On the contrary, it’s the perfect time to do so.
Summary:
- Despite being incredibly popular, One Punch Man is not the first choice for a lot of anime fans.
- One Punch Man started airing in 2015, but it’s still relevant.
- Most popular series today are shounens, but OPM makes fun of them.
One Punch Man is one of the iconic anime series that everyone knows. Season 1 aired back in 2015, so the series has been around for almost a decade already, but yet it’s quite easy to find an otaku (especially a newbie) who’s never seen it.
Despite its popularity, it’s not usually the first choice when it comes to recommending an anime. Fans tend to go with such series as Naruto, One Piece or Death Note, leaving One Punch Man for another time.
One Punch Man just has this typical weird anime vibe, and it’s easy to think that this series is not for you. Saitama is just an odd bald dude who punches people, how can it be that interesting anyway?
But it is entertaining indeed. And, most importantly, right now is the best possible time to start watching it if you haven’t yet.
It’s Especially Relevant Now
Nowadays most of the huge and successful series are shounens. We have the aforementioned Naruto and One Piece, there’s Attack on Titan and Jujutsu Kaisen, everyone is in love with Demon Slayer and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.
Those are all incredible anime, there’s no need to discuss it for the 100th time. But the thing with shounens is that they tend to follow a lot of the same tropes and explore the same ideas just in different ways. And One Punch Man makes fun of that.
One Punch Man is a seinen series that follows a superhero so strong that he gets bored because no one can challenge him anymore. Saitama is truly one of a kind. He’s already at the point in his life when he doesn’t need to get any stronger, and this is exactly his issue.
Basically, Saitama got to the endgame of any shounen protagonist in Episode 1 and now we have to learn how he’s going to deal with that. And all of that is combined with the most hilarious shounen satire that you’ve ever seen.
One Punch Man is the series that makes fun of all the typical shounen tropes, that’s why it’s more than relevant now, when the era of shounens is going strong.
Better Now Than Never
Don’t let a rather old release date scare you, One Punch Man is always a wonderful experience.
If you’re still not sure why 2024 is a good year to start watching the series, we’d like to remind you that Season 3 is currently in the works, so you’ll be able to watch it when it’s out and engage in dozens of awesome online debates.