One Punch Man is a revolutionary shonen manga that upended the genre’s conventions with a protagonist who defies the traditional arc of growth. You know, the whole “start out as weak and get stronger” shit. Yeah, Saitama wants none of that. He instead starts at the peak of power, and is capable of defeating any foe with ONE PUUUUUUNCH! (Our writer tends to get sidetracked, sorry.)
When asked about how One Punch Man came to be, its creator, ONE, stated that he wanted to craft a story where the first chapter felt like the final one. This helped him craft Saitama. Let’s look at what factors make the story feel like a sequel (despite it not being one), and how One Punch Man redefines shonen to deliver a fresh narrative.
One Punch Man feels like a sequel without being one
The most striking aspect of One Punch Man is its sequel-like tone. The series, despite being a shonen, is very different from a classic shonen. It makes readers feel as if they have stumbled into the epilogue of a grand story. While traditional shonen manga build toward a climactic moment where the hero achieves ultimate power after defeating strong enemies and overcoming countless trials, One Punch Man skips this journey.
If you think about it, it’s almost as if we’ve skipped over his origin story. It’s like all the battles he fought, the training he underwent, the sacrifices he had to make, and the experiences he had while becoming the strongest have all already happened off-page. This, apparently, was what the creator of the series wanted to achieve.
He wanted to create a story that made readers feel as if the greatest victories of the protagonist are already behind him. This results in a series like One Punch Man. In ONE’s own words, he wanted to “write a first chapter that felt like the final one”. This gives us a peek into ONE’s psyche. If it weren’t for his wacky and creative idea, such a unique series would never have materialized.
The sequel-like quality is only amplified when you see that Saitama feels and acts like some kinda veteran who lazes around in his house since nothing in the world excites him anymore. He’s not a hero who looks around the world and sees challenges to conquer. He’s a veteran who doesn’t even bother looking around the world, because he already knows nothing can challenge him (that was cold man, damn).
How One Punch Man balances strength with satire
While its sequel-like tone pulls in readers, what makes them stay is One Punch Man’s way of balancing Saitama’s godlike strength with vulnerabilities. This creates a satirical and relatable hero. One moment, Saitama with his indifferent attitude is annihilating monsters with a single punch, and the very next moment, he cries in despair after realizing that he forgot about a sale that could have saved him money (hey man, relatable af).
One Punch Man also uses a reverse-shonen method and pokes fun at tropes, where physical power often resolves all conflicts, but in reality, no amount of physical strength can help you buy goods from a supermarket. These mundane struggles cement Saitama as a relatable character and set him apart from other Shonen heroes who seem like fantastical beings.
By balancing strength with satire and by poking fun at traditional shonen and comic book archetypes, One Punch Man sets itself apart as a story. It is your typical high-stakes story, but just Saitama going around while effortlessly handling enemies and deflating tensions with his comedic indifference.
One Punch Man is a masterpiece that feels like a sequel to a story that never existed, and is a testament to ONE’s innovative storytelling. Its sequel-like tone makes it seem like a story that picks up after a grand, unwritten climax. It proves that a story doesn’t have to follow the norms to be successful. One Punch Man thus becomes a genre-defining story in a genre whose rules it broke (the irony).
One Punch Man is currently available to stream on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
