One Punch Man
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One Punch Man (Japanese: ワンパンマン, Hepburn: Wanpanman; sometimes spelled as One-Punch Man) is a Japanese superhero franchise created by the artist ONE. It tells the story of Saitama, a superhero who can defeat any opponent with a single punch but seeks to find a worthy opponent after growing bored by a lack of challenge due to his overwhelming strength. ONE wrote the original webcomic version in early 2009.
The series was initially a short independent webcomic written by ONE, which was then adapted into a manga by Murata Yuusuke and later an anime.
Plot
The story follows Saitama, a man who becomes the strongest hero by training everyday to the point he becomes bald. He can take out any enemy with one punch of his hand. He also meets up with a cyborg assistant named Genos and who wants to be as strong as him.
Why It's a ONE PUNCH, But In A Good Way
- It is a very clever satire of both Western superheroes and Japanese shonen anime, taking particular jabs at how cartoonishly over the top and destructive they can be with their battles.
- Saitama is a very interesting main protagonist, where he's so ridiculously overpowered that he can kill literally anything with a SINGLE PUNCH!!!, and nothing can pose a threat to him, causing him to become bored and uninterested at life. Despite his bored cynical outlook, Saitama still manages to be a compelling relatable character in that his struggles come not from fighting huge monsters, but in his inability to obtain any appreciation for his incredible feats of power.
- Saitama is intentionally drawn with less detail than the rest of the characters in the series, but when he's being serious he's properly drawn with detail.
- It is also worth noting that when Saitama punches humans he just knocks them unconcious instead of killing them, showing that he also has some degree of restraint and morals.
- Top-notch animation by Madhouse, espically in the battle against Boros.
- Memorable supporting characters such as Genos and Mumen Rider, all of which properly compliment Saitama in different ways.
- Plenty of hilarious moments.
- Great storylines.
- It has a good lesson that you shouldn't have things going your ways a lot as Saitama wishes he can be strong enough to kill his enemies after one punch but eventually, it became boring as everything is going his way and a great message about never giving up and finding purpose in life.
- Great action and fighting scenes that are intentionally overexaggerated, comparable to those from Dragon Ball Z, Fist of the North Star, Naruto, One Piece, and My Hero Academia.
- No filler episodes whatsoever.
- The show takes a whole plot-twist which the idea for a hero who can defeat anyone with just one punch might sound boring at first. This show takes that boringness to a whole other level which means fights don't just have Saitama immediately kill the monster with no effort, instead lots of other heroes are given the spotlight to show off their powers before Saitama deals the killing blow (literally), which keeps fights fresh and exciting to watch.
- Lots of epic fighting scenes like Saitama VS Genos and Saitama VS Boros.
- One of the Discord bots, (Tatsu) was actually inspired by one of the One Punch Man characters, Tatsumaki.
- Lots of great and just memorable episodes that never get old to watch.
- Monster cells, they're a nice thing to have in the series especially as a nice example of a good origin that explains why monsters kept appearing everyday ever since Saitama became a hero.
- A good number of memorial quotes such as "Not again... all it took was one punch... DAMN IT!!!!", "Ok", "BROTHER NO!!!!! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!?!? ALL I WANTED TO BE THE STRONGEST MAN AND NOW THAT I AM THE STRONGEST MAN... I KILLED MY OWN BROTHER!!!!!"
- Each episode introduces a new character to the series, villain or not. It's still interesting to see new characters coming to the show every episode.
- It's safe to say this show is somewhat the anime SpongeBob SquarePants as both SpongeBob and Saitama aren't smart but still likable as well as not taking damage, both shows contain memorial jokes that would cause a good laugh that became internet memes, both shows were successful, both SpongeBob's and Saitama's best friends (Genos and Patrick Star) also take things too literal, etc.
- Great voice acting, especially in the English dub and a couple switch ups from the Japanese language so it sounds a bit more fitting to the scenes in the show.
- Speed O' Sound Sonic and Flashy Flash are nice parodies to both Sonic the Hedgehog and the DC superhero Flash.
- Genos (Saitama's sidekick/best friend) is also a nice parody to Cyborg from the DC Comics universe. He also overall has the best look out of all the One Punch Man characters and the fact he takes things too literal (as mentioned above) makes him a funny character in the show.
- Back to Speed O' Sound Sonic, he's a funny villain in the show especially in his first appearance like when he tried to eat a monster cell in order to defeat Saitama but failed pretty badly and him stalking Saitama in the blade breakfast scene.
- Great soundtrack, such as the opening and ending songs from both seasons.
- The emotional version of the Saitama theme ("Seigi Shikkou") is also a nice remake as it fits well when it comes to sad moments in the One Punch Man anime.
- The show spawned a lot of iconic memes, most notably "Saitama Ok meme", the meme with the same name as the anime, "Crabs for my sensi", "What's With This Sassy Lost Child?", etc.
Bad Qualities
- Most episodes have a rather formulaic structure, where a giant monster tries to destroy the world, other heroes try and fail to stop it, then Saitama kills the monster but is unable to take credit, even though it's put into good use.
- With only a few exceptions such as Genos, Tatsumaki, Fang, and Mumen Rider, the other characters can sometimes get really mean spirited towards Saitama.
- The animation quality dipped a little in quality after Madhouse left and J.C.Staff handed it.
- Episodes can be disturbing sometimes such as episode 2 where it shows a scene where the mosquito girl slowly uses her mosquitoes to suck someone's blood.
Reception
The anime was met with a lot of praise for it's story characters and animation. It was considered as one of the best anime ever made too. The second season, while not bad, was mixed mostly for it's animation and pacing.
Trivia
- This anime is the fourth most popular anime on MyAnimeList, with over 3 million members as of now.
- Saitama's name is most likely derived from the Saitama Prefecture located in Japan, where ONE currently lives and first started drawing the series.
- The show is a parody of Western superhero comics and shonen manga.
- One Punch Man was originally written as a hobby to test a new manga software by ONE. Due to it's surprising popularity, ONE carried on publishing new chapters.
- The title of the series is based on Anpanman, a popular children's superhero in Japan.
- In the 2017 One Punch Man Halloween cover, Genos was depicted twice as a bunny ans a devil.
- The kanji that Genos' name is written in (鏖) mean "genocide". However, the same kanji also carries a second meaning: "to fight fiercely until the end." The Chinese pronunciation of that kanji is 'ao', which is a homophone for the Japanese word for blue. Blue is a recurrent motif associated with Genos: it is the color his core glows as well as a component of one of his attack forms. Outside the manga, the title of his character song is 'Burning Blue', his core and cogwheel motifs are in blue, as are the flowers he's portrayed with in some merchandise (baby blue eyes, Nemophilia menzeisii, to be precise).
- The hidden meaning behind Saitama's cactus is it remains unchanged no matter how it is taken care of.
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