One Punch man: A Hero Nobody Knows | First Impressions (Review)
This first impression is based on the story mode, not online multiplayer.
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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)
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.
One Punch Man S02, E07 | Saitama vs. Suiryu (review)
The last two episodes of One Punch Man have been ramping up. I’m having a lot of fun this season even though Saitama has been a non-factor in the Monster Apocalypse that is happening for the entire season. But, things are about to change.
Spoiler’s ahead
The monster’s are overrunning the city, and while the Class S heroes are doing their best to hold on to the city and save its citizens, it is proving to be tough for a lot of them. The only Class S hero that seems to be consistently taking down monsters who are Threat Level Dragon is Tatsumaki aka Terrible Tornado.
Tatsumaki even tells one other Class S hero, Flashy Flash to start acting like his rank because he couldn’t take down a Kraken with ease.
Meanwhile, Saitama, still disguised as Charanko, is prepping for the semi-finals of the Martial Arts Tournament verses Choze, a self-proclaimed perfect specimen. After some boasting, Choze is taken out by Saitama with one punch in the middle of a yawn.
The Holy Order of the Sword is contemplating whether they should involve themselves in the hunt for Garou or let Master Bang and Master Boom take care of it.
During this conversation, Hagiri, a member of the Holy Order, decides to convince his fellow samurai to consume monster cells as he did and surpass their human limitations. However, Atomic Samurai and the others were not easily convinced like Hagiri. This resulted in Atomic Samurai slicing Hagiri’s head off with one swipe.
I noticed that just because you consume the monster cells, does not mean you are guarantee impossible strength. Maybe the person will get a power increase, but that doesn’t stop them from being easily defeated if they were weak before the transformation.
Saitama vs. Suiryu
Finally, Saitama (Charanko) and Suiryu are announced for the finals of the Martial Arts Tournament. Saitama is still being portrayed as the underdog despite convincingly beating all fo his appointment with one punch!
But okay.
Suiryu attacks Saitama with a barrage of kicks that cause his wig to fly in the air. They finally stop for a moment to discuss what they really want out of this tournament.
Suiryu brags about wanting fun and money. Saitama wants to experience Martial Arts and win the cash pot. So Suiryu offers to give Saitama an experience in exchange for a fun fight. It’s a deal until Suiryu starts to criticize Saitama for wanting to be a hero.
Honestly, Suiryu only pointed out what the story has shown thus far. Besides a select few Class S Heroes, a lot of the heroes we come across in One Punch Man are heroes in name only. They haven’t been able to be very effective. But, one could argue that these heroes have heart. For example, Mumen Rider has a lot of heart despite his ineffective fighting skills.
During this fighting match, Suiryu had been faking kicks and blowing Saitama’s wig up. Usually, Saitama could keep the wig on his head. But, he was so annoyed at Suiryu’s remarks that he left the wig come off.
“If all your after is fun, don’t get any stronger” – Saitama
Saitama throws a punch with an intentional miss at Suiryu. The wind from the punch rips Suiryu’s gear to pieces.
As a result of the wig coming off, Saitama is disqualified. The air punch terrified Suiryu and he began to attack Saitama to prove he was better but ended up being knocked out to a hip bump.
Saitama deduced that Martial Arts is, ” just moves that look cool” and ran away so that he wouldn’t be detained by the tournament security.
Though it wasn’t an official lost because of Saitama’s disqualification, Suiryu still acknowledged his own defeat and first loss while sitting in the crater his body created when it hit the wall.
Meanwhile, there’s a new Dragon Level Threat monster in the city. He destroyed Genos and is heading to the Martial Arts Tournament.
One Punch Man S02, E06 | The Monster Uprising (review)
Spoilers ahead
Not a lot happened in this weeks episode of One Punch Man season 2, episode 6: The Monster Uprising. We didn’t see Garou in the main story though he did make a quick appearance after the end credits.
As someone who is enjoying the anime and not relying on the manga content to compare events, I am still waiting for Garou to actually be an ally to the heroes. I’m only convinced because of the way Saitama is.
So far all season, every time someone meets Saitama and witnesses his massive strength, it makes them turn over a new leaf. I’m seeing a recurring theme (King, Blizzard even Sonic if you think about). It could be possible that Garou won’t end up being Saitama’s nemesis, but a great ally.
Back to the main story of this episode.
The Martial Arts Tournament is still going and Saitama’s opponent is Bakuzan. At this point, Bakuzan is painted as a super strong and intimidated character. He convinced the tournament holders to keep the matches going after they found out about the monster uprising outside the walls.
Mind you, the entire reason for Saitama joining the tournament was to experience Martial Arts and earn the money pot at the end. So Saitama tells Bakuzan to show him Martial Arts. But after Bakuzan almost takes off Saitama’s wig, he gets an uppercut to the face and ends up in the ground outside the ring.
Meanwhile, Genos is outside the walls of the tournament being the awesome character he’s turned out to be. He’s once again answered the call of the Heroe’s Association and is saving civilans while destroying monsters.
Fubuki aka Blizzard’s fight continues with Do-s. At this point in the fight, all of Blizzard’s team is under Do-s’ mind control and Blizzard is trying to fend off her attacks. Do-s wants Hurricane aka Tatsumaki (Fubuki’s sister) to come and fight her. But, Do-s wasn’t strong enough and Hurricane’s attacks forced her and the other monsters to fall back.
Back at the tournament, we find out that Suiryu is actually kind of a jerk. During his fight with Sneck he taunts him and pretty much tells him that despite his efforts, he sucks. He also admits that he doesn’t practice and he’s only interested in money. This is the complete opposite of Sneck who works really hard at being a hero and is still subpar. Sneck still tries his hardest and gets knocked down with one shot from Suiryu.
