Thursday, February 28, 2019

"One-Punch Man Vol. 8," by ONE

One-Punch Man, Vol. 8, written by ONE and illustrated by Yusuke Murata, stars Saitama, the titular, "One-Punch Man."  After years of training, Saitama has become so powerful he can defeat virtually every enemy with a single strike.  There's just one problem: according to Saitama himself, "overwhelming strength ... is boring."

This particular volume of One-Punch Man introduces S-Class hero King in more detail, and includes bonus chapters that focus on S-Class Hero Bang trying to recruit Saitama to his dojo and Saitama finding a missing cat for the daughter of the director of the Hero Association.

Pros:
  • A few ongoing pros: the draftsmanship, Saitama (who's characterization has been more consistent over the last few volumes, i.e. with him showing less interest in public opinion), and all of the interesting characters (King included).
  •  Genos' relationship with Saitama is precious, especially when he (minor spoiler) buys all of the cellphone hangers based on Saitama.
Cons:
  • A few on-going cons: the lack of women in the narrative (S-Class hero Tornado disappeared from this volume), Puri-Puri Prisoner (the whole character, though he did not appear in this volume either), the mismatch between the right-to-left orientation of the visuals and the left-to-right orientation of the "sound effects," and details being lost in the binding process.
  • (nit-pick) There are so many interesting characters that show up in the story that it is a shame that they don't appear more often.  Then again, the manga is called, "One-Punch Man," not, "interesting side character manga."
Conclusion:
I am happy to report that this volume was still a pleasure to read, even after all the material from the anime has been covered.  It was also much more character-focused than the last few volumes (which, due to the Dark Matter invasion, were much more battle focused).  I'm still invested in the characters and excited to see where the story goes next.

Final Score:
8.5/10

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