It all starts with the thoughts of an online manga writer named One. He writes and draws himself the adventures of several different heroes, including a bald-headed hero, who is at the base a very banal character, unemployed and who wants to become a hero for his own pleasure, at first …
Among all his ideas, One realizes that his character, Saitama, blew up the counters of visits to its online site, as early as 2009. Little kid, One Punch Man, from its original name Wanpanman, sounded across Japan nationally and alerted Yusuke Murata, the co-designer of the very famous Mangas Death Note and EyeShield 21.
He immediately contacts One, and offers to collaborate with him, the deal is that One continues to realize the scenario of the adventures of Saitama and Murata takes care of the realization of the drawings.
This is how the first adventures One Punch Man, as we know them today, were published on June 14, 2012 in Web Magazine Tonari No Young Jump.
The first drawings of One Punch Man performed by One, looked like the ones shown just below. Without Murata, One Punch Man might not have been such a tsunami. One has a genius pen, but not the stroke of the pencil that goes with it.
One Punch Man recipe for success
For those who have not passed season 1 available on Netflix, attention the following may contain spoilers. For the others: you can continue! Here are the reasons for the success of the adventures of the bald Cape Saitama.
I – One Punch Man, a manga close to social reality
As briefly presented above, Saitama, the main protagonist of One Punch Man, is the basis for a man of 27 quite ordinary, unemployed and looking for a job. He gets turned away from all the job interviews he goes through, lives in a small studio in a poor part of Japan, and struggles to make ends meet at the end of the month.
Saitama is looking for all the sales operations on sale, discount coupons … in order to be able to live, pay his expenses and fill his fridge at a lower cost. This character is close to a social reality in which there are a lot of people in Japan and around the world. Its story therefore touches millions of potential readers from the beginning of its story.
This is set in a fictional Japan, where the cities are broken down into letters of the alphabet, all of which are overseen by the Association of Heroes, an organization acting as government, which classifies the super heroes working for it.
When Saitama enters his ranks, he is placed in the lower ranks, despite being the most powerful individual in action. Worse still, he finds himself constantly subjected to a protocol, according to which the regulations must be respected at all costs, always more rigid for the heroes of lower ranks than for those of the upper classes, namely class B, class A and class S .
II – A hero against the tide and a puzzling humor
Physically, and in terms of his attitude, Saitama is not an inspiring hero like a Batman, alias Bruce Wayne, billionaire with tons of gadgets and a secret hideout, or a Superman, alias Clark Kent (or even Kal-El) to bodybuilding physique. He does not hide his hero character either, he can be in a hero costume or in striped pajamas, his egg-shaped head remains bare.
Much of the comedic aspect of One Punch Man comes from the fact that Saitama is basically a lazy bum. He spends his free time lying in his apartment in blue ray pajamas, drinking green tea and reading manga. From time to time, he cleans his nose in front of his TV set or plays video games with his buddy King (Class S hero despite him)
His attitude as bad as it is, it is moreover noted by the “Demon Cyborg” Genos, now his pupil, who wonders how a guy with so little training and so little style can be so powerful. However, Genos is still a fan and astonished.
Saitama confides: his power comes to him from a three-year non-stop training, during which every day he performs 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats and 10 km of running. After these three intensive years, he gains his current power, but in return, falls into deep boredom because no opponent can resist a single punch.
One of the consequences of this training is that he also loses his hair, which is completely irrational, but Saitama is convinced of that, which makes the character even more hilarious. After this three-year training, no more effort, Genos is witness to it since the latter moves in with him to learn the secrets of his master.
III – A recognition close to zero
It’s simple, every time Saitama defeats a monster he doesn’t get any recognition. All the credit for his victories goes each time an S-Class hero, considered one of the strongest men in the world by the people and the Heroes Association, it is King.
King of the Deep Shinkaio was a real pain to eliminate. Roulettes Rider and other class A heroes did not manage to scratch him, only Genos was able to oppose him but in vain, so that finally Saitama the terrace of a single mandate.
Instead of thanking the bald cap, the people held hostage by Shinkaio simply hissed at Saitama, claiming that the heroes who confronted him weakened the Deep King and that Saitama arrived after the battle to finish the job and reap the harvest. laurels.
