One Punch Man 2nd Season Specials

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.