Anime 34134 One Punch Man 2nd Season Reviews Filter Check 2

PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THING (I KNOW IT'S LONG BUT HOPEFULLY WORTH IT)

Let me get this out of the way before I say anything: I never thought the original One Punch Man was this phenomenal anime that it was portrayed as being; I acknowledge that it was a decent/good show but nothing more. With that being said, this new season is a downgrade from the original in about every aspect so you can more or less see where I'm going with this review.

Great, now that I've induced the hatred of rabid OPM fans and essentially destroyed my chances of receiving any positive feedback or "helpful" ... votes, I'm going to be diving into why I decided to give this anime a 6/10... I know, it's shocking.

Actually, why not start with some positives first before I rip this show apart? For one, the cast of OPM is great, with the perfect balance of comedic moments, seriousness and badassery (yes, that's now a word) spread evenly between the characters! Saitama remains as one of the best and most likeable main characters in recent memory with a fantastic supporting cast beside him. One thing that I can't fault is the fantastic chemistry that is still prevalent between the cast; whether it be witty banter or heroic speeches, each interaction is a joy to watch; especially with the amazing voice work! However, don't expect to be blown away by the development each character receives or how original their personas are because quite frankly, they do all roughly fall into stereotypes although that actually favours the anime surprisingly! Another minor nit pick for now in the first couple of episode is that Garou so far is a lifeless edgelord who honestly holds nothing interesting to his name other than "Hey, I'm OP... that makes me a good character right?" Yet, I can't criticise him too much due to the fact that there is still plenty of time for him to grow on me so I will just avoid this factor for now. Now onto how the anime is mediocre at best:

Let's address the elephant in the room, JC Staff took over from Madhouse's previous season which worried the fans of the anime immensely and rightly so. JC Staff certainly isn't the first name an otaku thinks of when it comes to amazing action packed animation and so far... the animation has been ok. That's honestly the only way to describe it; it is by no means robust and clunky but lacks the finesse and passion that could be seen in the first season. Action sequences lack the emotion behind each blow that could previously be felt with animation short cuts being made in almost every altercation so far in the anime. Punches feel weightless as they don't show the impact of the blow as a means to save money which in turn makes me heavily disappointed considering the great action present in the original. These little things show that very little care and concern was put into the production and don't even get me started on the drawing quality! Genos looks like a bloody tin can walking about! Like seriously, metallic shading is not JC Staff's strong suit! But, in general, the animation is alright, it's acceptable and definitely gets bonus points for some fine jiggle physics so I guess that makes JC Staff worth something.

Another shortcoming has been the music; that opening song although not particularly bad, is trying to hard to renovate the original. It lacks the hype of the first opening and seems to ride the first song's wave rather than attempting to surpass it. Dare I say it, the opening almost sounds identical to the first! Only if the first one lacked any sort of feeling and was downgraded to about a 5/10. I guess endings are also a thing so I might as well talk a little about it... it's ok. I've been using this word a lot so far because it's the majority of this anime! Hell, even the soundtrack is sort of just fine and nothing special which is crazy since I actually quite liked all the music in the first season- I'm not saying it's anywhere near bad but I expected more in the second season.

My final point is about the plot. It's laughable. One of my biggest problems with the first and second season is how basic the story telling is. I get it, it's not the main focus of the show; the plot is used as a gimmick in OPM to show off action and comedy, however, no matter what form of entertainment it is, the story is essential especially when thinking critically and that's the one department where OPM falls terribly short and is probably the main reason why Mob Psycho is an a league of its own in comparison. I said I wasn't going to talk about it but I'm going to anyway; Garou's story so far is extremely predictable and basic! The hype for his character and story led me to believe that he was going to be special but is it just me or does everything related to him just seem like lazy character building and story telling so far? Again, it may be too early to judge but I cannot let it go! To be honest, in what is essentially the first third of the second season, no progress has been made in terms of the plot and no! Fubuki's tits won't help me forget how poor the story has been so far!

Let's end the review here; as you can probably tell by now, my enjoyment has been severely limited due to the negatives completely overshadowing this anime's positive aspects. It may still be too early to give it a complete verdict but I feel as though I need to share my opinion with the fan base. I'm not a hater at all; I honestly want what everyone wants: GOOD ANIME and this is not it. So, can we please stop fanboying and start criticising as to send a message that we won't stand for mediocrity? If we do this, I can guarantee that it will only benefit the industry and our enjoyment of anime in the future. Thank you for reading, I know it was long so I apologise, here's the verdict:

Story: 5
Art: 6
Sound: 6
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 6

(5+6+6+8+6)/5= 6.2

MAL Rating: 6/10

Lets all just be honest with ourselves! This anime which was gloriously adapted by madhouse has been officially murdered by J.C. Staff. OPM's first season was an awesome and absolutely great anime with epic fights now vice versa and we have OPM season 2 animated by J.C. Staff. This anime has been horrible and I don't think it has a chance of surviving and coming close to what madhouse's opm was! Sadly OPM died when they abandoned Madhouse and picked J.C.Staff and the story and everything else is pretty much lame and boring. It is a fine anime at best and is super far from ... being worth watching in my opinion. I really wish Madhouse worked on this so we would get to see some really badass fights and action sequences. Still, you are free to enjoy it.

This went the direction I hoped the series would after the first season. ONE wasn't clever enough to keep the manga going as a gag manga, and quickly wrote Saitama out of a bunch of scenes to just play it as a straight shonen. Yeah, it's over-the-top and the powers can be kooky, but neither of those traits are anything close to uncommon in shonen. There's been self-aware shonen since JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, but I digress.

Saitama continues to be used as a sort of tension-relief, with the pattern being that powerful opponents are set up outside of his reach, and satisfaction is continuously derived by ... characters who think they're hot shit inevitably running into Saitama and getting knocked down a few pegs. It's simple and nothing outside of what Dragon Ball Z did constantly, but it's amusing nonetheless. Saitama's invincibility is essentially a fact at this point, and always knowing that a comeuppance is around the corner leads to the anime's funnest moments.

This has the unfortunate side effect of making any scene without Saitama usually fail at any attempted drama. The results of every fight are known not to matter, as if the villain is to succeed and progress in fighting heroes he'll inevitably be destroyed by Saitama, and if anything of permanence happens, either a villain will die simply before Saitama makes it happen, or a hero will die. Problem there is, OPM puts so much work solely into its character design that none of those heroes have any backstory that makes victory or failure have any meaning beyond its impact on the plot.

The bright side is that season 2 admitting it's just another shonen series means that it has to fall back on more conventional storytelling to make the characters who aren't Saitama compelling, as they necessarily need to pick up most of the slack as he's usually never around. Both characters introduced in season 1 and new characters alike get more defined personalities, motivations, and weaknesses. This transition isn't as effective as characters who have these things from the start, though (i.e. most shonen works), as ONE is forced to play catch-up with defining a huge cast he set up almost at the start of the series. The consequence is that a lot of these moving parts of the story still haven't gotten additional characterization - there was simply too much to get to in this amount of time. So there's still a bunch of people running around who are literally nothing more than their character design, which I find as dull as I did in season 1.

The new villain Garo is the star of the show here, a powerful man who fights nearly anyone he comes in contact with, overcoming them with sheer tenacity and brute force. His love for combat, his desperation to overcome his inadequacies, abrasive personality, and feeling like he's fighting for underdogs makes him a stark contrast for Saitama. Though the two don't end up establishing a relationship in this batch of episodes, the switching between of their opposite perspectives keeps the season's pacing and tone, dynamic and gripping. Garo is a ton of fun to watch, but I find the emotional core of his story to be mostly ineffective. Garo fancies himself on the side of the monsters, emphasizing as a child the fact that they're unpopular underdogs always destined to lose. It's an interesting concept, but OPM's world completely fails to ever make the monsters sympathetic.

One of Garo's flashbacks has him claiming that an aquatic monster is just "trying to protect the ocean," and he reacts with horror at the fact the heroes mercilessly destroyed the monster's eggs. It certainly sounds awful if true, making the heroes out to be more bloodthirsty than the monsters, but this is never supported by literally anything else in the series. OPM had an opportunity to be morally ambiguous here depending on how it portrayed its monsters, but trapped itself by always wanting to characterize them as stock evil as possible in order to properly parody its genre's melodrama. This season goes even further in committing to that one-sided portrayal of monsters with another subplot that very clearly demonstrates that becoming a monster turns you into a bloodthirsty psychopath with no instinct control. It needed to show the audience just a single time that monsters were capable of more complexity, but it completely neglects to do so. This results in Garo's passion and motivation making him look like an idiot if examined with any scrutiny. When looking at his claims fairly, all we have are his perspective (demonstrated to be formed by bad logic) and a single anecdote from when he was a child that, if true, is so astronomically in the minority of monsters that it's virtually irrelevant. Garo wants to be on the side of the underdogs who always lose, but fails to acknowledge that 99.9% of the time monsters are being slain because they mercilessly kill and devour powerless humans, who are objectively speaking the biggest underdogs in this entire equation, meaning by Garo's own logic the heroes are more morally just than he is. It's an incredibly simple conclusion to come to that goes completely unaddressed and it has the effect of making Garo look like a huge idiot, burning away goodwill towards the character that's the primary focus of the entire season.

I'm sure there are people that argue this nonsensical backstory is another intentional gag, but I see zero reason to believe that. It seems to me that this is played straight in attempting to make Garo look like a sympathetic anti-hero, as there are additional scenes that go out of their way to establish Garo does believe in a moral code (his caring of kids) that would back up the belief that he takes his mission seriously. Not to mention that the basic idea of making the emotional core of your main character an intentional joke goes against all basic common sense ideas of writing. The tension of virtually any scene involving Garo relies on believing that both Garo and the heroes he fights are both victims who believe in justice, and you're supposed to sympathize with both sides of the battle despite the idea that only one is supposed to come out victorious. Unless you're willing to admit that these scenes are designed to be inconsequential, devoid of thrills, and pointless, you need to acknowledge that you're meant to take Garo's beliefs seriously in order for all of these scenes to have any meaning. And I find it impossible to believe that ONE didn't want these scenes to be exciting, unpredictable, and having you root for both sides. If they weren't, no one could possibly have any investment as to what happens in this series, as it would all amount to having the depth of just watching a laser light show. It's one of the classic fatal flaws of trying to argue One Punch Man as above its genre, and yet if you humble it down to conventional storytelling you're forced to admit how bafflingly underwritten certain aspects of it are. I had to take quite a skip and a hop to argue why Garo's backstory is ineffective and stupid despite it being incredibly obvious, but I just know some sections of the fanbase will still attempt to argue in favor of it, so I felt like I had to. This is why I tend to dislike discussing OPM in any critical way, because I usually end up having to run a marathon of justifications for a mostly really basic show that's just dumb fun.

