This year marks the tenth anniversary of Studio Bones’ anime adaptation of ONE‘s supernatural coming-of-age series, Mob Psycho 100. And to celebrate the occasion, the creatives who brought the anime to life visited Anime Expo to reminisce over the series’ humble beginnings back in 2016 and its pensive finale in 2022.
Keeping it a buck, of all the anime I’ve covered on the ground at Anime Expo this year, I’m especially partial to Mob Psycho 100. In fact, in my Kotaku list ranking the best anime of the decade, Mob Psycho 100 slapped the top of the leaderboard as my absolute favorite show. And I’m not alone in that. The series has a wealth of its own memes. Key among them is mentor Reigen Arataka’s claim to fame as the Tumblr Sexyman, christened by Undertale creator Toby Fox’s Sans x Mob Psycho fanfiction. And who can forget when Mob’s mild-mannered, bowl-cut visage graced US headlines in the funniest way imaginable?
Mob Psycho 100 is a show that contains multitudes, not only for the neurodivergent folks among us but also as a masterwork with lush sakuga and resonant themes about coming into your own. It’s also funny as hell, which is to be expected from the delightfully absurdist mind behind One Punch Man.
Likewise, it was a distinct honor to celebrate the anime’s 10th anniversary at Anime Expo by chatting with director Yuzuru Tachikawa, Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama actor Setsuo Ito, and Reigen Arataka actor Takahiro Sakurai about what the series has meant to them a decade later.
Isaiah Colbert, io9: This year marks the 10th anniversary of Mob Psycho 100. Looking back, what does reaching this milestone mean to each of you, and when did you first realize you were working on a series that would leave such a lasting impact on the anime community?
Yuzuru Tachikawa: The difference between my understanding of this right now and what it used to be is a huge difference. When we were doing the anime adaptation originally, what we did was start with a promotional video—we would call it PV. It was a short video that was to show it to fans of the original manga and potential future fans so that we could find creators to work on it with us.
But the reaction, and here’s me thinking, “Okay, people are going to see this and say, ‘Oh yeah, I want to work on that. I want to be a part of that. I want to be a staff member on that project.’” But the reality is that when we put up the promotional video, a lot of people saw that and said, “Oh, that looks challenging. Oh, that looks tough, and I don’t think I want to work on that because that looks like it’s too much of a challenge.” So it was tough for us to find a lot of staff members to work on it at the beginning because of that.
Once we finished the first season, then we had some time between that to grow, and there was merch launched, then we got picked up by some different magazines. By the time we got to the second season, there were more people saying, “Oh yeah, I want to work on this.” It was much easier to get staff members to work on that project at that time. And that’s when I realized the reach of this is going to be pretty big because we were able to get people.
Now it’s been ten years. On a monthly basis, there’s new merch that’s launched. And now, we get called to come over to be on panels in the United States. I think about that on a daily basis, but it wasn’t always that way.
Setsuo Ito: For me, personally, this title was a first of many things for me. Up until now, I hadn’t worked on a lot of things that I was recognized as a voice actor for. But on the other hand, If you asked me when it was that I realized that this had a big impact, it was kind of along the way. At some point, I just kind of knew. But the moment when I realized that was mostly when someone said, “Oh wow, you’re Mob’s voice?” That was a first for me. Up until that point, I hadn’t been the voice for anyone that anyone would recognize. But I think it’s great that I was able to be. I felt grateful that I was able to be involved in something that had a big impact.
If I hadn’t been chosen for this role, I think I would’ve quit voice acting. After all these years, for me, Mob Psycho 100 is also the title that allowed me to continue to be a voice actor. It was the continuation of that for me, and I am appreciative of that.
Takahiro Sakurai: For me, I wanted people to take away from this what I got from it. What I mean by that is I came to this title after having a considerable career. Of course, I liked the visual aspect of it and I liked the design of it. But there were also the words and the lines by the characters that had an impact on me, that hit me differently. I felt like this was a title for me. I felt like this was a story for me. I felt like it represented my own emotions in a way. I felt like it was representative of me and that it said things that I couldn’t put into words.
So I wanted other people to take that away from it as well. Because I worked on this title, because I was part of this, other people can see it and feel the same thing. Feel like, “Wow, this said something. It tells me about me” or “I identify with this” in a way that maybe they wouldn’t if I hadn’t been on it.
But I was reminded of the impact of the story today at the panel on stage. The story itself that the original writer of the manga, ONE—his work is fantastic. And that we had a fantastic director to work on this anime. I was reminded of all that on the panel today on stage.
Mob Psycho 100 is streaming on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Netflix.
io9 is on the ground at Anime Expo 2026. We’ll be bringing you updates on all the biggest panels, screenings, and announcements, plus exclusive one-on-one interviews with the people behind some of the best and most popular anime around. You can check out all of io9’s Anime Expo coverage here.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Read the full article here
