On My Shelves: One Punch Man

IN A WORLD… where monsters and supervillains run rampant, opposed by a variety of heroes and wannabees, there was a man who had reached the point that he did not care whether he lived or died; a monster he encountered was so amused by his "I don't care" attitude that the monster spared him.

But then the same monster tried to kill a child in front of him, and the man remembered that he had once dreamed of becoming a hero. After saving the child, he set out to train himself to be the greatest hero… for fun.

Saitama – for that was his name – turned out to be too good at his job.

One Punch Man is a comedy with a serious thread, a parody of all the over-the-top shonen series ever made, and all the ridiculously overpowered heroes and villains. The eponymous hero is Saitama, who has discovered after his training that not only isn't there any villain he can't beat, there isn't anything he has to punch more than once. In fact, most of his "punches" are more like a halfhearted swat. He has descended back to his old ennui, only occasionally roused from it by the appearance of something that looks like it might be tough enough to fight … and dropping back down when said something collapses before him like a mass of toilet paper in the rain.

Contrasting with Saitama is the disciple he somewhat unwittingly acquires in the second episode. Where Saitama is, honestly, dorky, lackadaisical, and often something of a jerk, Genos is the epitome of the earnest, all-too-serious warrior with a dark motivating past. A super-powered cyborg with an impressive array of powers and gadgets, Genos tries hard to be a hero – harder than Saitama, because Genos wants to be a good guy in the abstract as well as simple material sense. Saitama has lost that part of his dream and for a while doesn't even seem aware of it.

The comedy comes in multiple layers. The surface layer's simple – seeing all the classic shonen tropes of an approaching mighty enemy, the overblown posturing, the super attacks, basically stared at by Saitama who then blows them away with a single hopeful punch and then immediately falls back into depression at the realization it's over already is certainly amusing, and they find ways to make it still amusing after the first or second time.

The second layer is the referential one; this show refers to so many others visually, characterwise, and in other ways that it's hard to keep track. Saitama's outfit is rather similar to that of the food-superhero Anpanman. The first villain he fights looks basically like DBZ villain (later hero) Piccolo (except purple); different characters and art choices echo other shows from Macross and Western superhero shows to Naruto (Speed-of-Sound-Sonic looks in many ways like a close relative of Sasuke).

But the deeper layers are in the ways that the references and the characters interact. This is a world where cities are destroyed often enough that they are apparently not wasting their time giving them names, but just numbers or letters. They have a superhero association with rankings, tests, and a threat classification scheme letting heroes know what kind of danger an approaching monster poses (presumably so that the right level of hero can try to deal with it).

This setup allows the mood of the show to whipsaw with blinding speed. You can go from Saitama trying to find his way to the battle in time to fight, to seeing a deadly serious battle involving Genos (who, alas, seems destined to get punked in most battles). This is an amusing show in the literal sense of that word. I rarely had real belly laughs, but the show is fun in a way that very few ever are. At the same time, it is, like Galaxy Quest, serious enough within its own setting that when it actually has tense moments, I can take them seriously.

Saitama and other characters do grow and change a bit as time goes on. Saitama himself is most affected by Genos, whose earnest disciple behavior eventually gets through to the self-centered One Punch Man, enough to make him realize the other part of his dream, the part he left behind – defending people, being a hero because that's what a hero MEANS; not just doing it because it was interesting, or fun, or even a challenge.

Genos, on the other hand, is affected by Saitama's "accept the world as it comes" attitude and starts to look a bit more around him. This actually drives the serious part of the plot; the Genos we meet in the first episode wouldn't notice certain things that happen in later episodes.

There are only 12 episodes of One Punch Man out so far; I found it a fast, and very enjoyable, watch, and I hope they do more. I am a bit afraid that they can't manage this balancing act of humor and serious subjects for much longer, but I'm more than willing to give them the chance. Highly recommended!