Viewer Log: One-Punch Man ep 11

Continuing immediately after the previous episode, Saitama is still causing huge amounts of damage to the Warship. The captain of the Warship, Lord Boros, goes to discuss this “intruder” on his ship with his communications officer. Said officer, Space-Squid (not his real name but easier to spell) informs his boss that in the… oh, four minutes that Saitama has been aboard he’s damaged nearly a quarter of the ship and killed about as much of the crew. So yeah, give him twelve more minutes and this fight should be all wrapped up. We’re given a glimpse of Saitama’s surviving foes watching them on the news. Hammerhead is watching with his folks, Genus and Armored Gorilla are cooking some squid, and Sonic is oiling his blade. Glad to see they’re all okay, isn’t it?

The first villain to take a semi-serious punch.
This should be good.

The various heroes do their best to kill Space-Clayface. Puri-Puri Prisoner, Bang, and newcomers Atomic Samurai and Metal Bat keep smashing him despite his constant recovery. Metal Bat uncovers the secret to Space-Clayface’s regeneration, silver marbles at the core of his various heads. Break those, and the head dies. Easy-peasy. Back onboard the ship, Saitama is hopelessly lost. The man has no sense of direction. Space-Squid contacts Saitama over the PA system and demands that Saitama vacate the premises. Saitama reveals his status of being lost, and Space-Squid offers to help him leave. At a fork, he tells Saitama to go right. Realizing that that means the aliens don’t want him going left, he goes that way. He breaks into the control room, and confronts Space-Squid. Space-Squid shows off some impressive telekinetic powers, but all he really ends up doing is killing the rest of the crew. Lesson here? Messing with gravity is a bad idea. Saitama kills him with a strongly thrown pebble, and goes after Lord Boros.

Child Emperor, boy genius, uses some crazy looking tech to determine that the aliens are preparing another volley. Somehow, I’d have thought that would be pretty damn obvious. They have an Alien WMD, a half dozen threats to their invasion, and their only vulnerable asset is a being that is capable of rapid regeneration. I’m no world conquering alien, but that is a no brainer. Upon learning the obvious, the Hero Association calls back their Search and Rescue teams. They obviously don’t want to endanger their normal assets, but thankfully Mumen Rider and some other C and B class heroes show up to pick up the slack. The S-Class heroes on the ground are able to reduce Space-Clayface to just two heads, and Tornado shows off her telekinetic might by stopping the latest volley and fling it back at the Warship. The heroes reduce Space-Clayface to one head, before he snaps and goes on a berserk rampage. He hits and seemingly kills Bang. Rather than being broken, the heroes rally to try and take out Space-Clayface’s final head.

This may sting a little. And I can bet Saitama couldn't be more
excited.

Saitama meets up with Boros. To quote Robin, Saitama seems pretty “whelmed” by the situation. Boros doesn’t seem to notice that Saitama doesn’t give two (expletive deleted) about why he’s attacking earth. He explains his background, Boros is essentially an alien version of Saitama. Super-powerful being that grew so strong that no one could stand against him. As such, he grew bored with conquest, and sought out different ways to alleviate his boredom. His chance at excitement again came in the form of an alien Seer, who told him to search the cosmos for his ultimate challenge. Saitama, who’s already bored, punches Boros through a few pillars. Boros reveals he was wearing power surpassing armor, goes Super Saiyan (feels like it’s been a while since someone has done that), and rushes Saitama. The episode ends as the fight begins. You (expletive deleted) teases! Still, not a terrible way to end an episode. But it’s still frustrating.

So we now have two episodes of build-up. Which, for a season, and at the time possibly series, finale that’s to be expect. Boros needs to be a bigger threat than any previous villain, or else it’s not really upping the ante from the Deepsea King. And, so far, he seems to be meeting expectations. It’s also interesting to know that his background mirrors Saitama’s, just in space. I also love that Saitama’s kept short attention span. Remember, when giving your background to Saitama, keep it to twenty words or less. While it’s kind of hard to build tension with Saitama, a hazard of any Superman style character, this web comic/manga/anime does do a good top at showing the consequences of Saitama failing/being late. The guys he keeps running into, Deepsea King, Boros, Carnage Kabuto and the rest do a lot of collateral damage regardless of how long they’re on screen. And so do his minions. Bang and the the other heroes are having a heck of a time against Space Clayface, and if Saitama can't finish things quick, more heroes could be pushing up daisies. Next time, the epic conclusion.  

