One-Punch Man Review

In this week’s ABC Challenge O is for One-Punch Man. One-Punch Man was a series that I knew I would love if I ever actual watched it but never did. Everything I had seen about it just screamed me. It’s a superhero parody with a cool protagonist. I’m glad I did finally get a chance to watch it because it did not disappoint. With no further delay I bring you my review of One-Punch Man. Spoilers ahead.

Basic Plot

One-Punch Man is a series that begs the question: What if you were a superhero who could defeat every opponent you faced with a single punch? Your main character the eponymous “One-Punch Man” is Saitama. Saitama 3 years prior to the series was an unemployed man on a job hunt where after a failed interview he ran into a crab monster trying to get revenge on a kid for drawing nipples on his shell. Saitama realizes that monster resembles a monster from an anime he watched as a kid. Because of this he resolves to live out his childhood dream of being a superhero. Saitama then saves the boy from the monster.

Saitama after this experience begins a “grueling” regiment to become a superhero. This regiment was 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and run 10 km everyday. He would eat 3 meals a day, but breakfast was only a banana and he did not use air conditioning. After a year and a half of this “grueling” regime Saitama noticed a big change had occurred he’d lost all of his hair and he was strong. He continued to workout everyday until the beginning of the series.

The series begins with Saitama “fighting” another monster by the name of Vaccine Man. Vaccine Man at the point they meet had already defeated two other superheroes. Saitama after claiming he is “just a guy who’s a hero for fun,” kills Vaccine Man with one punch. Saitama then screams out in frustration for another victory with one punch.

As it turns out Saitama’s training regiment made him so powerful that he can defeat any foe with a single punch. He is not only the strongest being on Earth but might be the strongest being to have ever existed. What makes him so powerful, particularly given such a relatively weak training regiment, is never fully explained. The series does imply that it had to do with him breaking all personal limitations. What this means is that his strength is literally limitless. The problem that arises for Saitama is that as a superhero it gets very boring never having to face a real challenge.

Later you meet Genos a cyborg seeking revenge against another cyborg who killed his entire family. Genos gets into a fight with Mosquito Girl. The fight was pretty much even until Mosquito Girl called her mosquito minions to give her all of the blood they had collected. She becomes vastly powerful and makes the fight one-sided. Genos was about to self-destruct to kill her and then Saitama shows up and kills Mosquito Girl in one slap. Genos then requests to become Saitama’s disciple.

A week later, Genos shows up at Saitama’s door still requesting to be Saitama’s disciple. Saitama’s says he doesn’t really want one. Genos relays his back story where Saitama tells him he talks too much and shorten his story. Saitama and Genos are then attacked by members of the House of Evolution. Genos fights Armored Gorilla and questions him about killing his family. Turns out he did not do it. Meanwhile, Saitama defeats 5 other members of the House of Evolution. In lieu of his one punch, however, Saitama defeats the strongest of the bunch, Beast King, with a slew of ‘normal’ punches which leave him a disintegrated mess. After seeing what Saitama did to Beast King, Armored Gorilla tells him where to find the rest of the House of Evolution. At the same time, Armored Gorilla warned Dr. Genus, the head of the House of Evolution, of Saitama’s eventual arrival at their doorstep.

After finding out about the location of the House of Evolution, Saitama and Genos immediately go to destroy it. The reason is not for justice, but because Saitama did not want to miss a sale at the market. Dr. Genus in his panic decides that he has to release his most powerful creation, Carnage Kabuto. Carnage Kabuto is a being so powerful yet with such a strong blood lust that Dr. Genus cannot control him. Carnage Kabuto accepts Dr. Genus’s request to defeat Saitama. He then runs down a narrow hallway asking Genus which one is one of Saitama or Genos he needs and Genus points to Saitama. Carnage Kabuto then rams Genos into the wall. This infuriates Saitama who accepts Carnage Kabuto’s desire to fight. They go to a more open space to fight. Genos attempts to fight Carnage Kabuto only to have his attacks either brushed off or sent back to him. Saitama finally gets into the fight, where Carnage Kabuto attempts to punch him, but flees for fear of his life. Carnage Kabuto then asks why Saitama is so strong and Saitama relays his training regime to him and Genos. Both Genos and Carnage Kabuto thought that Saitama was joking and making fun of them. In his fury, Carnage Kabuto goes into Carnage Mode a mode that makes him vastly powerful but unable to stop himself for a week. Specifically, this is until next Saturday. This is where Saitama realizes he got his days wrong and that he had missed the sale. He then defeats Carnage Kabuto in one punch.

