One-Punch Man Sees Garou Reject Both Good and Evil

Garou ended his debut season of One-Punch Man being carted off by a giant bird after getting his butt handed to him by three S-Class heroes. Garou’s mentor Bang and his brother Bomb unleashed a torrent of martial arts blows on the one-time disciple while Genos delivered a flurry of “machine gun blows”. With inescapable defeat, and possibly death, staring him in the face, Garou decided to disavow both good and evil, vowing to take a new path.

Like many other classic villains in literature, Garou’s unique path came about thanks to his childhood. Being beaten by his classmates for finding a kinship with the “Crab Demon”, whenever the students played on the recess yard, Garou would be forced to receive a beating. Tired of the constant abuse, Garou asked for help from his teacher but received none due to the popularity of the students that were dishing out the beating.

Eventually, Garou became the martial arts student of Bang, one of the top S-Class Heroes, but still held his mission close to his heart. While not attempting to kill civilians or torment the innocent, Garou holds a red hot hatred for the Hero Association and vows to be a “Hero Killer”, growing stronger in order to eradicate them. While he is offered a role with the Monster Association, its clear that Garou couldn’t care less and is even perturbed when he is taken from the fight between Bang and Bomb that he was losing.

Garou is a unique character in that he is walking the path of a middle of the road “Anti-Hero”, whose ultimate objective would put the world at risk with the loss of the Hero Association. Whether or not he will join the Monster Association, or eat a Monster Cell to become one himself to gain a power up, is still up in the air, but we imagine that should a third season of One-Punch Man be approved, we’ll have our answer.

What do you think of Garou’s declaration that he will neither be on the path of good or evil? Do you think we’ll see a lot more of the “Hero Killer” should One-Punch Man return for a third season? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime!

One-Punch Man Season 2 is now streaming on Hulu, and on Crunchyroll outside of the United States. The season is directed by Chikara Sakurai (Naruto Shippuden episode director), for new production studio J.C. Staff. Viz Media describes One-Punch Man Season 2 as such, “Saitama is a hero who only became a hero for fun. After three years of “special training,” he’s become so strong that he’s practically invincible. In fact, he’s too strong—even his mightiest opponents are taken out with a single punch. Now, the great seer Madame Shibabawa’s prediction about the Earth being doomed seems to be coming true as the frequency of monster incidents escalates. Alongside Genos, his faithful disciple, Saitama begins his official hero duties as a member of the Hero Association, while Garou, a man utterly fascinated by monsters, makes his appearance.”