But it IS fun, I've never not admitted that, even if I don't think it's genius-level fun. Garo may not be used to his full effectiveness, but he's still a joy to watch. The jokes may often be obvious and repetitive, but they still evoke smiles. The fights are emotionally and strategically nothing special, but fast-paced and exciting in their scale. All of this amounted to a series I burned through in almost a day once I got into it, and I was disappointed there wasn't more (especially since it ends on a horrifically unsatisfying cliffhanger in a way the first season didn't). To OPM's credit, I thought the character King was maybe the best joke the series has come up with thus far. The idea of a character who's incredibly weak just coasting by off intimidation via a fake reputation is nothing short of brilliant. Shonen works absolutely love establishing a future character's power by having those in-the-know immediately respond to them with immense fear, and the result is often not getting to see this character's power until far into the series' future, building hype that can carry a serialized work for a long time. It's a typical trick, but OPM's parody of it is a million times more clever than acknowledging that the main character always wins. Alas, I still have some issues with execution. I think OPM brings this joke to a conclusion far too quickly, when it could've had much more use. King is immediately established as being a phony both to the audience and Saitama. It could've been hysterically funny if Saitama was desperate to see a display of King's power, but King always denies him by posturing and saying something like fighting is always a waste of time for someone as powerful as him. It would've given Saitama a character relationship he didn't have, and the dramatic irony between the audience knowing King is weak yet the invincible Saitama taking him seriously would've probably worked well. It also could've been a lot of fun to have King fully take advantage of his reputation. King doesn't deny his false victories, but he doesn't deliberately make use of it either. King always wants to avoid fights because he's actually a coward, which is funny, but you could still have that be his internal character while also having him be vain and greedy enough to attempt to scare off people far stronger than him just by posturing. A new villain shows up that's completely unstoppable, King makes a rare appearance and stares him down with his intimidating face, the villain is aware of King's reputation for being one of the most powerful heroes and believes it when seeing his demeanor in person, the villain runs away or surrenders without even a fight and King's fearful reputation grows even further. I think that would've been an amazing character, but as he is now King is one joke that's resolved in no time. He's a coward that only is famous by accident, and he'd rather just be left alone and play video games. King's an immensely likable character nonetheless, but it bothers me that such a genius concept goes underutilized. Again, I'm forced to conclude that ONE is just limited as a writer.

Season 2 also introduces Fubuki, who is given a decent enough backstory to start with, but then basically never does anything again for the rest of the season. Boy, she sure is hot, though, right?

I'd be remiss to end this review without talking about the series' change of studio. The first season was well-regarded for its high quality animation relative to other contemporary anime, and in that regard I'd say the critical consensus was right on the money. For reasons that I'm sure aren't good ones, the second season shifted creative hands. Many people were worried that one of the first season's best traits would be lost by this transition. And they were right! Season 2 doesn't look anywhere near as good as the first. In-betweens are absent all over the place in action scenes and characters outside of center frame are often hideously off-model, for starters. The sad thing is, season 2 probably still looks better than most anime these days, but unlike season 1 that's more indicative of how dire the quality of animation is in modern anime rather than any sense of accomplishment. If season 1 looked like this it probably would've gotten away with it, but now that season 2 invites direct comparison the whole attempt just comes across as kind of pathetic. Something season 2 revels in that I fucking hate (and don't remember happening in 1) is the recently popular technique of applying a dimming effect to the entire frame to make action scenes look more dramatic. It essentially looks like someone turned the brightness down on their screen for a few frames. It looks like fucking dogshit and I cannot believe anyone in the industry or fandom thinks this looks better than no additional editing at all. It's an utter joke any professional can think this is effective. Lighting is supposed to enunciate certain parts of the frame, and that requires that other parts of the frame are lit differently in order to create contrast. You wouldn't think the purpose of contrast would go unknown by professional artists, but here we are. It's at least obvious why studios want to use this technique: it's way easier to turn a slider down in a video editor than it is to color individual frames in a way that simulates natural lighting. But not being capable of putting in the second of thought to realize highlighting only works when not everything is highlighted is nothing short of amazing to me. It's like someone hands you a long document and for the sake of organization they used a yellow highlighting marker to show someone the most important parts at a glance. In this case, you'd be getting that document with every line of text drawn over with bright yellow. It would be useless in its intent to focus you on certain parts, and it would look like shit. And thus is the same result of this animation "technique." Lastly, the audio mixing in some action scenes can be downright trashy. For some reason there are a lot of impact sound effects that seem as though they're mixed super low in comparison to the music. This muffled sound takes away all the power of punches, etc., and I have no idea why it was done seemingly at random. There are multiple fight scenes where the screen dims, a powerful character throws multiple punches with the force of cannonballs, and yet each hit sounds like the person on the defensive is being hit with wet sponges. Exhilarating!

It's bizarre to finish a One Punch Man season enjoying its story more than its animation, which was the exact opposite reaction I had from season 1, yet here we are. It's a shame, because this season could've had both and have been an easy improvement over the first, but the staff just weren't ready to go that extra mile. We can only hope a possible season 3 will turn things around, but I know I at least will be paying attention should it happen. At this point I'm always ready for some more dumb fun. Because that's what One Punch Man is. And more power to it now, I say.

MINOR SPOILERS

Not as bad as made out, but definitely nowhere near what was and what should have been.


This show honestly received way too much flak and hate when the first trailer released. Four episodes in, it's safe to say that S2 of One Punch Man is still worth the watch — even if it really cannot stand anywhere near Madhouse's excellent S1 from a technical standpoint. As (mostly) an anime only for OPM, I can say that most of my opinions from here on aren't jaundiced as everything I know about the story so far is from the anime.

The story continues where we left off, ... charting Saitama's misadventures as he forges his own hero legend. We now have a new villain known as Garou, who solidifies his status as a threat by massacring a room full of villains and taking out three A-rank heroes in the process. Garou's savagery and brutality in his quest for power pits him against various other heroes while Saitama continues with his daily routine: eliminating evildoers with nothing more than one punch, and failing to get any recognition most of the time. Garou's and Saitama's paths also coincide with a notorious prophecy warning of massive impending doom, which threatens to end the very world as our heroes know it.

There's nothing too complex about this story, which is a good thing — linear plots are the ones with the least plot holes, so the whole ride is a pretty safe albeit predictable one. The only moments you truly go "oh shit!" usually involve you laughing as Saitama dismantles a worthless pretender. Overall Garou seems interesting enough and his self absorbed quest and beliefs seem like a fun enough foil to Saitama's lackadaisical journey.


As far as characters go, there hasn't been any monumental shift in motivation so far. The defining character moments have all still been from the first season, and it's pretty much just continuation at this point. Saitama's comedic misfortune and couldn't care less attitude often downplay his heroism — the hero for fun is very likely the one of the only heroes who cares about doing the right thing more than the glitz and glamour of his industry (aside from Mumen Rider). Genos is still Saitama's yandere fanboy, though...at least he's honest about it. Some honestly wonderful voice acting keeps these characters relatable and fun to watch, subtle changes in tone and believable emotion add to the experience.

EDIT

The standout character here Garou, by a large mile. His journey and beliefs were especially poignant towards the end, as he waged everything on his ideals - and the results are incredible.

So well, sure the colours are nice enough (not as vibrant as S1, but good enough), HOWEVER the character design is honestly BAD. It's not one of those things that you notice after nitpicking or pausing. It literally stands out, like Superman's CGI lips in Justice League, uncanny valley stuff. Genos looked like a cyborg playboy in the first season but he looks like some elongated chimpanzee face from Sausage Party right now. Really, what the hell. I can say this about most of the characters. Thinner and longer faces.

They look like someone yanked them by the chin to give them those bizarre facial proportions. Except Fubuki.

Fubuki looks good AF.

The animation erghhh...could be worse, so as you can see, not really good. Less overall movement and flow compared to its predecessor, significantly more "frozen" screens. Still screens kinda ruin the immersion when you're in an epic fight, they just suck you out and make you groan. Especially because these stills are a hallmark of LESSER shows. Yeah. OPM S2 has a little too much of those for my liking, so I'm not exactly going to be too generous in this category.

What makes this sadder is that there are some genuinely great parts in the fights that would be absolutely awesome if a stupid still didn't interrupt the flow. Ugh.

EDIT: Some epic action scenes in 11 and 12 simply come far too late. One gem still cannot atone for shoddy presentation early on.

This show boasts some solid voice acting though, as in - absolutely solid. Comedy types of anime really tend to depend on good voice actors to carry their punchlines, this one excels. Great work especially from Saitama's, Sonic's and Genos' VAs: left me chuckling too many times with the exaggerated and expected moments. The rest of the cast do a badass job as well, so there's really nothing for me to nitpick here.

...but the music can feel oddly placed at times. I can't put quite the finger on it, but certain motifs feel like they could have been used in other scenes, to better effect. Also the music in general hasn't been too great as of this episode, so I genuinely hope it gets better...so that I can bump the damn rating up. Sadly, I can't say I'm a massive fan of the OP either, but I do think the ED is a good tune. GAROU HAS A BRILLIANT THEME, ALL SAID!

Final Thoughts:

Overall, there are some moments that I can truly say I enjoyed, but I can't say the same about every part so far. One Punch Man S2 has some good moments, but there's lots of rotten parts too, making this an...interesting concoction. But there's many more episodes to go, so I hope that I can actually revisit this with more positivity to add.

EDIT: Nothing substantial came about to change my rating. Still underwhelming, but you decide if it's worth your time.

