinker who’s had years of experience separating suckers from their money.
But while Reigen is no angel, he’s also not really a bad guy. He actually does help his clients, even if his methods are dubious, and beneath his cool exterior genuinely cares about his assistants and gives good life advice. And honestly most psychics in the field are jerks and kind of deserve his outlandish lies. (That Level 131 Max Spirit Power? He made up the whole Max Spirit Power thing on the spur of the moment, but he sounds so confident that other psychics think they’ve missed learning something.)
Tome may not be getting the life of adventure and supernatural shenanigans she wanted, but maybe she’ll learn how to find what she really needs as a person. (She’s mirrored by a girl who seems to have a much more manga-esque life, but then we see otherwise.)
The art and character designs tend towards the crude, but that’s become part of the charm of the series, and the writing’s top notch, and Reigen’s a wonderful character.
Content note: body function humor, attempted suicide.
Highly recommended to fans of the original series.
