Anime Club: One Punch Man

Hello everyone! For this week’s anime club we have the viral mega hit One Punch Man.

ONE PUNCH MAN

DIRECTED BY: Shingo Natsume

NO. OF EPISODES: 12 + 7 OVAS

GENRE: Action, Parody, Superhero

YEAR: 2015-

COUNTRY: Japan

The story takes place in the fictional Japanese metropolis of City Z. The world is full of strange monsters that mysteriously appear and cause disasters. Saitama, the protagonist, is an incredibly powerful hero who can easily defeat the monsters or other villains with a single punch. However, due to his overwhelming strength, Saitama has become bored with his powers and is constantly trying to find stronger opponents who can present a challenge to him.

On his adventures, he meets new friends, enemies, and his own disciple, the cyborg Genos, and joins the Heroes Association in order to gain official recognition as a hero. Despite defeating many strong monsters that even the Heroes Association’s top members are unable to defeat, Saitama struggles to gain respect. Most people look down on him due to his plain physical appearance, and some accuse him of being a counterfeit hero. Only a small number of individuals recognize his incredible talent and humility towards others.

After plenty of convincing had occurred, I finally checked out One Punch Man. For the most part, I completely understand why the Internet is obsessed with the series. Saitama has the perfect “I don’t really give a shit” attitude that great protagonists have, but at the same time has a level of innocence and naivety about him. The animation style is quite well done, drawing influence (and even satire) from more popular and classic anime. The series is also packed to the brim with epic fight scenes, even they are ended rather quickly by Saitama’s over-powered single punches. If anime and the Internet combined…it would be One Punch Man.

Now here is the important question, was I disappointed? No, but I wasn’t blown away. There were a handful of episodes of One Punch Man that I wasn’t interested in at all and kind of just dragged along until the next great episode. Many of the supporting characters, excluding Geneos, were cookie-cutter cardboard one-dimensional characters that just didn’t have enough screen time or just blended into the background. Also, the climax was rather underwhelming as the series makes it pretty clear that Saitama is the strongest fighter in the universe and can’t be beaten. So it was no surprise the series ended the way it did.

PROS:

• Saitama/ Saitama’s attitude.
• Animation style.
• Influences from classic and popular anime.
• Epic fight scenes.

CONS:

• Filler episodes.
• Disappointing supporting characters.
• Underwhelming climax.

SCORE: 8.0 /10

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