One Punch Man 2nd Season (One Punch Man Season 2)

In the wake of defeating Boros and his mighty army, Saitama has returned to his unremarkable everyday life in Z-City. However, unbeknownst to him, the number of monsters appearing is still continuously on the rise, putting a strain on the Hero Association's resources. Their top executives decide on the bold move of recruiting hoodlums in order to help in their battle. But during the first meeting with these potential newcomers, a mysterious man calling himself Garou makes his appearance. Claiming to be a monster, he starts mercilessly attacking the crowd.

The mysterious Garou continues his rampage against the Hero Association, crushing every hero he encounters. He turns out to be the legendary martial artist Silverfang's best former disciple and seems driven by unknown motives. Regardless, this beast of a man seems unstoppable. Intrigued by this puzzling new foe and with an insatiable thirst for money, Saitama decides to seize the opportunity and joins the interesting martial arts competition.

As the tournament commences and Garou continues his rampage, a new great menace reveals itself, threatening the entire human world. Could this finally be the earth-shattering catastrophe predicted by the great seer Madame Shibabawa?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

The anime season adapts chapters 38 through 84 of the manga.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	One Punch-Man
Prequel:	One Punch Man, One Punch Man 2nd Season Commemorative Special
Side story:	One Punch Man 2nd Season Specials
Sequel:	One Punch Man 3

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Saitama

Main

Furukawa, Makoto
Japanese

Genos

Main

Ishikawa, Kaito
Japanese

Garou

Supporting

Midorikawa, Hikaru
Japanese

Tatsumaki

Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi
Japanese

Mumen Rider

Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi
Japanese

Fubuki

Supporting

Hayami, Saori
Japanese

Speed-o'-Sound Sonic

Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki
Japanese

King

Supporting

Yasumoto, Hiroki
Japanese

Metal Bat

Supporting

Hatano, Wataru
Japanese

Puripuri Prisoner

Supporting

Onosaka, Masaya
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Hosoya, Nobuyuki

Producer

Fujishiro, Atsushi

Producer

Satou, Souta

Producer

Sakurai, Chikara

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

"Seijaku no Apostle (静寂のアポストル)" by JAM Project

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Ending Theme

	1: "Seijaku no Apostle (静寂のアポストル)" by JAM Project (eps 1,12)
	2: "Chizu ga Nakutemo Modoru kara (地図が無くても戻るから)" by Makoto Furukawa (eps 2-11)

Reviews

Jul 5, 2019

Fable242

Recommended

I'm just going to start off by saying I really can't figure out why so many people are complaining about the story and the comedy isn't as good as the first season and keep placing all the blame on the studio. Honestly speaking as long as you’re a manga reader you will know that they follow the script almost to the T with only a bit rearrangement and cut off here and there. All the comedy and story came from the same script that the first came from.

I already understand that humans find it hard to accept change especially when it started off on ...

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Jul 13, 2019

FAKEANIMEGIRL

Mixed Feelings

This went the direction I hoped the series would after the first season. ONE wasn't clever enough to keep the manga going as a gag manga, and quickly wrote Saitama out of a bunch of scenes to just play it as a straight shonen. Yeah, it's over-the-top and the powers can be kooky, but neither of those traits are anything close to uncommon in shonen. There's been self-aware shonen since JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, but I digress.

Saitama continues to be used as a sort of tension-relief, with the pattern being that powerful opponents are set up outside of his reach, and satisfaction is continuously derived by ... characters who think they're hot shit inevitably running into Saitama and getting knocked down a few pegs. It's simple and nothing outside of what Dragon Ball Z did constantly, but it's amusing nonetheless. Saitama's invincibility is essentially a fact at this point, and always knowing that a comeuppance is around the corner leads to the anime's funnest moments.

This has the unfortunate side effect of making any scene without Saitama usually fail at any attempted drama. The results of every fight are known not to matter, as if the villain is to succeed and progress in fighting heroes he'll inevitably be destroyed by Saitama, and if anything of permanence happens, either a villain will die simply before Saitama makes it happen, or a hero will die. Problem there is, OPM puts so much work solely into its character design that none of those heroes have any backstory that makes victory or failure have any meaning beyond its impact on the plot.

The bright side is that season 2 admitting it's just another shonen series means that it has to fall back on more conventional storytelling to make the characters who aren't Saitama compelling, as they necessarily need to pick up most of the slack as he's usually never around. Both characters introduced in season 1 and new characters alike get more defined personalities, motivations, and weaknesses. This transition isn't as effective as characters who have these things from the start, though (i.e. most shonen works), as ONE is forced to play catch-up with defining a huge cast he set up almost at the start of the series. The consequence is that a lot of these moving parts of the story still haven't gotten additional characterization - there was simply too much to get to in this amount of time. So there's still a bunch of people running around who are literally nothing more than their character design, which I find as dull as I did in season 1.

