One Punch Man | Q's Anime Review & Commentary

Dry Comedy & Absurdity in It's Pornographic Action
One Punch Man (12 Episodes Single Season 6 OVA's 1 OAD) 7.9 out of 10 Stars


While almost being in the midst of One Punch Man's second season, which has been reported to be slated until 2019 & to be produced by J.C Staff (a different studio none the less) I'd really like to follow up on my Death Parade revisit and harken back to my ongoing process of reviewing Madhouse's back catalogue and the history of the animation giant. In my Death Parade review it houses a lot of detailed & important information on the studio summarizing some of their history and the legacy they've left over the past 10-20 years, and it goes without saying that I highly recommend you guys check it out. In that it offers so much contextual information that'd be important to understand the production aspects behind this series as well, which I don't want to go on repeating once again.

Shingo Natsume
[Director]

Behind all the hype and buzz over One Punch man, which I'm also also partly guilty of as well, is a very humbling story behind the scene's both from a production and author's standpoint. In that One Punch Man originally was an amateur webcomic from the pseudonym "One" which quickly blew up overnight garnering millions of hits, and not because of the skill and nuance shown in "One's" illustrations, as they're awfully crude and somewhat funny, but because of the absurdity and imagination he was able to pour into its text. It's really that keen sense of idiosyncratic and witty humour that sparked both the populace and it's culture, alongside others in the industry such as Shingo Natsume and Murata Yuusuke along with those over at JUMP now that his manga is being revised to be serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. Which I imagine most saw so much creative opportunity within the insanity of One Punch man's story, later on becoming an artistic and creative endeavour showcasing the awe inspiring freelance talents and industry veterans that Shingo Natsume was able to gather under one banner. It's really an awe inspiring story of how success can be found  just about anywhere, as I find it really strengthens the sense of independent entrepreneurship and if you build the land of dreams, people will come.

As I find that One Punch Man's ridiculous story of success, is also a testament to the story of Saitama itself. Being able to craft humour and gags from contradicting expectations and poking some fun at the modern cliche's we see in about every battle manga or comic book, with a dead simple character such as Saitama who's just as unassuming as his actual physical ability is deceiving. Really contrasting the original roots of the story and it's humble beginnings, to it's confounding story of success.


Plot, Narrative & Character Aspects

With such a simplistic set of circumstances of being set in a fictional earth like world on a supercontinent with cities listed A-Z, where being a hero is just like any other occupation, we have our main protagonist Saitama who's also a hero. With no particular reason for it other than being "Just For Fun". Though the twist here being is that he can kill pretty much anything in just one punch (Hence the title). However instead of being a story about "Who's the strongest" or "Saving the world" the trick here is that Saitama's god like physical ability and feats of strength throughout the city have gone completely unnoticed and under the radar. While he's undoubtedly the most over powered character in the entirety of fiction, his struggle more so lies in the fact that he's so bafflingly over powered that even the people who do witness his feats in the flesh simply can't fathom his ridiculously inconceivable amount of strength and often defer his accomplishments to other heroes involved or any other excuse such as Cheating. 

“From my perspective, I never really focused on the whole scenario as a hero story...But I still looked at this project as more of a drama than a hero story” 

“He’s Interesting because his appearance hides the fact that he has enormous power, there’s this expectation gap. - Shingo Natsume [Jun 30th 2017 Anime Lab One Punch Man Interview]

It also really doesn't help when Saitama is also so completely unassuming and dorky looking that no one in their right mind would ever believe the things he's actually capable of doing. And I feel this is where the secret of it all really lies, it's how the author "One" completely offsets your expectations, subverting them with extreme scale and abrupt contrasts in addition to consciously poking fun at many of the common tropes and cliche's found in the battle manga and super hero genre, serving somewhat as a parody of heroes of sorts. Though the reason why One Punch Man has longevity in it's shelf life and value in it's entertainment is not entirely because of scale of the battles or perhaps a large overarching plot line, it more so has to do with Saitama's odd story of finding acknowledgement and dealing with the fact of constantly being overlooked and discredited for his work. It's not really as sad as it sounds, but instead it makes for a really humorous dry comedy and often silly story, both about how unfairly he's treated and just how ridiculously powerful he is as well. In that it's an awesomely action packed anime, without a doubt striking the same chord that you'd find in dragonball back in the day, with the most pornographic of action sequences.

