An increase in villain activity has the Hero Organization worried that the “Earthdoom prophecy” will soon come to pass. In an effort to alleviate the overworked heroes, they turn to villains themselves for help. The decision looks ill-advised as at least one villain is more interested in helping the prophecy along than preventing it. – ANN
Streaming: Hulu
Episodes: TBA
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: Following Saitama’s climactic extraterrestrial conflict, things settle down a bit in M City. Saitama still serves in a mentorship role for cyborg hero Genos, though from the looks of it Genos is pretty capable of handling himself. Unfortunately, the appearance rate of lower-level baddies has increased quite a bit, so there’s little time for rest and relaxation. As they soon discover, a new S-Class hero named “King” has been getting quite the reputation lately. When King makes an appearance, his threatening aura intimidates evil-doers and excites his adoring public. Saitama is curious enough about the man that he decides to follow King and watch as he does battle with a giant, rampaging cyborg foe.
As it turns out, King’s reputation is just that – only a reputation. He just happens to be someone whose bad luck attracts bad guys, but no matter how many confrontations he has, it’s always someone else who punches out the antagonists in the end. Saitama uncovers this during a video-gaming session with King. In exchange, Saitama recommends a strength-building regimen to help the poser gain some confidence (this is, of course, as Saitama destroys a winged monster one-handed). In the meantime, the Hero Association is struggling to address the culmination of a prophecy, which seems imminent due to the increased criminal activity in the region. They choose to take an unorthodox route in addressing this by welcoming all of the city’s low-level thugs and inviting them to join forces. Some seem to be on board with this, but there are others whose motivations seem directly opposed to cooperation.
Impressions: I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of years talking up One Punch Man as a series whose themes are more broad than its shounen manga label might suggest. Its star is a twenty-something man whose life has begun to feel meaningless in its lack of challenges. The climax of the first season comes when Saitama, the protagonist, faces off against a foe that represents to him something that’s actually dangerous; the alien is strong enough that Saitama might not come out of the fight alive, and that in itself is exhilarating. In any case, the series left in its wake a strong fandom desire for the continuation of the story, as well as a sneaking suspicion that whatever came afterward might run the risk of not living up to the fandom’s exceedingly high standards.
The danger in having big expectations is that they may be un-achievable, even under ideal circumstances. The first news announcements and teasers of One Punch Man S2 revealed some concerning things, and along with them, spoke to some uncomfortable realities of anime production. Not only would the second season be directed by someone other than Shingo Natsume, it would be animated at a completely different studio – J.C. Staff rather than Madhouse. While it’s no secret that the Japanese animation industry is troubled by overwork, over-scheduling, and lack of financial resources, it can be very easy for those of us on the other side of the ocean to set those realities aside in favor of the enjoyment of our chosen medium. It’s this type of knowledge that serves to jerk us back to reality, as the exhilarating, bombastic visuals of something like One Punch Man S1 are built on the talents and sacrifices of real people, and expecting that level of craftsmanship when the support structure is itself crumbling is cruel and unrealistic.
All this is to say that J.C. Staff’s take on One Punch Man is decidedly more workmanlike than season 1, at least judging from this episode. Having gone in with somewhat lowered expectations, I think my reaction was less dramatic than the disappointment from some other reviewers that I follow, but the changes are obvious if you know where to look. Missing is the dynamism of the character action, the elongated, sketchy forms and the ridiculous brutality, replaced in many cases by still poses drawn in detail and odd digital coloring effects. What stood out to me most was the strange burnished shine of many of the metal surfaces throughout the episode, including the metallic elements of Genos’ body; it’s distracting in how overused it is.
What hasn’t changed is the series’ sense of humor, which as usual is reliant on Saitama’s personality and the mis-match between his obvious physical skill and the lack of credit he receives for defending the public. I think that the show’s downgrade in animation quality has been too much of a focus, but that’s speaking as someone who loves great animation but enjoys plenty of anime where the animation quality is decidedly not a strong suit. This episode paints Saitama, once again, as a competent but somewhat unwilling mentor, this time to King. Saitama is both irritated at King’s undeserved ascent to S-Class heroism as well as willing to suggest that King try to improve his physical constitution to become deserving of the public’s praise. It certainly does a good job of echoing how some of us end up in mentorship roles despite feeling ill-suited to the task. With age often comes knowledge and experience, and there’s certainly nothing bad about passing it along – even if the audience isn’t immediately receptive.
The remainder of the episode is mostly set-up for the continuation of the story, as well as an opportunity to revisit a few familiar faces. Fan favorite Speed-o-Sound Sonic makes an appearance (though his “evil” intentions are primarily aimed at facing off against Saitama again mano-a-mano), and Genos begins to reveal bits and pieces of his own character motivations as well. His training in heroism and his adherence to Saitama as a teacher seem to be in service of his own revenge; though Genos has generally represented himself as a decent person with a straightforward, earnest desire to learn from his master, he clearly has his own story to tell.
While I try not to comment on the quality of translations too often since I’m be no means an expert on the Japanese language, I found one translation in particular to be bothersome enough to mention. It’s been long enough that I can’t remember if this was an issue with season 1, but the Hulu subtitles translate the highest grade hero rank as “Class-S” throughout this episode. While in most cases I don’t think the word order would be problematic (“Class-A” and “A-Class” both sound fine to me as a native English speaker), “Class-S” is actually a term for a type of same-sex female relationship genre (sometimes phrased as “lesbian until graduation”). Perhaps a bit more care should have been taken to avoid unintended double-meanings, is all I’m saying.
I might be accused of damning with faint praise if I were to say that this episode is not as much of a drop in quality as I expected it to be. While, again, I love great animation, I also believe that visual storytelling isn’t as reliant on it as some may claim. If I needed every anime series to look like an animated film, I would have left the anime fandom a long time ago. I can still sense the aspects of this series that allowed me to enjoy it in the first place, and that’s really all that matters to me. I’m excited to watch more of the story unfold.
Pros: The series’ humor and great characterization seems roughly intact.
Cons: The visuals are a downgrade, replaced with some odd digital coloring choices.
Grade: B-