Hello, welcome to the side blogs the blogs between the blogs. Guess what, today we’re taking another look at One-Punch Man. With the anime’s huge success not only in Japan but globally it only made sense for OVAs and specials to be made. I decided to talk about these separately because there’s a number of them and I felt the original review was already long and didn’t want to overwhelm you guys. With that said, let’s take a look at these OVAs and specials and see if they’re worth checking out.
Let’s start by looking at the OVA, Road to Hero. This OVA is a prequel to the original series where we see Saitama is still green in the superhero business and he still has hair (and I gotta say, that’s strange). After defeating a gecko man and ruining his track suit. Saitama goes to his tailor to get it fix. We see that the tailor is in debt (by some dirty scumbags who are the lowest of the low and feed off the misery of others. (Mira): Politicians? (Nitsuj): Loan sharks. (Mira): That was my second guess) and some thugs are coming to take his shop away. Since the tailor has done so much for Saitama he wants to help him out so he decides to go and handle the loan sharks himself. He finds out that their office is in the same apartment complex he lives in (well this explains the low rent) and knocks on every door hoping to find the loan shark. In his search he finds a strange underwear thief, a counterfeiting operation, and a few of the thugs working for the loan shark (quite the interesting tenants we have here). He finds the loan shark and tries to resolve it peacefully, but the loan shark transforms into a bondage red fishman (wow, One was really out of it this time huh?). He manages to beat the loan shark (or loan fish. (Yin-Yang): Boo~. (Nitsuj): I’ll see myself out) and turns them all over to his landlord in the hopes that this will cover his rent since they all have bounties on them. This plan of course backfires as the landlord was fully aware of their activities and was getting money on the side to stay quiet about it (oh you dun fucked up Saitama). He gets thrown out but he does save the tailor’s shop however he says he’s going to retire and shut the place down. Before leaving he does give Saitama his hero suit as a parting gift (in origin story to Saitama’s hero suit. Nice).
Next up is the specials. The first one takes place after the first half of the second episode (you know, the Mosquito lady and everything). In the special Genos is stalking Saitama in order to find the secret to Saitama’s power (have you tried asking him?). He stalks Saitama for a good five days where he thinks the secret to Saitama’s power is a French fry (I wish, then I be knocking out people left and right) so when Saitama isn’t looking he steals one (the biggest one to be exact. You’re an asshole Genos). Saitama realizes he’s got a stalker and after running into a criminal he defeated months ago he thinks he’s the stalker, so Saitama knocks him out (that’s for stealing my fry). Genos analyzes the fry to discover it’s just a regular fry, so he decides to stop with the games and just ask Saitama directly which leads to the events in the second half of episode 2 (good times).
In the second special Saitama and Genos are trying to get food at a sell going on at different food markets. They decide to split up where Genos loses the key to Saitama’s apartment after running into the Pacino family a C rank criminal family. Genos accidently runs into a member of the rival gang and the Pacino family wants to know what their connection is. So Genos recounts all of the events leading up to this moment. Starting with him and Saitama soaking in the public baths, to the sell, to taking out another criminal which caused him to miss the sell at one of the stores by two seconds (don’t you just hate it when stores do that?), and finally to him meeting the Pacino family. They think he’s lying and refuses to give the key, so Genos fights them and beats them. As a thank you he receives some high-quality meat that he and Saitama enjoy.
The third special focuses on Sonic and takes place after his story. After losing to Saitama he retreats into the mountains where he befriends a hunter named Frank. Sonic is still traumatized by his run in with Saitama (it’s amazing he can still walk giving what Saitama did to him. I don’t think he’s going to be having any children in the near future though) but refuses to acknowledge his fear and it interferes with his training. This all changes when he rescues a little piglet from a giant snake and he realizes he has to acknowledge and face his fears head on instead of just ignoring them. After his training he leaves the mountain and Frank gets attacked by a mountain bear only to get saved by Saitama who kills the bear in order to have bear meat (I’ve heard that stuff is smelly).
In the fourth special Bang wants Saitama and Genos to join his dojo. He invites them to his dojo, but they don’t come (probably because his dojo is on top of a giant waterfall and it’s hard to get to). He convinces them to come to his dojo with the promise of meat and once there they play janken (or rock, paper, scissors or roshambo or whatever we’re calling it nowadays) where we get one of the funniest scene in the series (scene here: https://youtu.be/ZnqmXf206Z0). After this, Bang believes that Saitama will join his dojo but Saitama says no and wants his meat as well as another match with Bang.
The fifth special introduces us to Fubuki aka Blizzard the younger sister of Tornado and the #1 ranked B class hero who leads her own group the Blizzard group. She has an inferiority complex with her sister and after her group receives no attention during the King of the Sea attack she hops on a train on the way to the Hero Association where she runs into Genos and another C class hero. A former hero has planted a bomb on the train and unless they do something soon the bomb will explode at the station and kill thousands if not millions of people (this might be the worst group for this kind of job). Genos tries to stop the train but has no luck and Fubuki gets all the passengers to safety using her esper powers but she’s unsure of how to contain the explosion. With only 40 seconds until they reach the station, Tornado shows up and saves the day all by herself. Despite being saved by Tornado, Fubuki still gives her the cold shoulder vowing to one day surpass her sister.
The final special is probably the weakest of them all. It takes place after the events of the final episode where everyone involved in the alien disaster get treated to a one-night stay at a hot springs inn. The next morning the heroes see that Zombieman a hero has been stabbed and is now supposedly dead, so they try to figure out who killed him. As they’re wondering we see that Zombieman is still alive (he’s a zombie, what did you expect?) and the person who stabbed him was Tornado who got drunk last night thanks to Saitama who called her a child because she couldn’t hold her alcohol (scene here: https://youtu.be/TT8Xrvn9Vio).
Final Thoughts
The specials and OVA are alright and will manage to get a good laugh out of you. Like I said, the last special is the weakest of the bunch as it just the characters sitting around trying to figure out a mystery with an obvious punch line which while funny I think the events leading up to it are funnier and would have made for a better story. If I had to name my favorite it would be the OVA as it gave us a look into Saitama’s early days, showed us where he got his suit, and has everything we love about the series all in one episode. If you want more One-Punch goodness and haven’t seen these episodes yet give them a watch. I think they’re worth checking out if just for the comedy and seeing a few new characters and scenarios. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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