The new villain Garo is the star of the show here, a powerful man who fights nearly anyone he comes in contact with, overcoming them with sheer tenacity and brute force. His love for combat, his desperation to overcome his inadequacies, abrasive personality, and feeling like he's fighting for underdogs makes him a stark contrast for Saitama. Though the two don't end up establishing a relationship in this batch of episodes, the switching between of their opposite perspectives keeps the season's pacing and tone, dynamic and gripping. Garo is a ton of fun to watch, but I find the emotional core of his story to be mostly ineffective. Garo fancies himself on the side of the monsters, emphasizing as a child the fact that they're unpopular underdogs always destined to lose. It's an interesting concept, but OPM's world completely fails to ever make the monsters sympathetic.

One of Garo's flashbacks has him claiming that an aquatic monster is just "trying to protect the ocean," and he reacts with horror at the fact the heroes mercilessly destroyed the monster's eggs. It certainly sounds awful if true, making the heroes out to be more bloodthirsty than the monsters, but this is never supported by literally anything else in the series. OPM had an opportunity to be morally ambiguous here depending on how it portrayed its monsters, but trapped itself by always wanting to characterize them as stock evil as possible in order to properly parody its genre's melodrama. This season goes even further in committing to that one-sided portrayal of monsters with another subplot that very clearly demonstrates that becoming a monster turns you into a bloodthirsty psychopath with no instinct control. It needed to show the audience just a single time that monsters were capable of more complexity, but it completely neglects to do so. This results in Garo's passion and motivation making him look like an idiot if examined with any scrutiny. When looking at his claims fairly, all we have are his perspective (demonstrated to be formed by bad logic) and a single anecdote from when he was a child that, if true, is so astronomically in the minority of monsters that it's virtually irrelevant. Garo wants to be on the side of the underdogs who always lose, but fails to acknowledge that 99.9% of the time monsters are being slain because they mercilessly kill and devour powerless humans, who are objectively speaking the biggest underdogs in this entire equation, meaning by Garo's own logic the heroes are more morally just than he is. It's an incredibly simple conclusion to come to that goes completely unaddressed and it has the effect of making Garo look like a huge idiot, burning away goodwill towards the character that's the primary focus of the entire season.

I'm sure there are people that argue this nonsensical backstory is another intentional gag, but I see zero reason to believe that. It seems to me that this is played straight in attempting to make Garo look like a sympathetic anti-hero, as there are additional scenes that go out of their way to establish Garo does believe in a moral code (his caring of kids) that would back up the belief that he takes his mission seriously. Not to mention that the basic idea of making the emotional core of your main character an intentional joke goes against all basic common sense ideas of writing. The tension of virtually any scene involving Garo relies on believing that both Garo and the heroes he fights are both victims who believe in justice, and you're supposed to sympathize with both sides of the battle despite the idea that only one is supposed to come out victorious. Unless you're willing to admit that these scenes are designed to be inconsequential, devoid of thrills, and pointless, you need to acknowledge that you're meant to take Garo's beliefs seriously in order for all of these scenes to have any meaning. And I find it impossible to believe that ONE didn't want these scenes to be exciting, unpredictable, and having you root for both sides. If they weren't, no one could possibly have any investment as to what happens in this series, as it would all amount to having the depth of just watching a laser light show. It's one of the classic fatal flaws of trying to argue One Punch Man as above its genre, and yet if you humble it down to conventional storytelling you're forced to admit how bafflingly underwritten certain aspects of it are. I had to take quite a skip and a hop to argue why Garo's backstory is ineffective and stupid despite it being incredibly obvious, but I just know some sections of the fanbase will still attempt to argue in favor of it, so I felt like I had to. This is why I tend to dislike discussing OPM in any critical way, because I usually end up having to run a marathon of justifications for a mostly really basic show that's just dumb fun.