Next, you have a gang of bald villains with battle suits are causing havoc in the city. Saitama pays this no mind until he is ostracized for being bald-headed. The bald head gang faces off against a ninja for hire by the name of Speed-o’-Sound Sonic. Sonic quickly kills all but the leader of the bald gang, Hammerhead. Hammerhead escapes with his life, however he runs into Saitama. After Hammerhead powers up, Saitama punches his suit off. Saitama feeling sympathy for Hammerhead allows him to leave. Sonic shows up and tries to attack Saitama. Saitama blocks his attacks and tells him that he isn’t one of Hammerhead’s followers. Sonic at this point cares not because he feels he must beat Saitama for blocking his attacks. However, Saitama accidentally punches him in the crotch, defeating him. Afterwards, Sonic declares Saitama his eternal rival and leaves.

Back home from the previous adventure, Saitama shows disappointment in the lack of recognition of him even with all of his accomplishments. Genos suggests them both joining the Hero Association. They then take the Hero Association Exam where Saitama breaks all the physical exam records but fails miserably on the written exam. Genos in turn aces both. Thus, Saitama is given the rank of C and Genos the rank of S. In order to ‘break’ the rookie, A-rank hero, Sneck, attacks Saitama and is quickly dispatched. Saitama having previously agreed to allow Genos to be his disciple if he became a member of the Hero Association, agrees to a sparring match. Genos tells Saitama to go all out on him. Genos appears to put up a good fight, however, Saitama wins without ever hitting him damaging a large cliff in the process. Later in an udon shop, A rank hero, Sweet Mask, requests to talk to Genos. In a strange twist of fate, Sweet Mask doesn’t try to fight Genos he just welcomes him to the Hero Association.

Saitama is then informed that being a C-class hero he has to perform heroic acts on a quota per week. He then runs around trying to find work. Eventually, Speed-o’-Sonic shows up to continue their rivalry. Saitama realizes that Sonic looks like a villain and decides that bringing him in should give him enough to meet his quota for that week. He knocks Sonic out cold and sends him off to jail.

Later, a giant meteorite is heading towards Earth. All the S rank heroes are called to deal with it. Only Genos and an elderly hero by the name of Bang show up to destroy the meteorite. Another S rank hero by the name of Metal Knight shows up to test out his new weapons, but has no desire to team up. Metal Knight’s new arsenal does not destroy the meteorite. Genos steps up to destroy the meteor himself with encouraging words from Bang. Genos ends up failing, however, and at the last possible second Saitama shows up and destroys the meteorite in one blow. The pieces of the meteorite scatter all over Z City destroying many homes, but without injuring anyone. The next day Saitama moves up to 5th rank C-class, however, a B-class hero by the name of Tanktop Black Hole creates a mob against Saitama for destroying their homes. Saitama responds by saying he isn’t a hero for their adoration but because he likes doing it and doesn’t care what they think.

Next, we have the seafolk show up to kill all of the humans. The normal seafolk are dispatched by A-rank hero, Stinger. However, the leader of the seafolk, Deep Sea King shows up and defeats Stinger easily. Several other heroes go to fight Deep Sea King all of which are beaten handily, including S-rank hero Puri-Puri-Prisoner. Speed-o’-Sonic fights Deep Sea King to a standstill, however, Deep Sea King becomes empowered when it begins raining. Sonic, realizing this, retreats. C-class rank 1, Mumen Rider, receives a call from the Hero Association of the location of the Deep Sea King and he rides off leaving his cellphone behind. Saitama picks up the cellphone and asks if they want him to go. Meanwhile, Genos is fighting the Deep Sea King and appears to be doing well until Deep Sea King shoots an acid ball at a child that Genos intercepts. Right before, Genos is finished off Mumen Rider shows up and fights Deep Sea King. He refuses to give up, but is still beaten soundly. Saitama shows up to provide backup. Saitama then defeats Deep Sea King in one punch. After that, the people start badmouthing the heroes that lost saying they were frauds. Saitama makes it out that he was just lucky that the other guys wore Deep Sea King down for him. The crowd then turns on him claiming that he is a fraud.

Later, Saitama and Genos receive a lot of mail because of the Deep Sea King episode. Genos’s is all positive and Saitama’s is all people claiming he is a fraud except for one letter claiming thanks. Saitama also has a letter that says he is the rank 1 of C-class and asks if he wants to move up to B-rank. He decides that he does so that he doesn’t have to deal with hero quotas anymore. He becomes B-class hero rank 101st.

