Teruki Hanazawa

Teruki Hanazawa is a middle-school esper in Mob Psycho 100 who arrives as Mob's first real rival: a popular, blond-haired student convinced that psychic power makes him a superior kind of person. One crushing defeat rewrites that belief and turns him into the series' most dependable young fighter.

Background

Teru grew up reading his ability as proof that he was built differently from everyone else. At Black Vinegar Middle School he plays the role flawlessly: strong grades, easy charm, admirers in every corridor, and a private certainty that none of it is luck. When the criminal esper organisation Claw starts sweeping the city for talented children, Teru handles the scouts himself, then hears there is another boy his age worth measuring himself against. He goes looking expecting a formality, and finds a quiet fourteen-year-old who does not want to fight at all.

Powers & Abilities

Ability	What it does
Psychokinesis	Lifts, hurls and crushes objects and people with raw telekinetic force.
Energy blasts	Compresses his aura into beams and bursts fired at range.
Aura-clad combat	Wraps his body in psychic energy for speed and striking power.
Barriers	Raises shields that blunt attacks and shelter bystanders.
Flight	Levitates and moves freely through the air mid-fight.
Improvised weapons	Turns rubble, poles and anything loose into guided projectiles.

What separates Teru from other espers his age is craft rather than volume. He fights like a trained athlete, reading an opponent's rhythm and repurposing the environment instead of simply trading blasts. He also learns fast, and each arc shows him applying a lesson the previous one taught him painfully.

Personality

In public Teru is warm, funny and unbothered, the student teachers trust and classmates orbit. Underneath that, at least early on, he sorts people into useful and irrelevant. He loves an audience, narrates his own fights and strikes poses nobody asked for. Losing removes the contempt but not the showmanship, and afterwards he is quick to put himself between a civilian and whatever is coming. He is also comically vain, and the state of his hair stays a sore subject long after the bruises heal.

Relationships

• Shigeo Kageyama (Mob): the rival who beat him, then the friend whose calm decency became his benchmark.
• Ritsu Kageyama: a bickering, prickly partnership built on real respect under real pressure.
• Ekubo (Dimple): an opportunistic alliance between two people who find each other useful and admit it.
• Arataka Reigen: Mob's master, whom Teru takes seriously as the adult in the room on thin evidence.

Role in the Story

Teru exists to say out loud the idea Mob refuses: that being special entitles you to something. His introduction is the show's central argument at full volume, and its outcome sets the moral temperature for everything after. From then on he doubles as the series' yardstick, since how badly a villain handles Teru tells you how worried to be. He also carries long stretches of the Claw storyline while Mob is elsewhere. For where he sits among the wider cast, see our character guide.

Frequently asked

Is Teru stronger than Mob?

No. Teru is among the most capable espers his age and is often the better technical fighter, but Mob's raw output sits on a different scale entirely. Teru's arc is largely about accepting that and finding worth in himself anyway.

Why does Teru wear a wig?

His hair is destroyed during his first confrontation with Mob, and he covers the damage with a wig while it grows back. The series plays it as a running joke, and his vanity about it never fully goes away.