Tuesday, March 5, 2019

"One-Punch Man Vol. 14," by ONE

One-Punch Man, Vol. 14, 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."

In this particular volume of One-Punch Man, the monster invasion comes to the Super Fight tournament; martial arts master Goketsu seeks to recruit strong martial artists to the monster-side by transforming them with monster cells.

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 (including Snek, who gets a bit of a redemption in this volume).
  • Goketsu's sadistic nature matched with his martial arts skill makes him a very interesting villain to watch
  • Mumen Rider is still a complete champ.  What a BAMF!
Cons:
  • A few on-going cons: Puri-Puri Prisoner (the whole character, though he did not appear in this volume), 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.
  • I knew it was coming, but I felt the resolution of Goketsu's story was anti-climatic. 
  • (Nit-Pick) Suiryu's faces towards the tail end of this volume were expressive to the point of being melodramatic
  • (Nit-pick) Women seem to have more or less disappeared from the story once again.
Conclusion:
The tournament arc may be concluded, but now bigger and badder foes threaten our heroes.  The plot has only thickened since the story's inception, and I'm excited to see where it goes.

Final Score:
8/10

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