First Impressions / One-Punch Man

「狩りの始まり」 (Kari no Hajimari)
“The Hunt Begins”

And so it begins. While complaints are guaranteed to still be flying about OPM’s quality this season for some time yet, there’s no denying the show, after a few early stumbles, is quickly finding its feet and setting up for some serious fun and games later on. With Garo proving his villainous worth, character (and thematic) development accelerating apace, and Saitama doing, well, Saitama things, OPM is ready to get this party started.

As hinted at last episode, the unifying glue for this season will be Garo and his personal mission. Everyone of importance, in some form or another (the OP certainly doesn’t try hiding what’s the come) will be facing off against the guy, and while we’re all here for the tasty fights (and what a beatdown fight it was this week), there’s quite a bit of meat slowly fleshing out OPM’s bare bones skeleton. Much like Blizzard last week and her showcase via popularity of the hero dichotomy—i.e. for what purpose a hero fights and sacrifices—Garo’s presence tackles the same issue, just from a different angle. Is a hero meant to hurt a fellow human? Should there be a limit on what actions a hero can take? It may appear binary in practice after seeing Mumen Rider intimately greet the pavement several times in a row—i.e. Garo’s clearly a monster so you got to put him down—but it’s never that simple in practice. Besides the potential for collateral damage from hasty subjugation, Garo also isn’t as “evil” as the various monsters seen until now. The guy, for all his quirks, possesses a decent side, something which could be argued makes him worthy of rehabilitation. Is it the only argument for what to do with him? Of course not, but when you’re competing against the likes of this, it’s hard not finding yourself cheering a little for the enemy.

Not to be forgotten however are the good guys, and likely to no one’s surprise we got the full meal deal (literally) here again. Saitama and that one “punch” take down, besides being utterly hilarious, pretty much confirms the obvious regarding him and Garo for example (you know full well who’s going to win that fight), while the inklings of some fun-filled party shenanigans are already in the works thanks to one firmly crowded apartment suite. Blizzard for Saitama waifu? Certainly jumped a few spaces this week. The real fun though is going to be what happens with the Bald Cape during the upcoming martial arts tournament, because you know damn well it’s not going to be like any of the usual shounen examples. Considering the results of Saitama’s hero application last season there’ll be some comedic trick up the sleeve here for added amusement, and with Saitama entering under wig and alias both, it’s easy to guess what might transpire in this mad dash for cash.

There’s a whole wide world of crazy heroes and even crazier abilities set to make their appearance, and with Saitama firmly in the mix, it won’t take long before the sparks—and punches—start flying like mad.

 

Preview

25 Comments

      1. Weeeell, it’s not a bad translation per say. Bald Cape is more true to the Japanese name than Caped Baldy is, but whichever scanlation group first translated One-Punch Man took liberties because they thought Caped Baldy sounded better.

        SuicuneSol
        Reply

    1. worst part about martial arts tournament was how Murata was making 1 Saitama chapter every 10 chapters, so it took months in real life just to finish it, it’s more like monster association arc.

      Poring
      Reply

      1. That did indeed suck, and is honestly pretty emblematic of the problems most shounen series suffer (cast bloat nearly ruined Naruto, and completely ruined Bleach; I’m convinced the only reason DB remained somgood for so long was Toriyama forgetting about characters)…. but even so, Saitama’s chapters in that arc are probably my favorites of the whole series.

        Well, Murata’s series.

        Here’s hoping they make a OPM movie to animate the big Tatsumaki fight whenever it’s adapted. Nothing less could possibly do it justice unless Murata’s royally screws it up.

        Arsene
        Reply

  6. That was a vast improvement on the narrative for One Punch Man over the last 2 episodes. I liked that they maintained the serious atmosphere for the majority of the episode without disrupting it and have it all subverted with Saitama going ham at the end.

    Flappy
    Reply

  9. I can’t tell if Garo’s super-speed dodging during the fight with Golden Ball and Spring Mustache looked like hot garbage, or if it’s the shitty streaming site I was watching it on. What platform is this legally running on, anyway? Sure ain’t Crunchyroll.

    Guile
    Reply

    1. It’s probably a combination of the way the episode is animated and the media format. If you step through it frame by frame you can see the animation simulates all the rapid speed by using bright fading lines rather than drawing the bullets, and then when Garo does his dodging he’s drawn using multiple faded frames at once along with bullet trails fading in and out everywhere. It mixes together to just be a general smear when he’s already wearing dark clothing in dark alley, which gets washed out together with the bright trails unless you’re watching a feed that handles high contrast well.

      mongoose22
      Reply

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