Mob Psycho 100 Star Setsuo Ito Discusses Season Two’s Acting Challenges

Mob Psycho 100 has yet to be confirmed for a third season, but the recent OVA brought back the characters, and the voice actors that bring them to mind, for a brand new adventure. While season two was universally accepted by fans of the franchise, you may be surprised to know about some of the challenges that the voice actors faced while bringing this latest anime season to life. We had the opportunity at the recent Crunchyroll Expo to chat with the Japanese voice actor for Mob himself, Setsuo Ito, to hash out just some of the hurdles he faced in voicing the psychic protagonist.

In our chat with Setsuo, he informed us of an absolutely strange hurdle that caused him to re-examine his original take on Mob and attempt to give the audiences of the popular anime franchise, from the creator of One-Punch Man, the best job he could:

“There was a slight gap between S1 and S2 so when I went back in for recording, I was told my lines had too much emotion! Also, the very last fight scene with the Boss (Toichiro Suzuki). It was hard to voice act action scenes but also Mob’s emotional explosion was more complex than ever so it was a touchy scene.”

When you look at Mob, with his blank, vacant stare that seems almost counter intuitive to the dangers and energetic threats that he faces off against on a daily basis, you can expect the psychic middle schooler to deliver some dead pan comments and insults throughout. Certainly, Mob dishes out his fair share of both, though it is interesting to hear that Setsuo was informed to be even more emotionless in the second season! Regardless, Setsuo Ito does an amazing job as the Japanese voice of Mob, bringing the strange character to life.

What did you think of Setsuo Ito’s voice acting job as Mob throughout the series? What was your favorite example of Mob’s voice acting? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Mob Psycho 100!

If you want to check it out the anime for yourself, you can currently find Mob Psycho 100 II streaming on Crunchyroll and FunimationNow. They describe the second season as such, “Shigeo ‘Mob’ Kageyama is an ordinary 8th grader who just wants to live a normal life. Although he can disappear in the crowd in a flash, he was actually the most powerful psychic. The lives of those around Mob and his numerous feelings that softly piles up for the eventual explosion. The mysterious group ‘Claw’ stands before him once again. In the midst of his youthful days, where will his roaring heart take him!?”