The setting: December. I, a millennial with normal access only to streaming services, am sitting in my parents’ living room enjoying access to both a TV four times as large as mine, and regular cable TV. I flip to Cartoon Network’s Toonami block, which is showing One Punch Man. I’ve heard of it in passing but have avoided it so far, since big punch-y fight-y shows aren’t generally my thing, but it seems fine to have on in the background while I browse the internet.

On screen, a couple characters have clearly just beat up a cyborg gorilla, and decide to go after his organization. Why now? questions the one who looks lethal. Because there’s a sale and I’ve got grocery shopping tomorrow, replies a bald guy in a onesie. The den of Clearly Mad Scientists prepare for the arrival of two heroes, activating entire floors of traps…all of which go to waste as one hero just flat-out obliterates the entire building without entering.

We could’ve at least seen what the bad guys had in store for us, the other one muses. That was kinda mean.

Okay, I was hooked.

One Punch Man is exceptionally fun, especially if you’ve watched more than, like, one shounen series in your life.

The first season was great. It’s just superhero tropes, taken up to 11, by a very bored guy. (Alternatively, you know the trope-savvy comedy with a flat-faced protagonist that is Saiki K? Same idea, but superheroes.)

Saitama is not just an everyman, he’s an everyman who is ridiculously OP for no reason. He wants to be (and is) a hero, but he’s also pretty lazy and oblivious to social convention. Genos the cyborg, after failing to defeat Saitama in combat, becomes his disciple, to learn the secrets of being so strong. Saitama, not one to pass up help around the house, agrees (or allows it, at any rate).

Binging season 1, it was easy to see why this got so popular. It’s fun, but the plot also has to come up with reasons why Saitama doesn’t just punch every threat right away—and often that means he’s busy doing something else (shopping, playing video games, away from his phone, whatever) so we get to see other heroes shine for a while. This is both interesting (because: heroes!) and serves to emphasize how ridiculous Saitama’s whole situation is.

Season 2 started off interesting, and introduces not just more characters overall, but has Saitama befriending and involved with more heroes, which is great.

But there’s an issue: season 2 felt like too much was going on: King (a highly-ranked hero with a secret) and Saitama becoming friends, the introduction of a human villain, a whole tournament arc, a bunch of new monsters.

We’d watch one set of heroes for a while, then focus on another, and while it did add tension like it was probably supposed to, it was also frustrating to have to watch a story that was split so much.

On one hand, I get it. The whole joke of the series is that in a world with every superpowered hero you can think of—technology-based, traditional muscles-and-speed, psychic powers, weapons, martial arts—this one bald nerd achieved Ultimate Power simply with a generic workout routine. And now he’s so strong he can defeat anything with one punch, and so he’s bored.

And like I said before, the issue then becomes how to make Saitama interesting, and also to give him a challenge and/or not have him literally solve every plot problem by punching it in the face immediately. So he spends most of season 2 masquerading as someone else in a martial arts tournament.

Which is not by itself a bad thing, except that there are also two separate non-Saitama action plots we’re trying to follow.

Ideally, this could’ve been fixed by making season 2 longer, since unlike season 1 it leaves some threads/characters unresolved. No third season has been announced as I write this, but there was a 4-year gap between seasons 1 and 2, so I hold out hope.

Verdict

English dub? Yes, and I REALLY liked the English voices. That said, the sub is more widely available.

Visuals: Pretty nice, and it’s especially fun when the difference between Saitama’s Serious Face shows up, and his normal more roundly-drawn flat expression. Lots of explosions are very nice. There was a studio change between seasons and I kinda think that season 2 isn’t as nice as the first? But it’s not bad.

Worth watching? Ahahaha YES. It’s very fun and tongue-in-cheek. Despite my complaints about season 2, I still enjoyed it. I check about once a month to see if a 3rd season has been announced yet.