Fighting crime is just my hobby
November 15, 2015 9:04 PM   Subscribe

Onepunch-man (ワンパンマン) a comedy/superhero webcomic created by ONE in 2009 hosted on his site which quickly became a viral hit over the years. It features the adventures of Saitama (サイタマ), an unlicensed hero, and his disciple Genos (ジェノス) as they protect the citizens in Z-city from a variety of villains and monsters. However, after all his dedication to training to become a serious hero he feels empty as everything is too easily resolved with one punch.

His hero name and costume is a homage to Anpanman (アンパンマン), a well-known children's character, often shortened to panchi (パンチ, punch).

Despite the amataur art style it has a certain level of charm then in 2012 it'd be been chosen to be publicated in Shueisha's Young Jump Web and redrawn by the well-known manga-ka Yuusuke Murata the artist for EyeShield 21. New updates are twice monthly but aren't limited to a set number of pages and there's more freedom to show off the latest fights. However, One's amazing writing and storyboarding skills remained the same and sequences were greatly improved upon.

Finally, announced earlier this year it's been adapted into a anime series for the current Fall Season 2015 produced by Madhouse. USA fans can follow Viz media for stream schedules weekly and read the redrawn edition online.

Meantime fans have translated the ongoing original OPM into english if you've caught up with the redrawn chapters. I'd recommend starting on chapter 52 as it starts to deviate from that point onwards with different scenarios.

Also, he's serialized Mob Psycho 100 (モブサイコ 100) for the same magazine and it's considered his more serious work vs OPM. Also, scanlated into english for fans online if you're looking for additional works with the same writing.
posted by chrono_rabbit (11 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
Before watching the anime, I read the original webcomic, and honestly I find the webcomic waaaaaay funnier and entertaining. Murata's art is spectacular, but somehow the crappy webcomic art has its own charm that adds to the humor. Idk, it's like if you took crappy photoshop/MS paint internet memes and had an artist re-draw them to be realistic and beautiful, or turned the crappy internet memes into a huge budget animated cartoon... something gets lost during that process.
posted by picklenickle at 10:12 PM on November 15, 2015 [2 favorites]


I'm really enjoying the anime right now, as well as the manga, but had no idea it started life as a webcomic. Thanks for the post!
posted by satoshi at 10:53 PM on November 15, 2015 [2 favorites]


I can't split my favourite anime of the current season, but this One Punch Man is one of them (tied with Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans and Lovely Muuuuuuuco). I keep seeing people say the manga is better, so now I'm going to have to explore every link in this excellent post.
posted by robcorr at 11:04 PM on November 15, 2015


I'm digging into the webcomic starting at chapter 50, I've been following the redraw for maybe a year now. Go Caped Baldy!
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:24 PM on November 15, 2015


Anpan-man's superpower is that hungry people can eat his head, and he can replace it at the next bakery.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:39 AM on November 16, 2015


I've been watching the anime and reading the redrawn manga, I think I'll hold off on reading the original until after this season's over.

The mangaka is winging it way too much to assume he's doing this deliberately, but One Punch Man is a pretty decent metaphor for being middle-aged: Occasional crises, the ongoing responsibilities of domestic life, and a constant sense of, "Is this it? I thought adulthood would be more interesting than this."

Muuuuuco is the doggiest of dogs.
posted by ardgedee at 3:46 AM on November 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Haven't read either the web comic or the manga version, but the anime is one of my favourites of this season (together with Concrete Revolutio, Noragami Aragoto, Sakurako-san and Subete ga F ni Naru). It's a near perfect example of how to handle the Superman paradox: when your hero is so strong that he can win any fight with literally one punch, how do you create satisfying stories and challenges for him to overcome?
posted by MartinWisse at 3:55 AM on November 16, 2015 [1 favorite]


Incidentally, we're watching Concrete Revolutio thread on FanFare. If somebody else were to start a series watch for One-Punch Man, I'd be there.
posted by ardgedee at 4:27 AM on November 16, 2015


You just blew my mind with the Wanpanman/Anpanman thing. It's super obvious, and yet I somehow missed it completely.
posted by Aznable at 7:39 AM on November 16, 2015


Yeah, I vaguely knew of Anpanman but not well enough to have connected the dots. I also love One Punch Man for its take on the typical shonen ever-increasing stakes and power levels. I'd be there for a fanfare thread, in fact I was thinking about bringing it up in Anime Club and starting one myself.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 12:23 PM on November 16, 2015





ardgedee: "The mangaka is winging it way too much to assume he's doing this deliberately, but One Punch Man is a pretty decent metaphor for being middle-aged: Occasional crises, the ongoing responsibilities of domestic life, and a constant sense of, "Is this it? I thought adulthood would be more interesting than this."

That's a interesting POV someone elsewhere mentioned it might be a connection to depression as Saitama did like training to be a hero in the beginning and now everything feels pointless.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 3:17 PM on November 16, 2015


« Older meow. o hai. BOING BOING BOING BOING BOING BOING...   |   We’re high above the atmosphere now talking about... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments