One-Punch Man is now a few episodes into its run for Season 3, and fans are worried that it’s only going to get harder to watch from this point on. One-Punch Man is unfortunately stuck between a rock and a hard place. Although it originally began with ONE’s original webcomic comedy, the series has since been seen as a franchise with incredibly visual fidelity thanks to illustrator Yusuke Murata’s manga releases. But even more notably, the anime broke out into the scene a decade ago with one of the best first season runs of modern day history thanks to the creative staff at Madhouse.
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One-Punch Man has been releasing new seasons since that debut ten years ago, but the franchise has also been fighting an unforeseen uphill battle. Taken up by a new team at J.C. Staff, fans have been almost unfairly comparing the follow up seasons to what was seen in the first. But with the newest episode of the third season, it’s becoming increasingly clear that One-Punch Man’s anime is going to be a lot tougher to watch from this point on. And that’s not the fault of the anime staff either.
What’s Going on With One-Punch Man Season 3?
One-Punch Man’s first season debuted under a kind of lightning in a bottle circumstances to push it to the heights it’s seen now. The staff at Madhouse were all very eager to work on the anime, and thus pushed beyond their limits to showcase it all in an incredible way. But all the while, the story of that debut season was perfect for it as it was more of a monster of the week gag story. Early on, One-Punch Man heavily leaned on the joke that Saitama would settle all of its fights with a single punch and showcased a lot of different monsters getting struck down.
This was perfect for a debut as fans got to see some fun action each week with either Saitama or the other heroes involved, but that changed with the future of the series. A story started to kick in full with Season 2 as the Monster Association made its debut, and it meant that there were a few episodes that slowed down to a very sluggish pace before any of that action fans originally came to the series for even made a return. Unfortunately, that’s already been settled with the third season.
What Does This Mean for One-Punch Man’s Future?
One-Punch Man Season 3 is now three episodes into its run, and unfortunately has been moving at a snail’s pace with it thus far. It has been continuing through the Monster Association arc, which is the longest arc from the manga to date, and has been quite a lot of talking amongst characters as they prepare and plan for what’s next. While there will eventually be a huge collision between the strongest heroes and monsters, it’s also a very long string of fights.
It’s not the fault of the anime staff because that’s the point we’re in with the story. One-Punch Man begins to take itself very seriously around this point, and it’s going to lose a lot of the fun of that first season as a result. But coupled with the fact that it’s upcoming action sequences might not look the best in the impossible comparison to what came before, and it’s going to be a very tough road ahead. Because while Season 3 has indeed made lots of improvements to what was seen in the second season, it’s in a pit that fans have dug around it that’s going to be tough to get out of no matter how well it does from here on out.
It’s looking pretty bleak, but what do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Courtesy of Comedy Central
