I just downed myself a cool heaping-full of One Punch Man anime goodness by the manga artist known only as “ONE”, the true identity of which I am currently too lazy to use my godly ‘net powers to track down seeing as how I have Christmas presents to wrap.  Now, you may already be asking yourself what the heck a “One Punch Man” is and why he/she/it sounds like a Megaman villain.  The truth is that OPM (abbreviated from here on out because lazy, duh) has been around since 2009, which means its old enough and popular enough for me to have finally heard about it, though in my defense it had only been in manga form up until a few months ago when the anime finally came out.  If its in watchable form that doesn’t require me to strain my finger pressing the edge of my android screen to flip pages, it’s time for me to take a look-see.

OPM is a part time hero “for fun” (sic) that is so strong, he never takes damage from any attack and defeats every adversary with one punch.  At this point your brain is probably saying “But John, we already have a hero like that called Sup…” yeah, yeah, yeah – I know, but there’s a difference.  Where writers constantly struggle to find new challenges for the Boy Scout that can carry a storyline past that one page that holds the words “and then he punched it”, the writer of this manga started off with the premise that there is no challenge for OPM, and OPM is sad about it.  With that problem solved, ONE constructed a rich and character-driven universe around his undefeatable hero that presented challenges and opportunities for growth that a thrown fist and limitless strength can’t deal with.  This is what is called good story telling.

To make what is probably a very bad comparison, OPM is an excellent satirical version of All Star Superman.  You’re not rooting for OPM to win the next fight because you, the writer, and OPM know he will prevail even if you dropped a sun on him followed by black hole and a DC executive’s hubris.  What you are actually invested in is OPM’s consternation that he has no challenges in life anymore, or later when he becomes concerned that he’s defeated all these god-like monsters and yet no one knows who he is or even that he was the one that defeated them.  He even has to deal with the stress of accidentally acquiring a pet cyborg disciple.  Really, what are you supposed to do when some up and coming heroic mechaman is watching your every move, looking for moments from which to wring perfect drops of universal wisdom?  Talk about being on the spot!  Titan from the Pits of Tartarus?  One Punch.  Puppy-dog ocular sensors trained on you in perfect trust?  ARG!

A cursory scan of ‘net tells me that OPM was originally created to test out some manga drawing software or something, which you may find is true or not. What is true is that the manga calls out the absurdity of all the current hero literature, taking a thick red marker and drawing a circle around the conceit of the lone hero that is always just strong enough to lay low whatever opponent they just happen to be facing off with that day.  We don’t see heroes retreat in the face of overwhelming odds anymore, licking their wounds and thinking their way out of problems.  Heroes today “reach for their heretofore unknown strength” or “ascend to the next level” or “transform into a new form”, which some would say is just damn lazy mary-sue worship.  In this case the writer loudly proclaimed that OPM was Shiva The Destroyer Of All incarnate and got on with writing the best and most interesting kinds of stories – man versus man, and man versus himself.  And did it well.  At least in the anime.  The manga may be different. I am really lazy.

Do yourself a favor and check out the manga and the anime.  As of now there are only 12 episodes of Season one for the anime with no sign of there being a season two, but I can’t see it not happening with the viewer numbers that are being tossed around.  The manga is online in places if you look slightly harder that hitting the “I’m feeling lucky” button in Google search, but support the damned artist and buy the books.