"You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes."
One of the many qualities of Mob Psycho's charm is its lessons of human kindness and the true power of being a good person.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Mob generally doesn't like hurting people, but what's one of the best ways to get him to reach 100% power? Hurt Ritsu.
- Or Reigen. Mob hits 100% twice because someone has hurt Reigen in front of him.
- After Mob's abysmal performance in the Student Council Presidential Election, he gets asked out by a girl, Emi. While he turns her down, the two do hang out until she admits that she asked him out on a dare. Later, when Mob sees her friends mocking a novel she wrote and tearing it to shreds, he calls them out and uses his powers to repair the book. Even Tsubomi seems to admire the sight.
- Mob refusing to fight Tsuchiya was because his master told him that "guys who go around beating women are the biggest losers in the world". It's touching, and slightly sad, that Reigen had a conversation with Mob explaining why domestic abuse is wrong and encouraging him not to be a guy who hurts women.
- When Mob is threatened by bullies for his money, he ends up being rescued by Dimple, Ritsu, and the Body Improvement Club, who use their own tactics to keep the thugs away from their friend/brother. It's a touching scene since it features so many of Mob's friends and loved ones who would go out of their way to protect him. It also doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny since each of those tactics is worthy of a good laugh.
- When a group of college kids try to force Reigen, Dimple, and Mob to exorcise the spirits from a haunted house, Mob refuses since they're harmless, and are in fact only looking to spend more time together, since in life they were a happy family of three. When the college students continue to pressure him to exorcise the ghosts, Reigen and Dimple see how uncomfortable this is making Mob. Reigen then turns around and Salt Splashes them, calling an end to the exorcism and taking their payment.
- The anime adaptation puts a little more focus on Reigen's late realization that spirits are as much a part of Mob's life as other people.
- Mob's Kirk Summation to Mogami just before 100% Courage has him reflecting on how lucky he is that, even if he does have people who use him, that even they are actually his friends, among the many others that he's made this year. This also fuels his ability to finally exorcise Mogami from Asagiri.
- Reigen and Mob's relationship. Reigen is a jerk to him at times, and in one arc is so rude to him that Mob refuses to show up for work for quite a long stretch of time. But at the end of the day, they care a lot about each other, with Reigen becoming more of a Benevolent Boss and friend to make up for his earlier harsh treatment of Mob, and expressing his pride in how much Mob has grown up. Mob uses his power anonymously to make the room shake, so the press will believe Reigen is a real psychic and leave him alone, and later expresses that Reigen is the only person he feels comfortable talking to.
- "I knew it all along... my Master's true identity... he is 'a good person'".
- The anime makes it even more heartwarming by following it up with a quick montage of Mob's first meeting with Reigen, which then transitions from a younger Mob's look of wonder to Reigen's reaction to Mob's words. Reigen looks like he's on the verge of tears.
- Their origin story. Mob initially seeks Reigen out after misunderstanding a woman saying that his massage was as good as an exorcism, thinking Reigen was an esper like him. Reigen didn't really believe Mob had powers, but wanted to comfort him anyway, explaining that he understood Mob's struggle to fit in. He told Mob that his powers didn't make any different from anyone else, and the look on Mob's face... Mob misunderstood and thought Reigen meant he was an esper as well, and Reigen admits to himself that Mob has inspired him.
- "I knew it all along... my Master's true identity... he is 'a good person'".
- When all of Mob's friends learn that he intends to try and place in the top 10 for this year's school marathon in order to make a love confession to Tsubomi, he receives overwhelming support. The Telepathy Club and Body Improvement Club help push his training to its limits, Reigen cancels work to help him jog, Dimple shows continual support and concern for his efforts, Ritsu takes care of the household chores while he trains, and Onigawara gives him some high-end running shoes. It shows just how far Mob has come from the social outcast he was at the start of the series.
- Mob vs. Serizawa ends with Mob showing the bear how similar they are based on his memories and past experiences through 100% Friendship.
- Mob vs Touichirou begins with Mob extending his hand in understanding to the elder Suzuki and talks of the merit of having people in your life; he immediately dismisses the idea that Mob could possibly know how he feels. Tellingly, after their fight ends and he surrenders, Touichirou emulates the hand gesture and muses on what Mob said; despite how far gone he was, Mob got through to him.
