Story - 8
One Punch Man is the story about a hero just for fun’s journey to becoming the strongest hero in the world. The big problem is, he already is pretty much the strongest hero, although it is not official, because it’s not on paper. The main hero Saitama has trained himself so hard, that he has surpass all expectations and has become bored of all the opponents he face, because he simply beats everyone in one punch.
Now for the first half of this anime, it’s hard to figure out where the story is going, because we learn that Saitama is simply too strong for anyone, how does the story keep us interested. But although it’s not really the blatantly obvious, the story is about looking for a worthy opponent for Saitama, and the story picks up half way, with the introduction of the Hero Ranking system. Because even though Saitama passed the physical test with flying colours, he did terrible on his written test, and was named officially the lowest rank hero on the Heroes Association. So it’s another story about aiming to the top, of the rankings for Saitama, for him to officially be labelled as the strongest hero in the world.
Characters - 7
Saitama is the main hero we follow in the story. This is a different take for many anime, because instead of a following someone who wants to become strong, we follow someone who is already the strongest in the world. As the story progress, we learn of Saitama’s we learn that Saitama, is actually just not a simpleton, and we learn he has a good sense of justice. Albeit, it’s rather subtle. There is not a lot of character development, I would say for him, or almost any of the other characters. But we do sympathise for him, because he has already worked so hard, and he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. And I think that what makes him a really likeable character and relatable at the same time, because I am sure many of us have done something, we are proud of, but it doesn’t recognized. He wants to earn his recognition, even if he takes the blame for all the negatives, he carries on non-chant, but is still aware of everything.
If Saitama is the character who’s already, the strongest, who should we actually follow and cheer for to become stronger, like most other anime. Genos fills that role, at first Genos seems to be a very serious character, however he kind of provides the comic relief, because he is so serious and Saitama isn’t. But you could say he is a probably more a true protagonist as he actually wants to get stronger, and hence he follows Saitama around hoping to learn more about his master and how to become a hero. He probably does get the most character development, as he learns more about Saitama, he starts seeing Saitama actually doesn’t deserve criticisms he gets and chooses to support him throughout the show.
For the other characters, we don’t get a lot of time with them. Especially the villains, because none of them have really elaborate backstories to make us care about them, and it doesn’t help they are easily defeated by Saitama. Same thing applies to the majority of the other heroes, we see them only briefly, as the majority play the role as throw away. As they are just there to stall time, until Saitama arrives. So there is not really a lot of character development, and not really enough screen time for us to really care for them all that much. They are cool characters, I admit, but I can’t get emotionally attached to any of them.
Animation and Sound - 10, 8
If every enemy is defeated by one punch, how do you make it interesting and epic enough for it to be entertaining? With beautiful epic animation, that comes before the final punch. If there is something amazing about One Punch Man, it’s the animation and especially the action scenes. I can go on about all the character designs, because I think they all look cool and funny in their own way, they all have a very unique design as well, something we don’t get too often. The action scenes are great, you see the fluidity of the animation frames and a lot of details for each frame. The explosions and special effects, they all look good. And I like how they switch Saitama’s serious mode and more casual mode with perfect timing. It’s funny because watching Saitama stall for a while, makes for a really good action scene. But that’s not it, there is some very good action scenes by the other characters when Saitama’s not around, giving us more of a real fight scene. I like how the world around them is not really as colourful, but the characters add a lot of colour and personality with their designs
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For the soundtrack, for the most part I really enjoyed it, it doesn’t really make me go super wow, but for it does, it’s nice to listen and kind gives you a little bit of hype for most of it. The instrumental bits do really good job of hyping up a scene, and I really like it for that. But it’s opening and ending song which I really love for this anime. The opening is an explosion of hype, the song is really just lifts you up with its heavy metal rock, the animation for it builds up the hype and song’s lyrics as well. And by the end of the episode you get the ending which, I feel like does a really good job of calming you down after that hype. It is a little catchy, but after being bombarded with hype, I think ending song is just a perfect way for calming you down.
Enjoyment - 10
If you haven’t heard of One Punch Man as it was airing during the 2015 Fall season, then I guess you’re one of the lucky people who didn’t had to deal with constant spam on social media, of people saying how this is just the great of all time. Because it’s not greatest of all time, but that is subjective, however it was definitely one of the most enjoyable and hyped anime. Because the whole show is just hype, it builds it up perfectly and feeds that hype perfectly. And it’s such a fun show to watch. The comedy is just funny; it feels like it’s not trying, but it just does such a good job at parodying lot genres which makes it so funny. The characters and action scenes are all fun to watch. But can I just say one thing, I don’t like how people are labelling Saitama’s fight scenes as fight scenes, because it all honesty he’s just dodging or letting the opponent hit him until he feels like throwing the punch, to me that’s not a fight scene, it’s an action scene not a fight, because there is no challenge in there for him, you know he’s just trolling around until he wants to win. That’s my problem with people calling these fight scenes epic, it has amazing animation, but I don’t they should be put in the category of fight scenes. Other than that, I loved this show.
Verdict - 8.5/10
As we draw closer to the final score of the anime, I give the story an 8. Although it is not clearly explained what the story is going to be about at the beginning, it does draw in a story about hype and aiming towards the top. And it’s good how they made the plot and world actually interesting despite things being solved by one punch.
For the animation and sound, I give a 10 and 8. The animation is just an awesome spectacle to look at, the action scenes are awesome to look at and have just beautiful animation. And the transition between the more simple seasons to the more serious scenes really add to how awesome it really all looks. The soundtrack does good job of lifting you up and good listen to, but the opening is just epic and really hypes you up, the ending song is just a great fit as well, really calming you down after each episode.
For the characters I give it a 7. There a lot of likeable and cool characters to follow. And cheering for Saitama and Genos to reach for the top, is good, but unfortunately there is not a lot of room for character development especially when everything is solved very quickly. We don’t get enough time with other characters to really care about any of them.
For my own personal enjoyment, I give it a 10. The anime built up a lot of hype surrounding it, and it’s definitely worth the hype. From story, to characters, to music, to animation to the previews even, the hype doesn’t really die down. It’s just a really fun anime to watch, that you don’t have to take to seriously as well, which really works with the hype.
So for the overall score of One Punch Man, I give it a 8.5/10. One Punch Man is the epitome of Hype, it’s a hyped show, and it never really lets ups, and it’s a fun watch. I recommended this anime fans of comedy, super heroes and action anines, but honestly it’s one those anyone can watch.
