One-Punch Man

Episode 7

Uh oh! It looks like Saitama's chickens have come home to roost much quicker than anybody anticipated. The court of public opinion has judged him guilty of one too many punches, and this unwarranted rejection is already beginning to chip away at Saitama's heart.

In a wee twist away from the norm, this episode was light on the sakuga and heavy on the social commentary. It's still a handsome-looking entry in the series, but there are far more talking heads than flying fists, and the focus remains on Genos and Saitama's relationship over any outlandish baddies. Heck, the villain of the episode isn't even a person at all; it's a hunk of rock. There's a rogue meteor headed straight for Z City, so the Heroes' Association calls in all its S-Class members to try and deflect the giant space chunk before it decimates the populace in—oh, only 35 minutes.

Unfortunately, not many of the S-Class big shots bother to answer this cry for help. After all, this is only a Level Dragon Threat (city-wide decimation), not big enough to be a glory-winning God Threat (annihilation of humanity) but too big to be a sweat-free Tiger Threat ("significant" loss of human lives). Thanks to the Association's convenient categorization of collateral damage, Heroes can just decide how many lives are worth risking their own over, based on a quick glance at the incident's color and label. Even Saitama has to admit that this system seems handy! (If you're a hero, anyway. Maybe not so much if you're a citizen.) Saving a metropolis in the time it takes to deliver a pizza is too tall an order for most Heroes, so Genos finds himself blasting away at the meteor alongside only two of his peers. Bang, aka "Silver Fang," is an old veteran with a noble heart but an embittered outlook from too many years in the hero business. Bofoi, aka "Metal Knight," didn't come on this mission to make friends, so he stays out of harm's way by sending a remote robot to confront the meteor for him. Even flanked by fellow S-Class legends, Genos finds himself alone in his efforts to save Z City. Bang wants to help but has no powers suitable for the job, and Bofoi only wants to use the meteor to test his new weaponry, with salvation of the masses as a potential side-perk. (Once his new weapon fails to stop the flaming rock-o'-death, Bofoi just shrugs and leaves.)

Poor Genos really seems to be the only one who cares. When Bang tells him he's that he's too young to throw his heart and soul into a mission so recklessly, and he should just "muddle through" and find his own limits over time, the Blond Cyborg takes his advice in the complete opposite direction. The old man was probably trying to draw comparisons to established Heroes who know their own limits intimately like Metal Knight (even if that guy is a douchebag), but his words bring the limitless Saitama to Genos's mind instead. The way his master "muddles through" is by giving his all without thinking, and it's made him the strongest man in the world! (Physically, anyway. We'll get more into his emotional deficiencies in the second half of the episode.) So Genos jumps right from figuratively throwing his heart and soul into trying to stop the meteor to making that investment literal. He yanks out his own robotic core and channels all its energy into a final supercharged blast!

Sadly, it's still not enough to stop the meteor, which means it's time once again for One-Punch Man himself to save the day. Once the fiery planetoid has grown so large in the atmosphere that it's become impossible to ignore, Saitama races to the rescue and shatters it into non-lethal pieces. Sure, the meteor's shredded bits still take out a few (dozen) supermarkets and luxury cars, but that's a small price to pay for millions of human lives spared, right?

Well no, not if the more insecure C-Class Heroes have anything to say about it. Even though Saitama only took a third of the credit for it (because the Association's metric for ranking Heroes is bureaucratically blind as always), his involvement in the rescue of Z City shot him hundreds of ranks up the C-Class leaderboard. It's not long before Saitama's supposed peers (like last episode's Tank Top Tiger!) try to publicly shame him out of hero work by blaming the "caped baldy" for destroying so much of the city with his "help." Not even his boyfriend's best friend's efforts to clear his name on social media can make a dent in the hate train chugging its way full speed toward the world's strongest (and most unappreciated) man.

So while S-Class Heroes have grown to care so little about their privileged positions that they can't even deliver on their expected commitments, C-Class Heroes often care so much that they'll find any opportunity to tear each other apart for a few more inches up the ladder. When Bang sees Saitama, his reaction betrays a lot about the Association: "You're the strongest Hero I've ever seen. I'd hate to see you rotting away in this industry." If the show's metaphors of corporate hierarchy and class warfare weren't making their point with gentle shoulder-taps before, this episode delivers on its real-world parallels with a bazooka. It's not a serious affair by any means, since One-Punch Man's wry tone always keeps its satire firmly tongue-in-cheek. But jokes aside, the effect all this demoralization has on Saitama is no laughing matter, even when the episode makes light of his more childish reactions.

When Saitama tries to physically confront his accusers, he's disappointed by their spineless reactions to his strength and redirects his rage to the jeering crowd around him. He tried to make a difference, but it just became one more reminder that he's both unloved by the common man and completely peerless among his own kind. So he goes off on a tear about how he doesn't care what people think of him, he's just doing the hero thing for numero uno, and he always will. It's sad, because the audience knows full well how much Saitama's desire for approval has driven him into a corner of stagnation over time, and we also know it can only get worse before it gets better.

At the same time, I still see a bright light at the end of the tunnel for him. After Saitama has physically protected Genos time and time again, Genos has now started stepping up to protect his master emotionally. Saitama is clearly dead-set on venting at the gathering crowd for several minutes, but Genos gently stops him just a few lines into his callous rant. As they shuffle back to their tiny apartment, Genos does his best to express how inspiring Saitama is to him, even if the rest of the world doesn't see it yet. Hopefully, Saitama will recognize Genos's approval—the approval of a friend who understands him—as the spark he really needs to keep himself going. I think Saitama deserves to be happy, and I hope the show gives him just a little hint of that before its first cour ends.

I enjoyed this more sensitive and thoughtful entry of the series a lot. It proved that the story has a versatility and power that many comedies and action spectacles lack, which could continue to surprise me in the future. For now, I'm ready to get back to the heights of wackiness we saw in those earliest episodes though. It seems like a pound of fun with a pinch of heart will be the perfect formula for One-Punch Man going forward.

Rating: A-

One-Punch Man is currently streaming at Hulu, Daisuki.net, and Viz.com.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.