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One Punch Man packs a punch

@AidanHallByte

Up in the air, it’s a bird! It’s a plane! No! It’s a flying bald man with no job and an obnoxiously yellow spandex with no aspirations aside from being a super hero part-time! What most considered a joke, quickly became the most beloved anime of 2015 and for good reason. One Punch Man, truly packs a one of a kind punch that will knock you on the ground and have you unconscious with its haymakers of hilarity.

The Punch


One Punch Man is based on the webcomic by ONE and the Shonen Jump manga designed by Yusuka Murata and tells the story of Saitama, a broke salaryman turned broke superhero who can beat any villain or threat in one punch. However, Saitama is one of hundreds upon hundreds of heroes that protect cities A through Z, and now he strives to climb up the hero ranks with his cyborg student, Genos, and save as many people as he can.

While this plot could easily have been taken as both either super serious, or super funny, One Punch Man finds a perfect balance of the two, where you can have an evil seaweed monster almost kill two heroes, just to have all of its seaweed torn off by Saitama as a hair growth treatment.

The villains, for the most part, are pretty stale. While occasionally some do have an interesting backstory, for the most part they play a pretty secondary role to the heroes themselves.

This is a story about heroes of all shapes and sizes. The way the hero association is formatted, ranking the heroes by strength, ability, and fame, makes for a really revealing look at where heroes stand. While the most important characters are higher up in the ranks such as Atomic Samurai or Puri Puri Prisoner of S Rank, we also see the up and coming heroes such as Mumen Rider and Saitama down in C Rank.

The plot works to show the conflicts between heroes and how someone like Saitama could go unnoticed for so long. Seeing all these large scale fights and catastrophes handled as just a piece of paper work is amazing to see. That being said, while the villains may look impressive, there’s really nothing there. Conflict is great for heroes from time to time, but we never see Saitama pushed into a corner.

The Players


Saitama has all the makings of a standard Shonen Jump comic hero. He’s your typical overpowered character with a deep sense of justice and a series of techniques. What makes him so unique however, is no matter how strong he is, he’s still human. He still has to go grocery shopping and still has to water his plants. Saitama is bored throughout the series, and it’s handled amazingly.

He gets excited when characters survive his first punch, or beat someone near him. And yet, that desire is never realized. He’s never able to fully cut loose, and that’s a good thing. Where this series could feel a bit one sided, waiting for Saitama to just show up and beat the main bad guy and then go home, we see all kinds of heroes fighting and losing to these threats. We see heroes of all ranks struggling and sometimes even doing some damage to the villains and threats faced, and that adds a weight behind Saitama’s fist.

Seeing Saitama beat something in one held back punch that took six different heroes to hold off is frightening. Because when he finally does have to fight with everything he has, who knows how strong that threat will be. It leaves us with an anticipation for what Saitama can do, and while we don’t see growth out of Saitama, we certainly see it out of Genos, his student.

Genos the cyborg is the most developed character in the show, and is a relatively easy character to relate to. After having his family murdered by a rogue cyborg, Genos becomes a cyborg himself to get revenge. After seeing Saitama destroy a villain that was too much for Genos to handle, he begins studying under Saitama. However, Genos as a cyborg, can’t improve his body. He can’t get stronger without upgrades. So what we see isn’t the training of special techniques or exercises, we see Genos relearning the value of not only human life, but his own life as well. Genos also gives most of the exposition of the series and helps build the world by explaining it to both the audience and Saitama. The two really play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and you see that they do care about each other.

While there are a few side characters worth noting, none of them really leave a lasting impression. This is really a story of two heroes with some other characters sprinkled in. While you may care about Mumen Rider as he fights the Sea King, he doesn’t have much time to shine. Super Sonic is another recurring character that just feels downright strained. He’s the closest thing we get to a legitimate rival for Saitama, but he never lives up to any of the hype.

Really, it all depends on your preference. There’s a side character for everyone’s favorite type of hero. You want a robot hero? There’s metal knight. A kung fu master? Here’s Silverfang! One Punch Man benefits from having such a large roster of side characters that not only help build the world but build up Saitama as well.

TL;DR


One Punch Man is a visually stunning masterpiece of action and comedy that knows when to take itself seriously and when to relax and have fun. Studio Mad House has brought another great anime to life with their crisp animation and top of the line graphics, which truly help you grasp the magnitude of the show. The show keeps hitting harder with each episode. That being said, there are times when the show is too flashy for its own good. Too much can be happening on the screen for people to understand exactly what’s going on and it can just be out paced at times. All in all, One Punch Man is a well-acted, well-written, well-animated masterpiece of the 2015 year and easily deserves to be on anyone’s must watch list.

 

+Interesting and engaging main characters

+Stunning character designs and art layout

+Entertaining story

+Crisp animation

-Too flashy and fast paced on occasion

-Villains and other supporting characters feel shallow

 

 

Images from: Deculture, Kotaku, Reddit

 

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