History Characters / OnePunchManSaitama

Saitama is [[HeroProtagonist the main character of the series]], who on his way meets very various groups of people and monsters. Once an ordinary unemployed {{salaryman}}, Saitama was inspired to become a hero when he incidentally saved a butt-chinned boy from a crab monster with nothing but his necktie. He then underwent an intensely unhealthy training regimen for three years, increasing his strength exponentially --he got so powerful, in fact, that he lost all his hair. Now Saitama is so strong, no matter the opponent, [[OneHitKill he can defeat them with a single punch]]. Unfortunately, [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction the complete lack of challenge that came as a result has also caused him to grow utterly bored with his life of super-heroism]].

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: The manga version goes an extra mile to show Saitama as a more heroic and empathetic person in certain situations, often in extra events that didn't originally exist in the webcomic, like dealing with everyday small crimes where he is genuinely nice; in the webcomic Saitama is more consistently emotionally stunted, he does good deeds but often acts completely detached to what's happening around him, and the moments where he emotes are far and in-between. [[spoiler:The manga eventually reinforces the point of Saitama being more emotionally driven even further during the showdown between him and Awakened Garou, making use of the common hero trope of avenging a friend, Genos; there were no personal stakes and commitment in their original Webcomic fight]].
* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: In line with Saitama being shown as just a tad little nicer and emotive in the manga than he ever was in the webcomic, Saitama's care for Genos in the manga is eventually portrayed more clearly than in the webcomic. Originally any friendship was largely implicit as Saitama humors Genos with his time by pretending to be his sensei, and later on in the webcomic Saitama spends time scouting with Genos when there's nothing to gain from it. However, in the manga's climactic Monster Association Arcshowdown against [[spoiler:Awakened Garou - Cosmic Fear Mode, it was shown how much Saitama really cared about Genos: his apparent death is enough to make Saitama enter an intense TranquilFury as he attempts to beat Garou into a paste. In the aftermath, the time reversal's events is also only perceived by Genos' core, giving him an exclusive view of how much Saitama cares about him, in the webcomic Genos got no such special confirmation]].

* AlwaysLate: Saitama is forever showing up late to one-shot the giant monsters that have been laying waste to the city, mostly as a DramaPreservingHandicap. Usually it's played for laughs, but can be sometimes played for drama too, as we see in Human Monster Saga. It's even discussed early in the series by Saitama and Genos when they're travelling to House of Evolution:

** The ninja-for-hire "Speed of Sound" Sonic is very proud of his SuperSpeed, such that he is practically invisible to the naked eye. The problem is that he is the UnknownRival of Saitama. When Sonic tries to leap around unnoticed, Saitama easily watches him go. When he attempts a BackStab, Saitama inadvertently nails Sonic with a painful and embarrassing GroinAttack. When he reveals in his ability to create ten 'speed clones' in a fight against Saitama and considers it his best chance to kill the hero, Saitama effortlessly creates ''hundreds of speed clones''. There's just no winning for Sonic, and the audience is expected to have a good laugh at his expense.
** Garou is another example, whom Saitama initially [[AchievementInIgnorance beats in ignorance]]. Once Garou finally realizes Saitama's power, he tries to match Saitama, only to find out that he cannot beat him even after he powers up several times. [[spoiler:Taken up to eleven after Garou achieved Cosmic Fear mode, a form that is so powerful, even S-Class heroes die just by being close to him, and capable of copying powers from others, including Saitama's. And yet he's still no match for Saitama. No matter how many times he copies Saitama's power, Saitama will always hit back harder. Eventually, Saitama's power soars exponentially so that Cosmic Fear Garou is left in the dust.]]

* ArtShift: Saitama is drawn as either a stick figure, a slightly more detailed stick figure, or a fully drawn, highly detailed normal figure that matches the style of the other characters. It's all part of the joke that most of the time he does not look like the type of protagonist you'd see in a {{Shonen}} manga and his normally unassuming appearance belies his strength.

** PlayedWith as well. Saitama '''thinks''' he's this and that his training regimen gave him CharlesAtlasSuperpower. However, it's painfully obvious to everyone who's not him that no man could acquire such strength through simple training, let alone Saitama's training regimen (which is pretty damn intense, but perfectly doable for a normal human being and nowhere near paranormal-level.)
* BadassTeacher: Saitama isn't that interested in playing teacher after realizing he can't teach Genos how to get stronger ''physically'', despite Genos putting him in such a position by becoming his self-proclaimed disciple. Despite this, Saitama does care for his welfare right off the bat, and his attachment grew as the series goes on, even if they don't have a particularly traditional student-teacher relationship. Even then, Genos actually learns some pretty valuable things by following Saitama's example, which in turn made him a better hero, and less passively suicidal. In the manga at the end of the Monster Association arc [[spoiler:Saitama is beyond mad when Garou kills Genos, leading to a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown. Despite Garou's newly-gained power, Saitama grows even more powerful and beats Garou up]].
* BaldHeadOfToughness: Saitama did originally have hair when he was an ordinary person. His baldness came as a consequence of gaining his CharlesAtlasSuperpower of SuperStrength and SuperToughness after doing simple exercises every day. Now he is so strong that he can wipe the floor with most opponents with, well, a single punch. That said, given this work is a parody of the superhero genre, when not in LetsGetDangerous mode, Saitama does express BaldnessAngst and his baldness is often PlayedForLaughs.

