An enormous meteor speeds towards Earth. The vicious Sea King and his minions rise to
claim the surface for their own. As the
mighty heroes fall one after another, all hope seems lost. That is until he comes in. His name is Saitama and he’s…well he’s just
kind of passing through and has nothing of importance on his plate at the
moment. He’s looking for good, strong
opponents but might find one in maintaining his rep within the Heroes
Association. All the eyes of the city
are looking to this man who can end battles in one punch. But is Saitama a savior or a cheater in
disguise? Better yet…does Saitama even
care? Probably not but that’s life for
him I guess.
Well my hopes of Saitama getting into a battle royale
with the Class S heroes never came true.
Still, that didn’t stop One Punch Man from delivering two more memorable
battles and events that elevate Saitama to higher levels…what kind of levels is
up to the viewer.
It’s hard to gauge Saitama sometimes. He wants to be known to the world but doesn’t
want the recognition that comes with it?
He defeats a foe that no one else can, not even Genos, yet he claims he
was simply capitalizing on the effort of heroes who already wore the enemy
out? Don’t get me wrong, Saitama isn’t a
bad guy, not at all. He does use his
powers for good, even though he only seems to be thinking about something tedious
like dinner while using them in battle.
I guess seeing him take a hit so that the reputations of Genos, Mumen
Rider and the other heroes who couldn’t beat the Sea King was as humble as
we’ve seen him yet. Saitama’s just a guy
who goes about his business and is more carefree and selfless as any character
ive seen in an Anime. He just…does what
he does, even if it just so happens to involve beating up the Sea King or
punching a FREAKING METEOR OUT OF THE SKY.
Truly, Saitama is the hero Anime deserves and ill stand by that
sentiment, even if I still need to watch one more week of episodes to solidify
that declaration.
That’s not to say other characters got overshadowed by
Saitama. The Sea King story really
didn’t need to be two parts, in my opinion.
It felt padded out just to throw in more “heavy hitter” Class S heroes
when really their time could have been cut down considerably. Really, it was all building up to Mumen Rider
and Genos making one incredibly defiant stand against the monster who could not
be taken down. Genos got the most
stylish fight of the show so far, echoing his Dragon Ball Z inspired training
match with Saitama. But Mumen Rider’s
futile stand was very My Hero Academia.
Even before we saw him face a monster he had no chance in hell of
defeating (he’s a good fighter but doesn’t have super strength and rides a
simple bycicle), we saw civilians stepping up to defend the shelter housing
survivors from the Sea King attack. Wow,
that definitely gets the heart pumping.
It also made truly worry that, for a show as hilarious as One Punch Man
is, things were going to take a line crossing turn. Would Genos and Mumen Rider really bite it
(especially Genos, gahhhh seeing his body get melted by acid was
horrifying). I guess there was a lot of
material that it wouldntve been able to fit in one episode. If I had to make a final call on it, the
second part was much stronger than Part 1, which had a lot of build up but
merely just felt like the first “ok” episode of One Punch Man when everything
else has been excellent. Worse yet, the
Sea King Part 1 was sandwhiched between it’s second half AND Saitama and Genos
going all out against the meteor (btw DAMN is Genos well animated and cool with
his super cyborg buster arms).
In the end, Saitama made a friend of Mumen Rider and now
there’s someone, other than Genos, who truly knows that Saitama isn’t a fake
out to take the credit of other heroes.
Saitama’s subsequent bump up to another rank tells us the Heroes
Association is finally taking notice as well.
I still don’t get how Amai Mask fits into all of this. Is the ultimate Class S hero destined to get
the crap knocked out of him by Saitama or Genos…cause id be ok with that
arrogant jerk getting laid out like that.
It’s almost hard to believe ive blown through this show so quickly and
that next week is the series (or rather season) finale. One Punch Man so far has lived up to the
hype, despite a couple of stumbles this week.
Let’s see if it can hit it out of the park one more time next week.
PS
“Threat Level Dragon” sounds so cool and I love the other
names for the danger rankings for the city.
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