AltoRoark

One Punch Man was quite a unique and refreshing experience, albeit quite far from a perfect one. It’s flaws are apparent and certain points of the show can be rather mundane at times. In spite of this, One Punch Man is a show that rarely fails to put a smile on my face while watching it. It’s intent is to lampoon the absurdity of overpowered characters and superhero tropes in general, and in doing this it manages to craft a new path of its own that is filled with style, flashy spectacle, and endearing quirkiness. It may have its shortcomings in terms of maintaining everlasting appeal over its course, but it nonetheless does all it needs to do to stand on its own two feet.

Our hero for fun, Saitama, is the center of attention as well as the selling point of the show itself. He is the embodiment of everything One Punch Man represents and what it has to offer. He fights not on the behalf of others, but because he can. It’s unfortunate for him that he’s so damn strong that no villain has a chance of making him flinch, or holding any sort of fight, and this makes Saitama both fatigued and rather bored of his daily routine. This alone is enough to sell the experience to viewers, and to propose an underlying wonder of various instances in most other stories involving superheroes. To start off, the routine of arrogant and ostentatious villains meeting their demise by the hand, or should I say “fist”, of a mellow, half-eyed bald guy in a cape is done in such a comical fashion that is not only humorous, but immediately envelops Saitama as a character, as well as what One Punch Man intends to evoke. We have to wonder if the strongest superheroes we know and love have ever fallen in the same boat as Saitama, deprived of any challenge of exhilaration, and ultimately questioning the point of it all. This is a concept which is both humorous and a breath of fresh air in regards to superheroes, making for a very suitable approach on the topic. However, the question that lies now is if this one concept is enough to carry the show all the way through its duration.

The answer is no. Because it is a one-note gag in where the outcome is pretty much the same in all instances, it would become repetitive and exceedingly mundane to rely on that one gag entirely. One Punch Man luckily manages to refrain from this trap. It refreshes itself by introducing various new characters to add more flavors to the experience, and building on that of Saitama’s. The first character to come to mind is Genos, who serves as a foil to the main character. In contrast to Saitama, Genos is dedicated to his work, and is extremely loyal to Saitama in hopes to achieve his own agenda. This also paves way for some rather funny and amusing interactions between the two. Saitama often gets sick of Genos leeching onto him and blabbering about his ambitions, while Saitama himself tends to silently dread over his own problem. This makes for a great chemistry which keeps the viewing experience alive, proving that One Punch Man has more to offer than a single gag repeated over and over.

With that said, it’s a shame that some other characters don’t get that same amount of fleshing out as our two main heroes. For other characters, we have Tatsumaki, a petite, ill-tempered girl with psychokinetic powers. There’s also Puri-Puri-Prisoner, who is the standard and generic stereotype of a homosexual male: being very feminine. These two along with many others don’t receive a significant amount of development and are seemingly only there to fill in the gaps with more personalities and flashy action scenes. This isn’t a bad thing though, far from it in fact. But I still feel as if this is where the consequence of One Punch Man being a premature adaptation of its source really stands out. Variety is always acceptable, but not to the point to where it feels like padding.

Thankfully there are certain side-characters which stand out from the rest. One example is Speed-o’-Sound Sonic who, after his humiliating defeat from Saitama, labels him as a rival. He actively pursues Saitama on a frequent basis in hopes for vengeance and redemption, which leads to plenty of rather humorous and amusing moments, not even limited to the fight they had which started the whole dilemma. It either leads to a trivial but endearing face-off, or into another situation entirely. In addition there is Mumen Rider, a hero on a bike who pedals to the face of danger, only to get his ass handed to him in the process. What’s significant about his character, however, is that he is ironically one of the biggest sources of inspiration for Saitama. Mumen Rider’s dedication to keeping everybody safe despite how weak he is, puts Saitama in wonder of what true heroism is. Saitama’s significant development as a character highlights that the show isn’t merely a vessel for simple jokes, but provides an actual story to get invested into.

