One-Punch Man Season 3 Will Make or Break the Superhero Series
One-Punch Man Season 3 really has to be a hit or it's over for the anime
One-Punch Man is now in the works on Season 3 of the anime, and it's really going to be the breaking point for the franchise's future. One-Punch Man has had one of the most curious TV anime adaptation development paths seen in recent memory. Not only did it begin with an original webcomic from series creator ONE, but it was then adapted into an official manga series with new art from illustrator Yusuke Murata. From there, it eventually got an official anime adaptation from Madhouse with a single season of episodes back in 2015. Then it went dormant for four years.
One-Punch Man's first season is still held in high regard as one of the best anime seasons of all time, and it's with good reason as the team behind the season really went all out in every single aspect of its presentation. From the action scenes, to the comedy, to everything in between, One-Punch Man looked incredible from start to finish. It was such a high peak that fans had been excited to see what could come in the future. Then Season 2 happened, and now the anime is in a much more precarious position as fans wait to see what's to come from the third.
Saitama and Garou in One-Punch Man Season 3 poster
- J.C. Staff / Shueisha)What Happened to One-Punch Man?
One-Punch Man Season 2 premiered in 2019, and fans were treated to a much different experience than they were expecting to see. The second season was handled by a whole new studio, with a whole new team behind it. J.C. Staff adapted the next major arc of One-Punch Man, and it was an uphill battle right from the beginning. Not only was following up the first season going to be a challenge for Madhouse as the team would have faced the impossible task of somehow surpassing themselves, but the following events kicked off the early stages for what is one of the longest single sagas of ONE's story overall.
One-Punch Man Season 2 then faced criticism from its very first promotional materials for how it looked compared to the first season. While the final product was thankfully much better well rounded with some final touches and tweaks before the series premiered, it was clear that the team behind the new season would likely not be reaching for the same kind of heights that the first season did. Making matters a bit tougher was the fact that the material in the second would also mean a lot less Saitama and action than fans got that first time around too.
One-Punch Man Season 2 kicked off its adaptation of the Human Monster Saga. Unlike the more episodic storytelling of the Hero Association Saga seen before that allowed fans to get better acquainted to Saitama and the other heroes, the Human Monster Saga introduces a new deuteragonist, Garou the Hero Hunter. This new saga follows Garou closely as he challenges heroes in an attempt to make himself stronger. Eventually then crossing over with the introduction of the Monster Association, expanding the roster to massive proportions.
This meant much less of a focus on Saitama, and while that's kind of the core of the series (as Saitama is bacially just a deus ex machina device), it still meant much less of your poster character overall. Then the Monster Association arc kicks in, and it starts a whole stretch of fights for Garou and the others as there will be far more monster foes to come. This is going to be a big aspect of the coming third season as well.
What Can One-Punch Man Season 3 Do to Fix It?
One-Punch Man Season 3 will be picking up right where everything left off, and it's smack dab in the middle of the Monster Association arc. Overall, the Human Monster Saga is 140 chapters long and the Monster Association fights account for 2/3 of it. The final episodes of Season 2 brought the events to Chapter 85, and that means we're likely going to get nothing but this saga for the coming season (and a fourth one if it gets that far). It's a constant string of fights, and that could end up being a much better watching experience for the third season. While it won't have a lot of Saitama, it's a lot of fights between the S-Class Heroes and the strongest monsters.
The main issue then, however, is the fact that J.C. Staff will once again be behind the upcoming third season of One-Punch Man. They'll be returning from Season 2, but the staff behind it has yet to be announced as of the time of this publication. One Punch Man Season 3 was officially confirmed to be in the works back in 2022, but the studio wasn't confirmed to be behind the series until earlier this year. The season has likely been in development for quite a long time, and thankfully the third season will see the team behind it learn from what went down in the second season.
If there is a better production schedule for the series behind the scenes, then One-Punch Man Season 3 could be the one fans have been waiting for. But at this point, it really is a make or break release for the future of the franchise. The response for the anime's first two seasons was so dramatically different between each of them that fan reaction is likely already going to be mixed before the new episodes even hit. It's not going to be fair by any means, but this could also work in the anime's favor. As long as it's better than the second season, One-Punch Man's new episodes are going to be a hit.
But if for some reason this third season just doesn't hit the mark, or worst case scenario maybe is even worse, then that's it. One-Punch Man just won't ever be seen the same way again.
