TagGarou

Posted July 7, 2019 Anime suggestions

One Punch Man S02, E12 | The Wiping of the Disciple’s Butt (review)

I appreciate that this episode, The Wiping of the Disciple’s Butt, allowed Saitama to come full circle with appreciating his strength again. For an episode of two, he was feeling unmotivated and unchallenged. Granted he has no rival, but it’s nice to see him snap out of it. King also stepped into the role of hero in this episode as well. Good to see him heed Saitama’s advice.

Spoilers ahead

Master Bang and Master Boom resume beating up Garou and he starts to black out. Bang attempts to strike the knock out blow, but Garou manages to escape his grasp using an unknown technique. Boom is able to cut Garou off to prevent him from getting away. However, that doesn’t stop Garou from plotting a way to take down Boom and Bang.

Genos is standing by as the fight takes place. Phoenix Man is also around. He’s watching the fight from the sky. The Monster Association sent him to recover Garou, but he is pinned down and there is no way to intervene because Genos, Master Bang and Master Boom are currently engaged.

As the fight continues, Garou begins to have flashbacks of his life. We see the very moment that he felt betrayed. As a child, he was bullied by his classmates and betrayed by his authority figures.

“I want to strike a blow for the little guy!” – Garou

A classmate of Garou’s named Tatchan managed to bully him so badly during a game of Heroes vs. Monsters. He had classmates hold Garou down so that he could kick him in the face. After the encounter, Tatchan convinced his teachers that Garou was the aggressor. When Garou finally did stick up for himself, he was reprimanded.

Another motive for Garou to hate hero figures.

Back in the fight, Garou manages to create enough space between himself and Bang that Phoenix Man is able to swoop down and scoop him up. At first, Garou fights for his freedom, but he settles down once Phoneix Man tells him that Centichoro (centipede monster) is going to help.

Garou is upset during this rescue because he wants to win on his own and become the symbol of fear to all heroes, but that day is not today.

Just then, Genos shoots a huge power blast at Phoenix Man and Garou. Phoenix Man screams just in time for Centichoro to burst from the ground to the sky and block Genos’ blast.

Now the fight focuses on Genos, Bang, and Boom verses Centichoro.

Bang and Boom complete a combo attack, but Centichoro shrugs it off. Genos goes in alone and manages to punch though Centichoros mouth to use the acid as lighter fluid for his self destruct attack. However, this only gives Centichoro a minor case of acid reflux.

Centichoro spits Genos out shattered, broken and unable to be of any use. Phoenix Man mentions as he and Garou fly away that Genos will never win because he is only as good as the sum of his parts.

Great observation because as awesome as Genos is, he fails to even hurt Centichoro.

Centichoro seems to be chasing Bang, Boom and the others toward the city. But, in an act of heroism, King yells to attract Centichoro’s attention. King exclaims that he’s brought the hero Blast to the fight. Blast is a past foe of Centichoro.

Do you recall when King and Saitama met for the first time the season? Saitama defeated a monster for him and gave an inspiring speech about King needing to embrace his courage and become the hero people think he is. Unless he doesn’t want to be a hero.

Well, good news! That talk worked!

“Blast the hero is here” – King

Actually, Saitama came to the rescue. Blasts’ name was just used as a diversion. Saitama jumps in front of King as Centichoro moves full speed towards him.

ONE PUNCH!

Centichoro is instantly obliterated by Saitama’s punch.

I’m assuming Master Boom and Bang saw Saitama step in because Genos was in the same area as them and he saw what happened. So, technically the Hero Association should recognize Saitama is super strong right?

This is the final episode of season 2 for One Punch Man. I’m really hoping we don’t have to wait 3 years to get the next season of One Punch Man. Some people were thrilled about this season, but it was still fun to watch.

Last episode: One Punch Man S02, E11 | The Varieties of Pride (review)

Catch up on the entire season 2 of One Punch Man here.

Posted June 27, 20191 Comment Anime suggestions

One Punch Man S02, E11 | The Varieties of Pride (review)

This episode of One Punch Man surrounds Garou the whole time. The last time we saw so much of him, he debuted his ultimate technique Fist of Flowing Water Crushing Rocks and was took down an entire gang. Unfortunately, Saitama is still playing video games, so he had no weight in this episode. But it was still an exciting entry!

Spoilers ahead

We pick back up with Garou surrounded by Class A Rank heroes. He’s tired and seemly overwhelmed. But, Garou still puffs up his chest long enough to call all of the Class A Rank heroes trash and tell Death Gatling that they should call some Class S Heroes because they suck and won’t be him.

Death Gatling states that all the Class A Heroes have faced death and are “tough as hell”. Gatling feels they can beat the infamous Hero Hunter because he hand-picked everyone involved.

