Hunting the Hero Hunter
Episode 3
Surprisingly, the third episode of One Punch Man was actually pretty solid in establishing the threat to the rest of the heroes from Garou. I’ll get to that in a minute but it was more compelling to watch than I expected.
Genos and Saitama are absent from a large part of the episode, though it doesn’t necessarily feel that way. Saitama and Genos are approached by a former disciple of Silverfang who is worried about him and they connect that to Garou. Midway through the episode, Saitama visits the disciple and some other heroes in the hospital after they’ve had an encounter with Garou. And at the end Saitama has a brief and inglorious (but fairly amusing) encounter with the self-declared monster.
For all that Saitama’s screen time is limited this week he leaves quite the impression. There’s also an after credits sequence that drops yet another bald joke into the mix even while establishing Saitama’s next move.
If I were to level any complaint at all of these antics by the main cast it would be that unless something drastic happens we still have literally no threat for Saitama to face because his encounter with Garou more or less confirmed that Garou isn’t even going to be a vague match for Saitama in his current state.
However, let’s get back to Garou.
As a villain, he’s so far been more interesting than any of the monsters from last season or even a lot of the actual villains. He’s got a clear immediate goal of gaining strength and destroying heroes, he’s motivated, and so far he’s been pretty effective. It is all much more meaningful than the usual stomp-city kinds of oversized beasts that have turned up.
The one thing he lacks is an end-game. Even if we assume he’s going to get strong enough to face Saitama, what then? Though it isn’t clear yet if he is going to end up being the big threat. For all we know, One Punch Man may yet decide just to throw Garou under the bus and introduce a bigger threat.
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Whichever way, episode three was pretty solidly entertaining. There was lots going on. None of the jokes lingered too long. The action sequences were varied and a large number of characters came and went. There’s very little to complain about.
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
- One Punch Man Series Review
- One Punch Man Season 2 Episodes 1 + 2
- One Punch Man Season 2 Episode 3
- One Punch Man Season 2 Episode 4
- One Punch Man Season 2 Episode 5
- One Punch Man Season 2 Episode 6
- One Punch Man Season 2 Episodes 7 + 8
- One Punch Man Season 2 Episode 9
- Images from: One Punch Man Second Season. Dir. C Sakurai. J.C. Staff. 2019.
I missed the bald joke at the end of this episode (I’ll have to find where it begins in the ep and watch it now)…and that made me realise it’s a direct contrast to Sarazanmai, where you have to watch the post-credits segmemt or else you don’t see big plot-changing events happening.
…then again, you’re talking about the hero names part, right? If that was the case, then I don’t have to go back since I already knew what their hero names would be from wandering wikis and such, even before I saw it animated. (It’s just hard to tell what you’re referring to when I’ve watched the past few episodes without remembering what went into what episode as a hurried attempt to catch up – sorry if I confused you in the process.)
My point still stands, though.
Genos ordering hair implants for Saitama.
Okay, that I have to go see – I don’t even remember that happening. (What even is a hair implant (LOL)?)
I know. Random ending to the episode but worth watching for the laugh.
I’m really not the kind of person who tells people to read the manga, mostly because I don’t make a habit out of reading them myself. But I cannot get over how poorly the anime adapts the power, the character and the hype that Yusuke Murata’s utterly ridiculous artwork has in excess.
Also, Saitama hardly being around it kind of the point of the entire arc, which works for me because it means we get to know these great characters like Metal Bat.
I’m probably never going to read this one, or even try it. Mostly because I know I really dislike reading action in manga because of how messy it becomes with all the lines showing power or movement. That was probably why I used to not read manga. The first few I tried were all shounen based stories and I just never got into reading them.
I’ve since found that other kinds of stories are better to read in manga form and there’s a couple, like Natsume’s Book of Friends, that I genuinely love reading. But yeah, One Punch Man isn’t going to be one I try to read so the anime version is going to be it for me.
I wasn’t so much saying you should, more I was pointing out how massively underwhelming is underwhelming the this second season has been visually in comparison.
Wow, I made a right meal of that comment haha.