Did 'One Punch Man's Illustrator Shade The Anime's New Studio?

At this point, it feels like audiences have waited forever for One Punch Man to make a comeback. Yes, the series's manga is as strong as ever, but it's been years since the anime has shared new episodes. Thankfully, it seems like season two is closing in on a release date, but fans think one person is feeling wary about the show's return.

After all, Yusuke Murata got netizens buzzing when he hedged his thoughts on One Punch Man and its new production team.

The whole ordeal can be linked back to a video Murata shared with fans recently. The illustrator, who oversees the One Punch Man manga, did a livestream where he drew and answered questions live. Translators were quick to turn around some of the stream's high points, and one Reddit summary revealed Murata's answer to a question about the new season of One Punch Man.

According to the report, one fan commented they had heard something concerning about the studio overseeing One Punch Man's second season. J.C. Staff has been tasked with producing the new episodes, but the fan said they've heard the studio "is not good at animating battle" scenes. Of course, those sequences occur frequently in One Punch Man, and the anime's first season has become famous for its detail-oriented fights. However, Murata did little reassure fans all is well.

"Hmm," the artist said. "Well, hopefully, they can keep it up."

So, it's not the worst response, but fans are not feeling too comforted by the lackluster response.

For those unaware, J.C. Staff confirmed it would be taking One Punch Man from Madhouse to produce season two. The switch revealed a new director named Chikara Sakurai would be tasked with overseeing the anime's comeback, and fans weren't shy about their outrage. Much of One Punch Man's popularity was credited to Madhouse, so the sudden production turnaround had fans thinking the worst. And, given Murata's recent comment, netizens are fearing the worst could come to pass.

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.

What do you make of the artist's comments about J.C. Staff? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics, k-pop, and anime!