The group has a good run at Garou, but even while he’s poisoned and flashing back to his childhood, Garou still manages to dismantle half of the group. He uses his Fist of Flowing Water to take everyone out.

Glasses tries his hardest to make a difference in this fight, but Garou ends up being too much to handle. Glasses ends up having a mini flashback to a time when Saitama saved him and some co-workers from danger.

Apparently, Saitama gave him some encouraging words that prompted him to become a hero. However, the most heroic thing he could do before passing out was hit the distress button on his pager.

Death Gatling challenges Garou as well. Garou tries to explain there is a child nearby and his Death Shower could kill him, but Gatling has a one track mind and lets off his ultimate.

The entire area is shot to pieces except for the door that Garou protected while deflecting the Death Shower.

As a result, Gatling gets punched out easily after that.

Unfortunately, the little boy Garou protected ran away after he saw the carnage that Garou left while fighting for the monsters.

There’s just no sympathy for people with sympathy for monsters.

Genos shows up just in time to spar with Garou. Genos arrived answering the distress signal from Glasses. They have a great encounter. At one point, Garou takes on some of Watchdog Man’s technique and rips off Genos’ arm.

Garou also evolves. his hair turns red and it looks like he popped a blood vessel in his eye while trying to power up.

But, Genos has undergone some upgrades since last time he fought and traps Garou against a tree. Eventually, Genos has Garou pinned down and plans to blast him away.

Master Bang shows up and kicks Garou out of the way before the blast. Genos respects the wishes of Master Bang and Boom and lets them begin to hand the situation.

Saitama is still losing at video games to King and he’s losing miserably. They finally hear the distress call about the Hero Hunter and Saitama decides to go because he has a faint worry about Genos.

I guess he’ll show up during Master Band and Booms fight with Garou next week.

Review: One Punch Man S02, E10 | Justice Siege

Posted June 22, 20191 Comment Anime suggestions

One Punch Man S02, E10 | Justice Siege (review)

Oddly enough, this episode of One Punch man left out Speed-O-Sound Sonic’s monster cell dinner completely. We didn’t get a follow up about him or the actions he took in the previous episode. I was kind of looking forward to seeing what would come of the cooked cells.

Will they enhance Sonics powers more? Will the monster cell enhancement be moot because the potency was cooked out of it? Will Sonic’s metabolism play a part in whether or not the cells even make a difference?

We don’t find out. But, it’s still a pretty good episode.

Spoilers ahead

Saitama doesn’t play a part in this episode, except that he and King are too busy playing video games to hear a distress call from the Hero Association.

Speaking of which, the Hero Association was infiltrated by a transforming monster in the previous episode. This monster brings a message from the Monster Association in the form of one of Gyoro-Gyoro’s eyeball vessels.

They propose a cease-fire and living in harmony with humans. However, that’s just a horrible joke because moments later, the monster holding Gyoro-Gyoro shoots one of the Monster Association executives dead.

In reality, the monsters want the Hero Association to send it’s best heroes to City Z, the Monster Association headquarters, to battle for complete control. They offer a rescue of the kidnapped son of the Hero Association’s financial backer.

This battle is at the request of King Orochi. The plan is to bait the Class S heroes in with the hostage and then go for the kill. While Gyoro-Gyoro explains the plan to the monsters, King Orochi starts pointing our weak monsters and eating them. Do-S is almost the next victim, but Gyoro-Gyoro vouches for her skill set.

One of the monsters at the association meeting kind of favored the Menos from Bleach. I’m just saying.

Child Emperor tries to come up with a plan of action to storm the Monster Association and save the hostage, but Metal Knight just wants to bomb everything to get rid of as much of the monsters at once. They are at an impasse when we cut away.

The news outlets report on the Monster Associations demands and as a result, the entire city is in terror.

Next, we finally get some time with Garou. He’s just waking up from the kick Saitama gave him last episode. He limps to a nearby shed to recuperate but is followed by Death Gatling and a group of other heroes.

One of those heroes kind of looked like Gohan from Dragon Ball Super. He had the same hair cut, glasses and the green jumpsuit. I’m just saying.

Glasses, One Punch Man
Gohan, Dragon Ball Super

Garou is still very injured when he is surrounded by Death Gatling’s group of heroes. He puts up a good fight, but when the episode comes to an end, he is completely surrounded and out of options.

Before the heroes arrived, Garou was talking to the little boy who always lets him read his Heroes Almanac. So perhaps in the next episode, the little boy will step out in defense of Garou, since he doesn’t know him as a villain.

