This series has a lot of interesting points that I just found myself wishing it explored better. It works well as a comedy to a point, but, once you hear the punchline enough it kinda just stops being that funny? The punchline is, Saitama beats everyone with one punch. No matter how strong or intimidating the enemy, they’ll all fall to Saitama’s punch. It’s pretty funny at first, but you can tell it was conceptualised as an online gag manga. It’s like, fun for a few pages, but then it gets old quick. So what do you do from there? You need something of substance to keep people coming back.
That’s when the story begins introducing lots of interesting concepts. Saitama is completely emotionally numb and devoid of empathy because nothing scares him. It’s so easy to solve everything with one punch that he cares more about what’s for dinner than the safety of the town. That’s interesting! But at least in what I’ve seen, it’s only been used for a couple of gags, and never explored deeper. Then we have the idea that Saitama finally becomes a registered hero, but he can’t get anywhere because people don’t believe in his power. That’s funny and interesting, and it culminates in the scenes where he decides to become a martyr and accept people’s hatred. Highlight of the series. But where do we go from there? Everyone hates Saitama, but Saitama will always save the day. The writing keeps running into roadblocks. The final arc of the anime saw Saitama fight against the strongest enemy in the universe, and of course, he’s able to defeat him with no trouble.
It bugs me that there’s no tension. We get scenes like the King of the Ocean (forget his name) slaughtering everyone, and it’s trying to make us feel the tension, but we all know the tension will be completely dispersed once Saitama arrives. The viewers, like Saitama, are unable to empathise with the characters and the world because of this. All we can use it as is something to laugh at, and even then, the same joke gets old after a while. It’s just, basing an entire story on this one unbreakable truth of “Saitama > X” doesn’t lend itself well to an ongoing series.
I haven’t read the manga yet, but I just don’t see where they can really go from here. If you want an interesting story in this world, you have to completely remove Saitama or take his power away or something. As things are now, the predictability of everything really feels, sad to me. Just makes me wanna read Index instead, which tackles similar ideas and themes in a much better way.
Also, dammit I can’t get behind the Munen Rider fandom. What’s the point of having guts if you’re just gonna get yourself killed in a pointless fight? It was pure luck that Saitama turned up at the right time. If you want to be a hero, but you lack power, at least make up for it with some brains. Know what fights to pick, and come in with a plan for victory. I’ve read heaps of awesome David vs. Goliath stories like this, but Munen rider is just, all talk. He’s wated potential! You can’t be a hero if you’re dead.
Sorry for giving such a negative rant to open this topic with, but it should generate some discussion at least!