Saitama himself is a notoriously well-rounded character, contrary to what his appearance might imply. In addition to his apathy towards saving the day, his personality is like a normal human being in nearly every relatable way. He has a routine of chores, plans for the day, and plenty of personality and subtext in his dialogue. In fact, if most other characters in the show received the amount of attention as this, I feel like One Punch Man would be successful in offering the completely polished experience it deserved.

With all of this said, how well does One Punch Man live up as a parody? To begin with, to parody means to imitate a particular concept or style, and to exaggerate it for comedic effect. It goes without saying that the existence of Saitama himself fits this idea quite well. The exaggeration comes from Saitama defeating villains in a single punch, and his boredom with the whole concept of being a hero. The comedic effect comes from both the absurdity of the bad guys and Saitama’s apathy. But where does One Punch Man live up as a parody beyond this? Unfortunately this is where the whole attempt to parody typical shounen falls short. The show predominantly revolves around Saitama’s character arc, his frequent encounters with villains, and verbal exchanges with different characters. The whole purpose of being a parody is seemingly gone to waste once Saitama encounters his first epiphany. Many of the jokes from there on out feel rather arbitrary, as if the writer had lost interest in writing a parody and decided to write very standard jokes which offer no insight on the concept of heroism in general. Saitama’s arc is a good thing by itself, and other characters are certainly a joy to watch as well. But after the first few episodes, One Punch Man really feels like it took some steps backwards in terms of what it could have achieved.

The visual department of One Punch Man is good enough in and of itself. Animation is very fluid and well-choreographed as expected of Studio Madhouse, and has the added benefit of being very flashy. Additionally, the character designs manage to look distinct and capture the extravagant nature of the show without looking overly simplistic. There’s plenty of flair to be seen in the designs from Genos’s cybernetic anatomy to Sonic’s sleek attire. By contrast, one-note villains are given a relatively simple and goofy design, indicating that they won’t be seen for long. More prominent villains are more complex in appearance, yet colorful enough to stand out. The characters’ personalities and roles in the story are clearly reflected in their designs, which is the perfect approach for the kind of show One Punch Man is, and so I truly commend the original artist for his work. 

The artstyle beyond this is lacking, however. The backgrounds have very little to no flair in how they’re designed, being little more than average photorealism. They’re crafted in such a way that mimics real life, and are actually somewhat appealing visually. But the problem is that it conflicts with the more cartoony designs of the characters, thus resulting in a fairly lackluster presentation. Particularly, the city which Saitama resides in is a rather dull and boring sprawl of grey hues. With how much flair is put into the character designs and action sequences, this area sorely lacks creativity or vibrance, and comes off as a lazy choice on part of the producers. Other shows like Space Dandy and Gurren Lagann are wacky in roughly the same vein as One Punch Man, and manage to have a far more polished visual presentation with backgrounds that fall in line with the proper visual style, and at certain times looking far better than One Punch Man ever manages. Even Boku no Hero Academia, a show with notably more similarities to One Punch Man in concept, displays some creativity and polish by giving its backgrounds a comic-book feel to them. With how tonally consistent these shows are, I don’t see much reason for One Punch Man not to conform to this approach. It gives me the impression that the team over at Madhouse put a strict focus on how to make the character models and animations dazzling, and just ended it there.

And so with all of this said, One Punch Man may not evoke anything particularly meaningful throughout its runtime. And it certainly falls short of being a parody as mentioned earlier. However, the one major question regarding One Punch Man in spite of all this would be: is it worth watching? As far as I’m concerned, the answer is yes. The humor, likeable characters, and exhilarating action sequences are sure to keep viewers satisfied, and at the very least makes One Punch Man ultimately an entertaining and worthwhile experience. It has steps forward and steps back, but the overall product is a success in my eyes and is feel-good watch that I would warmly recommend to many.