Shigeo Kageyama

Shigeo Kageyama, better known as Mob, is the middle-school protagonist of Mob Psycho 100, a quiet boy carrying overwhelming psychic power. He works part-time for a fake psychic, bottles up his emotions to stay in control, and wants nothing more than to grow up normal, get fit, and talk to his crush.

Background

Shigeo is an eighth grader at Salt Middle School who has been able to bend objects with his mind since he was small. The powers arrived long before the judgement to use them did, and an early incident at home convinced him that psychic ability is a danger to the people around him rather than a gift. Looking for someone who could explain what was happening to him, he ended up in a shabby office belonging to a self-declared master psychic and stayed on as an underpaid assistant. Between school, exorcism jobs and the Body Improvement Club he joined to build a body worth having, he spends the series trying to become ordinary in every way that actually matters to him.

Powers & Abilities

Ability	What it does
Telekinesis	Lifts, crushes and hurls matter on a scale that ranges from a bent spoon to entire structures.
Psychic barriers	Raises shields around himself or others, strong enough to blunt attacks from experienced espers.
Exorcism	Disperses evil spirits outright, which is the paid half of his after-school job.
Energy absorption	Drains psychic energy from spirits and espers and folds it into his own reserves.
Astral projection	Separates his spirit from his body to move, scout or act while unconscious.
The 100% counter	A rising emotional gauge; at 100 the feeling he has been swallowing pours out as raw power.

The counter is the whole point of him. Mob does not train to get stronger, because he is already frightening; he trains to keep the lid on. Every repressed embarrassment, worry and flash of anger feeds a percentage readout, and the label on it (courage, gratitude, rage) decides what comes out the other side. When he is pushed past his own limits entirely, something older and less careful takes the wheel, which is exactly the outcome he spends the series trying to avoid.

Personality

Mob speaks in a flat, unhurried register and misses social cues constantly, but he is never cold. He apologises to spirits before dispelling them, takes his mentor's obvious nonsense as sincere life advice, and holds an absolute personal rule against using his powers on another human being. His self-image is stubbornly low: he genuinely believes he has no talent worth mentioning, so he jogs with the Body Improvement Club, studies badly, and treats getting stronger as a matter of character rather than power output. He is honest to the point of awkwardness and, when he finally decides something, immovable.

Relationships

• Arataka Reigen: his con-artist boss, who has no powers at all yet gives him the moral guardrails nobody else does.
• Ritsu Kageyama: his younger brother, more capable at everything ordinary, and quietly measuring himself against Mob.
• Ekubo (Dimple): an evil spirit who first tries to use him and slowly turns into an unreliable friend.
• Teruki Hanazawa: a rival esper whose worldview does not survive meeting Mob.
• Tsubomi Takane: the childhood classmate he likes, and the reason he wants to be someone worth noticing.

Role in the Story

Mob is the still centre of a very loud show. Around him the plot escalates through rival espers, spirit outbreaks and organisations that want his ability for themselves, while his own arc runs the opposite direction: inward, toward accepting the parts of himself he keeps muting. Fights are usually resolved less by his output than by what he decides afterwards, and the series repeatedly asks whether power grants anyone the right to be special. For how he fits alongside the wider cast, see our full character guide.

Frequently asked

Why is Shigeo Kageyama called Mob?

"Mob" is Japanese slang for a background extra, the unnamed figure in a crowd scene. Classmates gave him the nickname because he is so plain and quiet that he fades out of the frame. The joke is that the most forgettable-looking boy in the room is the most powerful person in the series.

What happens when Mob reaches 100%?

The percentage tracks how much emotion he has suppressed, not how strong he is. Hitting 100 releases whatever feeling has been building, so the result depends entirely on the label attached to it, and the effect can be devastating or oddly gentle. Mob treats reaching 100 as a failure of self-control rather than a power-up.