*Minimum Spoiler Review*
TL;DR: From convoluted plot to character overload to just downright shitty animation & cba CGI failures,
OPM S2 is not great, but it's not terrible either. It's just okay... If you like comedy that is.
[Story: 6/10 , Characters: 5/10, Art: 4/10, Sound: 4/10, Enjoyment: 6/10]

"I'm a Hero. You did well on your own. Leave the rest to me" - Saitama

2019 is the year of sequels. From highly anticipated sequels like Mob Psycho S2 to SnK S3 to BNHA S4, we are now experiencing delayed gratification at its finest. Major question to ask as a fan of OPM, will its ... sequel live up to the expectations? Will it be a masterpiece or a disaster, given how long we had to wait? Now let's be real, given that sequel ruining studio, JC Staff, is adapting this anime and somehow Chikara Sakurai, an unknown director, is driving this show off the bridge, surprisingly, if you subvert all of your pre-conceived expectations, OPM S2 is not great, but it's not terrible either.

"So basically martial arts is... A way to move around all cool-like?" - Saitama

The story follows our bored hero Saitama, who is so OP that he defeats every monster with, you guessed it, just one punch. How do you take something so stale and make it interesting. It's a parody show at its core. If you've watched enough shounen, you know the good guy will always win and the ugly looking evil monster will always lose. This season the arc changes where the antagonist is a human who roots for the monster and wants to exact revenge on all the heroes who just gangs up on the villains and kills them mercilessly for pride & money. From a parody plot standpoint, it's a refreshing pivot. We finally have a humanized villain who you can get behind in kicking some smug hero's ass. We get to see how corrupt the executives running the Hero Association is and we also get to see how selfish S/A/B/ even C class heroes can be. However, instead of just focusing on this antihero, Garou, they decided to include in the entire cast of Monsters Inc alongside it to convolute the plot even further. I understand the purpose was to act as a foil for Garou, but it wasn't executed well. There's even a mini martial arts tournament arc that really seems unnecessary but it's funny regardless. There were some moments of brilliance following the sage like dialogues from Saitama & King (a highly anticipated strong hero), but with all the one line quit pro quo jabs and unnecessary dialogues to avoid putting effort in animation, it just wasn't cutting it. This is why having a good storyboard director helps big time. If anything, this just showed the incompetence of the studio more than anything.

"There are so many extremely powerful villains in this world. A hero is someone who takes on those villains. Even if they're all alone" - Saitama

Despite the convoluted linear plot of OPM S2, the characters not half as bad in this iteration. We get to meet more characters and more S class as well as A class heroes. We get to see the moral code each of them live by and through that we can juxtapose our main hero, Saitama, and see where he stands. As always, Genos, hyped up as this great S class hero who is striving to be as strong as his Master, somehow never fails to be destroyed by every villain he comes across. Garou also stands out as a really good fleshed out villain and given his past, you are able to feel empathy for him. It's nice. However, you can tell the plot is rushed as we are bombarded each episode with a multitude of characters that we just cba about honestly. If this was a 24 episode anime and we had the chance to really get into the backstories of these side heroes/villains then their actions onscreen would make more sense. Before you complain remember that first season despite being just a 1 cour anime, keep in mind, we mainly followed the adventure of Saiama & Genos. This time, there were many more characters. Aside from that, the seiyuus did as best job they can given the material they had at hand. Garou's seiyuu just gave you that badass Vegeta feel every time he talked. As always, Saitama, said the least but the deadpan deliveries were spot on. Kudos to them atleast.

"If you don't want to get bossed around or mocked by the people around you... You just need to become stronger" - Garou

If there was one thing that stood out to all of us from the first season of OPM, it was the epic animation done by Studio Bones. The story can suck. The characters can be stale. Fans of OPM all just wanted one thing to be done right, and it was the animation. Did JC Staff do justice? Not even close. They just dropped the ball and watched it roll down Mount Fuji and given how much cash the show was bringing in they just wiped their tears from fan criticism with fat dollar bills. Jokes aside, seriously, from an animation standpoint, I was not mad, not angry, just disappointed. Even GoT ending wasn't this disappointing. The show had way too many CGI scenes. They were just never blended in well and the fight sequences seemed so choppy. When they realized they can't do fight sequences right, they started pulling the off-screen fight sequence card to not put the budget in to animating it. How do you adapt a fight driven anime and not have good key animators for it? It was just sad. One upside though, near the end, it seems they hired a good key animator for the last 3 episodes. So that's nice, in a way. Even then, a bad job is a bad job. Aside from the atrocious animation, the background music wasn't bad. It's good. There was no way we will ever trump the first OP song of OPM. However, it's as if they knew that, so they just didn't put in any effort for the OP and ED song. They were not even catchy and just downright bad. Seriously, if you know you can't adapt, then just don't adapt.

"What is evil? What is justice? All those pretty words mean that I should go die because the majority wants me dead! This is absurd! They can all go to hell!" - Garou

Overall, as stated before, OPM S2 is not great by any means, but it's not terrible either. If you can subvert your expectations from episode 1, then maybe you can just sit back and enjoy this anime. It's not that much of a train wreck. I've seen worse. No way in hell was JC Staff going to be able to produce something as good as Studio Bones. No way can an unknown director do the show justice as Shingo Natsume can. Sometimes, you just have to roll with the cards you were dealt and unfortunately, out of all the awesome sequels we are blessed with this year, this had to be the one that just shat the bed. Despite a few redeeming wholesome moments, I don't think I will go back and rewatch this season again. If you want to rewatch, I recommend just rewatching the first season. However, by no means, watch season 2 after watching season 1... Unless you're a masochist. Then do it by all means. Nevertheless, if you've watched season 1, then might as well watch this season. You've waited enough time anyway. So why not watch it and get it over with. Anyways, check it out & let me know later how you like it as well as share with me your favourite quote from the anime! Ciao.

P.S. Thank you for reading. I hope you found this short and supaishi review helpful!

(Contains minor spoilers)
OPM S2 is bad. And no, not J.C.Staff is at fault here. Both Madhouse and J.C.Staff made an accurate adaptation, it is the source material that went massively downhill. Still, I would say S1 had better visuals, but J.C.Staff-s work is by no means looks bad.

Let’s start from the beginning. OPM is essentially built around a big anti-joke: "How stupid would it be if the MC was literally unbeatable by any means? Let's do it."

It was a caricature of well, every single action anime ever, where as the watchers we know the MC won't lose, because he's the MC, he eventually wins with ... the power of friendship or something. In OPM they stopped pretending. They said it out loud: the MC is super overpowered and cannot lose.

This approach worked perfectly, it was something new we haven't seen before. But of course every joke gets old after a while. I would say it didn't even last till the end of S1. There's an obvious reason why super overpowered MC-s don't work, there is no tension whatsoever, every fight is meaningless if we know the MC is unbeatable. Still in S1 they kept it together with cleverly placed jokes, over the top visuals and some so-ridiclous-it's-funny characters. A good creative plot wasn't ever in the focus, but I would say it was alright, the story made sense.

None of those are present in S2. The story completely falls apart. The show didn't manage to reinvent itself, all the same jokes already got old, including the main one. There is an anti-hero slaughtering heroes left and right (it is the very same formula from S1, but dragged out waay too long), we know nobody can beat him, because what would be Saitama's role then, but still we have to watch these meaningless fights episode from episode. In multiple cases where a hero could actually beat the anti-hero, just a moment before the hit would land, some random character interrupts the fight. One of these cases the character be like, "oh he’s just a human, he doesn’t deserve this rough treatment", sure, he only killed/hospitalised hundreds before, he’s totally cool….

This very same anti-hero has the most retarded reason like ever. As a kid he was watching the Saturday cartoons, and "oh poor evil monsters always lose". If the heroes wouldn’t win, society would collapse, you wouldn't have electricity to watch your cartoon you stupid shit.

Again, since Saitama is super overpowered, the villains have to be quite overpowered too. As a result 99% of the heroes are like dogpoop. There are only a very few heroes who stay "cool", the rest of them literally worth nothing.

Contrary to what everyone is saying, actually the fight scenes are the (only) good parts. Not J.C.Staff ruined the anime. The art is fine. Everything else is the problem.

An adaptation that fails to live up to its prequel, and results in a very okay anime.

One Punch Man Season 2 was met by a lot of criticism, most notably for its very subpar animation that fails on every aspect to live up to Murata's artwork from the manga, or the style of directing by Shingo Natsume originally did in the first season. While I was one of the outliers who thought it wasn't necessarily a dumpster fire that people made it out to be, but not absolutely amazing, where I gave it an 8/10, which on my scale would be a good anime, with ... anything lower than that being decent or worse. It goes without saying that a good story can cover up bad/okay animation, which was initially the case when I first started watching this, but for some reason, I just felt it wasn't there, and I'm here to explain why.

Story: 5/10
I was pretty optimistic when the first four episodes came out, as they were faithful to the original source material, but after those episodes, most of them fell flat. The first few episodes still do a great job establishing the threat that the Hero Association currently faces, the comedy was much more of a hit than it was a miss, and it creates a successful shift in tone that differs from what we, or at the very least, I was used to in the first season. One thing that you'll notice as you go further down the episodes is that Saitama takes a back seat, and the story lets other characters take the role of the main character. In the Hero Hunter arc, as I like to call it Garou takes the role of the main protagonist, and during the Martial Arts Tournament, Suriyu takes the role of the Main Protagonist. I do quite like this change a fair amount, but even then, I have some complaints.

Plot points that felt huge or was supposed to be dramatic felt a lot less dramatic or hype than they should have been, and as a result, they felt dry and basically little no sense of urgency or a sense of awe in them. There's honestly only some parts during the anime where I was like "holy shit, things are going to get serious now," but it just wasn't there. Another problem that I have with this adaptation is that they take way too long hype up and execute up the Martial Arts Tournament, a problem that I originally had with the source material, and which I didn't think to consider in my preliminary review, but they spend several episodes hyping it up, and you're wondering when they're actually going to get on with it. For the actual tournament, it's a pretty anticlimactic, but you kind of expected that when Saitama decided to enter in. Even the events that happen after the tournament failed to get me excited as to what was happening, or what was going to happen next.

