I won’t say the pacing in this season of One Punch Man hasn’t been inconsistent, but it’s not to blame for the long delay before this episode aired.  That would be the French Open, which I suspect the Japanese were rather hoping would turn out more compelling for the nation than it did (though Nishikori Kei did claw his way to the semis).  The hiatus came at kind of an unfortunate time, as the story was clearly building to a bit of a crescendo (though that’s a relative term this season).

This was another odd ep in a season full of them.  It had that same slightly disjointed air to it, of venue changes strung together somewhat arbitrarily, and an overall flat tone that I suppose reflects the mindset of the protagonist.  This episode does at least cut to the point.  Saitama is bored.  He entered the martial arts tournament because he was bored, but it didn’t help.  He’s bored saving Suiryu from Bakuzan (though he still does it, of course).  He’s bored dispatching Gouketsu.  As he says himself, when he dispatches them with one punch he can’t even tell if there’s a difference in strength.

It’s sort of symbolic, I think, that the Gouketsu “battle” doesn’t even happen on-screen – instead, we get reaction shots of the thoroughly humbled Suiryu.  This is a part of One Punch Man that’s hard to reconcile sometimes – any fights involving the main character are so anti-climactic that it makes no difference whether they’re shown on-screen or not.  In truth, this is – or should be – more a story of Saitama’s existential disquiet (for whatever that’s worth) than a battle series, but that hasn’t been the case for most of the season.

My favorite part of the episode, in fact, was when Pri Pri Prisoner went up against a porcupine monster holding a “free hug” sign.  A classic ONE gag, that, but we need more of that sort of material.  The conversation between Saitama and King was fairly interesting too – King was actually dispensing some pretty sage advice there, though he took the air out of the balloon when he admitted it came from a manga.  Saitama’s angst is to an extent self-inflicted – he feels unchallenged for good reason, but can’t really be arsed to do anything to meaningfully shake up his life.  And given how immature his attitude as a hero is as compared to, say, Mumen Rider (who I would argue is actually the most heroic person in the Hero Association despite being – or perhaps because he is – one of the weakest), it is indeed pretty arrogant of him to proclaim himself incapable of growth.

As for our Old Pal Garou, he’s looking less and less like a credible threat at this point.  Not only does he get thoroughly schooled by Watchdog, he seems to be slipping into the role of running gag.  That is to say, Saitama beating him up without knowing he’s the “Hero Killer” he’s so intrigued by.  We’ll see if Sonic can raise himself up from running gag to credible threat after ingesting the monster cells – though that whole scene (while hilarious) definitely tilts the scales back towards running gag.