- Doubles as a Tear Jerker: Mob refuses to end Suzuki père's life per his request, and sits there with him, selflessly holding space for Suzuki while absorbing the man's excess energy into his own body. Even though it could mean him sacrificing his own life; even though he openly admits to deeply disliking the guy... simply because he didn't want Suzuki to suffer alone. Now this is compassion we can all learn from.
- Chapter 96.3's "Bug" Omake page. After scaring the crap out of Teru, Ritsu, and Reigen, the titular beetle is simply observed without fear or malice by the Body Improvement Club, and they let it fly out the window peacefully.
- Once Ritsu finally awakens his powers, he lashes out at Mob and attacks him. Mob's reaction?Mob: Ritsu, you have psychic powers! Congratulations!
- Mob's sincere love and admiration for his little brother is always heartwarming. Special mention goes to Mob hugging Ritsu, relieved that he's alright, in the Scar arc.
- Teru taking Mob home after his first fight with Koyama and taking care of him shows how much he's changed and how much he really wants to be Mob's friend.
- All of Mob's interactions with the Body Improvement Club. In most any other medium, when a social reject like Mob approaches a group of jocks, he gets bullied, abused, and treated like dirt. Here, instead, Mob is immediately welcomed as part of the club, and is well liked by all of the members, to the point that when Mob is kidnapped, the entire club shows up to whoop wholesale ass on the delinquents responsible.
- The Body Improvement Club in general are just a bunch of Lovable Jocks. When Tenga Onigawara gets framed as a pervert, they're the only students who believe his story and don't ostracize him, welcoming him into the group (especially heartwarming given that they previously expressed distaste for his violent nature, but are willing to give him a chance to try and improve.) They also allow the Telepathy Club to keep using their Club Room, with their only condition being they look after Mob whenever he passes out during training.
- Despite being highly outclassed by Super 5 Enforcer Shibata, each of the members lay their lives on the line in order to protect Mob and their captain. It escalates to the point that Musashi uses his body to keep Mob from getting crushed under Shibata's foot.Musashi: I don't know what you have against Kageyama, but... he doesn't deserve to have you step on his head... He's a kind and decent guy. (to Mob) Listen, you've been working so hard... no matter how many times you passed out, no matter how many times you've stumbled, you've always been running right behind us. You never give up! Seeing you like that... gives the rest of us courage! And that's not gonna break... no matter what this guy does. You hear me?! (to Shibata) I won't let you! I'll die before I let you do anything to Kageyama!
- During his showdown with President Suzuki, Mob recites the chant of his club and uses it to fight back against the False King.Mob: Body Improvement! Fight On!
- Reigen and Mob's very first meeting. While most other scam artists would likely have said, "Get lost, kid," the moment a youngster like Mob approached them, Reigen instead welcomes in the clearly troubled young Mob, and offers him the advice that literally becomes the cornerstone of Mob's existence: You are no different than anyone else, no better or worse. Your focus shouldn't be on having powers, but on being a good person, above all else.
- During the climactic fight with Scar, Mob was torn between wanting to protect his friends and the desire to uphold his master's ideals of not hurting people with his powers. However, Reigen gives Mob a quick pep-talk and reminds him that sometimes it's okay to run away, which inspires a third option: leave it to master. This turns his 100% murderous intent into 100% gratitude instead, allowing him to give all of his power to Reigen, comfortable in the knowledge the Reigen will protect them. This manifests in "Reigen 1000%" who trounces Scar without Mob compromising on his ideals.
- During the second OVA, Reigen is frustrated when he learns that Serizawa was able to travel outside of the haunted train while he was trapped with no way of escaping. But rather than expressing his frustrations, he decides to hold his temper knowing that Serizawa is still new to reading the room and offers some genuine wisdom to the bear on the importance of being able to think for himself. The fox man then solidifies his speech by reminding him that "he is no longer anyone's slave or a shut-in".
- In Episode 1 of the 3rd Season, when Serizawa expresses fear over having wasted most of his life as a Hikkikomori, both Reigen and Mob assure him that he still has a whole life left to enjoy and just him being there outside of his old room is proof enough that he's becoming better.
