'One Punch Man' Illustrator Reveals New Artwork of Saitama

One Punch Man has made a name for itself in manga and anime for its striking art when compared to [...]

By Nick Valdez

One Punch Man has made a name for itself in manga and anime for its striking art when compared to the simplistic design of its main character, Saitama. The blend of humor and ingenuity has helped cement itself in many fans' best of lists.

This comes through especially well thanks to illustrator for the Weekly Shonen Jump release, Yusuke Murata, who just shared a great example of why Saitama is such a beloved main character.

His first shared sketch features a greatly detailed, and bloody, Garou juxtaposed with the simple and not as detailed Saitama. This is a great example of much of the series' humor, which often makes this ridiculous by having Saitama lackadaisically run roughshod over his enemies.

The second sketch features more of the same humor as now the simply sketched Saitama is put up against the far more detailed Genos and Garou. It's just a show of force that even Murata's sketches can capture the spirit of the series so well.

Yusuke Murata also regularly shares art that sets the Internet on fire like his sketches of famous Dragon Ball characters. Murata's art is so great, he has also contributed to Marvel projects, even going so far as to draw an official poster for Spider-Man: Homecoming to commemorate its Japanese boxset release. His latest project is a manga adaptation of Back to the Future, which picks up after the end of the series.

As for the next season of the anime series, fans are hopeful that the series will soon screen the first trailer for Season 2 (which has already been licensed by VIZ Media for a wide release). Not only will the new season be handled by J.C. Staff (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma) rather than Madhouse, Chikara Sakurai (Naruto Shippuden episode director) is taking over directing duties and Yoshikazu Iwanami will serve as sound director.

For those unfamiliar with One Punch Man, the series follows Saitama, a regular working Joe who one day puts a stop to a violent villain attack. After this fight Saitama is inspired to become a hero. Training his body hard everyday, he's eventually granted with extreme strength. Looking for a worthy opponent, Saitama joins the Hero Association in the hopes of fighting them. But every fight he gets into ends after a single punch! Forced to wander through life increasingly bored of his supreme power, Saitama has become hilariously disconnected with the world of action around him.

One Punch Man started life as a webcomic by series creator ONE in 2009. After going viral, surpassing seven million hits in June 2012, illustrator Yusuke Murata approached ONE about redrawing the series for a release in Shuiesha's Weekly Young Jump spin-off webcomics. Thirteen volumes of the series have been released as of this date.

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