Monday, November 16, 2015

One Punch Man



One Punch Man is an Anime that recently started airing sometime in September, I believe. The concept of the show is that the main character, Saitama, trained so much that eventually he became so strong he could defeat anything in one punch Also all of his hair fell out. There's also some hero organisation, but for the most part, it's just the antics that go around that and good ol' Baldy himself trying to find something that he can't instantly kill in one punch. Upon hearing that concept, I was immediately intrigued. Something about it just clicked with me, and I knew I had to watch it. I can safely say that it did not disappoint, One Punch Man has quickly become one of my favorite shows out there. Aside from how absurd the concept is, the entire show feels like a parody of some of my least favorite cliches in Anime, but yet still manages to keep an engaging plot despite it's more comical nature. I love it when a show can find the perfect balance between comedy, story, and good old badass fights. After the first episode, I ended up getting hooked and couldn't help myself but watch all 6 episodes that were up at the time. Sadly, I now have to wait for a new episode every week, just like all of the other shows I watch.
Why can't I just be able to bingewatch a series for once?
The main character, Saitama, is really likable too. Despite the fact that he's the most overpowered thing in existence, he's just a total goofball. He never seems to take anything seriously, and being a hero is more of a hobby to him than anything. It's not too often that my favorite character in a show is the main character, since most of the time, the main characters just seem to be too perfect and focused on "the power of friendship" or some garbage like that. Saitama is just your average dude who happens to be the strongest fighter out there. His design is also great, there's something about it that always puts a smile on my face. It's great how he looks really silly, but then suddenly look surprisingly menacing.


Wait, wrong character!

This show is also one of the most inspirational things I've ever seen as an artist. Not because the story has morals or anything like that, but because of its origins. Before it was an anime, it was a manga, and even before that, it was a webcomic, with... Interesting art, to say the least. Despite it's poor drawings, a professional artist teamed up with the original writer to remake series, and eventually that remake got popular enough to get its own adaptation into an animated series. There's something inspiring about how it went from this:
To this:
And finally, to this:

Who knows, maybe someday, even a crappy webcomic I make could become an animated series? I mean, it probably wouldn't, but still. Either way, I recommend this series to anyone interested, although the series is currently only available in Japanese, so you'd need to watch it with subtitles to understand what's going on. If that's not your thing, you can always read the Comic, although I recommend reading the redrawn version and not the original webcomic, unless comically bad art is your thing.

And with that, I end this blog post with a GIF of Saitama biting a sword.
Did I mention this show is badass?

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