Fights are cool, sure, but there's so much more than that.
First things first: One Punch Man is not a shounen series. It's seinen, meaning it's targeted towards young adults and not boys. In Japan, the manga is published in a seinen magazine, Tonari no Young Jump, a spin-off of Weekly Seinen Jump, both dedicated to an older demographic. There's a little confusion, though, because in the US it's published in Viz Media's Shonen Jump.
But the title doesn't affect what's inside, and the things that are inside are clearly saying that this is not your average battle shounen series. You don't even need to look behind flashy and extremely violent fights to understand that.
One Punch Man deals with a lot of things that regular shounen don't touch upon. It's a mockery of the whole superhero genre, one that smashes the clichés and laughs at them. All the tropes, like tragic backstories of some heroes or villain origins, are used as a basis for humor. One, the author of the original webcomic and its manga adaptation, uses humor both to ridicule these tropes and to lightly cover the deeper topics that he talks about in this story.
In a way, One Punch Man may be viewed as a story of acceptance — and it's not just a story of Saitama wanting to be accepted by the Hero Society, because, let's be real, he's not really into that. It's a story of Genos learning to accept his humanity and his value; it's a story of Fubuki learning to accept others as actual people and not just tools; it's a story of different characters learning to accept themselves through heroism.
And even if it is peppered with extremely epic fights, these fights are the distraction and also the source of laughter for readers and viewers, diverting attention from the more serious topics — the ones that allow the show to be placed in the seinen category. The focus on the corrupt politics of Hero Society and the principles of heroism, the emphasis on the emotional and mental growth of characters instead of physical growth, and the tendency to get introspective and showcase a lot of inner struggles — this is what makes One Punch Man different from the shounen series.
It's an interesting combination that rises from the intentional mockery and morphs into a journey of self-discovery, still adorned with cool fights and fun quips. Saitama's wish not to be bored has transformed over time — and so has he.
Fights are cool, sure, but there's so much more than that.
First things first: One Punch Man is not a shounen series. It's seinen, meaning it's targeted towards young adults and not boys. In Japan, the manga is published in a seinen magazine, Tonari no Young Jump, a spin-off of Weekly Seinen Jump, both dedicated to an older demographic. There's a little confusion, though, because in the US it's published in Viz Media's Shonen Jump.
But the title doesn't affect what's inside, and the things that are inside are clearly saying that this is not your average battle shounen series. You don't even need to look behind flashy and extremely violent fights to understand that.
One Punch Man deals with a lot of things that regular shounen don't touch upon. It's a mockery of the whole superhero genre, one that smashes the clichés and laughs at them. All the tropes, like tragic backstories of some heroes or villain origins, are used as a basis for humor. One, the author of the original webcomic and its manga adaptation, uses humor both to ridicule these tropes and to lightly cover the deeper topics that he talks about in this story.
In a way, One Punch Man may be viewed as a story of acceptance — and it's not just a story of Saitama wanting to be accepted by the Hero Society, because, let's be real, he's not really into that. It's a story of Genos learning to accept his humanity and his value; it's a story of Fubuki learning to accept others as actual people and not just tools; it's a story of different characters learning to accept themselves through heroism.
And even if it is peppered with extremely epic fights, these fights are the distraction and also the source of laughter for readers and viewers, diverting attention from the more serious topics — the ones that allow the show to be placed in the seinen category. The focus on the corrupt politics of Hero Society and the principles of heroism, the emphasis on the emotional and mental growth of characters instead of physical growth, and the tendency to get introspective and showcase a lot of inner struggles — this is what makes One Punch Man different from the shounen series.
It's an interesting combination that rises from the intentional mockery and morphs into a journey of self-discovery, still adorned with cool fights and fun quips. Saitama's wish not to be bored has transformed over time — and so has he.