Ditto for the elimination of the boss of season 1, Lord Boros: nobody knows but if Saitama does not destroy him and his alien ship, who could have come to the end of Blast?
The only characters who are aware of Saitama’s overkill are Bang, Fubuki, Genos, and King.
Once again in our modern societies, how many do the job and not reap the laurels, addressed to their colleagues or their manager? Murata and One may have once again wanted to bring the bald-headed Saitama closer to the average social class wage earner. *
IV – A Credible Comparison to the Greatest DC Comics Heroes, Marvel and DBZ
Whether it is facing Batman, Superman, from the DC Comics, Iron man alias Tony Stark the superhero leader of the Marvel, or even Son Goku from Dragon Ball Z, Super and others, Saitama did not blush.
Indeed, its power and the scenario of One Punch Man so resounding, the bald cap has managed to monopolize the fans of the most famous comics.
Let’s take a look at the few fan arts that have been produced that compare Saitama to the greatest ones without hesitation.
Here Saitama slashes Superman and Batman at the same time, while Iron Man tries to shoot him from behind. Not very heroic Mr. Stark!
In this second fan art, Saitama puts a nice correction Son Goku, the most emblematic character in DBZ, and Prince Vgta. Both Saiyajins must have used their transformations to SSJ 1, 2, 3, 4 SSJ God and SSJ Blue, but that didn’t change anything. Even a Gogeta merger would not have had a favorable outcome.
And in this third fan art, Saitama is about to reduce to dust the most barred hero of the Marvel saga, Deadpool alias Wade Wilson, the fans are sorry but you were warned.
V – One Punch Man full of references, Keep your eyes open!
One, the basic screenwriter, and his fellow artist Murata, did not go dead hand, at the level of the winks and references presented in the manga.
To begin with, One confides that Saitama was directly inspired by a children’s superhero, which he himself watched. This is Anpanman, a character with the ridiculous appearance that you can discover below (we recall that the original Japanese name of One Punch Man is Wanpanman):
The fans were of course quick to compare the two super heroes by giving Anpanman a makeover, which gives the comparison below:
Allusions to Superman, Tekken, Case Closed or even Kamen Rider are left throughout the anime episodes or cases of the manga One Punch Man. Again, all fans of these references were literally sucked into the cyclone.
VI – The Video Games One Punch Man does not defeat its competitors at once
Unlike Saitama, the video game One Punch Man, the effigy of the hero cape, will not overcome his opponents and critics, with a single punch.
Given the success of the One Punch Man tornado, the Spike Chunsoft studio in charge of the development of the video game A Hero Nobody Knows (in collaboration with Bandai Namco), thought that the success of the manga would have been enough to make the game a hit.
Unfortunately, the opposite effect has occurred. Fans and connoisseurs may have hoped for too much. They wanted an almost flawless game. When it came out the game really flopped, many specialists and testers qualified the gameplay as not fluid enough and without me, the loading times between fights too long, the scenario bland, the realization exceeded, a flat layout. , a repetitive story mode, empty battle arenas … but the spirit of the manga is there all the same.
It just shows that the development studio did not do what was necessary to honor Saitama and all the heroes, wanting to quickly ride the wave of success. One Punch Man, without having taken the time to push the realization of the game to satisfy the fans and conquer those who did not yet know.
VII – An exhibition at the level of the Hollywood cinema
Cyclone One Punch Man could have stopped there. But no. Given the growing success, not only is season 3 underway, but a movie made in the USA is said to be in talks. Social networks such as Twitter or Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat … are on fire.
The bald hero in a white cape and a yellow and red suit, could be played by the highest paid international actor in the world in 2019 and 2020: Dwayne The Rock Johnson, in person, named Vin Diesel ( main character of Fast and Furious) was also on the networks.
Be careful, however, that the hurricane One Punch Man does not run out of steam. Indeed, the most famous manga adapted in feature length were only flops, it is a reality. Dragon ball, Gunmm, Death Note or Full Metal Achemist, have taken a monumental drouille in terms of number of entries or views:
We better understand how and why One Punch Man has become such an iconic manga, which today continues to gather more and more fans around the world. Saitama keeps gobbling up everything in his path, seeing his fan base grow bigger day by day.
