One Punch-Man
One-Punch Man

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PEAAAAAKKKKK READ - what an experience - agree the shambolic shitshow of a season 3 I genuinely gave up all hope for the anime and started my journey on reading this manga - just a few pages in I realised just how different the manga is in terms of story and mainly how it looks - the anime would never be able to live up to it - the art and drawings in this are absolutely mind blowing stuff and probably some of the highest level artistry I’ve seen in my time of reading - the amount of details in each panel whilst reading genuinely ... makes it so that you can’t look away - it’s so insanely appealing and memorising to the eye that the arcs will fly by in no time - mix that with the insane high tier action it’s a fantastic time - obviously the best arc is the monster association/Hero killer arc - absolute triumphant arc and the anime just doesn’t hold a candle to it or manage to portray even a fraction of what the manga does

The manga as it is right now is in quite a poor spot, both writing and schedule wise (for a lack of a better explanation). It seems that ONE and Yusuke Murata can't get a feel on what they want to write so it ends up with a lot of redraws, if you want to read this manga I highly suggest waiting for the release of physical volumes as these won't be rewritten (hopefully).

Writing wise I think the manga lost the plot, I think everything until the finals parts of the MA arc are worth reading, after that I think it loses a lot ... of quality for the sake of a few laughs with some weird shenanigans.

I think it's overall a decent manga to read, but I think it has lost its charm along the way, so for anyone who's actually reading this your enjoyment may vary.

One punch man was an anime I got into in my high school days - my partner suggested we watch it because he had thought it’d be right up my alley. He was right, OPM had been an amazing motivator to keep watching anime despite the lull in good shows, and I fell back in love with the medium, the show really capturing my eye with its witty comedy, well timed jokes and good art direction. OPM season 2 sadly didn’t hit the same marks, but it certainly tried its best - but it definetly left a disinterested taste in my heart.

Throughout my time of ... partaking in general anime community, one sentiment was shared a lot. “Try the manga”. This was a phrase I heard perhaps too much, especially when I didn’t like a series. Didn’t like One Piece? Try the manga. Didn’t like Fruits Basket? Try the manga. It was something that made me put off reading any manga out of frustration and annoyance at those that just couldn't seem to grasp that I didn’t want to or that reading the source material would change my mind. I didn’t try any manga until 2022, when I had had enough of anime and found there were a lot more niche stories that japan really didn’t want to air on national TV. In 2024, I decided to pick up the OPM manga.

I had some nostalgia reading the first few season worth of story --- genuinely I had so much fun reliving the jokes that I thought were hilarious and the art powerful and well drawn, a testament to the skill of Murata and anything he crafts artistically. It was nice, getting to read back through everything. However, my nostalgia gave way to complaints.

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OPM suffers from several glaring writing issues when translating from a silly webcomic to a manga;

- The manga often yoyo’s between a serious plot and a joking one, and unlike many who see no issue, I found it really jarring. In the first few volumes, it was nice, very good jokes, non-reused jokes and when they swapped tones it was well thought out and never really took you out of the action. Even if a joke was said during the fights it never really ruined the scene, and if the action was too important it'd wait till the fight was over. After awhile though? The jokes become stale, the bipolar plot becomes a detriment and I think the manga would benefit from deciding if it wants to be a bit more serious or be a bit more lighter in general tone instead of trying to be both at the same time.
- To add to this complaint, I feel that the best fight in the manga ((the sea king fight)) is used too much as a general plot idea. It feels like after a while every fight is just everyone else struggles, stakes get really bad and then Saitama comes in and solves it within a chapter at most. It's stale, it's overdone and it's made the stakes pointless now. Like why should I get invested, why should I care, nothing can beat Saitama at this point.


- Another issue of mine is just the sheer amount of characters in the manga's cast. For how little time we actually spend with a lot of the characters, the manga spoon feeds us bits and pieces and then expects us to care for people we met maybe a few chapters ago. After awhile it's just too much? In later chapters there's supposed to be a team dynamic but the only team dynamic I'm seeing is a lack there of - so little interactions between characters beyond they're replayed joke that defines their archetypes, which in and of itself IS frustrating because those that are given proper development have REALLY good characters and to see it get wasted because there's too many characters to juggle sucks! Oh it's f-ckin painful!!


- A lot of the jokes, aside the mentioned story gags, are heavily reused. Not much else I can say bar it got a bit annoying after a while and it really made some characters loathsome rather than endearing. ((looking at you King - I won't spoil but you have one of the worst overused jokes to date.))


- My biggest turn off? The final straw that broke the camels back? The ladies. The female designs of OPM are hot garbage - sexualised and appealing to the male gaze bar one character. No, it is not Tornado, thats a loli. Loli's appeal to men.
- The designs are slightly better than one piece, but even the women in one piece at least had some sort of variance in their designs --- OPM women are all big boobs, tiny waste, "thick thighs" and costumes that would make Momo from MHA look decently dressed. Even the ones that look like they're well dressed? Skin tight clothes, or secret more revealing outfits underneath.


All this to say, I think I ruined the anime by reading the manga. It's filled to the brim with a lot of mistakes that litter season two and I genuinely believe if you stick to JUST season 1 of the anime and the manga you'll love the series.