Man, six years? Hard to believe, but that’s how long (a bit more actually) it’s been since One Punch Man last graced our screens. The manga is ongoing and continues to be a pretty massive seller. I’d rank this franchise as just below kaijuu level. To say it’s been a checkered journey for the anime would be an understatement though. In switching from Madhouse to J.C. Staff the series took a big nosedive in terms of production values. But it also got a lot less interesting narratively. I have no idea how much of that is the fault of the source material and how much the manga, but I was disappointed more with that than with the animation.

Between my growing disconnect with the story and the long layoff, my memory of  what’s happening and who all these people are is pretty hazy. This premiere does defer to reality and try to function as a sort of non-recap recap. But as a result it’s kind of a snooze, to be honest. We take a long circuit of the extended cast and touch base with everyone who was important in S2. Obviously one remembers Saitama and Genos, the other heroes who stand out like Tatsumaki and Child Emperor. And Garou was the antagonist, if not the villain. But a lot of these characters I’d totally forgotten to be honest.

What I do remember is that Saitama was pretty peripheral for most of the second season. And that Garou would up being its most interesting element. Saitama is playing games at home with King (I kind of remember him) and the two old dudes, one of whom was Garou’s former teacher (the one who threw out his back I think). Garou was going around as the “Hero Hunter”, which is why the Hero Association was so consumed with him. He’s wound up in the clutches of the Monster Association after the big battle with the centipede thing (Centichoro). The Monster Association also took the son of a billionaire hostage, and Child Emperor is searching for their HQ so a rescue mission can be mounted.

There are a bunch of other heroes involved here (like Tatsumaki’s sister Fubuki, who’s trying to get Saitama motivated) but honestly, for now they’re mostly a blur to me. I can’t say that eventually I won’t get drawn back into the story – six years is a long time to make up. For now, though, it’s a struggle. As for the visuals they’re about as I remember them from S2, which is neither a selling point nor a deal-breaker. All of the hubbub over that side of the production is lost on me – I get why fans were pissed but the vitriol directed at the studio and the staff was way over the top.

At this point I’m guessing tempers have cooled a bit but at the same time, so has the interest level. There may not be as much anger over One Punch Man now, but the struggle may be to get fans to care about the anime again. I have no expectations that the sakuga glory days of S1 will ever return, but the story needs to recapture its mojo in order for me to feel really invested again. For now there’s no reason to think it will, but a premiere after that long a layoff was always going to have an impossible job to do. The real test begins next week.