One-Punch Man is a fun take at over-used tropes with top-tier animation, amazing music and well-written characters

One-Punch Man is a story about Saitama, who has become incredibly strong after following his daily workout routine consistently for years. He never gave up, even if a day off sounded pleasant. He has become so incredibly strong that he can take out almost every opponent simply with One Punch. He does his hero-job for fun, but it is losing its appeal since every opponent is simply defeated with a single punch, which isn’t fun at all for Saitama. Though he ends up becoming a professional hero, nobody recognizes him, because they believe he’s climbing the ranks far too quickly. He constantly lives with being called a fraud, but defeats monster after monster and saves people daily.

Before he became professional, the cyborg Genos, who’s seeking revenge after the cyborg that killed his family, begs to become his disciple after seeing how strong he is. Saitama hesitantly accepts his request, but there’s not much he can teach Genos. Saitama became incredibly strong because of his consistent workout schedule, never giving up, but nobody believes him, since it sounds far too easy of a task. Commitment, never giving up, moving forwards are essential to becoming a hero, to become strong. We can change ourselves if we put in the commitment, never give up, even if we want to. There is no cheat code in order to become strong.

One-Punch Man is satire, and Saitama’s overpowered physical strength serves as a great way to undermine any build-up, drama, or tension that is created. Saitama’s win is essentially guaranteed, as its name implies “One-Punch Man,” but it keeps breaking the audiences’ expectations and making fights less and less dramatic. It exaggerates typical shounen and superhero tropes, making it unpredictable.

Characters

One-Punch Man has a large cast, with well-written characters, that portrays the classical shounen and superhero tropes. You have Saitama, the overpowered superhero, who never loses a fight. Genos, who seeks revenge against the cyborg, that killed his family. He’s obsessed with getting stronger, while Saitama is bored with the fights. It creates a great dynamic between the two characters and often makes for fun moments.

One-Punch Man’s animation and art style are top-tier class and it does a great job at switching between the serious detailed art whenever there’s a tense moment to the simple art style whenever there’s a comedic moment or whenever the show breaks the audience’s expectations, it goes from incredibly detailed art to a more simplistic art style.

An example would be the first scene where a monster appears. The monster tells Saitama its goal and belittles him for being a hero for fun, and states its own reasoning. It powers up, and the art gets really detailed until Saitama beats it with one punch. Hereafter, the art turns very simplistic and the music stops. It serves as a great introduction to the show and its humor.

Music

The OSTs are fantastic and add lots of value to the fights and comic moments. Saitama's Theme [Ballad/Sad Ver.] or Seigi Shikkou are both incredible at building up to moments, fights, or inspirational moments. To completely shatter the audience’s expectations afterward, when Saitama beats his opponent with a single punch. Not the biggest fan of the OP nor ED, but they’re both quite catchy and Saitama vs Boros, while the OP was playing was amazing.

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There are emotional moments where Saitama takes all the blame. The OSTs match these moments perfectly and shows the burden of being the strongest. Nobody believes he can take down those monsters, since he's ranked as a C-Tier hero, but yet he keeps saving them.

Enjoyment

I enjoyed binging One-Punch Man. The world-building was fantastic with the hero association and Saitama trying to climb the ranks as a hero, while constantly being called a fraud. It is unpredictable. You never know if he’ll get his recognition or how the fights will play out. Of course, you know Saitama will win, but it didn’t make the fights boring at all.

The fights were superbly animated, the OSTs playing during the moments were amazing and the comedy was good. It was really enjoyable, sometimes it felt a bit too episodic, but nevertheless really enjoyable.