The latest anime sweeping through the interwebs has finally caught up to me and has grabbed me by its punches. DUH, I’m talking about One Punch Man, of course. 🙂
A bit hesitant, and with a whole lot of reluctance, I started watching the series early December. And, well, I don’t think I’ve ever liked a shounen anime this much since FOREVER.
(Warning: to understand this post you must have watched the first season of the anime)
I’m not gonna bore you guys with specifics because I have no expertise in terms of reviewing anime by its plot/graphics/accuracytowardsthemanga. I’ll leave that to the people who take anime reviews really seriously.
But I just wanted to write something about this anime because I personally think the story of One Punch Man is compelling enough in itself.
Here you have possibly the strongest man to ever walk the Earth (and space, but those are spoilers, OMG!) and yet, for him, this hero thing is just for fun. I really get a kick out of it. A frustrating one at that, too. Because Saitama is clearly so underrated as a hero that, personally, as an outsider, I get frustrated for him for the lack of credit and accolades due to a hero like him.
I FEEL for him. I’m more bothered by this than he is. And I don’t think he’ll ever seriously be bothered by it at all.
And it doesn’t help that as the episodes move forward you’re introduced to other heroes, stronger heroes, higher ranked heroes.
And not just heroes, monsters, too!
But how is it that it seems they wouldn’t even hold a candle against this Caped Baldy in a yellow jumpsuit?
It’s mind-boggling. And THAT is why it’s compelling.
The anime is fun. One Punch Man is amusing to watch because I’m always hoping that there’s some kind of scary, kami-level monster out there that can actually put up a fight.
I’m always hoping that Genos doesn’t get pulled apart in every episode, LOL.
I’m always hoping that smug-ass Amai Mask gets his face smashed in because he’s annoying as F.
And I’m always hoping that Saitama will eventually come across a fight that will make him feel something for being a hero again.
It’s kind of inspiring in a comical way. No, wait, Saitama is inspiring in a comical way. Because he’s just a normal guy, trying to do normal every day things, with the exception that he’s a superhero on the side. And in the end, even if he doesn’t bother, even if he doesn’t try, he ends up inspiring other people and making others see that, “Hey, I’m pretty normal, but I worked hard, and look have far I’ve come.”
That’s the charm of the series. And that’s why I can’t wait til they launch the second season. … They are going to have a second season right? RIGHT? XDD
(ALSO, here are my favorite Saitama expressions, HAHAHA.)
(ALSO ALSO, can I just say that I super love the OST for this anime? The timing is always perfect, gives me goosebumps, especially during those epic fight moments! Totally badass!)
I really enjoyed reading your article. I am a huge One-Punch Fan and it deserves to be at the top of the imdb charts. But I thought to myself what’s the difference between One-punch man Anime to any other Anime out there for example Naruto.
To behonest nothing much only the first time we meet the character and how long we are a part of his journey. One punch man a few episodes and Naruto season’s. But the Autor of one punch man did a brilliant move he didn’t show us the struggle of Saitama to become that strong and all the obstacles he had to overcome or all the things he lost. And on the other hand we followed Naruto path the ups and downs and now he is probably one of the strongest characters in his franchise. So if we hadn’t seen the struggle and joint his journey now, we had One-punch Naruto.
I just wished we had seen more of his struggling to become the the strongest hero and what his real motivations are.
Interestingly, you CAN see more of his struggles if you read the manga. There are a lot of side stories including some of Saitama’s adventures when he was still a fledgling hero (aka when he still had hair) and in the middle of his 3 year training. I’m not yet updated to the most recent chapter but while waiting for the new One Punch Man season, I’m gonna read the manga. Maybe you can give it a try too. 🙂
Glad you liked the post! 🙂