One Punch Man Director Interview

Have you ever wondered what inspired One Punch Man Animation Director Shingo Natsume, to portray Saitama's story the way it has been? Well, in a recent interview the man behind the One Punch Man's animation spoke about what inspired him. Natsume took a great deal of his inspiration for One Punch Man from Space Dandy, a Japanese animation comedy, which first aired in 2014. Space Dany heavily influenced the colors and image design for Saitama's story.

"When I first took a look at Space Dandy overseas and found out how popular it was, I quickly knew what I needed to do to excite them (One Punch Man fans) even more"

"When we took Space Dandy overseas, I had the opportunity to watch it with the local audiences in real time"

"So I was able to see what parts of the scripts they would react to.," said Natsume.

Natsume knew that his work would be reached by many people from all corners of the globe and had to cater for all of those audiences. Natsume felt as if the worldwide anime audience wasn't really different to the Japanese anime audience, which helped with his work.

"I'm happy that the international response towards One Punch Man has been great."

"I actually did make it with the intention that it will be well received," continued Natsume.

As a result, One Punch Man has been more than just well received; Saitama has become one of anime fans favorite characters. Natsue realized that the anime audience enjoyed watching anime together. This, in turn, inspired Natsume to make One Punch Man an anime that would inspire fans to enjoy it together.

You can watch the full interview with Shingo Natsume in the video below:

Manga creator ONE began One-Punch Man as a webcomic, which quickly went viral, garnering over 10 million hits. In addition to One-Punch Man, ONE writes and draws the series Mob Psycho 100 and Makai no Ossan.