Otherwise, the original plot that was introduced at the beginning of the season with Garou was actually still very solid, and I wish they focused on Garou's storyline a bit more rather than the tournament. The anime for me, felt like it ended on a pretty unsatisfactory note. I could totally see where Sakurai Chikara wanted this anime to end, but everything just still feels... incomplete, for a lack of better words.

Art and Animation: 4/10
This was a production that was doomed to fail at the start. I was fairly impressed about this originally, as it wasn't entirely horrible, but nowhere close to amazing, but after looking into it a bit more, I can say it's pretty bad. With J.C. Staff working on this production, everyone expected it to be bad, as J.C. Staff is not known for their action series, and more of their non-action series like Toradora! or Shokugeki no Soma just to name a few. To add on to that, J.C. staff had a schedule that could only be described as hell, as they were fresh off A Certain Magical Index III, and apparently, they had only completed two episodes when it started airing. The original complaints that I had are still present, Genos' arms, and really all of the metal textures look jarring and really out of place, with this weird, shiny looking gradient that looks very out of place; there are a lot of static lip flaps, and to add on to those complaints, when action scenes do happen, most of the times, they decide to have this white background that's really distracting, probably because it's easier to do that than draw a real background. Yet another complaint that I have is when they have those rapid attacks, it looks like blurs that make it really hard to see what the hell they are actually trying to do. A big thing that people are upset, including me, is how inconsistent it can be. One scene, it can look actually pretty good, and a decent amount of effort was put into to, and another one, they'll just repeat the same 3-4 frames and I just can't but help laugh at that. One thing that I would like to add is that most of the key frames are based on the panels of the manga redraw, I thought that was a fairly nice touch, but can get a bit tiring after a few episodes.

Sound: 7/10
One thing that is surely a bright spot, for a decent part is the sound. The same composer from last season, Makoto Miyazaki returns to make his appearance on this season of One-Punch Man, and I can say that it's still fantastic. If you listen closely, which at some parts, you can't really hear it, you can tell that this seasons' OST is kind of like the first seasons' OST, but changed a bit, and that's not really something to complain about, I just wanted to point that out. The OP is still hype as hell, though not as good as the first was, but is still a great tune to listen to. The ending is whatever, it's pretty forgettable in my opinion. One thing that I want to mention is the voice acting. I don't know if it's me but it seems as if most of the people voice acting in this don't really care much about this project. Most of them sound like they just want to get this over with and want to go home, which I don't entirely blame them for. Another thing that I felt was pretty bad was the sound design. The same sound director was there from last season, but some of the sound effects that they use can be quite on the silly side. An example of this is that in the later episodes, they use the sound from the M4A4 from CS: GO, I thought that was pretty funny, but overall, it's kind of on the weak side.

Characters: 9/10
It's really hard to screw up something such as this, as the original creator, ONE really knows how to write characters, from characters who have great motivations and backstories, along with nice, funny quirks that give them a lot of personalities, so it's not a huge surprise that this would be rated high. My points still do stand with characters such as Garou, who is a phenomenal character, and this series' first take at an actual villain and they do it well. He's not a stereotypical villain, as what drives him isn't that he's just bad for the sake of being bad, but the one thing that makes him compelling is that he's always tired of seeing the villain getting beaten, whether it be in comics or television. So, he takes it upon himself to try and dispatch of these heroes because of all he wants to see the villain win. As he takes on each fight, you get to see him grow and pushed to his limit and is still able to come out on top most of the time. This kind of characterization lets you sympathize with him, or maybe even empathize with him if your that person. One thing that I didn't like too much was that Garou didn't have enough development during the course of this season. Of course like I mentioned, he does get some but it's not enough, and he's left underdeveloped and while still compelling, just not compelling enough. The same still applies with King and Fubuki, who share their great amount of ups and downs to their characters, along with them being fairly relatable, with King, who I personally thought was the most relatable character in the series, along with his interactions with Saitama being some of the best things that this season has to offer.

One thing that I didn't like too much, but it's really not something that can make or break the series, but I thought that I should mention was that a lot was that the S-Class heroes are nowhere near as cool as they were in the manga. Normally, this wouldn't be a complaint if this was the first season, as all we really get is just a simple introduction. But now since they are much more important with the introduction of the Monsters Association, they become a key part of this entire story. Their characters are butchered to where it kind of feels like they're just powerful, that's it, not any other feeling of awe or excitement in them. But otherwise, Saitama is still the same, funny, and socially awkward person that he was, and the fact that he doesn't even know that he's socially awkward makes it a lot funnier. Genos was still the same, but he's in a lot of more difficult situations, which gives him more room to adapt to the environment around him. While the characters, in general, were still good, they just didn't have that impact that they once originally had.

Enjoyment: 5/10
The only enjoyment that I was able to get was from the good soundtrack and fairly good characters, but realistically, that can only do so much. Other than that, the plot falls flatter than it was originally in the source material, and the animation can be extremely inconsistent. Humor was still there for the first few and the last few episodes, but only periodically. It was okay for what it was, but I recommend that you read the original source material, web manga or the Murata redraw, rather than watch the anime, as it will probably leave you disappointed as it did to me.

It is nothing short of a tragedy what happened to One Punch Man. The first season was a stone-cold masterpiece, a showcase of action storytelling so consistently awe-inspiring that it exploded out of the tight shackles of the anime fandom and actually gained a measure of mainstream appreciation. No joke, I was actually down at a Walgreens just a couple days ago, and mixed in with the Star Wars and Marvel action figures, I saw none other than Saitama the Caped Baldy himself. That is how far mangaka One, Shingo Natsume and his team at Mad House took the appeal of this doofy little story ... about a bored superhero who was so powerful that ended all his fights in one punch, robbing him of any meaningful challenge. And it isn’t hard to see why; even today, with the shadow of its eclectic younger brother Mob Psycho 100 looming large, One Punch Man stands a testament to some of the best that modern anime is capable of. Masterfully told, outrageously funny, with winning characters and unexpected developments, the first season grew beyond being a mere parody of shonen tropes and found its heart in the story of an ordinary, extraordinary man trying to sort his life out and find his passion after feeling it slip away, turning its superhero theatrics into a surprisingly poignant metaphor on the young adult condition and the nature of happiness itself. And combined with the sheer, staggering beauty of its action setpieces, few anime of recent years have hit harder, if you’ll pardon the pun, and reached so many in the process. It had brawn, it had brains, but above all else, it had soul. You couldn’t ask for a more perfect encapsulation of the power this medium has to offer at its best.

And now, as we come to the end of One Punch Man’s second season four years later, there’s only one question on everyone’s minds; what the HELL happened?

Well, a lot happened. In fact, it’s arguable that pretty much everything that could go wrong with pulling this second season together did go wrong. The original team decided not to return to the project, robbing the franchise of the embarrassment of talent that propelled it to greatness, and a much less experienced director took the helm. It was passed to J. C. Staff, a far inferior studio with a far inferior work ethic, especially in recent years. There were production delays, scheduling issues, and by the time the first real PV dropped and revealed a far weaker product than the bar set by the original, the writing was already on the wall: this was going to be a disappointment. And I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that One Punch Man Season 2 is likely going to end up as the most heartbreaking anime of 2019. Certainly not the worst; we’ve had plenty of garbage shows already (Domestic Girlfriend, anyone?), and we’re certain to have plenty more before the year is over. But compare to the outsized legacy and overwhelming expectations it had to live up to, I don’t think any show’s failure this year is going to hurt as much as this one does. OPM has gone from being the absolute cream of the crop to depressing, barely-acceptable mediocrity. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

The story, for what it’s worth, picks up right where the first season left off, following the daily lives of Saitama, the strongest man alive, and his robot apprentice Genos as they go about their daily business and become further embroiled in the complex social hierarchies and machinations of the Hero Association. We meet a bunch of new heroes and power players, all with some important quirk that Saitama can bounce off of. Meanwhile, there are hints of a dark force bubbling right under the surface of society, a snarl of tumultuous anger getting ready to burst forth and wreak havoc upon the unsuspecting populace. And that’s all before the arrival of a monstrous hero hunter named Garou, who slaughters heroes to prove his superiority over them, exacerbates tensions on every conceivable front. The first season spent a lot of time developing the show’s world in the background, but it really steps into the spotlight here. This season is an ensemble affair, with a metric butt-ton of important movers and shakers getting involved in a massive, tumultuous clusterfuck of a situation that, in contrast to the first season’s fairly self-contained little arcs, spans almost the entirety of these twelve episodes. Saitama himself is pretty much relegated to a supporting role for the lion’s share of the story, gong his own lackadaisical way in the background while the broader scope of the world and its factions takes center stage. Honestly, I’m okay with that decision; with a character as overpowered as Saitama, it’s hard to tell a story involving actual tension if he’s in the immediate vicinity and ready to swat every possible threat away with a stifled yawn.

And for what it’s worth, if there’s any reason to watch this season at all, it’s to experience the uniquely bizarre way ONE finds to tell this story. In this conflux of conflicting agents and rising tensions, the question of what it even means to be a hero itself comes under heavy scrutiny. We already knew from the first season that the Hero Association was a flawed, corrupt system that didn’t actually recognize genuine merit, but now we’re given an intensely intimate view of just how broken its ideals actually are, and what that means for the society living in its shadow. The top hero is a fraud who got there by chance and doesn’t want the spotlight it brings him. We meet a team of bruisers who seek to keep lower-class heroes under their thumb rather than rise through the ranks themselves, because it’s easier for them to feel better about their own position that way without putting in the effort to improve. As dark plans are brought to fruition and enemies begin surfacing, we’re given a taste of just how bitter and broken some of these people have become thanks to the way society frames their position in it. There’s a martial arts tournament full of warriors who carry themselves with arrogance that their way of living is a superior and noble path to follow, dismissing the cheap facade of the hero. Garou the Hero Hunter, easily the best new character, always rooted for the underdog villains in the shows he watched growing up, and now he considers himself a monster fighting for all the monsters who were never given a fair shake, striking heroes down to prove they aren’t the omnipotent gods they’re often seen as. He’s a fascinating foil for Saitama, someone always seeking new challenges to improve himself against but still at the point where he can enjoy the tension of a fight he may not end up winning.

