Tuesday, March 5, 2019

"One-Punch Man Vol. 15," by ONE

One-Punch Man, Vol. 15, 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 further fleshes out King and Saitama's relationship, while also focusing on Speed O' Sound Sonic, S-Class hero Zombie-Man, and the Monster Association's next move.

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 may not have powers, but he is still an excellent foil to Saitama; he has a lot of great advice to give.

Cons:

  • A few on-going cons: Puri-Puri Prisoner (the whole character), 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) It's kind of annoying how Saitama and Garou keep running into each other, but never actually fight.  I get that it would be anti-climatic (see: Saitama's "fight" with Goketsu in volume 14), but it almost feels like ONE has to contrive ways to keep Saitama AWAY from certain battles to keep the story rolling (and to allow the other heroes to struggle).
  • (Nit-pick) Women seem to have more or less disappeared from the story once again (with the exception of a few minor characters and fan-service of Blizzard and Tornado).

Conclusion:
It'll be interesting to see how One-Punch Man continues to develop as a series, as well as how it will differ from ONE's original webcomic (and the upcoming second season of the anime).  If the story continues to hit such fantastic highs, I'm sure it'll be an excellent ride.

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