I'm a guy that doesn't watch anime that often, first and foremost. Mostly because in the grand scheme of things, there's a lot of schlock you kind of have to wade through, or so I'm told by a few more proficient friends of mine. I don't know, I see a few series every now and then that constitute cutesy boob and butt play or just hours of screaming with a boring protagonist that's biggest defining trait is that his hair is a weird color or he's the nice guy. It's a lot to sit through, and ultimately, I just don't find it worth my time.
...
Luckily, One Punch Man offers a protagonist with no hair, so you can just focus on the type of person he IS instead of the person he looks like.
That's probably the biggest aspect of One Punch Man that I enjoy so trememdously: it's a show about deceit. Not necessarily in terms of plot, as it's pretty straightforward; you would have to be with a title like One Punch Man. What I mean is that it plays with expectation, and as a matter of fact, that's it's one and only joke. The funny thing is, it works. Never before does having the rug pulled out from underneath you feel so satisfying, that you're loving it when a fight ends anti-climactically, only to see how the world reacts to their trivial problems that seemed important at the time be ultimately mitigated and solved by one punch. It's just such a simple premise that never gets old, but instead only continues to impress the more it goes on, as any really good show should do.
It's parody, but it's excellent parody. It pokes fun at everything that draws away from the content of a shounen anime, and shows how on its own terms it surpasses those animes by simply being anti-climactic. You think that big fight with that fish man matters to Saitama? Cause it doesn't. It may matter to you, Genos. Or you, Mumen Rider. Or you, Puri Puri best character. But not Saitama. Why? Cause he's above threats and concerns. He just wants those deals at the grocery store, which quite frankly, if you had the ability to defeat everyone you ever meet in one punch, wouldn't you?
By the way, that was a sly way of just saying characters names in order to sort of go in depth about how I love characters. You catch that? If not, we'll I can't help you now, I just told you. If you did, shut up, no you didnt, that was clever as fuck. But it's interesting how characters in a parody show have so much more depth and intrigue than the shows that it's making fun of. It handles every single archetype, every mold, every personality so well that you'll never mix anyone up. There's heroic but pathetic weakling, there's a cyborg with a heart and a passion to learn. There's a pouty ESPer that solves everything instantly because she's a goddamned ESPer, so she has every reason to pout, especially if your gazing at those legs that go all the way up. More importantly, there's Saitama, the main character, who throws people off because he's not a guy to just relate to like so many protagonists before him try to do. He's too strong, he's bored, he's straight faced. He's got his mind focused on miniscule things because the big stuff isn't worth looking at, not when he can just take it out in one punch. And that's amazing. I can't tell you how many times I laugh after this bald piece of greatness just utters a sigh of recognition or just a response to an event. Never before has the simple term "ok" carried so much weight. In short, Saitama is simply a guy that can't give a fuck, and that's so refreshing after you've been drowning in a sea of misunderstood souls and angry hearts of vengeance.
In short, One Punch Man is just a sight to behold, not just for what it does but for what it points out. It details what anime SHOULD be doing by pointing out the flaws, and it does so in its own weird, blank faced way. Oh, and it looks beautiful. Perhaps that was neglected to be mentioned. It's beautiful, by the way. The ending may not live up to the amount of hype built into it, so prepare just a tad for a lackluster finish, but the point still remains, it's in line with the rest of the show. Is it the greatest thing ever? Probably not. Is it close? I'd say it's just scratching the bottom of heaven. Just grazing it's little fingers on the bottom of that cloud. All it takes is one punch to break through. In short...yeah, s'pretty good.
10/10 would take out to a steak dinner.
Dec 22, 2015
One Punch Man
(Anime)
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I'm a guy that doesn't watch anime that often, first and foremost. Mostly because in the grand scheme of things, there's a lot of schlock you kind of have to wade through, or so I'm told by a few more proficient friends of mine. I don't know, I see a few series every now and then that constitute cutesy boob and butt play or just hours of screaming with a boring protagonist that's biggest defining trait is that his hair is a weird color or he's the nice guy. It's a lot to sit through, and ultimately, I just don't find it worth my time.
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