And all through this mess wanders Saitama himself, wondering why all these people can’t just get their heads out of their ass and live their best life on their own terms, regardless of what anyone says about them. That’s the brilliance of how this franchise seems to be developing: using Saitama not as a catch-all salve to end battles prematurely, but as a moral compass for everyone else to orient themselves around. It feels like the prototype for the kind of storytelling that ONE would later use to propel Mob Psycho 100 to such heights, using the character’s OP nature not to stop the world’s development in its tracks, but providing the world a locus of thematic clarity that they can all position themselves around and be influenced by. Saitama represents the best way forward to many of the show’s lost souls, despite he himself having no idea what his own path forward should look like. He’s a paragon her by accident, not even realizing how revolutionary his ideas come across to the heroes and villains alike he crosses paths with. He’s just a guy who’s a hero for fun, after all, and as he struggles to make sense of what being a hero even means to him anymore, he provides a beacon for everyone else to do the same. It’s smart, thoughtful storytelling that allows for genuine tension and pathos, a clear indication that ONE is not content to let this franchise rest on its laurels. He wants to push it to greater, more introspective and meaningful heights, and I give him all the credit in the world for that.

If only it was still backed by a production that allowed those strengths to shine through.

Yes, it’s finally time to get to the elephant in the room and address the inescapable truth: One Punch Man Season 2 looks bad. Like, really bad. Not just in comparison to the first season’s heights, but taken on its own merits, season 2′s production has been an utter clusterfuck from start to finish, and it shows through in every awful gradient filter, every rush-job animation, every piece of wonky character art, and every hideous pore on Genos’ garish shiny CG metal body. The whole affair is a slapped-together, ramshackle construction that fails at pretty much every single aspect of visual presentation you could possibly imagine. Where once there was dynamic camerawork and kinetic, fluid action, now there’s shaky cam and blur effects to cheaply disguise the lack of movement in combat. Where once the editing was sharp and precise, deftly snapping between different emotional states and moods, now the show’s flow is as smooth and seamless as a barbed wire enema. Punches and punchlines land without any sense of anticipation, and thus no impact, before weightlessly farting over to the next disconnected cut without allowing you any time to process the events unfolding. Many shots are taken right from the manga panels, but they’ve been cobbled together without any consideration for how the pacing and editing of a TV show is different from a series of still images, resulting in a discordant, often confusing series of moving images that jump from one moment to the next without any sense of how time is moving between them. And none of the shots are impressive enough on their own right to cover for it thanks to the shamefully haphazard animation, lacking in detail and full of stiff movement that rarely once feels like the characters are actually moving through the space. Again, this isn’t just by the standards of Season 1′s incredible kinetic motion and fantastic editing; this is just plain awful cinematic storytelling on every conceivable level.

And sure, it’s easy to complain about this stuff to such an extent that you get lost in the weeds and lose sight of what really matters. Plenty of anime in the past have achieved greatness with less-than-stellar presentations, solely by the strength of their writing and characters. But the flaws in OPM season 2 aren’t just isolated, subpar niggles. The problems with the pacing and editing effect the entire story, crippling its attempts to be exciting and thoughtful. You can’t get invested in the themes and characters because they’re portrayed too haphazardly to get you into their mindset. You can’t jive on its exploration of hero society and the psyches of everyone living within it because everything is rushed through without any consideration for letting the audience settle into its ideas. None of the physical comedy works well without the necessary detail and sharpness to sell the ridiculous gags and painful bodily contortions. The presentation actively works against the narrative, underselling its dramatic strengths and highlighting its weaknesses as it blurs through information so thoughtlessly that it often feels like we’re wasting time for episodes on end. Hell, even something as simple as the voice acting feels noticeably downgraded to a distracting degree; compared to his performance from the first season, Saitama's VA talks with the samebored, lazy monotone in nearly every scene he’s in. And that’s weird, because he was able to turn in a really strong and nuanced showing last time, showcasing the entire emotional spectrum of disenchanted apathy while making every individual emotion feel distinct and real. Maybe there was a new, less talented vocal coach? Because that’s the only explanation I can think of for how this bizarre flaw came about. And it’s indicative of the entire problem with this season; no matter how good the story might be, there is so little care put into how that story is told that so few of its strengths actually come through.

And yet. For all my bitching and complaining, I can’t bring myself to hate One Punch Man’s second season. Call it stupidity, call it bias, maybe I’ve overly sympathetic to the production team for having this impossible situation dumped on their shoulders, but I can’t see this as a complete disaster. In the end, there’s still too much obvious effort on display, too much evidence that everyone working on this out-of-control clown car was desperate to somehow make it work. The sound design, weighty and muscular and bass-y, works double time to overcome the lack of weight in the fight animation, pushing the force of every blow to its breaking point. There’s some damn impressive CG on a couple of the big monsters, incorporated shockingly well into the show’s regular art style and managing to be fluid and expressive without losing detail or polish. Plus, for all the faults in its presentation, the story still finds time to work when it really puts its mind to it. Pretty much every second Garou is on screen, you end up wanting to forgive how lacking the rest of the show is, just by sheer force of how much intrigue his plotline carries. And for what it’s worth, the team eventually does get their shit together for the final stretch of episodes, delivering a handful of episodes and fights that come so achingly close to the heights of the first season you can almost taste it. Even with all the odds working against them, the season 2 team put in their best goddamn effort here. And what could be more fitting of the spirit of this season than facing down impossible odds and refusing to give up, no matter how hopeless the situation might seem?

Still, when all is said and done, the disappointment lingers. There’s a kind of sad poetry in One Punch Man’s second season coming out right after the return of ONE’s other flagship franchise Mob Psycho 100, after close to the same wait between seasons for both of them. Because while OPM season two had pretty much everything possible go wrong, MP100 season two had pretty much everything go right. Not only did the original team have the opportunity to match the first season, they were able to surpass it, to take every resource at their disposal and create a stone-cold classic of the modern anime era. We’re never going to forget about Mob Psycho 100 after its incredible season 2. And by coming out directly afterwards, it only highlights that much more how One Punch Man wasn’t given the same opportunity to become all that it could be. It’s the greatest anime tragedy since Fate/Zero, and I think the sting of what we lost here is going to last for a very long time.

The second season of One Punch Man has several problems. Most people have no trouble pointing the problems caused by the animation filled with cost-cutting techniques and the pacing that seems to be so compacted that it almost seems like the storyboarding and script for each episode was done by cramming as much content from the manga as possible as can be animated. But the biggest problem of all is that One Punch Man, adds nothing to ONE's work.

ONE is the author of One Punch Man, and in order to get some context for what I'm about to criticize, I'm going to talk about him ... as well as the other works of his that have been adapted, and even the previous season. ONE is pretty unconventional, not only in regards to the content he creates, but also in regards to the circumstances through which he became successful. For those that are unaware, ONE aspired to become a manga artist but his circumstances didn’t allow him to follow on the goal he had intended, so he eventually has started drawing a webcomic of his own on his phone. Not only did ONE not have the proper tools for his trade, he also did not have the talent. You see, ONE, sucks at drawing. While it is true that he has gotten much better as an artist since he has started, and even that if he is given enough time he can pull off a decent drawing, ONE is just unable to draw at a consistent enough level to be even mediocre in the industry, especially at the pace which a magazine would require off of him. But despite this, ONE’s work was found entertaining just the way it was by his readers, and he managed to get a large enough following to be noticed. Eventually, he was forced into a hiatus by him getting a job that limited his schedule, and he no longer had enough free time to do what he has wanted, and not continuing One Punch Man was a possibility that he has warned his readers about.

One of his readers was Yusuke Murata, enjoyed the webcomic so much that he has offered to partner up with ONE when he heard this news, with the intent of helping him continue what he enjoys doing and what he has always aspired to do, as well as improve on his work, by drawing better designs for his characters, as well as adding a lot more detail and dynamism to the story that was being presented. By doing just that, One Punch Man was launched as a manga, and has reached the attention of many. ONE's work was improved by the fact there was someone that saw potential in his work and they wanted to add more to it.

Eventually, One Punch Man is picked up by MADHOUSE. As an adaptation, MADHOUSE has managed to knock One Punch Man off the park, using every action scene as an opportunity to choreograph each fight in a way for them to be able to demonstrate how much fluidity and detail their animation can bring themselves, but also to make each hit and attack despite their often underwhelming result, look impactful and distinguishable from anything else you have seen so far. While the enemies cannot achieve impressive feats due to the overwhelming odds they have to face, the animation manages to further accentuate their strength, as well as identity through how much impact their attacks have on the environment or the characters nearby that surrounding. ONE's work was once again improved by the fact there was someone that saw potential in his work and they wanted to add something to it themselves.

Then, there is Mob Psycho 100, another work of ONE's that has been adapted. As an adaptation, their approach was slightly different. While not as condensed and bombastic as the animation of One Punch Man, Mob Psycho's approach to adapting ONE's work has a lot of its own merits, as they focused on bringing ONE's style to its highest potential, making sure they get rid of the rough edges in it. Then with what was left, rather than changing it to be more impressive looking, they opted to keep the designs as close to what ONE has drawn as possible, and instead they focused on making the show more impressive by focusing on how the animation looks during movement rather than focusing on the key frames. The animation seems like it is meant to be in perpetual motion and it is almost never sitting still. This gives Mob a very distinctive look and it is a sight to behold that is distinct from One Punch Man as far as style is concerned. Another studio that once again, improved ONE's work through adding something they themselves saw value in.

Everyone that has adapted ONE's work so far has aspired to do something with it. To make it something more entertaining for the audience they were presenting it to. However, this does not seem to be the case here. What the case here seems to be, is that a studio got stuck with a major project that needed to be done as fast as possible because of its popularity and high probability for profit, but they had no way to uphold the expectations of the audience, so rather than having a project that had some ambition behind it and was aiming for success, the circumstances behind the second season seemed to concentrate on getting it on screen so that it can sell, because someone made a business decision and they were tasked to create it. The project clearly lacks passion. Every single adapter focused on making the intellectual property that they are using to in some way profit off of the fact that they are working on it. Instead, it seems like a clear business decision to just get it done, and just focus on the quantity so that it can sell, with little to no regards to the actual quality, which at this point is something common.

