Honestly, I feel like I really don’t quite get where One Punch Man is going this season. But oddly enough, it’s kind of working for me anyway. Not as well as the first season did – that was a hell of a lot more focused and better-paced, as well as being prettier to look at. But ONE is trying to get at something here, and puzzling out what it might be just about makes the curiously disjointed narrative and seemingly endless parade of minor characters fights worth it.
Obviously, there are several only semi-related struggles going on here, which is part of the problem. On the kaijuu front, we finally got some involvement from heroes on the A list – like Child Emperor (though he was fighting using his proxy robot, Underdog Man) and Tatsumaki. If anything this feels like it might be the main fight, the spine of the season – though at this point it’s kind of taking a back seat to the others in terms of drama. Eventually, though, the other threads seem as if they’re going to tie into this one and not the other way around.
As for Garou, he continues to be frustrated in his masturbatory quest to fight as many heroes as possible by the interference of the very monsters he admires so much. And they’re overlapping his story in another way too, as we see the Council of Swordmasters (who I don’t remember from S1, though I probably forgot them) who’ve gotten together to discuss taking Garou out because they fear Bang will go soft on his former student. But one of their number has been corrupted (literally and symbolically) by the Monster’s Association, though he seems to have been made pretty quick work of by the others.
Then we have Super Fight, which is where ONE seems to be testing out his big ideas while sleepwriting his way through the rest of it. Once more I’m struck by how Nihilistic all this is coming off, including Saitama’s involvement. Actually the one who comes off looking the best here is Sourface, who started out as a pretty stock butt monkey. But what of the confrontation (in the final) between Seiryu and Saitama? I don’t know what to make of it, really. In terms of the fight itself it lacks real drama because of the trap ONE has written himself into – any fight involving his protagonist is not just a foregone conclusion, but over as soon as Saitama expresses any interest in ending it.
But what Seiryu said was interesting, as was Saitama’s response. I don’t think Seiryu’s approach to this is any more wrong than Saitama’s approach, to be sure – he just wants to have fun and find a strong opponent. He’s right – Saitama is totally disrespecting martial arts, and in doing so I think ONE is disrespecting them by extension whether he means to or not. And Seiryu is strong too, make no mistake – not as strong as Saitama obviously, but certainly strong enough to be an S-Class if he wanted to. And probably stronger than Garou, for whom he’d make a more interesting opponent than Saitama.
“If you want to have fun, you probably shouldn’t get any stronger”. Saitama is bemoaning his own fate there, to be sure, but I’m not sure if he’s angry about Seiryu dissing the hero game or that he kind of agrees with what he’s hearing and doesn’t like it. Imagine what a bore life is for him, a man who fights for a living and can never be challenged. What’s the point of it all? And what’s the point of being a martial artist when someone who doesn’t give a fig for martial arts can defeat the strongest martial artist with one (butt) punch as his wig comes off and his pants fall down? Maybe heroism and saving people is its own reward, but that doesn’t feel like the message ONE is trying to send here, at least not yet. What’s puzzling is trying to figure what the hell message he is trying to send.
Viola
May 22, 2019 at 9:10 pmONE wrote nothing of the Super tournament. It’s manga original.
Guardian Enzo
May 22, 2019 at 9:21 pmAgain though, others have pointed out that the manga says “story by ONE, art by Murata”. So it seems likely to me that ONE is still providing the scripts.
Viola
May 22, 2019 at 11:09 pmYeah, but not every detail.
Not worth torturing yourself over subtle meaning like “disrespect to martial arts” when you don’t know when ONE’s intentions begins or ends: Murata’s failure of understanding of his plans might’ve generated that “meaning” as a side effect at any point.
Tan Darrel
May 23, 2019 at 12:41 amONE did say he provides the scripts, but Murata does say he embellishes them (with ONE’s approval of course). And it is this embellishment which makes this part of OPM a real drag. Below all that excess there is a simple, solid story. I mean you have watched Mob Psycho, you know how ONE composes his stories and this isn’t it.
Guardian Enzo
May 23, 2019 at 6:25 amOK, but if that’s true, then my point stands – any larger philosophical theme here comes from ONE, and it’s Murata who’s providing the practical details.
