Television series

Mob Psycho 100

Name: Mob Psycho 100
Genre: Comedy, Action, Anime, Horror
Released: 2016
Cast: Setsuo Itou, Takahiro Sakurai, Miyu Irino, Akio Ohtsuka, Uki Satake

Urban fantasy

Mob Psycho 100 follows a painfully awkward psychic teenager who'd rather stay invisible than use the power humming under his skin. It's ONE's follow-up to One Punch Man, and it shares that deadpan comic engine, but points it inward — existential dread, fragile friendships, and Studio Bones rendering emotional overload as literal, gorgeous explosion. Funny, sincere, unexpectedly moving.

TVMaze rating

3.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like coming-of-age stories where a deadpan kid's inner life matters as much as the spectacle, and where a fight scene can cut straight into an awkward crush.

Skip it if your patience for slapstick and sudden bursts of violence is thin, since the jokes repeat their rhythm and the darker moments land hard in an otherwise cheerful show.

What it asks of you: Roughly 28 minutes an episode across three seasons, it suits a steady weekly habit more than a binge, and lingers patiently over quiet, awkward scenes.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

One-Punch Man2015

From the same writer, ONE, this flips Mob's premise: a hero so overpowered nothing is a challenge, mined for the same deadpan comedy about boredom and identity beneath spectacle.

But The joke is one-note by design — if you need escalating stakes rather than escalating absurdity, it can feel repetitive.

My Hero Academia2016

Another anime about a kid grappling with an extraordinary ability and what it means for who he becomes — bigger cast, brighter tone, same earnest heart.

But More conventional shonen structure — tournaments, rankings, power-ups — where Mob deliberately avoids that scaffolding.

Jujutsu Kaisen2020

Wants the same thing Mob does — gorgeous, kinetic animation turning inner turmoil into full-body spectacle — but plays it straighter and darker.

But Less comedy, more horror-tinged dread; if Mob's warmth is what you loved, this trades some of it for menace.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Mob Psycho 100

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Carrie1976

Both are stories about a quiet, bullied teenager whose suppressed psychic power finally erupts under emotional pressure — Mob's climaxes are basically Carrie's prom, restaged as comedy.

Sissy Spacek's performance is the original template for the shy telekinetic kid pushed past breaking point — tender, then absolutely devastating.

But It's a horror film with a genuinely tragic ending, not a coming-of-age comedy — no warmth waiting on the other side.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood2009

Same studio's other masterpiece — a story that swings from slapstick to devastating loss with total control, and never loses its moral spine.

But Longer commitment, denser plot, and a much more serious overall register than Mob's episodic looseness.

Demon Slayer2019

If it was the animation that floored you, this is the current high-water mark for that kind of hand-drawn, hyper-fluid combat spectacle.

But Thin on the comedy and character interiority that make Mob more than just a light show.

Assassination Classroom2015

A misfit class, an unconventional mentor, and the same trick of hiding real tenderness inside an absurd premise — this time an octopus-alien assassin teaching middle schoolers.

But Broader, sillier humor throughout, and less visually ambitious than Mob's set-piece climaxes.

Haikyuu!!2014

No powers at all, but the same emotional throughline: an awkward kid finding his people and his worth through something he's quietly obsessed with.

But It's a sports anime — if you came to Mob for psychic chaos, the stakes here are entirely human-scaled.

The Promised Neverland2019

Kids with hidden potential, a father-figure whose motives are murkier than they seem, and dread simmering under a cheerful surface — thematically closer than it looks.

But Thriller pacing rather than comedy; the tone darkens fast and doesn't let up like Mob's does between arcs.

Devilman Crybaby2018

A teenager whose body and morality are hijacked by forces bigger than him, rendered in the same tradition of anime turning adolescent overwhelm into literal monstrous transformation.

But Much bleaker and more explicit — sex, violence, despair — with almost none of Mob's gentleness or humor.

Paper Moon1973

Reigen is a con artist posing as a psychic guru who ends up actually caring for the kid he's using — this is that exact dynamic played entirely straight, no powers required.

A grifter and an orphaned kid con their way across Depression-era America, and the affection that sneaks up on both of them is the whole point.

But Black-and-white, slow, and utterly earthbound — if the appeal was psychic explosions, this offers absolutely none.

Marjoe1972

A real documentary about a charismatic child evangelist who admits, on camera, that his gift is theater — the exact moral question Mob Psycho asks about Reigen, minus the fiction.

An unsettling, Oscar-winning look at how easily performed belief becomes real belief, in both the performer and the audience desperate to trust him.

But No comedy, no anime, no fantasy at all — a sober documentary about faith and fraud that asks you to sit with real discomfort.