
One-Punch Man
a review by HANYEL

a review by HANYEL
And yeah, I was suprised one more time.
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OPM tells the story of an average guy who decides to become a hero after a certain event. He starts his traning, goes completely bald and gains extreme power. Seems cool (cross out the bald thing), any disadvantages? Well, yeah. He's so powerful he finishes every fight with a single blow. It makes his hobby pretty boring and with each successive fight he is more and more resigned. He feels no excitement he used to feel + everyone think he's a freak because of his looks. Aaaaand~ That's the story for you.
Sounds like another weird Japanese shiet? Well, maybe. But who said it's bad?
You just wait.
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The weakest and only weak point of the series is the beginning. Not because there's something wrong with it. It's very well animated, it's hilarious, it's dynamic. The thing is - it may be TOO dynamic for some people who aren't used to such anime (the problem that appears in Gintama, but lasts much longer). In the 1st ep. we have 4 different stories, 4 completely unrelated fights. OPM literally welcomes you with a whack of action. You're getting to know Saitama, but in a really twisted way. It gives the series pretty chaotic look. Well, I guess there was no other choice if producers wanted the anime to comply to the original story. Tho in a comic version it worked better. The additional motion and music created something, that may be illegible or ridiculous at times.
Fortunately, by the 2nd ep. this confusing feel disappears. We have less fights, but they're longer and more complex with actual plot that continues in the next ep. It's also the time Genos appears - he kinda lowers the pace + his fights are imho waaaay more interesting, diverse and they give the producers opportinuty to show off some mad animation skills. He also generates additional gags.
BUT - if you don't mind fast pace and craziness - good for you. Then you may actually really enjoy the 1st episode.
As for other flaws (if you can call it a flaw) - I can't think of any. I'm sure there were some scratches, but guess they were so tiny I've already forgotten about them.
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I didn't notice it at first, but OPM is one of the greatest shounen M&A parodies. It gives the whole new look to the popular superheroes culture. You can also see some references to various series (like HxH or DBZ).
Saitama's personality makes half of the series. I dare to say he's one of the best shounen protagonists. Ironically, cause he's like the antonym of The Ideal Anime Hero
The other half are stunning fights with great artwork (both in the anime and manga). OPM is the series produced by MADHOUSE, the studio I madly love for creating anime such Mouryou no Hako, Paprika or Redline (high quality artwork, anyone?) Nearly every ep keeps you in suspense, they have one of the most dynamic fighting scenes I've seen. Which is impressive, knowing that OPM had an average anime budget to use. Of course not every frame is beautifully animated, some less important scenes are less detailed. But if those scenes sacrificed themselves so the animators could make better fighting scenes - that's completely fine with me. They still made a good job.
The backgrounds are also well-drawn and detailed.
The series is even more epic due to amazing OST composed by Miyazaki Makoto, eg. Genos' fighting theme or sad theme (don't know their names, the official OST wasn't released the time I wrote this review). Speaking of the music, I guess it won't be exeggaration if I say the opening has the catchiest song in the entire 2015 [THE HERO!! by JAM Project]. Its animation is also way above average. It looks extremely good and perfectly shows the series atmosphere. Is mainly focuses on Saitama being too cool for this show, other characters appear at the very end. This OP was something that gave me the power to continue the series after not being sure what to think of the 1st episode.
As for the ED... meh? Personally, nothing special, I've been skipping it since the beginning. It has very relaxing tune and pretty colour scheme. Not even a single character appears in it. It's more like a slide show to calm down a viewer after seeing so much action. Its defect is that not everyone WANTS to be calmed down after a show, especially if you're watching a few eps in a row.
The other strong point of the series is humor. It gave me Gintama, Tiger & Bunny and Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou vibes. It's pretty unpredictable and it really often laughs out cliché things which happen in popular series. ~!Like "naming" your attacks (Normal Punches in Saitama's case) or killing the bad guy before he pompously introduces himself instead of attacking. There's also Saitama facing Boros who unleashes the power that can destroy the whole planet and he's like "ok."
As for the staff, we can hear some really famous stars, like Kaji Yuki [Eren Jaeger, Alibaba, Finnian], Miyano Mamoru [Yagami Light, Death the Kid, Tamaki Suou], Nakamura Yuuichi [Gray Fullbuster, Okazaki Tomoya, Kadota Kyohei] or Morikawa Toshiyuki [Kurosaki Isshin, Tyki Mikk, Namikaze Minato].
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I think One Punch Man is very outstanding anime and one of the best series of 2015. It's very well made adaptation of the manga with original story and high quality animation. It has everything that good shounen should contain: dynamic and interesting battles, hilarious gags, great characters and stunning audiovisuals.

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