Ivan
May 23, 2019 at 2:06 amDidn’t Saitama send Seiryu flying with a weird hip (butt?) whip? Making his strength even more ridiculous, perhaps 🙂
Guardian Enzo
May 23, 2019 at 6:24 amThat is true.
DonkeyWan
May 24, 2019 at 10:23 pmI feel the humour in one punch might be easy to miss. The joke is that there is this entire world where everyone is over-muscled and super powered, utterly committed to become the super duper best, and into this stupidly competitive world of espers, mechas, monsters, ninjas and thugs strolls a dull NEET who jogs 10K everyday and is so OP that even the greatest warriors are dust before his fists. Its a lampooning of every anime archtype ever. What makes it amusing is the seriousness with which every fight is rendered only to be made utterly irreelvant by the mere existence of Saitama. There is no character arc of development, no super end baddie who will finally put it up to him (though if one did occur it would only be to allow Saitama to jog 20 km and become even more OP). Saitama is the Monty Python foot of destruction that crushes the hubris of those who would place themselves untouchable. Juxtaposed to him is King, percieved as being superstrong even by the super strong, but is in fact incredibly weak. If Saitama exists to make all their efforts count for nothing then King exists to make all their ideas count for nothing. Yet it is all done in such a loving way, it is admirable and enjoyable, rather than mean spirited. The heroes battle mightily to save people (even though you know their efforts would be meaningless if Saitama turned up on time) and we have affection for them… which is why its great to see them all bugged eyed when Saitama arrives to save the day.
Nadavu
May 24, 2019 at 10:35 pmI don’t think that it’s nihilism, exactly, that is being propagated here. To me it feels more like some sort of social determinism, or a modern variation of the caste system incorporated into the Marxist view of society as a strength-based hierarchy. Strength seems to be the end-all and be-all of the OPM universe, and figuring out exactly where you are on the strength-spectrum is the obsession of most characters. Strength, however, is largely predetermined. It might be that if you work hard you can become just a bit stronger than who would otherwise be your equal, but progress is limited more-or-less to internal ranking within your original strength-group. The worst thing a character can do, it seems, is not to have an over-inflated opinion of their own strength (in which case they just get crushed by a stronger opponent) but to think they have the potential to become considerably stronger than they are (in which case they get crushed only after being mercilessly ridiculed and humiliated for their naive beliefs). And indeed, other than finding out how their strength scales compared to others, everyone (monsters, heroes and martial artists alike) seems obsessed with putting those with lofty ideals and not enough strength to back them up back in their proper place.
As the personification of the very top of the pyramid, Saitama is dismissed from the incessant need to find in place in the strength-hierarchy (which explains his laid back demeanor) and concentrate solely on his job, which he goes about performing in a Maruc Aurelius-esque frame of mind. He’s not in it for the glory, he’s not in it for the money (well, he’s in the tournament for the money, but honestly, that’s a side gig for him, and a rather poorly thought out one) he’s in it because he is the strongest, and falls upon him to reinforce the social structure, and remind those who are at the very top that even they are not at the very tip, and that there are up-down obligations that affect them as well. So yeah, he also fights monsters, but monsters are part of the power-hierarchy as well. Saitam’s job is to put everyone and everything into their proper places.
I can’t say I care much about this world view. You don’t really have a good story here, unless you set this entire system to eventually fail and be proven wrong, and I am convinced that that’s not gonna happen (after all, Saitama has to keep on winning effortlessly, or there’s no show). It might be good for a laugh or as social commentary, but I feel that this has been done already as well as it can ever be in the first part of the first season. This season can, at most, deliver more of the same, and that would already be too much of the same thing, but I also think that this season lacks what made the first one funny and satiric. And it has nothing to do with the drop in animation quality (which I don’t even notice, since I’m not looking for it).
So yeah, I’m still watching, but I think that holding out for things to somehow change in a way that would make everything seem more than what it is, retrospectively, is asking for disappointment. The only hope I’m allowing myself here is that maybe the comedic delivery would get better.