What makes me believe this to be the case?

Well, it is actually the very reasons the people watching the show complain. To go into detail that would be:

• The animation. The studio animating it has used a bunch of cost cutting animation techniques such as: Removal of backgrounds during action scenes, or replacing the background with a single colored background with a bunch of lines that indicate movement, zooming on the same frame to indicate a character is talking rather than drawing a new one for when they are talking from that angle, chopping off as much detail as possible during the movement of the characters during action scenes, still frames with a few moving visual effects to simulate movement/impact and that’s only what I’ve noticed. These cost cutting techniques are consistently used every episode and almost every action scene abuses these techniques in order to make sure the episode can be done as fast as possible. There's nothing wrong with using cost cutting techniques, hell, I have noticed some moments in the first season where the monochromic background was used there too. But if your animation is strictly comprised of cost cutting techniques, with maybe a 5% of actual content, what quality do you expect of the product?

• The pacing. As I have said in the very beginning, the episodes do not seem properly storyboarded and scripted and instead they seem as if they crammed as much material from the manga as possible, and then tried to speed through as much of the scenes until there was a monologue or an opportunity to use a still frame. At best, they have restructured it to cram in the content in a way it can be compacted further. This results in this very awkward pacing where a lot of events happen in an episode, but they finish just as soon as they start, and they seem to lose their significance. The show really doesn't seem focused on telling a story here, but rather, on the most cost efficient possible way to cram in the content from the manga. What is the bare minimum for this scene? We will do that. So for a vast majority of the show, each moment just presents you with information about what is happening, and then quickly finishes any action pieces by the presentation, and just keeps on moving forward.

Surely, however, if ONE was able to hold the attention of his audience with choppily drawn drawings, there should be no room to complain in this situation either, right? I mean, these guys are just moving his content into a different format. If he has done a good job, regardless of how the show looks, it should continue to be enjoyable, and cramming in everything he has pushed into the series is just gonna showcase more of his genius. Am I and everyone else just being a hypocrite for criticizing this season?

No. It is one thing to put in your best effort to create something entertaining and it is another thing to meet a standard so that you can present to an audience for a commercial need. One focuses on quality, while the other focuses on pushing out quantity. However, considering these two major causes that spiral into causing problems for every element of the end result, criticizing them is more than warranted, regardless of what is being adapted from.

So how do these elements impact everything else?

Let's begin with Garou.

Now, Saitama doesn't do much in this season so the best goal you could set for yourself is focusing on presenting his foil and who he is, with that being Garou. Garou presents some very distinct opportunities, since, while Saitama is the strongest hero that has reached the peak of his strength, Garou is a villain who aspires to become the strongest monster in existence, who is still following his journey for power. Unlike Saitama, Garou is just as likely to win as he is to lose and he has limits. This means that while most fights in the series are filled to the brim with results that are highly expected, there are a lot more opportunities with Garou to present evenly matched fights, and to develop a choreography for the fights, so you don't just have to focus solely on animation and have options in your approach. Additionally, Garou presents a different perspective to the show, and provides some criticism to a very specific trope in media. The fact that the hero always wins, because they are popular. Despite the possible intent and depth of any of the characters presented, the popularity of the characters dictates that the audience is just gonna be delivered more of what they want. Garou is a not so subtle argument against that very notion, as is most of the show. He challenges that quite well and his confrontations center around this theme. While Garou was used for this purpose in the adaptation and his fights had some choreography and thought put into them, there are some moments where once the moments where there is a distinct action happening in the script ends, Garou just uses his blue wavy hands to hit an opponent until the action set piece ends, if he is not getting hit himself. There are some distinct opportunities that you can take a shot on to highlight exactly how the confrontation is evenly match and choreograph a fight that looks interesting and seems evenly matched. I think that this could've been used to take advantage of the fact that you cannot exploit the animation, by planning Garou's fights to be entertaining rather than just presenting exactly was what drawn in the manga. Additionally, given the fact that the show's pace is only matches by someone rolling down a mountain, I'm worried that the chaotic bouts of action are not gonna pay off for the viewers until the end of the season in regards to his characterization, and that is only if you value how he is a foil to Saitama. It has not been the case to me, but I was already familiar with the content already, so of course his characterization would have a different impact.

Then, there's the overarching theme.

Garou is not the only character that is dealing with the fact that popularity means everything in his universe. So is the world of One Punch Man. Martial artists frown upon heroes because they are only valued for their popularity rather than their skill. Other heroes also have a similar issue since they cannot get recognition because people simply do not value their contributions and they only focus on those that are better known. Everything is a popularity contest in the universe of One Punch Man. But due to the show's pace there is not a lot of time to contemplate this and the show just merely presents these ideas rather than hammering them home. True, these ideas have been presented before, but due to how fast every scene transitions this does not seem to show how this world impacts the characters living in it. There's often not a lot of time to understand who and why every character is before a scene is finally over because there is hardly any effort for the build up and pay off of each moment, and unless you are Garou or another significant character, you are thrown to the side and your perspective is not taken into consideration. Which is completely ironic, given the overarching theme that exists.

In other words, the story's potential is butchered because there is not enough focus in both the build up and the pay off, as the show just focuses on moving through scenes as fast as it possibly can. Given the fact that the world's confrontations are rather quick paced as it is, blasting through them are just gonna make them mundane and them being mundane is gonna make everything each character say matter less and less.

If you wanted to reexperience One Punch Man, I'm afraid this season is just gonna be wildly different from what you have experienced so far. If you want something more authentic to what you have seen so far, the manga is still a valid choice since it presents the well detailed style the anime might've gotten you to expect. If not, you could consider giving the webcomic itself a shot and see if the story is presented better despite the fact that ONE isn't particularly skilled at drawing. However, if you are still interested in this season of One Punch Man, be warned that it is a huge downgrade from what it used to be, so do temper your expectations for it accordingly.

Strap yourselves in for an honest review of One Punch Man Season 2!

Obviously the anime fandom could hardly contain themselves when another season of one of the most popular new anime was announced. Faced with clear comparisons that will be made with the first season as well as a change of animation studios, how did this sequel season fare?

Story: 7.88 / 10

Where the first season was focused around Saitama and retreading the same recipe: monster appears, monster defeats many heroes and Saitama finally arrives and ends the fight immediately – leaving very little story – this season actually has an underlying plot. Since the focus ... is on the anti-hero and the antagonist organization, the plot is actually something worth watching for. Of course, Saitama’s role in this season doesn’t change, but since we are already well aware of his position in this story, time isn’t spent on him as much as before. The two subplots are slow buildup and they join up by the end of the season, so there is more to this story to look forward to. It is nothing masterful, but clearly two whole plotlines more than the first season. Unfortunately, despite this season having a plot, it is missing a climax of any sort. The climactic battle of season 1 was arguably the pinnacle of the show, but this season lacks any sort of climactic battle. There was a candidate battle that could have been the pinnacle, but the circumstances surrounding it as well as its visual execution were not up to standard, so it’s just buildup from beginning to end; hopefully setting up for a big climax in one of the seasons to come.

Art: 6.57 / 10

The new art style didn’t bother me at first. It looked like OPM to me. But then the action scenes came. Where the first season banked on great-looking action scenes, this season’s looks anywhere between terrible and average. Instead of having flowing and colorful combat scenes, there are an abundance of bland, jittery scenes that makes you wish to go back to the dialogue instead. While Saitama’s punches looked great in season 1 (even the more comedic punches), in this season, there are many still frames with Saitama’s arm stretched out and the target spinning in the air – which not only looks like it was done on free software within 3 minutes – but this setup is also used for punches that aren’t even from Saitama. This was rather lazy and not even remotely funny. Not everything looked bad however, sometimes it looked fine, but never even close to what it looked like before. A lot of the weird monster designs were over-the-top and no longer funny like it was before, but it at least didn’t make much of a difference to me. Action excluded, everything else looks pretty good and consistent enough with what it was like before to not draw any attention.

Sound: 6.12 / 10

Even compared to the animation, the sound effects during the action scenes were horrible. Almost every flurry of attacks would sound like someone repeatedly stamping on a cardboard box and the shockwaves that are supposed to make the fight feel intense sound muffled or distorted. Luckily the voices were fine, with some of the new characters having pretty impressive performances in both the subbed and dubbed versions. The OP is pretty good, though not as catchy as the first season’s and the ED is a decent song, but doesn’t fit the tone at all. All in all, the sound was the most disappointing part of this season.

Character: 6.95 / 10

OPM isn’t known for its revolutionary characters, so this is no exception. Fortunately, due to the story focus shifting from Saitama ever so slightly, more interesting characters get more screen time. Garou is hands-down the best character to come out of OPM. He is fun to watch, brings an interesting dynamic and carries his own subplot well. Some other characters have progression too, though less memorable due to their low status in the story. Many of the characters are still as static as they were, but the new editions were handled well. In this category, this season trumps the first, but not by much.

Enjoyment: 7.25 / 10

Despite the action scenes looking sub-par, it is still OPM. The parody is still funny, the powers are still wacky and now we have a story to think about as well. I was very let down by the aesthetic of the action scenes, but the rest was pretty enjoyable to me, just not to the point where I would gladly rewatch this season like I would the first.

Overall: 6.93/ 10

Safe to say that this season didn’t live up to the first. I don’t think the change in animation studio is entirely to blame, since I think that some of the problems are narrative ones that exist in the manga as well. Fans would keep watching to find out what happens next, but this season has lost the title of “Fun action-comedy that anyone can enjoy”. It could have been much worse, but it certainly wasn’t good either.

Something bad happened behind the scenes with this show. The quality dropped off a cliff compared to season 1. It's less funny, it looks cheaper, there's a distinct lack of the main character involved, and it's legitimately boring. The shear amount of tedious dialogue has me clicking through the buffer bar trying to find something good in many episodes. Dialogue can be good if timed right and there seems to be a point to it, but holy crap, I can't take it. I waited so long for this season and it's beyond disappointing.

