Claw Organization

Lore & Background

Claw is led by Touichirou Suzuki, a ruthless and cunning man who founded the organization for the sole purpose of world domination. He uses everyone he can to achieve this goal. Being an incredibly powerful psychic on par with Mob, he aims to put the rest of humanity under his thumb. His ex-wife left him due to his obsession with world domination and abusive behavior, but he does not actively seek her out; his focus remains on world domination and using his son. The organization's hierarchy includes the Ultimate 5, who serve as Touichirou's right hands, and the Scars, the top agents of the 7th Division who each bear a scar from having battled and lost to Touichirou. The 7th Division has 6 Scars (Terada, Koyama, Matsuo, Shimura, Sakurai, and Hatori). Ishiguro is the leader of the 5th Division, not a member of the Scars. Although the Scars are more powerful espers compared to the average mass-produced Claw esper, Shimazaki calls them "failures" and "damaged goods."

In Their Own Story

Claw's 7th Division, led by Ishiguro, attempted to recruit or capture powerful psychics. Ishiguro, a diminutive old man who hides his heavily scarred face in a black bodysuit with a gas mask, believes his psychic power to manipulate gravity makes him superior. His arrogance makes him prone to childish temperament to the point of being murderous. After losing to Reigen with his remaining followers renouncing Claw, Ishiguro ends up being dispatched by Shou when he attempts to kill everyone. The Ultimate 5 defended Claw's main base during Claw's world domination. Ryo Shimazaki fought Ritsu, Teru and some of the 7th Division Scars. Mob elects not to fight him as his powers are too strong. He is eventually defeated by Reigen, who he could not detect due to Reigen's lack of psychic powers. Katsuya Serizawa, originally a hikikomori who never left his room out of fear of his uncontrollable psychic powers, was given an umbrella by Touichirou that became his main weapon. When fighting the Ultimate 5, Mob talks with Serizawa about both of them fearing losing control of their powers. After the World Domination arc, Serizawa begins working at Spirits and Such Consultation as one of Reigen's employees.

Reader's Guide

Claw serves as the primary antagonistic organization in the series, representing the dangers of psychic power used without restraint. The organization is divided into multiple divisions, with the 7th Division being the most prominently featured. The Scars, the elite of the 7th Division, each have a scar somewhere on their body from having battled Touichirou and lost. Members like Yusuke Sakurai, who has a scar on his left cheek, use cursed weapons—Sakurai's sword Jugan, his gun Jugan Air Gun, and his cologne which causes extreme drowsiness are all toys enhanced with curses he regularly places on them. Sakurai reveals he was abandoned by his parents as a kid and bullied in his orphanage, wishing to escape society, which led him to join Claw. The Ultimate 5 include Katsuya Serizawa (Touichirou's personal bodyguard), Ryo Shimazaki (whose abilities include teleportation and predicting people's movements, with his trump card Mind's Eye showing a red iris and black sclera), Toshiki Minegishi (whose specialty is using plants), Hiroshi Shibata (a muscular Esper who uses psychic powers to increase his strength and is one of the only espers known to be somewhat invulnerable to Sakurai's cursed spray), and Nozomu Hatori (who uses his psychic powers to manipulate technology and telekinesis).

Did You Know?

• The Scars are named for the wound inflicted on them when they defied and/or challenged Touichirou Suzuki.
• The 7th Division has 6 Scars (Terada, Koyama, Matsuo, Shimura, Sakurai, and Hatori). Ishiguro is the leader of the 5th Division, not a Scar.
• Shimazaki calls the Scars 'failures' and 'damaged goods.'
• Nozomu Hatori does not appear as a telekinetic helicopter pilot in the final arc; that role belongs to a different Claw esper named Tsuchiya.
• Hiroshi Shibata is one of the only espers known to be somewhat invulnerable to Sakurai's cursed spray; the spray knocks him out, yet he gets back up while unconscious in a sort of berserker rage.

The Core Protagonists and Their Dynamics

Shigeo Kageyama, an eighth grade Esper known as Mob, has a bowl-cut hairstyle as his defining physical feature. He is not good at understanding social cues and has rarely displayed intense emotion since childhood. He suppresses his emotions to keep his power in control, but when the percentage of his accumulated feelings reaches 100%, he is overcome by the strongest emotion he is currently feeling. He works at Reigen's spirit counsel for 300 yen an hour. When pushed beyond his limits, Mob enters an extremely powerful unconscious state, represented by an emotional meter percentage of ???. Arataka Reigen is a self-proclaimed spirit medium and Mob's mentor who runs a low-cost psychic consultation business called "Spirits and Such." He lacks actual psychic abilities and is essentially a con artist, using his intelligence and charisma to solve clients' problems. Later chapters reveal he stayed in his unprofitable business due to Mob reaching out to him with his support. Dimple is a deceptive upper-class evil spirit with red circles on his cheeks who can unleash the full potential of whatever body he possesses. He initially possessed a man to establish a cult called LOL to make himself into a god, but was defeated by Mob and lost most of his spiritual capabilities. After being defeated, he hangs around Mob with the stated intent of taking over his body, but eventually finds himself to legitimately care for the child, aiding him as a member of Spirits and Such.

