Behind the Scenes of One Punch Man + First Episode Review

This post contains spoilers . . .

Here's a quick summary if you have yet to read the manga (which you totally should, it's great). One Punch Man is about Saitama, a man who's become so overpowered such that he can beat all his enemies with one punch. The manga follow's his everyday life as well as his interactions with several of his other superhero peers. 

As director Shingo Natsume stated, the goal of the One Punch Man anime adaptation is to stay true to the original manga; and that is what it did. The humor and the art of the manga was splendidly captured, in my opinion, and the personality of Saitama was brought out very well. 

The rough fight animations with its stark black lines gives the anime a feel akin to that of American comics. The use of dramatic explosions and background effects also contributes to this feel. Although the only way I can think of to describe this animation style is with "rough", I don't mean to say that the animation is not fluid. It exaggerates the movements, allowing you to see the ripple that passes through the muscles as a villain is throwing a punch, something you don't typically see in shounen anime (unless maybe like Attack on Titan). It also exaggerates the effects of these attacks, highlighting again the "ripple" or the recoil that passes through the face of one being on the receiving end; a showy throwback of the head after being punched in the face and the spit that gets flung out of the mouth. It is these details that make a fight that only lasts one punch interesting.

I think that the juxtaposition of Saitama's cool and not-cool sides is portrayed very well and "keeps it real" so to speak. I liked how they incorporated the scene of Saitama battling the challenging the opponents in his dream (as I was watching this I was so terrified, I'd thought they'd made a egregious mistake, it sounded so serious. Which, of course, is exactly why the director did this, to announce to everyone not familiar with One Punch Man that this is not going to be your typical shounen.) followed immediately by his harsh but comical reality. This juxtaposition depicts the mangaka's (ONE's) commentary of typical Shounen Jump protagonists.As Shingo Natsume points out, the unique setting of One Punch Man allows this to happen. Only through the presence of the Hero Association and with it the opportunity for Heroism as an occupation is the character Saitama able to be so carefree and lax with his view on being a hero, which allows him to say, "I am a hero for fun". 

I thought this first episode was great. 10/10. I loved being able to listen to Saitama's philosophical commentary throughout the episode (I also love his voice actor's voice btw); I feel like it really enhanced his character and gave us good insight to his unique (in terms of the manga world), yet average (in terms of the real world) personality. I look forward to what the rest of the anime has to bring.

Reference: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-10-02/viz-streams-subtitled-behind-the-scenes-video-for-one-punch-man-anime/.93690