The show is called One Punch Man, and there's very little punching from ... that man so far. I'm certain this could have been executed in a more entertaining way, but whoever tried their hand at it this time around, f'ed up bad.

Such is the life of an anime fan. Hype leading to disappointment. *Sighs*

This show currently has a 7.85. This is far too high. I'm giving it a 5, because of how disappointed I am, so maybe it's truly a 6, but definitely not nearing a score of 8 (very good), because it's not.

Update: WOW, NICE OF ONE PUNCH MAN TO FINALLY SHOW UP IN HIS OWN F**KING SHOW, AND PUNCH SOMETHING TO INTO DUST (Episode 12). The ONLY way I'd call this season acceptable, is if they began airing season 3 THIS YEAR. Score has dropped further; not enough in my opinion.

The train wreck has finally reached its end. Or did it?

One Punch Man 2 has gained quite some discussion since the PV was out, for its worrying production quality. Yes, it is not as well done as the first season, but that's not the topic I want to review here.

Instead I want to review the story part of season 2.

This season has mainly 2 story arcs: Garou arc and Tournament arc. Let's talk about Garou first. Garou is an interesting anti-hero with his own principle and goals, and as the anime goes on more and more of his character is digged out. As we can ... see Garou did not intend to be a villain; he just dislikes how the society ignores an individual's weakness and helps the strong one bullies the weak one, just because the strong one is more popular by portraiting himself as a "Hero".

ONE uses Garou to throw out a question that has always been present through out OPM: "What is justice?" The Hero Association was a corrupted bureaucracy, and the heros are intriguing each other due to ranking difference. The introduction of Garou further gives doubts to the morals that the world, or the strong ones in the world, forcibly instil us.

But this season fails to give it a conclusion, as Saitama comes too late to just finish the Centipede in time.

The second arc, tournament arc, is presented even worse. We see zero action to show the difference in strength between each contestants, so beside Saitama we don't know who is stronger and who is weaker. They all look like minnows and will soon become the monsters' sandbags. The characterization of Suiryu is fine, but the action scenes are so bad that I can't feel much towards him. Too bad that this arc is story-wise more completed than the Garou arc.

Season 2 stops at Saitama finishing Centipede, and the rest of the story is still unknown to us anime viewers. No wonder the manga readers have been tolding us to read the manga instead, because even after watching season 2 I still did not know where the story is going onwards. What a complete mess.

I'm not someone who likes to give a low rate, if some shows deserve it I do it but I prefer to put a good rate or not rate it. But unfortunately, I need to raise my voice to show my disappointment with one of my most favorite anime in my list and the one I was waiting anxiously to be aired...

The art is acceptable, I can pass it but what made me sad, really sad is the thing that this second season is just 12 episodes and most of it Saitama, the main character, was not. I was hoping to see more of him, ... his interactions with other characters.. more action, more comedy, more Saitama! But nope, sadly, OPM 2nd season was a total failure. The plot is great but the development of it was poor, very slow, too boring. Nothing like the 1rst season! I missed Saitama, Genos, Puri-Puri, Tatsumaki!!! T_T

It hurts, but truth has to be told :'(

EDIT: Ok, now that I've finished it I must say: Finally! I've felt with this last chapter what I felt watching the 1rst season TwT I was missing the thrill and this ending got it! So, my rating goes up to 6.4. Hopefully, we have a 3rd season soon with more Saitama, more Garou and of course, with the quality we all desire~

Breakthrough hit One Punch Man returns for a long-awaited second season, and, well... it's mediocre. While I wouldn't consider the first season to be a masterpiece, I did find it quite enjoyable and it was easy to see why it was such a hit. Despite not being as subversive of tropes as my friends made it seem, it was still funny and exceedingly well-animated. It was clearly a product of passion on behalf of those creating it, and for that it was great.

With that out of the way, now I will discuss what I am supposed to be reviewing (lol). Even before it started airing, ... Season 2 faced controversy. Madhouse, the studio that produced the prior season and was in no small part responsible for the show's resounding success, was not the studio making the anime. Instead, the duty was passed on to J.C. Staff, a less reputable studio. (Then again, few studios can compare to the reputation of Madhouse.) This change in studio is responsible for many of Season 2's failures.

As previously mentioned, Season One was praised for its impressive (to say the least) fight scenes and detailed animation. This aspect, which helped to define One Punch Man to many, is lacking. While there are impressive moments, no doubt, the animation lacks the same sort of care and detail. For one, there is a greater reliance on CGI in this season than in its predecessor. The anime trope of blurry fists flailing in a looped animation is prevalent here. This style of animation is usually either due to budget issues or a lack of investment in the project, and I suspect the latter. While animation is not the most important thing to me (heck, my favorite show is NGE), the noticeable downgrade in quality is a real disappointment. That is not to say that the show has its good moments, which it does, it's just that they are more sparse.

As for the story, it feels slightly less inspired than that of the previous season's, but I am sure that it is for satirical/parody purposes. However, some serious moments undermine the comedic/satirical feeling of the show, making it difficult to discern if it is truly a parody or if it is just a typical shounen plotline with comedic elements thrown in. However, I'd say that the characters are better this time around. For one, there are more of them, and some of those in the previous season are more fleshed out. As for characters, Garo really takes the center stage here. He has interesting motivations that I was excited to explore as the show progressed, although it felt as though there was some minor lack of subtlety or intrigue as to how characters progressed.

What really kills a lot of my enjoyment is the sound design. Personally, one of the most important aspects of anime (and media in general) is sound design. While it was not as abysmal as something like the most recent Berserk adaption, the show's sound design was quite lacking. The voice acting was just fine, although I may be wrong because I don't speak Japanese. However, the sound during fight scenes was just... cringe. Namely, the repeated use of the M4A4 sound effect from CS:GO for impacts. This was a fucking crime against my ears. It's not like the rest of the sound effects were all that great, either. This compared with the lower-quality animation really lowered the impact and enjoyment of the fight scenes. At least the OP was pretty cool (and the rest of the soundtrack as well).

Overall, Season Two of One Punch Man is a disappointment, but it didn't have to be. The source material, the manga, is beautifully illustrated and is fully capable of having a great adaption, something Season One proved. However, I won't deny it's strong aspects and I did indeed enjoy watching it. At this point, all we can really hope for is a stronger third season, assuming the disappointment of this season hasn't killed the momentum of the show's fanbase.

*Edit: I forgot to mention the anti-climactic ending of the season that made it feel unfinished. I was shocked to learn that the twelfth episode was actually the final one of the season, especially considering the last season that was relatively self-contained and wrapped up nicely. This added to the let-down of the season.*

[Extra note: this is my first review. I don't know if you can comment on reviews or anything but feedback is appreciated, however it is received.]

“WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ONE PUNCH MAN SEASON 1”

I think the Phrase “Be careful what you wish for” really does apply to the situation with One Punch Man. Now the first season of One Punch Man season 1 was a spectacular superhero, shounun anime with some of the best animation you will see out of any show and proves there is still adversity for a guy who can defeat anything with one punch. Naturally, people would be excited for a season 2. More excellent action sequences? more outrageous monsters? more from our boys Saitama and Genos? Sign me up. But then I saw that it ... was not being made by Madhouse and instead being made J.C Staff; along with the trailers for the show before it aired, I was left sceptical. With the tempered expectation I had, little did I know how big of a ripple effect the animation would leave on the entire package.

Sit back, relax, breathe in and then scream from the top of your lungs “ONE PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNCCCCCH!!!” as I present to you the anime review for the second season of One Punch Man. Let begin.


Story: 6.5/10

Saitama and Genos are still working for the hero association who have grown increasingly worried as major threats have appeared more frequently lately and worry that fortuneteller Shibabwa‘s prediction has arrived. But that isn’t the only problem as a new threat arrives. The self proclaimed “Hero Hunter” Garou has gone around and started attacking every hero he has come across. With more dangerous threats looming and the Hero Hunter knocking heroes out of commission, will our heroes prevail? Or will the monsters crush every city in sight.

This season abandons the monster of the week type setup and instead goes for the single threats that build over the whole season. Now that makes for a nice change of pace as now we have these threats that we can build up to point that only Saitama can beat with one punch. The results are rather mixed and I can attribute this to the show’s lack of escalation. We are told that the threat from the newly introduced Monsters Association is getting out of control, but we hardly ever see the full extent as to what is happening. Most of the time, it happens off screen or is cut away to show something else. This also contributes to the show’s increased amount of dialogue which can drag on a bit. Considering how well season 1 built up The Deep Sea King and Boros with the limited time they had, season 2 feels lacking in this regard. It isn’t all bad though, as Garou is still built up nicely as a challenge for the heroes he encounters.

Another thing that the show likes to focus on is how different each hero rank is treated. Normally S-rank heroes are treated with the highest regard, but A-Rank heroes and below are seen as nothing special and are treated that way. We saw this in season one with how Saitama was treated by the hero association and other heroes but with the attention drawn away from Saitama, we get to see other characters and how they are treated or about their mindset. It helps develop this divide between how heroes are regarded depending on their rank. Now that we see that Saitama is not the only one that gets treated this way, you sympathise with them.

Now the humour of this show is still there at times although not all of the humorous moments land. It did make me chuckle and even laugh plenty of times though, especially when we get to know more about the S-rank hero King and when he’s on screen, but some of the jokes don’t land and I mainly put the blame on the animation but I want to save that for when I talk about the animation. It sill has that mixture of knowing when it wants to be laid back and when it wants to escalate to know when it wants to tell its jokes but some of it I think is mistimed and as such, some scenes don’t get the hilarity factor right. Which is a real shame, because you can see they were trying but failed to do so.


Characters: 9/10

Our beloved characters are still here and they still retain their personalities. They are still enjoyable to watch and listen to and I have little complaints about them. The only real complaint is that Saitama seems a little more dense than usual than rubbed me the wrong way. The new and expanded characters though also add something to the good cast of characters this show provides. King especially is a great character for this season as his backstory is funny and his conversations and moments with Saitama are a highlight of the season. I can’t say specifically due to spoiler reasons but they are entertaining. We also get to know about Tatsumaki’s sister Fubuki, the rank 1 hero in the B tier and how she wants to stay atop of the B tier so she doesn’t have to always worry about being in her Sister’s shadow and helps get us to know more about how other heroes are treated. There are others notable characters besides the one I mentioned like Suiryu that come to the conclusion that the characters are still a core part of this show’s enjoyment and the new and expanded characters only add to it.