Shame.
However, because of his cockiness this episode, I am really looking forward to his match up with Saitaima!
Last weeks episode: Review: One Punch Man season 2 | Zakkos is some weak sauce
One Punch Man season 2 The Human Monster / The Hunt Begins (review)
So I’ve caught up on One Punch Man. We’re in season 2 and I am enjoying the anime. Things are starting off a little slow, but I can tell that they are ramping up. I’m pretty much just waiting for a pinnacle moment to take the series to another level. I’m covering episode 14 and 15 since I’m playing catch up.
The Human Monster, episode 14
We pick back up with Garou pretty much slaughtering all of the villains that the President of the Hero Association invited to a meeting to discuss a pending threat. At this point, we know that Garou wants to be considered a monster. To prove this, he massacres every villain in the room and severely injures a class A hero. We see him in a few random fights with but he knocks them out with no issue.
Meanwhile, Saitama is playing video games that he borrowed from King in the previous episodes. This leaves Genos to fight with Speed O Sound Sonic when he attacks their apartment because he doesn’t want to interrupt Saitama’s gaming.
I can appreciate that.
But the distractions don’t stop with Sonic, because Fubuki aka Blizzard comes to recruit Saitama into her ranks. She is rank 1 in class B. He resists her plan and she tries to intimidate him. But when that doesn’t work they have a brief fight encounter.
During their fight, she experienced less than a fraction of Saitama’s strength before Genos and Sonic’s fight interrupts. After which she finds out that Saitama is super strong because he knocks Sonic out with a Series Sideways Jump shock wave. And she’s drawn to him more when she realizes King and Genos call him sensei. Fubuki ends up baring her soul and telling Saitama about her plan to stay on top of Class B because Class A and Class S are too strong and her sister known as Tornado is better than her too.
I appreciate Saitama during his conversation with Fubuki. He honestly has been dropping gems to everyone he comes across so far. In episode 14 he encourages Genos to focus on getting to the top of Class S. He also encouraged King to train to be the hero he actually desires to be. He ends up doing the same thing with Fubuki. By the end of the episode, she’s enamored and becomes a part of Saitama’s group as well.
The Hunt Begins, episode 15
Saitama finally starts to catch wind of the new villain Garou and decides to investigate by talking with other heroes about their encounter with him. However, he gets sidetracked when he finds out about a tournament offering 3K in prize money.
This episode was better in regards to getting to know Garou. He’s not a likable character at all. He actually comes off a bit weird. He’s sinister at some points when he completely obliterates the Tank Top Master and his group, but then he has a moment where he’s sharing a heroes almanac with a little kid.
By the way, does anyone other than the actual monster in this show die? Because I swore Garou killed Tank Top Master, Tank Top Vegetarian, and Mumen Rider.
Especially Mumem Rider!
Garou debuted a flowing water technique and no one could combat him.
We meet Master Bang and Master Boom briefly and find out they are Garou’s sensei. Master Bang just expelled a student named Charanko to try and stop him from going in the same direction and now he wants to take down his former student. Master Bang and Boom plan to team up to eliminate Garou.
The best part of the episode is when Saitama meeting Garou. Again, he’s as oblivious as he can be because he’s focused on the tournament that he wants to join. But, in order to join a tournament, he has to impersonate Charanko. This results in him buying a wig.
Garou shows up and chops him on the shoulder, which does nothing. But when Saitama returns a chop back to Garou he’s knocked down with ease.
But why? I thought Garou was suppose to be over powered.
At this point, I have seen him decimate a gang with Fist of Flowing Water, deflect a bullet, tank a gunshot wound, and voluntarily take a sword through the hand just get the upper hand in a fight. So I’m thinking okay, here’s a real threat to Saitama.
But then during a totally random encounter, where neither one of them knew who the other was, Saitama completely punks him out. It just threw me off. I laughed but still.
One Punch Man season 2 episode 1 | The Hero’s Return (review)
Oh Saitama, how I’ve missed you and your nonchalant attitude.
I finally watched season 2 episode 1 and I was not disappointed. The show started off a bit slow, but it’s the season opener so that makes since. Then again, we left off in season 1 will a lot of excitement.
At the end of last season, Saitama put almost every hero to shame when he climbed aboard a spaceship and punched through the entire invading crew only to meet a final boss, Boros. He had to dial down his power so that he could have a half decent fight. He had one more fight with Pluton, but finishes him off with one punch.
Back in season 2, we find Saitama and Genos grocery shopping when a huge robot villain shows up. He’s not worried about them though. He wants to test his might against Class S hero, King.
King is a fraud and a clueless Genos begins to fight in his place!
Here’s the thing, Saitama figures this out on his own and follows King home. Apparently, he attracts danger and has never fought in his lift. In fact, Saitama has saved him in the past and that’s how he recognizes him. King has been running from villain fights his entire life. He ends up admitting that he takes credit for other peoples victories because he can’t stand up and face his lies.
This is why Saitama is so cool. Instead of making King (or any of us watching) feel bad about not standing up and taking responsibility for our actions or inaction, he tells him to step up or step off.
In a nice way.
Saitama pretty much says, do you want to be a hero? Because if you do, now is the time to start training and get strong to be the hero everyone praises you as. But, if you are to afraid, just face that and admit it to those who believe in you.
Pretty deep stuff.
Oh yeah! Genos triumphs over the evil robot man and visits his doctor to scavenge the parts for his own upgrades. Plus, there’s a meeting a hero HQ asking villains to help fight the inevitable attack on the earth. Sonic says no off course because he wants to fight Saitama. In the same instance we fight out Fubuki is looking for Saitama as well.
I’m looking forward to next week!
If you are interested in catching up, Hulu has all of season 1 available dubbed and simulcasts every week.