User blog:CiscoTheSoto/Shigeo Kageyama/Pure Good

What's the Work?
Shigeo Kageyama is the main protagonist from ONE's manga work and anime adaptation, Mob Psycho 100. The story revolves around this young middle school student who is blessed with amazing psychic abilities. He also works at the Sprits and Such Consultations Office with his master, Arataka Reigen. Ever since he went to meet Reigen when he was a young boy, he learned from him that psychic powers don't make him better than everyone else. He was also taught never to use his psychic powers against other people, so he always does his best to never use his psychic powers in general and tries to improve himself, since he's just an ordinary person without his psychic powers.

Who is the Mob? What has he done?
Even in the worst of circumstances, Mob has always done his best to never use his psychic powers against others unless his friends and family were in danger. The only times he ever uses his psychic powers is to exorcise evil spirits. After exorcising an evil spirit, Dimple, who was trying to become a god through a religious order of brainwashed followers, that evil spirit returns, but just when Shigeo was prepared to exorcise Dimple, he decided to spare him after Dimple assured that he would try to be good.

Even when he is in mortal danger, such as being kidnapped by gangs from other schools and being attacked by Teruki Hanazawa, another esper who lived his life as a popular kid and gang leader by using psychic powers, he did not attack them with his psychic powers. Even when he was being strangled by Hanazawa in a fit of rage, he only used his fists with his regular power and not his psychic powers.

Later, when his brother Ritsu is kidnapped by an organization of espers bent on world domination, he teams up with Hanazawa to get him back. During their assault, he comes across one of the female espers, but during the fight, he cries because he doesn't want to beat up a lady, having been taught by Reigen that people who go around beating up women are the biggest losers in the world. Eventually, his master arrives, and the group is confronted by many of the villanous espers, where they begin their fight. Ritsu and Hanazawa fended off the espers, but Mob doesn't want to fight, since it's not in his nature. In the end, he realizes that he has no choice and he must intervene and kill the espers, but his master grabs him, telling him not to allow it to come to that and to run away. In that moment, he transfers all his energy to Reigen out of gratitude. In the end, they are victorious, and Reigen and Mob manage to convince the other espers to use their powers for good.

In the second season, we see Mob has had character development and is no longer as shy as he was before. In this second season, he faces more challenging battles, such as Keiji Mogami, an evil spirit who was once a popular esper while he was alive but became bitter and vengeful against society and decides to kill everyone evil and corrupt in society as punishment. He also meets Claw, the evil organization in season 1, again and fights the leader. After a very difficult and emotionally-wrenching battle, Mob manages to defeat the leader and change him.

Goodness Zone/Corrupting Factors
As the series has progressed, Shigeo has stood out as a pure soul who never wants to resort to violence and only does so in the worst of situations. He never holds grudges against anyone and is dedicated to changing villainous people instead of killing them. Even against evil spirits, the only things that Mob regularly uses his psychic powers to eliminate, he can be merciful towards, as seen with Dimple and later on a family of spirits. This family of spirits died before they could live together and decided to live as a family in their spirit forms; after hearing this, Mob immediately decides not to exorcise them despite knowing they are spirits, understanding they are not evil.

Because he knows that psychic powers don't make him better and he is very average, he constantly works to try and improve himself, such as joining the Body Improvement Club, bettering his social interactions, and becoming more dilligent in his studies.

The only times in which Mob has been capable of being corrupted or shown signs of wickedness are when he prepares to kill the espers of Claw, although this was when they were directly threatening his brother and friends, when he prepares to attack and perhaps even kill some people who hired Reigen and Mob to eliminate the family of spirits who were just living in peace, but only prepares to do this when he feels he has no choice and it is the only way to protect the spirits, and when he laughs in delight during his battle with Suzuki, the leader of Claw, but quickly snaps out of it once he sees Ritsu looking at him in shock, with Mob feeling ashamed that he allowed himself to get carried away like that. In all of these instances, Mob never did anything horrible to anyone, only did it when there was no other choice, and his master intervened and defused the situation before Mob did something he would regret.