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Viewer Log: One-Punch Man ep 10

So this time around a mega-sized dinosaur awakens and breaks out of a block of ice. The supersized monster is King of the Terror Lizard Clan, and claims that the deaths of the kings of the Deep Sea and the Subterranean have given him the opportunity to take over. Some military guys fire off some rounds, and then hit him with the big gun, Tornado. She’s a little green haired woman with CRAZY psychic powers, in case the name doesn’t ring a bell. Tornado is almost immediately called back in by her superiors at the Hero Association. This, of course, irritates her. And her ignoring him irritates the Terror Lizard King. He tries to crush her, and rather stupidly remarks that only a meteor had any chance of killing him. Unfortunately for him, Tornado is able to pull a meteor from space, turning him into burnt street pizza.

Find myself wondering how he'd wear a hat.
Space-Clayface, real name: Melzalgald.

We cut back to Saitama and Genos getting a martial arts lesson from Bang. Teaching a cyborg and the equivalent of Superman martial arts… kind of like trying to teach Matthew McConaughey pick-up artist techniques. Would he ever really need them? We get some background on Bang, that until recently his dojo was really popular, but then his top student went nuts and beat the snot out of the majority of his students. Tough break, dude. A Hero Association official shows up and tells Bang and Genos that all the S-Class heroes are being called in because of a major emergency. Bang and Genos also insist that Saitama come along as well. They meet a bunch of heroes, including the Atomic Samurai and Tornado, both of whom are unimpressed by Saitama. We’re shown 15 of the 17 S-Class Heroes. Couple of bruisers, a few cyborgs, a morbidly obese…thing, a child genius, and a guy in a dog costume. I deal with a weird subject matter. The only ones not there are Metal Knight, who is anti-social, and #1 S-Ranked Hero, Blast.

A few Officials arrive, led by a man named Sitch, who explain the situation. Apparently, a short time ago a powerful psychic named Shibabawa predicted a major catastrophe mere moments before her death. Her predictions, while sporadic, have always been 100% accurate. As she chocked to death on a cough drop, yes you read that right, she wrote down “The Earth’s in trouble.” Apparently she’s never been so vague, hence why Sitch and the others are worried. They have a six-month window for when this disaster could occur. Saitama points that ‘today’ falls in that six-month period, right as the Hero Association Headquarters is bombed. We see some bird people, led by the Sky King, just before they’re slaughtered by an alien version of Clayface and a giant warship. The alien has an actual name, but it’s really hard to write or pronounce, so I’m just going to call him Space-Clayface.

They should have brought a bigger ship.

The Warship obliterates 99% of A-City, leaving only the Hero Association Building standing. They explain Metal Knight had designed the building, hence its sturdiness. Why didn’t he share that with the rest of the town? Because he’s a jerk, duh. Space-Clayface starts attacking survivors, but he’s temporarily stopped by a weird knight. He’s a student of Atomic Samurai. While the other heroes are still reacting to the warship and devastation, Genos notices that Saitama has literally leapt through the ceiling to get at the Warship. He blocks, dodges, and even flings back several projectiles back at the Warship before breaking into it. Beneath the ship, Space-Clayface blows Mr. Knight’s left arm clean off. He’s have been killed, if Atomic Samurai hadn’t stepped in to save his student. He slices Space-Clayface into powder, but the alien quickly regenerates. Samurai slices him up again. And again. Space-Clayface just keeps regenerating. The Hero Association is preparing evacuation/rescue procedures, and unofficially declaring this a Kami Situation. For those who don’t remember, Kami=possible human extinction. So…yeah, very bad. Meanwhile, Saitama has started smashing through the Warship and killing the crew. We see a creepy image of some sort of Cycloptic monster.

This episode is focused on build up. We get to see most of the seventeen best heroes of their world. While some are clearly based off of pre-existing heroes, Metal Knight = Anti-Social Iron Man, Bang = Old Man Iron Fist, and Child Emperor = any pre-teen super genius, but some are pretty unique, like Watchdog Man, that guy in the dog costume, and Pig God, the morbidly obese guy from earlier. We also get to see Puri-Puri Prisoner again. Still pretty creepy, but entertaining. And, while I say Space-Clayface resembles the DC’s supervillain, I just mean his powers. Appearance-wise he’s much more visually distinct, with multiple heads and apparently more than one personality. With his regenerative powers, it’s a shame that Saitama didn’t start from the bottom. He might have gotten a few more punches in against him. So yeah, building to an epic conclusion. Next time, episode 11. Two to go. 

