One Punch Man 2nd Season Specials

A series of mini-stories related to the main plot but inconsequential and skippable, I would still recommend them though, if you enjoyed the main story then you're going to find this fun, maybe it's not as good and engaging but they're short enough so this is not really an issue. As OVAs tend to, this won't have any outstanding animations.

Saitama and Those With Reasonable Abilities
Saitama meets weak villains who plan to rob a bank, chaos ensues.

Old Dudes and Fishing
Atomic Samurai and Bang fish while C class heroes fight nearby.

Genos and Memory Loss
Genos gets amnesia after Saitama knocks him out accidentally
...
Games and Rivals
Saitama, Garou, and others join a video game tournament.

Puri-Puri Prisoner and the Escaped Prisoners
Puri-Puri Prisoner breaks out to fight a monster and fugitives.

The Zombieman Murder Case 2
Zombieman, Darkshine, Metal Bat, etc... investigate a monster attack in snow.

Allow me to digress… Did this special really take me almost 4 years to finish? I remember I watched the first two episodes in 2019 and then stopped. Sheesh. Well, let’s review it and see if I was justified to slack off for so long or if I’m just lazy. I will do a quick review of individual episodes, I will tell you what these episodes are about and then list them in rankings. Let’s go. Every episode is 10 minutes long, that’s about ideal for specials.


1st episode is centred around Saitama and three “Ebay” robbers planning a heist. Robbers bump into Saitama and try ... to eliminate him, only to realize their powers are quite weak to be mild. Out of fear, the robber trio undergoes an afternoon training session with Saitama, trying to “pretend” they want to become heroes.

What to say about this episode? It’s for the giggles mainly. Some references are thrown here and there. For example: the mosquito swarm is a reference to OPM Season 1. The episode is mainly messing around with no real motion. The writer has thrown in a “strong” monster for Saitama to defeat as well as Genos cameo. I say this episode is somewhere between “mediocre” 5 and “average” 6. A slow start to the OPM S2 specials. I won’t probably watch this episode ever again, there’s nothing really interesting for me.


2nd episode is a fishing episode. Bang and Atomic Samurai fish while Mumen Rider and “Something” Chain are fighting a monster, thinking these two fishermen are average humans.

I’m starting to notice a pattern. Basically, writers seem to add this monster who either wishes to destroy the world or conquer it into the OPM Specials episodes. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of this approach. I view it as a “jumpscare”, sure they might scare you or excite you at first, however… the more jumpscares you experience, the more hardened you usually become. Eventually, jumpscares might stop exciting you and it becomes an annoying pest. I feel like this “pummelling” of Mumen Rider and his buddy by a giant frog just doesn’t work here and the director should have either used longer flashback sequences or a brand-new animation of some unknown or less-known heroes. Sure, One Punch Man is about fighting monsters and etc. It doesn’t mean you always have to force a battle for no other reason than a “thrilling” moment. Talking episodes can be fun too, for some. Overall, it’s an alright episode and it is better than the previous one for sure. I won’t rewatch it most likely tho.


3rd episode is an amnesia episode. Genos loses his memory and goes on a journey to regain it.

That description sounded more exciting than it actually was. The best thing about this episode was and yes, you heard right, the best thing were those flying Lays chips in slow motion. Lays should copy it into one of their commercials with Lionel Messi no kappa. Otherwise, some cheap laughs about Genos acting out of character with Saitama and Fubuki. Yet another monster aiming to destroy the world appears, or destroy urbanism to be precise. Unfortunately fails and City Z occupants still use “DoorDash” to this day, a tragic ending. This episode didn’t hit the right spots for me and it is maybe the worst yet. I didn’t enjoy the way OPM handled the amnesia, it’s probably because my humour senses just did not tick. You probably guessed it, I won’t be rewatching this one anytime soon.


4th episode is a gaming episode! Saitama goes to a gaming event to participate in a tournament.

This was the best episode by a margin. Creative episode, with a clear idea of what it wants to do, paired with great execution. An interesting choice of cast. About the tournament, we all knew which god gamer is taking the victory. This episode is a strong 9, a definitive highlight of specials. I would watch this episode again.


5th episode is a jailbreak. Some prisoners escaped, and PP Prisoner is hunting these poor souls down.

