The biggest ‘Mob establishing character moment’ for me is the moment during the seventh division when Koyama appears again
Mob’s outward demeanor doesn’t change for an instant. He doesn’t blink. He doesn’t react to Koyama’s threats. He just raises a hand and tells Teru, “We don’t have time right now,” as he’s stepping forward.
And then he fucking obliterates Koyama on the spot, literally without doing more than raising his hand, with all the prejudice you could imagine a fourteen-year-old might unleash on a grown-ass man who brutalized him and his beloved little brother. He makes no comment. All he says is, “Sorry that was noisy.”
It’s a very stark expression of a lot about Mob’s character compressed very neatly into one moment:
Mob is an iceberg of a person. He shows very little of what’s going on internally. We saw very little indication that he thought about Koyama after that fight, and it would be easy to assume that Mob didn’t hold a grudge – but Koyama beat the shit out of him, and more importantly, Ritsu. Koyama was the target of 100% Hostility. Mob is fucking pissed with Koyama – but if Mob hadn’t butted up against him again, we likely never would have seen a hint of it.
Mob doesn’t like violence. That’s been very thoroughly exposited at this point.
Mob doesn’t like the use of violence as a negotiating tactic. Mob understands very well that he’s capable of immense violence. Mob can and has hurt people very dear to him (Ritsu) while trying to protect them; Mob can and has gone overboard even while defending himself (the bullies, Teru). Mob refuses to use violence without cause, or as a tool to get what he wants.
Koyama hurt Ritsu. Both times Mob goes up against Koyama, it’s the most no-holds-barred we’ve seen him so far while conscious.
Mob values his family enough to put his strict moral code on hold, roll up his sleeves, and flatten a bastard. (We see this again in the manga with 100% Tenacity.)
He doesn’t seem to regret this, either. We see him willing to defend himself against the others of the seventh division (Mukai’s dolls, Tsuchiya, Terada, Takeuchi).
I doubt Mob likes it, or is happy about having to do that. As soon as he’s found Ritsu, he becomes much more reluctant to fight. He just wants to leave with his brother and his teacher (and Teru).
At the same time … while Mob’s family is in danger, he will fight to protect them. Mob does not tolerate threats to his family.
Mob is absolutely capable of violence, not just physically, but emotionally. He is emotionally capable of turning his psychic powers to brutal ends, and this is the source of most of his internal conflict over the series. Humans can hurt others and believe it’s for the right reasons, and Mob knows he’s not exempt from that; and while in-story it’s represented through the lens of psychic powers, it’s a very real conflict for a socially awkward, emotionally erratic, (almost certainly autistic) adolescent to struggle with.
MP100 handles this conflict in a realistic and complex manner, too: Mob does not like violence; but he’s never criticized for fighting to protect his family; but it’s also made clear that he shouldn’t have to, that this is a terrible and traumatic situation for a fourteen-year-old to be in; but responsibility for that situation is laid squarely on the shoulders of the actual fucking adults forcing children into life-or-death-or-torture scenarios. It is, honest to god, the only medium I’ve seen to approach violence with that level of complexity (especially young adult media with child protagonists).
To get back to my point about Mob’s character –
Mob is far from “innocent” in the way he’s often portrayed. There is a lot of pent-up pain and terror and rage in that kid – and it feeds on itself, because Mob is afraid of his own emotions, and frustrated with his own struggles to express them safely, and in pain over his own self-suffocation. He’s crushingly lonely because he’s certain, deep down, that if anyone saw what he “really” wanted – ???% – they would instantly reject him out of fear.
It’s precisely because of that that he’s capable of the immense empathy, compassion, thoughtfulness, and self-control we see him demonstrate.
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