But it IS fun, I've never not admitted that, even if I don't think it's genius-level fun. Garo may not be used to his full effectiveness, but he's still a joy to watch. The jokes may often be obvious and repetitive, but they still evoke smiles. The fights are emotionally and strategically nothing special, but fast-paced and exciting in their scale. All of this amounted to a series I burned through in almost a day once I got into it, and I was disappointed there wasn't more (especially since it ends on a horrifically unsatisfying cliffhanger in a way the first season didn't). To OPM's credit, I thought the character King was maybe the best joke the series has come up with thus far. The idea of a character who's incredibly weak just coasting by off intimidation via a fake reputation is nothing short of brilliant. Shonen works absolutely love establishing a future character's power by having those in-the-know immediately respond to them with immense fear, and the result is often not getting to see this character's power until far into the series' future, building hype that can carry a serialized work for a long time. It's a typical trick, but OPM's parody of it is a million times more clever than acknowledging that the main character always wins. Alas, I still have some issues with execution. I think OPM brings this joke to a conclusion far too quickly, when it could've had much more use. King is immediately established as being a phony both to the audience and Saitama. It could've been hysterically funny if Saitama was desperate to see a display of King's power, but King always denies him by posturing and saying something like fighting is always a waste of time for someone as powerful as him. It would've given Saitama a character relationship he didn't have, and the dramatic irony between the audience knowing King is weak yet the invincible Saitama taking him seriously would've probably worked well. It also could've been a lot of fun to have King fully take advantage of his reputation. King doesn't deny his false victories, but he doesn't deliberately make use of it either. King always wants to avoid fights because he's actually a coward, which is funny, but you could still have that be his internal character while also having him be vain and greedy enough to attempt to scare off people far stronger than him just by posturing. A new villain shows up that's completely unstoppable, King makes a rare appearance and stares him down with his intimidating face, the villain is aware of King's reputation for being one of the most powerful heroes and believes it when seeing his demeanor in person, the villain runs away or surrenders without even a fight and King's fearful reputation grows even further. I think that would've been an amazing character, but as he is now King is one joke that's resolved in no time. He's a coward that only is famous by accident, and he'd rather just be left alone and play video games. King's an immensely likable character nonetheless, but it bothers me that such a genius concept goes underutilized. Again, I'm forced to conclude that ONE is just limited as a writer.

Season 2 also introduces Fubuki, who is given a decent enough backstory to start with, but then basically never does anything again for the rest of the season. Boy, she sure is hot, though, right?

I'd be remiss to end this review without talking about the series' change of studio. The first season was well-regarded for its high quality animation relative to other contemporary anime, and in that regard I'd say the critical consensus was right on the money. For reasons that I'm sure aren't good ones, the second season shifted creative hands. Many people were worried that one of the first season's best traits would be lost by this transition. And they were right! Season 2 doesn't look anywhere near as good as the first. In-betweens are absent all over the place in action scenes and characters outside of center frame are often hideously off-model, for starters. The sad thing is, season 2 probably still looks better than most anime these days, but unlike season 1 that's more indicative of how dire the quality of animation is in modern anime rather than any sense of accomplishment. If season 1 looked like this it probably would've gotten away with it, but now that season 2 invites direct comparison the whole attempt just comes across as kind of pathetic. Something season 2 revels in that I fucking hate (and don't remember happening in 1) is the recently popular technique of applying a dimming effect to the entire frame to make action scenes look more dramatic. It essentially looks like someone turned the brightness down on their screen for a few frames. It looks like fucking dogshit and I cannot believe anyone in the industry or fandom thinks this looks better than no additional editing at all. It's an utter joke any professional can think this is effective. Lighting is supposed to enunciate certain parts of the frame, and that requires that other parts of the frame are lit differently in order to create contrast. You wouldn't think the purpose of contrast would go unknown by professional artists, but here we are. It's at least obvious why studios want to use this technique: it's way easier to turn a slider down in a video editor than it is to color individual frames in a way that simulates natural lighting. But not being capable of putting in the second of thought to realize highlighting only works when not everything is highlighted is nothing short of amazing to me. It's like someone hands you a long document and for the sake of organization they used a yellow highlighting marker to show someone the most important parts at a glance. In this case, you'd be getting that document with every line of text drawn over with bright yellow. It would be useless in its intent to focus you on certain parts, and it would look like shit. And thus is the same result of this animation "technique." Lastly, the audio mixing in some action scenes can be downright trashy. For some reason there are a lot of impact sound effects that seem as though they're mixed super low in comparison to the music. This muffled sound takes away all the power of punches, etc., and I have no idea why it was done seemingly at random. There are multiple fight scenes where the screen dims, a powerful character throws multiple punches with the force of cannonballs, and yet each hit sounds like the person on the defensive is being hit with wet sponges. Exhilarating!

It's bizarre to finish a One Punch Man season enjoying its story more than its animation, which was the exact opposite reaction I had from season 1, yet here we are. It's a shame, because this season could've had both and have been an easy improvement over the first, but the staff just weren't ready to go that extra mile. We can only hope a possible season 3 will turn things around, but I know I at least will be paying attention should it happen. At this point I'm always ready for some more dumb fun. Because that's what One Punch Man is. And more power to it now, I say.