I feel like a good portion of your experience will depend on whether you like Puri Puri Prisoner or not. If you enjoy seeing large, muscular, naked dude fighting, then this episode will offer you something of value. The episode itself is quite average, nothing exceptional. Basic prisonbreak, and a fight with some monster in a jar. Prisoners didn’t even bother to split, except like 2 and stayed together to make it easy for PP Prisoner. Probably 5 or 6, I won’t be rewatching this episode.


6th episode is a “killer” mystery. Well, it’s a sequel to the "who killed Zombieman". Some S-class heroes and Saitama get stuck in a cottage during a blizzard, they capture Sonic o Sound and eventually, somebody kills Zombieman, so the cast must find out the culprit to protect "blondie" in distress.

The 2nd best episode. Not nearly as good as the gaming episode, still way better than the rest. When I saw the episode title I was hoping this might be an attempt to make a bit of a horror episode. Unfortunately not, the most “horror” thing was Sonic creeping on Superalloy Blackluster workout. Still, good idea, with solid execution. It’s a weaker 8.



Okay, time to rank these episodes.

Meh:
Episode 3: The amnesia episode did not work at all.
Episode 5: “Vanilla” prison break.
Episode 1: The idea was there, execution missed the mark by a lot.
Alright:
Episode 2: Mumen Rider getting pummelled didn’t bring anything of value. The fishing part was good tho.
Good:
Episode 6: I think the prequel was better, was a while since I watched it. It’s worth your 10 minutes of life.
Excellent:
Episode 4: I’m glad I didn’t waste 1 hour of my life, this episode is great and I’m glad I finally kicked myself enough to watch it.


The final rating is 6/10. You should at least watch them once, even if you hated the 2nd season animation. It’s a downgrade from season 1 Specials, still, there are episodes worth your time. It took me almost 4 years to finish six 10-minute episodes, I bet you’ll be done in 2 years. In the end, I was a lazy bastard, kinda.

Oh One Punch Man, how the mighty have fallen.

This will not be a long review detailing the failings of Season 2 of One Punch, there are plenty already and it would just be a waste of time—yours and mine. I will say, that despite the issues with animation season 2 faced, there was a definite improvement over time with the Garo fight single handedly saving the seasons' MyAnimeList score.

These OVA specials though? Yikes.

Not only do they look as bad as OPM2 did on a bad day, but they also fail to evoke the emotions from the viewer that ONE's writing normally does. Very little of ... it was funny, all of the jokes that were clearly meant to be jokes fell flat, especially the last episode. The scenarios for all of the specials were either predictable or unmemorable to the point of annoyance. OPM is not merely known for having fantastic visuals (at least in manga form) but also having strong characters that are fun to watch, easy to relate to and root for, and have interesting interactions with our titular main character. But these specials don't really provide much of that in any substantive way that you couldn't get elsewhere. In fact, I believe the specials even mention content that isn't even covered in the anime. Which is a great hint to go read the manga, something everyone should do it's fantastic.

I'm not going to talk about the art too much because it's already done to death but wow the specials look bad. It never gets to the level that certain episodes of the show do, which feel like they were largely drawn on four's and fives, but it doesn't mean they look good: Inconsistent and ugly character art, blah colors, low visual fidelity, no real directorial or cinematic flair. All characteristics of things that the laymen would define as "bad." And I would wholeheartedly agree. I can't normally watch pretty things that are poorly written anyways so how am I supposed to feel about this? You would think with the months in between the season and the releases of the Blu Rays that the team would have the time to make these specials look the best they can, but very clearly their schedules were just as garbage as the McDonalds that destroyed my intestines a few days ago.

I anguish for the animators that were murdered in the making of these works that were definitely not worth their blood sweat and tears; as well as the anime only viewer who will miss out on one of the best looking action manga of all time. Which is ultimately why I watched them all despite their poor quality, I love One Punch Man, I think ONE is a great writer and Yusuke Murata is a fantastic artist. The fact that this was released in its current state is an insult to them and all the super talented people caught up in the OPM production committee's attempt to strike while the iron is hot, instead of waiting for Shingo Natsume to finish their mediocre Boogiepop Adaptation.

I'm just glad they're all out so I can mark them as completed and move on with my life.