Review: One Punch Man S02, E09 | The Ultimate Dilemma

Posted May 11, 20191 Comment Anime suggestions

One Punch Man season 2 | Zakkos is some weak sauce (review)

Spoilers ahead!

One Punch Man season 2 episode 5, The Martial Arts Tournament”, continues with the fight between Metal Bat and Garou (The Hero Hunter). They actually have a really good exchange and Garou expresses that Metal Bat stronger but he’s beaten down. Garou takes advantage of Metal Bats exhausted state and knocks him out.

Metal Bat does get one last shot at Garou but his little sister stops the fight. If she hadn’t Garou’s head would have been bashed in. But in order to save her brother, she tells Garou that his family has a rule about violence in front of her. Garou backs off.

I’m beginning to think he has a moral code after all. The only time we’ve seen him pull back during this series is when there is a child present.

Meanwhile, the cities monster threat level has raised from Dragon to Demon. All classes of monsters and heroes are fighting in the street. The Blizzard group does show up but we don’t see Blizzard or her group fight anyone yet.

The Monster Association wants to recruit Garou but he says no. This is weird because his main focus is to be classified as a monster and when he gets the invite, he rips it up and says, “No Thanks”.

He could have been because the monsters inviting him looked terrible and he could clearly beat them. Plus his goal to beat the Class S heroes seems more important to solidify his status versus just getting invited to a group.

My only question is about the Martial Arts Tournament. I’m sure the news of a level Demon threat in the city would travel fast. But, no one in the stadium seems worried about the chaos in the streets.

There are several heroes in or around the tournament that could be useful in the fight against the monsters (including Suiryu, Genos, Snakebite Snek, Bakuzan, and Saitama disguised as Charanko) but they are fighting for honor or watching the fight.

Why aren’t there any rumblings in the stadium that suggest the participants will fight out about the carnage in the city? Shouldn’t the Hero Association be pulling all resources?

Centichrono is still suffocating the city and neurotoxins are spreading. It seems like something they would do.

We do find out the Master Boom and Bang are still hunting Garou and helping out in the field. As a result, they pulled out of the tournament as judges.

But we still find Saitama ready to fight against Zakkos. Both Charanko and Zakkos are classified as weak so they will fight against each other. But because Saitama is actually disguised as Charanko, he beats Zakkos with less than a chop.

The best part of this episode was the tournament announcers excitement when Zakkos went down. They tried to explain it away and then the announcer basically said, “Zakkos is some weak sauce!”

Best moment of the show.

Next week I assume that the crowd favorite Suiryu will meet up with Saitama. After seeing his chop to Zakkos he identified that Saitama as the strongest competitor. However, he is overlooking Bakuzan who is specifically gunning for him.

Review: One Punch Man season 2 | Metal Bat (episode 4)

Posted May 4, 20191 Comment Anime suggestions

One Punch Man season 2 | Metal Bat (review)

The latest episode of One Punch Man kept the narrative of the hero hunting monster, Garou. Apparently, as a child, he routed for the evil monsters instead of heroes during their battles on television.

In my review for the last episode, I briefly mentioned that Garou could be misunderstood. Perhaps something happened to him and it made him turn to crime. But, I was proven wrong. He legitimately just liked monsters and wanted to be one.

Fast forward to the present day and we find out that he massacred Master Bangs dojo. So I was wrong, Garou is not turning out to be a sympathetic misguided character.

I always look for the light.

Meanwhile, Saitama is all set to enter the martial arts tournament as Charanko. He’s approached by one of Charanko’s former classmates who turns out to be a complete conceded meathead named Sour Face.

We did learn some important information about Garou. We find out that Garou was defeated and expelled by Master Bang after he went rogue. And we also find out that Sour Face quit the dojo after being defeated by Garou.

This season should be called One Punch Man: Saitama drops knowledge because once again he gave some great soul searching advice. Sour Face was in the middle of insulting Charanko because he was beaten up by Garou, but Saitama calls Charanko brave for going one on one with such a strong opponent.

Of course, Sour Face is so arrogant that he vows to defeat Charanko if they face each other in the tournament.

Back to Garou, he meets up with the little boy who owns the almanac and they discuss a few more heroes before the city issues a warning for a monster and hero fighting.

This turns out to be Class S hero, Metal Bat verses Monster Centichrono. Metal bat is giving everything he has because he’s fought Monster Centisenpai already.

Garou has no regard and challenges Metal Bat to a fight before he even finishes with Centichrono.

No regard for the 1v1.

I could be wrong, but I am still waiting on a saving grace for Garou.

As the episode ends, Metal Bat and Garou lock up.

Last weeks episode: Review: One Punch Man season 2 The Human Monster / The Hunt Begins