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Viewer Log: One-Punch Man ep 9

And the fight begins! Genos hits the ground running, smashing Deepsea King’s face repeatedly with metal fists and energy weapons. Deepsea King survives and rips off one of Genos’ arms. Despite this, Genos plans to keep fighting, hoping to finish this guy off before Saitama arrives. Or at the very least give the civilians a chance to make a run for it. The Higher-ups of the Hero Association are starting to freak out a little. Despite the obvious destruction Deepsea King has and will continue inflict, they seem…cautious about bringing high ranking heroes into the fight. They try to call up Mumen Rider, but get Saitama instead. He’s got the free hands to answer the phone, since he’s riding on the spokes of Mumen’s bike. Despite their reservations, they agree to let Saitama proceed.

Reminds me of my Uncle's speedo, Mona.
Which, if you know my family, is less insane then it sounds.

Genos is still holding his own despite being partially dismembered. But then Deepsea King decides to fight dirty. He opens his mouth and spews acid at a little girl. God, the Deepsea King is the oddest combination of fishes/sea-life, isn’t he? Genos leaps into the way, and his body is pretty much melted into slag. An interesting side effect of this, we finally get to see how much “human” is left of Genos. From the look of things, he’s just got his original spine and presumably his brain. Other than that, all metal. So about as much a cyborg as DC’s Cyborg, really. Just when Deepsea King is about to finish Genos off, Mumen and Saitama arrive. Mumen flings his bike at Deepsea King, which only seems to mildly annoy him. Not all that shocking given the last episode. Mumen continues to fight, despite, you know, being so obviously outclassed it’s scary. He gives a pretty moving speech about fighting for others, and how he realizes that he’s pretty much a joke, but continues fighting because he wants to be a real hero. He inspires the crowd, who start cheering for him. Deepsea King isn’t so impressed, and shatters Mumen’s arm. Saitama then steps in.

Deepsea King is unimpressed by the follicly challenged hero, and rushes him. He punches Saitama so hard that the shockwave causes the rain to stop for a few seconds. Saitama doesn’t seem to notice. He winds up, and hits Deepsea King so hard that the rain clears, and most of Deepsea Kings internal organs get blown out.

He's after your crunchy, delicious bones.

The following day, Saitama and Genos get mail. Via drone. Apparently the fear of the ‘mysterious monster’ of City Z’s Ghost Town has gotten so bad no one wants to set foot in it. Again, I say, the Hero Association is run by a bunch of idiots. Genos gets a bunch of fan mail. Saitama gets death threats. Flashing back to the fight. After Saitama won, a Delusional Idiotic Conniption-having Kid in the crowd, see what I did there, starts spouting a bunch of BS. Basically, he thinks that because Saitama won so easily, then obviously the horrific monster that nearly killed several heroes and all of the civilians wasn’t all that powerful. Yep, it can’t be because Saitama is incredibly strong, everyone else must just suck. Then Saitama does something incredibly noble. He gives everyone else the credit. He loudly announces how lucky he was he arrived late and that the other heroes softened Deepsea King up for him. Being a bunch o’ dummies, the crowd bites and start praising the other heroes and decrying Saitama as a fraud. Ingrates. Saitama does get one mysterious “Thank You” note. So not everyone is awful.

Given his heroic action, he’s promoted to #1 of Rank C, and then accepts the offer to be promoted to Rank B. Number 1 in a class can be promoted to the next class, if they so choose. Mumen had always refused, because he realizes that a dude on a ten speed bike really doesn’t have a shot at the big leagues. For a dude that dresses in light armor, rides a bike and fights crime, Mumen’s goals are surprisingly realistic. There are some doubters among the execs, but at least Saitama is getting some recognition. After the promotion, he meets up with Mumen. They share some udon to celebrate. And Mumen reveals he sent the thank you note. All’s well that ends well. Can’t wait to see how it hits the fan again.

I’m happy to say that even after Nine episodes, One-Punch Man hasn’t had a truly bad episode. This episode is particularly well done because it showed us a side of Saitama that we haven’t seen yet. We’ve seen him be impatient, confident, vain, short-tempered, anxious, and slightly petty. It’s hard when your student is so much higher ranked then you are. Upon defeating the Deepsea King, he was given the chance to finally take the recognition and glory that has been eluding him since he became a hero. And he doesn’t take it. After seeing guys like Mumen, Genos, Stinger, and all the other heroes that got their butts kicked trying to stop Deepsea King, he realizes that making sure folks have heroes they can believe in is more important than him getting his due. It’s a pretty important moment for any hero. It’s kind of like any time Superman stops to thank Cops or firefighters, or when Handcock in Handcock starts telling police “Good Job.” It’s always good when the most powerful folks give credit where credit is due. And in the end, he gets a nice little reward with a peer. Always nice. Next time One-Punch Man Episode Ten. 

