First Impressions: One-Punch Man

What could I possibly say about the new superhero-esque anime One-Punch Man that could sum up the totality of this series? Zany! Over the top! Spectacular! Hilarious! The title alone makes one curious as to how a series about a superhero that can end a fight in one punch could possibly work! Well, d*mn good apparently!

This impression is based off of watching the first three episodes of One-Punch Man. If you haven’t watched the episodes yet I advise checking it out on Hulu or on Daisuki.

*Possible Spoilers Ahead*

The story takes place in the Japanese metropolis of City Z. As far as Saitama knows there has always been a rampant amount of villains that torment the innocent citizens of the city. Before his miraculous metamorphosis, Saitama was a man that did not care for his own life or any others; he was ready to die at the hands of a half-lobster, half-humanoid monster, though was released by said creature merely because his eyes were just as dead as the monster’s. On his way home he comes across a child with a big chin that the “lobster monster” had been looking for. Saitama takes it upon himself to protect the child and in awesome turn of events ends up disemboweling the lobster monster with a tie.

Since the encounter with his first villain, Saitama has spent four years training to become the uber-powerful “One-Punch Man,” able to end his enemies with one fell swoop of his mighty fist. With great power comes great…boredom. Saitama is not pleased with his ever-growing power and has lost his fighting spirit, so he ‘superheroes’ as a hobby to pass the time and to possibly some day find the one opponent that will make his fighting spirit burn intensely!

One-Punch Man focuses on Saitama’s everyday life and how he juggles that with being a superhero for a hobby. Unlike his peers, One-Punch Man does not take such hero-ing as seriously as most of them, frequently getting rather annoyed at all of the heros’ and villains’ dramatic and vibrant back stories about how they became who they are today.

The first three episodes alone show just how serious One-Punch Man is with his superhero-ing (not that serious, apparently), though his feeling of boredom is not misplaced. Saitama has a lot of personality behind his mediocre expression of boredom, but it doesn’t truly shine through until he is given the hope for a better opponent, which is his true desire. Genos, a cyborg ninja who tags along with Saitama during episode two, is the polar opposite of Saitama, making this pair ripe for comedy. The two work in tandem with each other’s personalities and actions.

The overall animation for the series is sub-par to most anime series, but what really makes One-Punch Man shine through is the animation used during the fight sequences. The animation is fast paced and over the top, as if Michael Bay himself over saw the destruction and madness centered on the heroes and villains! The use of shifting expressions on Saitama is priceless: you could end up with a mediocre facial feature that comes close to an uncanny resemblance of Calliou or a more intense, fearsome look, such as when Saitama gains hope that he has found someone worth fighting. The use of simplistic animation fits well to describe the lead characters personality and feelings towards the situations that are occurring around him.

Typical silly background music is played frequently when Saitama is being a lazy good-for-nothing or just goofing off, but the sweet guitar riffs that pump you up during battles makes it more blood-pumping. The music fluctuates accordingly to the characters’ current situation but for the most part there is nothing TOO ground breaking about the tracks. The opening theme “The Hero!! ~Okoreru Kobushi ni Hi wo Tsukero~” by JAM Project is a good track, but I did not catch myself sticking around for the opening sequence every time an episode started: I seemed to fast-forward through it more often than not.

One-Punch Man serves as a great superhero anime and does its job right to entertain the masses. Over the top fight scenes, awesome guitar riffs, and well-placed humor that seems to cut the tension between some of the characters in half make the show worthwhile, though it seems to fall short from being a game-changing anime. The pacing of the first three episodes is rather slow, and while we learn much about One-Punch Man, we learn little-to-nothing about Genos the Cyborg Ninja, but that is to be expected since the lead doesn’t like loooong origin stories when they are being explained to him. The episodes do not seem to have hinted towards a main story line just yet, instead testing and developing characters’ personalities and relationships. So far they have no common aim of defeating a main villain; the current aim is to merely to protect City Z from any villains that arise. The lack of a main villain and a compelling story line are enough to prevent me from being too involved during these past three episodes, but hopefully it starts showing signs of blossoming into something bigger than what it has already presented itself to be.

One-Punch Man is a fun anime to watch when you have some down time. It’s not too engrossing just yet so it is not a definite “must watch.” If you are a fan of superheroes just as much as I am, you will find this parody of super humans really entertaining and hilarious! They play around with many typical comic and superhero typicalities to hilarious effect. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to the fourth episode with the hope that it gives me the proper story this anime deserves.