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Jul 2, 2019

Stark700

Not Recommended

I wish I could say the sequel for one of the most popular anime of this year to be good. I really wish I could. One Punch Man’s release back in 2015 made headlines with its high caliber animation quality and ultra comical character cast. The manga itself is also very popular. Ask anyone who’ve read the series will tell you that it’s more than just your usual battle shounen. Known for its top notch quality comedy and unorthodox storytelling, it’s a sensation. But this…second season is nothing short of a horror story. It’s the type of horror that scared me to realize how far ... this anime has fallen. What did the second season go wrong?

Well for starters, there’s the change in the staff. Director Shingo Natsume left this season and responsibilities were handed to Chikara Sakurai. One of their previous project was Majimoji Rurumo, a show that probably most people has forgotten by now. One Punch Man has already established itself beyond the anime medium and with a growing popularity, it tries to aim higher. However, fans coming into this season shouldn’t have any high expectations especially if we take a look at the promotional material. While the key visual doesn’t turn heads away, the preview will. With the J.C. Staff in charge of this sequel, this raised a lot of red flags. In respect, the animation quality severely suffers in quality. Rather than a sharp, crisp quality animation with stylish aesthetics, we get static-like power point slides. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but this second season’s quality is easy to point fingers to. Unfortunately, it seems J.C. Staff couldn’t handle the job of making this into a sensation again. They already have their hands full with a lot of projects this year after all.

Storytelling itself doesn’t improve much either if we talk about the main plot. Again, I really wish I could say the opposite but this sequel proves itself to be a tragedy. From the rushing of certain content to underwhelming delivery of some of the important fights, I felt no impact from this season at all. Zero. Early on the in season, we also meet Fubuki (Blizzard) who leads the B-Class hero group. At first, I was ecstatic to finally see her gain some relevance. However, the fight between her and Saitama passed like a flash. There’s almost no charisma besides Saitama’s heroic speech and attitude. Even on a comedy level, it didn't draw much popcorn entertainment. Similarly, many of the dialogues this season sounds very scripted. As a manga reader, I wanted to see much more than characters speaking their lines. What I got instead is just words and words coming out in a desaturated manner. Saitama is still the bald caped hero with unstoppable power. The first season captured the magic of his character while this sequel didn’t move the needle. What I mean is Saitama’s fight against adversaries this season isn’t even near the caliber as the previous season.

But it’s not always fair to compare the previous season with this continuation, right? Truth to be told, season 1 did set the bar high. Known for its visual dynamics and ONE’s creative writing, One Punch Man has always done all it could to be its own special series. Here, it’s lost the fire. People made memes out of One Punch Man because it was comically entertaining in a genuine way. Here, there’s worthy made besides weak impressions. Even the hero hunter Garou didn’t make much of an impact. As a foil character to Saitama, I expected his personality to be a bright flair. However, Garou ended up being someone that I forgot easily. Perhaps it’s because the overall directing of the show as several events takes place at once this season. There’s the fighting tournament involving various heroes, the invasion of the monsters, and Saitama living his day as usual as a hero. The joke of being one punched is far over after we’ve seen it so many times. The monsters themselves are hardly worth writing home about. To be honest, does any antagonist this season even contain an ounce of charisma compared to Boros? That fight from season 1 was legendary.

On the hero side, we do have some characters making reappearances. Names like Genos, Metal Bat, and Tatsumaki are a few I’m sure fans remember. Unfortunately, their roles this season has degenerated to little value. New faces like Suiryu brings in some excitement although he can hardly carry this season. In fact, the Super Fight Tournament arc felt like one big talent show of weirdos gathering together. I didn’t feel the stakes were impactful nor did the results feel satisfying. I mean, the show is One Punch Man. Who else is going to dominate this tournament?

Oh how the mighty of fallen is the easiest way to describe One Punch Man Season 2. The first season was a juggernaut that exceeded expectations. Fans still embrace what became a blockbuster. It’s 2019 now and we’ll have people talking again One Punch Man again. Unfortunately, people will quote more from the manga than recommending this sequel. Trust me, One Punch Man Second Season is a mistake. A grave mistake.

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One Punch Man 2nd Season

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Saitama

Genos

Garou

Tatsumaki

Mumen Rider

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Speed-o'-Sound Sonic

King

Metal Bat

Puripuri Prisoner

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One Punch Man 2nd Season

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

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Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

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