Meanwhile, a seer has a premonition that the Earth is doomed. This particular seer is world-famous for her fortune-telling being 100% correct sometime in the next 6 months. The problem being that she died in the process of having this most recent premonition. The Hero Association calls all of the S-rank heroes to a conference to discuss this matter. Saitama also goes to this meeting with Bang and Genos. Saitama points out that anytime in the next 6 months could be tomorrow as they attacked by a spaceship. The spaceship sends an advanced scout by the name of Melzalgald, that engages with 4 S-rank heroes (Atomic Samurai, Bang, Puri-Puri-Prisoner, and Metal Bat) and appears to be winning until Metal Bat inadvertently discovers that within Melzalgald’s body are marbles that when destroyed, destroy part of his body. Melzalgald is finally fully defeated when Bang destroys his last two marbles. Meanwhile, Saitama goes straight for the ship. When Saitama makes it to the ship he defeats monster alien after monster alien all with one punch. In the process he also destroys the ship from the inside. Saitama finally meets the main boss alien Boros. Boros relays this story that he goes from planet to planet searching for entertainment. Basically, similar to Saitama, no one has been able to put up a good fight against him which has made his life boring. He also has a prophecy against him that states somewhere in the universe there is a being capable of defeating him. Saitama punches him breaking his armor saying that he can’t attack other planets to make his life less boring. Boros and Saitama get into a good fight with Boros even sending Saitama all the way to the moon. Boros augments himself to his most powerful mode and uses a giant energy beam that has the ability to destroy planets. Saitama punches the attack away, splitting the sky at the same time, and finally defeats Boros. Saitama does not kill Boros with the punch because he felt bad for Boros being in a similar situation to himself. Boros admits before his ultimate death that Saitama was holding back the entire time and that he was never a match for him.

The series then ends with Saitama defeating one more opponent with one punch.

Commentary

One-Punch Man is just brilliant. This might be the only series I have ever watched that has no bad characters at all. I mean I know I talk up characterizations on a lot of my reviews, but usually there is one character that is not quite up snuff, but One-Punch Man has none. Even your on-off villains are entertaining. Genos, to me, felt like he was going to the wet noodle of the characters, but he was great as well. I haven’t even mentioned just how awesome Saitama is as a character. I mean he literally doesn’t care what anyone else thinks about him. He defends other heroes, even ones that treated him horribly, like it’s nothing. He is the most just character on the show and yet he’s treated like crap. But somehow he never lets anything get to him. He’s also super funny to boot, more on that in a second. I, literally, cannot think of a character that I think could’ve been better.

This show is hilarious. From Saitama’s first line to the very last scene of the series it is a complete stitch. My personal favorite scene in the entire series where Saitama is monologuing on how every fight is as easy as swashing a bug for him and then he tries to swash a mosquito several times always failing. It’s too freaking funny, this is the strongest and fastest man alive and he can’t swash a tiny bug. The number of super funny scenes is amazing in this series. You’ve got Sonic swearing his undying vengeance against Saitama for inadvertently punching him in the crotch. Saitama freaking out because he got his days wrong and missed a sale. You’ve also got Saitama yelling at Genos for his long drawn out explanation of his back story and saying he just wants a single sentence ten word max explanation. I laugh anytime Saitama freaks out about defeating someone with one punch. Another notable funny thing is Tatsumaki and her bickering back and forth with everyone, specifically Saitama. She’s got a Napoleon complex which is where her bickering between her and Saitama plays the biggest role as he sees her as a child and she sees him as a worthless B rank hero.

The weird thing about One-Punch Man is it’s difficult to take the serious moments all that seriously. Firstly, your main character if he’s not holding back can kill every other character on the show with one punch. It’s difficult to see too much in the realm real difficulty in his fights when he can do so. I mean seriously over the course of the entire series you never actually see him full force. Secondly, even serious moments have mixes of comedy in them. I mean when Boros explains his past to Saitama, Saitama breaks it up by punching him and calling him an idiot. Boros is completely serious at that exact moment and Saitama nonchalantly punches him and calls him an idiot. Finally, while your main character is a little over-the-top every villain is WAY over-the-top. I mean how can you take a character that is literally a giant walking seaweed or a walking fish with heart-shape nipples wearing speedo seriously. Those two are just the tip of the iceberg, I mean Saitama fights a purple Piccolo clone that says he was sent by the Earth to “vaccinate” the human infestation. You can’t even begin to make up these backstories.

Conclusions

One-Punch Man is a series doesn’t try to mask what it is. It is a gag series that features some over-the-top characters and a lot of humor. That’s not to say there isn’t much substance to the story because there is some. This is a series I would recommend for anyone looking for good humor that doesn’t rely upon sexual innuendo. The action within the series is just a bonus. I am thoroughly excited that this series is getting a second season shortly because I could not get enough of this series. I’ll be as straight forth as possible, watch this series it is amazing.