An amazing ability that Mob has is his ability to express his emotions and talk to people. Through his words, actions of faith and kindness, and his beliefs, Mob has managed to turn practically every villain he has fought to the side of good. Such instances are with the 7th division members of Claw, although this was also done with Reigen's support and power, his brother when he becomes corrupt with power and frames people at his school to punish the more underhanded students, Teruki Hanazawa, who he makes realize that his psychic powers don't make him better than others and turns over a new leaf for him. Some more impressive instances are with some of Claw's Ultimate 5, like Serizawa, where he has a deep conversation with him and makes him realize that his plans to conquer the world will come at the cost of people's freedom and happiness, making Serizawa betray Claw; with Minegishi when Mogami prepares to kill them, but Mob stops Mogami at the last second and has Minegishi promise to never be evil again, which Minegishi agrees to. Althogh this could be seen as a bluff, Minegishi later saves Serizawa after he betrayed Claw and quickly defies Claw, showing that they cares about their comrades enough to betray their leader, and is later shown to have turn over a new leaf and runs a flower shop. Then, Mob manages to turn Suzuki, the leader of Claw; although turning him was much more difficult than with others, after enough displays of emotion and acts of mercy and compassion for him, Suzuki finally decides to abandon his quest for global domination, surrendering himself to the authorities, apologizing to Sho for his actions and for not being able to reunite with his mother, who abandoned Suzuki after seeing his power-hungry nature, and telling Serizawa some important wisdom. Finally, in the manga, Dimple uses the Divine Tree, a giant tree with immense power that was created accidentally by Mob during his battle with Suzuki, in an attempt to take over the world and become a god, but Mob stops Dimple, trying to stop him and convince Dimple of the changes he has made during his time with Mob. He does something even more drastic, which is not using his powers against Dimple and becoming totally defenseless, allowing Dimple to kill the esper, which he does not do. Dimple instead chooes to sacrifice himself to stop the Divine Tree, showing his character redemption thanks to Mob.

One of the most amazing things that has stood out to me and shown Shigeo is pure good is when he is put in a mental mindscape by Keiji Mogami. After attempting to exorcise Mogami from the young girl's body, he realizes he has to kick him out from the inside, and leaves his body to enter the girl's. While he's in there, Mogami informs Mob that he purposefully let the young boy in there because he noticed many similarities to him when he was younger and wants to prevent him from going down the same path he did while he was alive. So, he puts him in a world where Mob has no psychic powers, no family, is picked on and bullied by his classmates. For six months, Mob is put through this emotional nightmare, with Mogami constantly giving Mob suggestions through his subconscious, whispering in his ear. One day, when he's being bullied again, he finally has had enough and allows his psychic powers to explode. He nearly prepares to kill them, but he first tells them to never bother him again and not intending to kill them, only prepared to do so when one of the other bullies attacks him from behind. Suddenly, Dimple, who was trying to enter the mindscape, gets in and manages to snap Shigeo out of the illusion of the mindscape, reminding him of who he is. While his memories are regained, Mogami is still convinced that he has changed Mob, knowing that the six months in this world are engraved in his heart, but instead of feeling bitter and enraged at the world, Mob realizes that since the world is full of terrible people, he has to be even more grateful for the amazing people he has in his life. This is the prime example of how incorruptible he is and that even after so much negative thoughts and suggestions are given to him, he refuses to change who he is.

Admirable Standard
As I have stated before, Mob has a sense of compassion and faith in others that is rarely seen by most characters in anime, and thanks to his consistent faith in others coupled with his amazing power, he's convinced basically all espers who were using psychic powers for evil that their powers don't make them better than others and that they need to become properly integrated into society. The few moments where he's shown more questionable actions, he has stopped himself and only done out of desperation. Overall, his tolerance, understanding and dedication to become better is something that everyone should learn from, and he has defeated all of his enemies in the best way possible: by making them his friends.

Final Verdict
Shigeo Kageyama is a definite yes for me!