After seeing a fellow psychic successfully shilling their wares on television, Reigen hatches the wholly original plan of writing his memoirs. Of course, when he says “writing” he actually means dictating while his student Mob does all of the work. As Reigen recounts his story, it quickly becomes clear that he is embellishing the truth and making himself out to be the main character in every situation. Now Mob is left with a dilemma; should he write down what he is told or ensure that the real heroes get the recognition they deserve?
‘Reigen – The Miracle Psychic That Nobody Knows’ is an OVA set right after the events of the first season of ‘Mob Psycho 100’. Well, the word “original” in Original Video Animation isn’t quite accurate as this is more of a refresher that recounts the events of season one. Before you instantly switch off though, it does still have a side story of its own as well as an intriguing twist – everything is retold through the eyes of Reigen. This makes for a fairly unique retelling as not only does Reigen take credit for things that he didn’t do, but the animators also paste his face over a number of other characters as they are doing something heroic. When coupled with the fairly simple yet relatively fun premise, this definitely makes for some amusing antics which show both the good and bad sides of Reigen’s character.
Although it’s not always overflowing with physical fights like ONE’s ‘One Punch Man’, ‘Mob Psycho 100’ still has its fair share of supernatural showdowns. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, Mob is an extremely powerful esper with immense psychic power. However, he constantly finds himself having to work hard to ensure that his teenage emotions don’t take control. Unsurprisingly, this does occasionally happen and when an emotion bubbles up to the surface, his supernatural powers reach unfathomable levels. This makes for some very exciting confrontations, all of which give the audience something slightly different depending on the emotion. As you might expect, the majority of the first season’s encounters are included here, making for a varied series of battles that are always impressive even in this condensed format.
While this all makes for a fairly digestible 60 minutes, there are still a few inevitable issues that arise from what is essentially a recap blended with a bit of filler. The biggest of these seems to be the speed at which they gloss over some of the material, especially the introductions of characters like Dimple and Hanazawa. Both are quite pivotal to the first season (and the subsequent ones), meaning that their fairly brief cameos here do them a serious disservice. The other real oversight is the action. Although it does feature almost every fight, they are heavily edited and we only get glimpses of the best bits. Initially, I thought this was simply because they were holding back for specific battles but it soon becomes clear that they’re just trying to cram in as much in as possible.
‘Reigen – The Miracle Psychic That Nobody Knows’ is a fairly entertaining way of recapping the first season of ‘Mob Psycho 100’. Beyond that though, it feels a touch too lightweight to warrant a solid recommendation. The new material alone isn’t really worth the time investment, and there are far too many missing elements for newcomers to make this their jumping-off point.
- Trailer [2]: ‘Revolver’ - July 24, 2024
- Theatrical release: ‘Only the River Flows’ - July 24, 2024
- Trailer: ‘The Traveller’ - July 23, 2024