The Antagonistic Force of Claw

Touichirou Suzuki is the leader of Claw, a ruthless and cunning man who founded Claw for the sole purpose of world domination. Being an incredibly powerful psychic on par with Mob, he aims to put the rest of humanity under his thumb. He also seeks to find his ex-wife who left him many years ago. Shou Suzuki is his son, assumed to be a member of the organization before revealing himself as opposing his father. He has been scouting for potential psychics captured by Claw to help him. Like his father, Shou is also an extremely powerful esper. Of the rest of the main cast, he is closest friends with Ritsu. The 7th Division of Claw is run by a sub-group called the Scars. Each Scar has a scar somewhere on their body, displaying the fact that they have all battled with Claw's mysterious boss, later revealed to be Suzuki Touichiro, and lost. The 7th Division has 11 Scars.

The Ultimate 5 and Their Transformations

Katsuya Serizawa is an extremely powerful Esper and Touichiro's personal bodyguard. He originally was a hikikomori who never left his room out of fear of his uncontrollable psychic powers. Touichiro visits Serizawa and gives him an umbrella, telling him that staying under this umbrella will protect him from the outside world; this umbrella eventually becomes his main weapon and method of channeling his powers when working for Claw. When fighting the Ultimate 5, Mob talks with Serizawa about both of them fearing losing control of their powers. After the World Domination arc, he begins working at Spirits and Such Consultation as one of Reigen's employees. Ryo Shimazaki has his eyes closed most of the time. His abilities include teleportation and predicting people's movements. His trump card is Mind's Eye, which is one of the few times his eyes open, showing a red iris and a black sclera. This gives him a boost in power and the ability to detect psychic auras. He defended Claw's main base during Claw's world domination and fought Ritsu, Teru and some of the 7th Division Scars. Mob elects not to fight him as his powers are too strong. He is eventually defeated by Reigen, who he could not detect due to Reigen's lack of psychic powers. Toshiki Minegishi's specialty is using plants. He assisted in Claw's world domination, and fought Mob and Matsuo until he was defeated by Mogami. After the World Domination arc he becomes a florist. Hiroshi Shibata is a muscular, physically imposing Esper who uses psychic powers to increase his strength. He is one of the only espers known to be somewhat invulnerable to Sakurai's cursed spray; the spray knocks him out, yet he gets back up while unconscious in a sort of berserker rage. He fought and defeated the Body Improvement Club and Dimple inhabiting Mob's unconscious body, but was defeated by Mob when he regained consciousness. Nozomu Hatori uses his psychic powers to manipulate technology and also uses telekinesis. He participated in Claw's world domination plot, and is the first of the Ultimate 5 to be defeated, in this case by Suzuki Shou. He returns in the anime's third season as a telekinetic helicopter pilot, but does not return in the manga.

Supporting Cast and Personal Growth

Ritsu Kageyama is Mob's younger brother, a seventh grade student with good looks who is an ace student and member of the Student Council. Ritsu has had an inferiority complex towards Mob's powers, though he is able to hide his obsessive longing for psychic power of his own. He acts overly protective towards Mob, aiming to prevent him from lashing out with his power. Ritsu eventually develops his own psychic powers and becomes a fairly powerful Esper, initially using Dimple to hone his abilities. Teruki Hanazawa is Black Vinegar Middle School's "ura banchou" ("hidden boss"), known to most as Teru. Also a powerful Esper, he originally held scorn for people without psychic power, calling them "commoners." He is accustomed to using his power freely in daily life, be it exams or sports, and he excels at it all. Coupled with his handsome looks, he is very popular. After he is lectured and defeated by Mob for his arrogance and for using his powers against others, his perspective on psychic power changes, and he becomes friendlier to those around him. Tome Kurata is the founder and president of the Telepathy Club, a now-disbanded club that the Body Improvement Club lets use their club room. Despite her clubmates preferring to be lazy, Tome is genuinely passionate about telepathy with aspirations of making contact with aliens. She becomes one of Mob's good friends.