The brilliance of OPM is it's ability to successfully parody every vapid shounen action anime that has flooded the market these past 20, 30 years.
It takes stale tropes, themes and character archetypes and hilariously mocks them with one seemingly simple character trait, or plot device.
To be clear about what I mean by stale trope, basically the excruciating DBZ/Bleach/etc anime trope is as follows.
Weak hero gets beat-down. Recovers. Powers up. Battles bad guy in round 2. Wins. Season 2. Meets even more powerful bad guy. Rinse. Repeat....
Basically, you watch one, you watched them all.
So, what makes OPM different? With Saitama we get a hero who can literally destroy any enemy with one single punch. Fucking BRILLIANT. That sole premise throws the whole traditional action narrative structure out of whack and provides for some truly interesting scenarios.
Unfortunately, I do see bumps in the road ahead. Hopefully OPM will end with a single season. The only reason I feel this way is because I've read the manga... Urgh. Unless they rework the story (and most of the recycled humour), I don't see much future for OPM.
That said, this is a review for this current season. Not the manga and not for some hypothetical 2nd season. As such, I can only give OPM my strongest of recommendations. Watch it!
Edit: Upon reflection Sidonia no Kishi was actually fucking awesome too. And Ping Pong kept my attention (mainly for it's art).