However, I have not talked about Garou yet, probably the most significant new character in this season. He wants to be a villain because he wants to route for the underdog. The heroes always get the spotlight and the villains are eventually forgotten about. The show then mostly becomes about his story and how he wants to beat every hero so he can prove that a villain can beat a hero outright and leave a lasting legacy. Looking at a villain’s perspective makes the show overall more dynamic as we get as much attention to this overarching villain than just the heroes protecting innocent people. It makes Garou a more interesting antagonist for the show to focus on by having half the story involve around him and how the monsters are seen in the public eye.


Animation: 2/10

And this is where the majority of the criticism is rightfully said about this new season of One Punch Man, that the animation is rather s**t. Now on its own, the animation is generic, uninspired and lazy; often times using cutaways, shaky cameras and still imagery. Now if you take One Punch Man season 1 into consideration, then it is a BIG downgrade in quality. There are times though that the animation looks good, especially near the end of the season. But it was so few and far between overall that it just gets annoying. The character designs also look off with a lack of polish to them. This is especially true when it came to anyone who was wearing or is made of metal or is holding anything metal as it has this off putting look as the animators looked like they tried to go for a black sheen look that just looks horrible to look at. Seriously, I feel bad for Genos looking like that.

But one other significant thing that is lacking due to the poor animation is the lack of body humour. It’s there, don’t get me wrong, but it's just not as funny. The only scene that was arguably funny was the Saitama fight scene in episode 7. But other than that, it was lacking. Now for comparisons sake, remember in Season 1 when Saitama broke every record and machine in the hero association physical exam, or when Sonic’s testicles slightly landed on Saitama’s fist and there was a ripple effect, or even when Saitama tried to kill a fly but couldn’t. The animation helped add to the humour by putting more effort than there should have been to make the scene more funnier by exaggerating it. Season 2 is lacking this and that means it is not as funny because the animation is such a huge glare and the lack of detail makes it so that the humour of this show is lacking.

On a side note, they also ruined Saitama’s punch. THE PUNCH. The single punch that is the crux of this show and they ruined it by constantly cutting away from Saitama landing the punch. You can’t see me right now but I am doing a sarcastic, slow clap towards J.C staff as I finish writing this.


Sound: 5.5/10

The sound effects really do sound lacking as the majority of them sound like a low pitch bass drop used to highlight the scope of some of our character’s strength. There were some cases where the sound effects sounded a bit more unique but overall, it really was hit or miss (mostly miss). The soundtrack though is still there from season 1 and is still kicking ass with electrical guitars that makes you want to punch something in the face (Note: Don’t do this, you WILL get into trouble) and make you pump up for the action.

The same can be said for the opening as well. While not better than season 1’s opening due to the weaker animation quality. The song "Seijaku no Apostle” is once again sung by JAM project is still something I can comfortably rock out to with great use of the instruments and lyrics to get you hyped for the episode. But going back to the visuals, it goes for a bit of a different style as it is highlights the characters of the show, going for a roster showcase rather than Saitama punching everything he sees. It starts to get you acquainted with the new characters you will see in this new season. While the animation is still sub par, the way the visuals are structured and paced well that they were enjoyable. So the opening overall was good, but not great.

The ending is a pretty standard affair as it is used a calming down sequence to collect your thoughts about the episode. The song “Chizu ga Nakutemo Modoru kara”by Makoto Furukawa was good though so I will give it that, but the visuals didn’t really wow me.


Conclusion

Saying One Punch Man season 2 was disappointing would be a rather uncontroversial statement at this point considering how the rest of the anime community is taking this new season of One Punch Man. Going from one of the best cases of spectacular action scenes to some of the laziest and most uninspired I've ever seen is a damming statement. But the poor animation quality had a ripple effect on the show’s humour and on the show’s sense of escalation. The first season has core elements that made the whole experience enjoyable as a whole. But take one of those core elements out (the animation in this case), then it will have an affect on the other core elements as well. This has essentially happened with season two.

Is this sequel a total dumpster fire though? Naaaah. The show’s story still has aspects that are good and the characters are still enjoyable along with the new ones introduced. The soundtrack still kicks ass and the opening is good. But with other aspects of the story are lacking, the humour isn’t as funny, and the animation is a lot worse. This leaves One Punch Man season two a mixed bag that you might enjoy, depending on what aspects of One Punch Man you enjoyed the most or something you will most likely, downright hate. For me personally, I don’t hate One Punch Man Season two, I just feel disappointed by it as an anime overall.


My Personal enjoyment: 6/10


Overall score: 5.8/10 Recommendation: Consider it

Season 2 of One-Punch Man is giving viewers exactly what they want from every other shonen fighting anime. Where Season 1 brimmed with ingenuity and passion, Season 2 plods along with standard and tired tropes one expects to find in other series.

This is a sterling example of a brilliant premise milked poorly by inexperienced or dispassionate production. But... it's exactly what a lot of other, very popular series do. Excessive, time-wasting dialogue. Extended filler scenes. A dragging story.

I don't focus on the fight scenes in this review because I get that the level of animation from S1 demanded pure passion ... or huge funding, and that's not necessarily the fault of the animating studio.

Should've and could've been cut to 6 episodes. Everything would have improved markedly if most of the fat got trimmed. There's at least one high-quality moment each episode that redeems the viewer their time watching. But that's a lot of coal to scrounge through for a single, small diamond.

The first season of One punchman I does not appreciated it at the time as it should, really the series wins the name as a satire of the super hero series, but above all of "nekketsu" (specific name, but you know him by "action shounen") where the battles are unnecessarily extended with all kinds of transformations, power-up and speeches so that in the end always finalized with a Punch from the protagonist, this is the point of OPM, him being able to eliminate all that process tired and boring, is direct with frenetic action while enjoying a pleasant comedy and funny with Saitama mocking the ... pride of monsters and heroes alike by defeating them in a single attack because in any case he is always the protagonist who always solves everything, demonstrating their point that nekketsu are always same rancid and repetitive. All this so that in the second season the series ends up becoming the same as try to satirize and this is not only the fault of JC staff, the author denotes that he got bored of his initial premise and decided to tell a more standard story with an arc developing events, focus on secondary characters and their more serious fights, we hardly saw Saitama and his comedy, But the real problem is not the fact that the anime is different but it is now within the same tier as the rest of the nekketsu and is judged as such, OPM just as these lack the subtlety to deal with their issues but rather they They are thrown into your face screaming at how much the characters love their friends, the problem of Garou and The Hero Association it would have been much better to show it with clues to guess where their conflict comes from, but as if it were a shounen Jump series has the same thought about the readers/viewers need to direct explanation to understand the stories and topics of the arcs there are better examples of shounen where they have a better story with subtle explanations about their issues, in this point OPM has nothing to contribute.
The worst thing is that even the arc not ended so the end lacks all impact is not even a real conclusion.

I'm just going to keep this fairly brief because I don't have that much to say about One-Punch Man in general, let alone it's second season.

Is the art design as bad as people say it is? Hell no. I've seen anime with much, much worse art work than this so people complaining about this are either butt hurt fans who don't like the company that took over for season 2, or those who don't actually know what bad art work in anime looks like so assume some shading or character designs looking flat is automatic 0. The animations aren't the best I've seen but they ... are hardly the worst. And the first season wasn't all that incredible in my opinion to begin with so I don't really see the problem.

One-Punch Man is a fine anime. It's entertaining more than anything with some very unique ideas. It's not the best thing in the world, but it's also not the worst.

6/10

When One Punch Man was first released, I was enthralled by the dynamic camera angles, the beautifully animated exaggerated combat, and the character of Saitama. But this isn't the first season. Unfortunately.

There are two things that set One Punch Man apart from most other shows:
1. The purposefully exaggerated fights.
2. The overpowered character that struggles.

Comparing the two seasons, one can clearly see the difference in the animation of combat. Compared to the first season, with its dynamic camera, intense lines, and fluid movement, the second season is abysmally mundane and common. Most fighting scenes are composed of static shots where the combatants choppily exchange blows (because ... they're so fast and "cool") which are the worst possible medium to display the uniqueness One Punch Man was revered for. Saitama screentime is scarce, and I can barely recall the last time I saw one of his punches at its full glory, usually just the aftermath (the enemy's corpse). I find it both hilarious and depressing that what is in the title of the show is so sparingly used.

Saitama is grossly overpowered, and in an age of the Isekai (2012-2019), that's something that very few people are surprised to see. Sure, Saitama may be the epidemy of strength, but his character is redeemed by the internal struggle of the boredom that comes with being the strongest. It may seem trivial, but boredom is something all of us know, and all of us try to avoid. Someone sitting in a room with a device that can shock them is likely to willingly shock themselves several times, as opposed to sitting quietly, just to relieve themselves of that boredom; that's how painful it is. Boredom is something Saitama is very acquainted with. One Punch Man is supposed to be the growth of Saitama (ironically), which should learn that "Strength shouldn't be the main goal; that a hero derives their meaning from protecting others, and not themselves"; the answer to his meaninglessness that Saitama should grow to learn by himself and not BE GIVEN TO IN A MONOLOGUE BY ANOTHER CHARACTER (which totally doesn't happen). At this point, I lost hope.

Just rewatch the first season.
That's what I'm going to do.

I enjoy One Punch Man. Over the past two seasons I have learned to love Saitama and many of the other heroes in the show. That being said their is a noticeable downgrade in quality when moving from season one to season two.

I enjoy the hero hunter as a character and anything Saitama is involved in but when neither of them was the focal point I found myself becoming quite bored. The story isn't extraordinary and I am not really drawn into the monster association arc. The tournament arc is also surprisingly boring and I was disappointed in the lack of ... animation and stakes.

Another disappointing thing about this season is the lack of both character and world building. I haven't learned anything new about the characters and the lot stagnates them.

I enjoyed it inasmuch as it is One Punch Man, but other then that it was just meh.