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Viewer Log: One-Punch Man ep 8

So this time around, the episode opens to a beast that suspiciously resembles dead Cthulhu dreaming in his house of R’lyeh. Read some H. P. Lovecraft if you don’t get the reference. Rather than being a Great Old One, this octopus headed monster is one of the “Clan of Sea Folk.” Like the Mole-Men of the first episode, he’s come to destroy the human race. Unlike the Mole-Men, he looks like he might actually be able to cause a fair amount of damage. The hero Mumen Rider races in to save the day, but arrives too late. Apparently Octopus-head chose to attack along Saitama’s grocery route. Never a good idea. Mumen starts looking into Saitama on message boards. Public opinion of the superpowered chrome dome is mixed at best. Side note, according to the internet, Mumen Rider translates to License-less Rider. Huh, it’s weird that a word like Mumen is the better of the two names.

Well, that's some more nightmare fuel.
Also, a tongue that drools... Tongue-ception?

An army of the Seafolk start attacking, but are thwarted by a hero named Stinger. He uses a supersized spear to turn a good chunk of the Seafolk into sushi, but one guy vs. an army is never a great strategy. Saitama, who is now Class C’s rank 2 hero, Genos, and Mumen start riding out to give Stinger a hand. Using techniques like Gigantic Drill Stinger Quadruple Thrust, try saying that three times fast, Stinger is able to destroy all but one of the Seafolk. Unfortunately, that one is the Deepsea King, the most powerful of the Seafolk, and a sadistic sociopath. The Deepsea King pummels Stinger, and leaves him for dead. Genos rushes ahead as the threat level is revealed to be Tiger. Mumen and Saitama are doing their best to get there as well. A hero named Lightning Max was observing from a far, but is easily dispatched by Deepsea King. He’s saved by Puri-Puri Prisoner, an S-Class hero that is soooooooooo obviously a gay stereotype. His bizarre backstory is that he allowed himself to be imprisoned because he has a habit of stalking attractive young men. Weird. He’s followed by Sonic, who used Puri-Puri’s escape to also fly the coop. Puri-Puri lands a few good hits, goes through a Sailor Moon style transformation, and seems to at least force Deepsea King back. But then Deepsea King strikes back, knocking the big lug out. Sonic steps in to protect Puri-Puri, and holds his own for a while. Then it starts raining. Deepsea King gets pumped up and starts getting close to smashing Sonic. Hey, he’s not called Speed of Sound Sonic for nothing. Deepsea King explains that he was dehydrated from being away from the water for so long, and that the rain helped him recover. Sonic is forced to flee, planning to get Puri-Puri away and get his equipment.

Why does he have hearts for nipples?
Or nipples at all? That's a mammal thing.

While on the road, Mumen and Saitama meet on the street, and agree to the ultimate C-Class team up. Saitama rides on Mumen’s bike while he peddles. Well, they are still C-Class, even if they are the number 1 and 2. Deepsea King and a few of his surviving minions attack a stadium where most of the populace is hiding. A low ranking C Class hero attempts to surrender to the Deepsea King, which doesn’t do much sate the King’s bloodlust. Several other C and B-Class heroes arrive, and they all attack the king.  He blows through the heroes, but their sacrifice buys enough time for Genos to arrive.

This episode was all about building tension. After the lesser Seafolk are dispatched, and their king arrives, it’s pretty much one beat down after another. Compared to previous villains, the Deepsea King is really the first legitimate threat to the world. Sure, the asteroid was a big deal, but that thing didn’t mow down heroes. And once he arrives at the shelter, it actually seems like he might start murdering civilians before the other heroes arrive. The C-Class heroes, while rather useless, do their job to show the difference between the average joe heroes and monsters like the Deepsea King, Genos has his work cut out for him. The design of the Seafolk and the Deepsea King are pretty good. Deepsea King is particularly creepy, with his almost human face and almost human body. Pretty good use of the Uncanny concept. The familiar, but alien. Other than that, there’s really not much else to say. But that’s the point of the episode, to build up what will happen next time. Next time, episode 9, the show down between machine and king of the Sea.

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