- In the same episode, Mob apologizes to his master admitting that he can't inherit Spirits and Such like he proposed earlier as he's still figuring out what he wants in life. Reigen not only accepts his decision but assures him that he can live his life however he want and change his job(s) if he's not satisfied. He even uses his own business as an example saying that he got bored of his old office job and ended up with Spirits and Such for so long because of something special. (It was Mob.)
- Mob being able to convince his group mates to make an impressive demon costume for their part in the School Festival. Everyone ends up being proud of putting the effort and thank the esper for pushing them to try harder.
- Reigen showing up to the school to support his pupil.
- At the end of Chapter 97.8, Dimple, having been powered up immensely by the Divine Tree, insults the shirt that Teru had bought for Mob, causing him to reach 100%. Come 97.9, it's revealed that Dimple's shock at how ugly the shirt was, as opposed to all of Mobs other friends lying so as not to hurt his feelings, keyed Mob off unequivocally that Dimple's bluster and attempts to provoke Mob were hollow, and he discards all his power, with his explosion not being 100% Anger or Offended, but 100% Trust that Dimple cares about him. This is followed in 97.10 where Mob thinks back to realizing that everything that Dimple did with the Divine Tree is stuff that he could have done on his own, but that in being caught up in his own desire to be popular, brushed off Dimple when he asked Mob to join him in gaining recognition. By the end, Dimple realizes that his desire to be a god was really just hoping for someone, anyone, to acknowledge him, and that he finally found that type of person in Mob.
- The Telepathy mini-arc delivers one of the best moments for our favorite club. As the school year nears it's end, Tome becomes disheartened that the Telepathy club will not survive her graduation. However, she becomes deeply disappointed to discover that besides herself, no one ever took her goal of using telepathy to make contact with aliens seriously and used the club as an excuse to goof off; which spurs her to disband the club. Ironically, this motivates the club to finally find a telepath; who turns out to be Takenaka, the member who left at the start of the year and had to be replaced by Mob. As it turns out, he joined the club hoping to find other telepaths like him, only to be disappointed when that was not the case. Despite the both of them having no reason to rejoin the Telepathy club, both Takenaka and Tomo decide to give it one last shot due to the other club members' eagerness and enthusiasm. This climaxes when they knowingly perform a bogus ritual to summon aliens, but the experience of simply being together and seeing how far the club was willing to go for each other was enough to make them happy. Then when things couldn't get any better, they do when aliens actually appear and abduct them! And what do they do together in a spaceship? Why just hangout together and goof off like it's another one of their club meetings. It's an absolute delight as they and aliens becomes friends, especially for Tomo who finally got to see her dream come true thanks to her friends and for Takenaka who finally found a place where he could belong thanks to his telepathy. One last hurrah for the Telepathy Club indeed.
- When Ritsu finds Teru post-confrontation with ???% during episode 11 of season 3, the former takes the latter to a safer location on a building's rooftop and covers him with his gakuran jacket. A notable change from the manga where Teru's left alone and didn't have any follow up after battling ???%.
- All of Chapter 100. Mob and "Shigeo" learn to accept each other, Reigen admits he lied the whole time and is openly accepted by Mob, Dimple returns for a brief moment to help the pair, and Mob finally openly cries for the first time in a while after he gets rejected by Tsubomi. That last one is heartwarming for the sheer catharsis of seeing Mob emote without his powers coming into play.
- The whole of Chapter 101 as well. Mob and Ritsu are the Vice Presidents of the Body Improvement Club and Salt Mid Student Council respectively, Mob being a mentor to the 1st year recruits. Ritsu reveals that even after moving away, Tsubomi is still in contact with Mob, and the two talk over the phone regularly. Serizawa and Tome have settled into pretty happy roles working at Spirits & Such, and the chapter ends with the Spirits & Such workers holding a birthday party for Reigen, attended by the Telepathy Club, Teruki and the Awakening Lab, and Shou Suzuki. The manga ends on a panel of Mob laughing brightly after accidentally sending Reigen's cake into his face with his powers.
- The last scene of the third opening
features Mob as a little kid meeting Reigen for the first time. It then has him growing up while Reigen places his hand on his shoulder showing how proud he is of his boy.