"Hero themed stories haven been the industry staple for a long time, but one punch man is quite different comparatively speaking” - Shingo Natsume [Jun 30th 2017 Anime Lab One Punch Man Interview]

In the end this also works in conjunction with some of the core messaging of the series in how it tackles what it really means to be a hero and not just in name, as the author ONE contrasts other heroes to Genos & Saitama, and the values that motivate them to the task of being a hero and the public service that comes along with it. Meanwhile others brand themselves as hero's for entirely self serving interest, such as the pomp and circumstances of the persona/celebrity that comes with being a hero and how the public perceives you. The story in general is simplistic and not far reaching as the sequence of episodes are episodic, where we follow Saitama's aloof and whimsical life, as neighbourhood villains comically appear and disturb his overly wayward and simplistic way of life. Along the way he also so happens to meet other notable people in the same trade where we slowly are introduced and begin to understand how the hero's association operates and the daily ongoings of the city as the world view is broadened with each given character's cameo.

The Characters - 

Really it's a very simplistic but effective story in it's humour, and sometimes subliminal at that in how observational and outward thinking the perspective of the story can be in how reality often doesn't meet expectations, which of course is true for a city of heroes as well. The funny thing is you can almost find yourself trying to root for Saitama and work to prove people wrong, in that the real challenge of the story is that of Saitama gaining the respect he so obviously deserves. As the story sets off with Saitama being a freelance hero and bumping his way into another up and coming hero "Genos". Where having randomly witnessed Saitama's awesome power he pledges himself to be his student and with Saitama naively wondering why nobody has ever heard of him, both of them decide to sign up to the official "heroes association" which Saitama was completely unaware of before the fact. Suffice to say once again Saitama's strength is completely overlooked as he's classed as low as you can get amongst other peers who are clearly no match for him, where he'll have to work his way up from the bottom of the totem pole.

Genos on the other hand has it completely different as Saitama and him are polar opposites in who they are and how they physically appear, with Genos being far more calculated & serious looking as a cyborg, but also being quite dense & narrow minded in his own right, often serving as the banana man of the comedy duo. Whereas Saitama is seemingly quite aloof & and indifferent, often time's being a little immature as the straight man of the duo, however we do catch rare glimpses of him being menacingly serious once in a while when the occasion calls for it. It really is this odd chemistry between them that's at the core of the story and really is the catalyst for the majority of the dry and idiosyncratic sense of humour, as One Punch Man has a keen taste for the dramatic, in how playful and dynamic Natsume Shingo and his staff are able to stage the ongoing drama and conflict that may occur throughout the series.

The Problem Here - 

While some may prod at the fact that One Punch Man is more of a surface level flashy action animation spectacle rather than being a proper story, I really think that those of which are thinking about it in an entirely wrong fashion in the first place. In that for a series that's just supposed to be fun and a little indulging, I really don't mind it's simplicity for what the story is trying to accomplish, that of course being a simple yet indulgent action comedy that almost serves as a parody for the genre. As I also think the series does have some occasional subliminal notes in there as well, to accompany many of the numerously crazy and climatic action spectacles, in that it's a great combination between good comedy and absurd action. However in my opinion one of the more prominent issues in the story (at least from the small sample size that S1 gave us) is the lack of characters that actually have a perennial role in shaping the emotional context of the series. In that with such relatively simple main characters such as Genos and Saitama, whose backgrounds were already explained in a pretty compact fashion, I feel that the story lacks the incentive somewhat for viewers to keep watching because they want to know more about something or somebody.

I mean while I have a few characters in mind, it really goes without saying that the story really needs to dig deeper into more fleshed out character arcs that are interwoven with the story, because two main characters and occasional cameos won't really cut it and while they can briefly entertain us, it's only for so long as the story really needs to develop and introduce more character stories and conflicts if they actually want to keep these string of events going. Instead of relying upon the random appearances of neighbourhood monsters as we frolic along with Genos & Saitama as he one shots everything, in that the bewildering animation spectacles and crazy suspension of disbelief will only last for so long until it becomes the only thing that the story really has to offer. So while the criticism does have some merit, I think the overall context in what was trying to be achieved and what was intended really overrides that for such a small 12 episode series and a couple of OVA's. While I'll reserve my full judgement for when we actually get more subject matter in season two, time will tell in how the story will develop, as like many of you I'd really like to refrain from reading the manga until the anime is done airing in it's entirety, whenever that may be. With how S1 ended, I think I'm still somewhat optimistic about how it will go, so we'll see as I'll keep those opinions in mind since we'll soon be able to gather a larger sample size from the next season.

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Article Contents

1. Plot | Narrative | Character Aspects
2. Production Aspects [Cinematography | Animation | Art Direction] 
3. Voice Actor Choreography | Sound Effects & Original Soundtrack | Addendum