** {{Downplayed}} during his battle with [[AliensAreBastards Boros]]. While he does seem to still need oxygen given how he takes the time to hold his breath and pinch his nose shut, [[spoiler:Saitama suffers no other ill effects from being on the moon's surface after Boros kicks him there, even casually taking his time in figuring out how he was gonna get back]].

* BookDumb: Saitama did so poorly on the written portion of the Hero Association entrance exam that he was placed in the lowest possible category of hero, despite his record-shattering performance during the physical portion. He scored a 100 on the physical and a 42 on the book. Thus, he got a 71 (the cut-off was 70 points). [[note]]It's [[JustifiedTrope justified]], since he is so strong that he doesn't '''need''' specific tactics to battle enemies. Presumably, all of his answers were ''[[AttackAttackAttack just punch it]]'' and it doesn't even vary from S-Class Heroes tactics as seen in Alien Conquerors arc.[[/note]] During his middle school years, Saitama is shown to be napping through the student orientation and was also struggling to keep up with the class, failing to even complete the ''bare minimum'' of schoolwork (such as "forgetting" to do his homework and turning it in by the next day when it was assigned to him on his first day of school). But for all that, he's not stupid by any stretch of the imagination, and is often shown to be incredibly observant and a font of SimpleMindedWisdom; opponents he doesn't vaporize in one punch will often find themselves on the receiving end of a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech as Saitama easily homes in on their FatalFlaw.

* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Saitama has one-punched so many humans and monsters alike that he can't be bothered to remember every single one of them, especially since the battles end too quickly for him. The moment someone is actually persistent enough to fight him again, such as Sonic, Saitama even has hard time remembering his name. He doesn't even aware that he basically [[CurbStompBattle stomped]] Garou three times, despite Garou being TheDreaded "Hero Hunter" amongst the heroes at the time. Lampshaded by Saitama himself to Suiryu after he killed a monsterized Bakuzan:

* {{Cap}}: Dr. Genus believes that Saitama's power comes from overcoming the limit set by the universe on his growth potential. By doing sit-ups, push-ups, squats and running, or rather, because he was so dang determined to become the best through his constant, mundane exercise routine, he broke all the limits that could ever hold him back, ''including the laws of reality''. Now his power grows unchecked to absurd, and possibly infinite, levels. However, Saitama himself has commented at least once that he doesn't think he can grow any stronger than he is now, implying that he ''does'' have a limit (if only self-imposed via his apathy), but considering that he can take on about 99.9% of the universe without trying, it's clear that theoretical limit isn't one he's going to reach anytime soon, if ever. [[spoiler:His fight with Awakened Garou shows that even if Saitama fought an opponent near his level, his power will grow at a tremendous rate until he's once again able to defeat his opponent in one punch. Thus proving Saitama's feeling about hitting his limit wrong and that he might have truly limitless power.]]

* ComicallyInvincibleHero: Played with and explored -- part of the humor of Saitama's character is that he is so outrageously overpowered that his fights are humorously anti-climatic. He wins all his fights ridiculously easily, even the mightiest foes pose no challenge to him, so he does not take his hero work seriously, goes through everything with little to no effort, and yearns for an opponent that can provide him with a challenge. Saitama is disappointed he might never find a fight that will seriously challenge him, the lack of worthy opponents has led him to suffer from a self-imposed existential crisis, and he claims that his ability to feel all emotions has dulled considerably. The combination of his attitude, unstoppable power, and "unimpressive" appearance often causes his battles to become anticlimactic. He even tells the second monster he curbstomped that his attaining the ultimate power has made his life boring as hell.
* CosmicMotifs: Heavily symbolized by Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. In a way, he is also like Jupiter -- largely responsible on keeping threats (like meteors) ever affect earth thanks to its presence.

** He can often be oblivious or not attentive, which leads to destruction that could've been prevented if he was more alert. Case in point, his second fight with Sonic. Sonic, realizing Saitama is a professional hero, proceeds to cause rampant chaos and property damage to goad Saitama into conflict, who was currently worrying about something. Eventually, he looks up and sees Sonic before casually knocking him out with a single chop, but not before there is a lot of property damage. To cap it off, what was concerning Saitama to the point he wasn't paying attention? ''That he may lose his Hero Association membership because of a lack of activity on his part.''

* DeusExitMachina: One part laziness, one part perpetual tardiness, one part "he only responds to threats he sees on the news and rarely patrols", Saitama is almost never on hand when the villain du jour shows up and starts tearing through the heroes a new one, so they have to hold the line until he shows up to beat the villain with one punch.

* DisasterDominoes: Inverted. By saving a butt-chinned boy from Crablante, father of boy funds the Hero Association, making a lot of heroes in the process. For better or worse, at least...

** While he did only agree to being Genos' master on a whim, Saitama feels bad that he can't really offer the cyborg any valuable lessons to strengthen himself, and feels like he is scamming the poor guy. Nevertheless, he still provides to be a rather BadassTeacher who cares for his disciple well-being.
** No matter what, Saitama never kills humans. He even spared Garou. [[spoiler: The code is also deeper, since he will never attack ''anyone'', monster or human, if they are not attacking people or causing damage, as shown by him sparing Oculette in the manga. The webcomic also has him not even considering attacking or killing Amai Mask, who confessed being a monster and revealed his monster form, since he is actually using his power to help people, and had monsterized to stop a Dragon-level threat before it could hurt anyone. Saitama even compliments him for it, after dismissing him in their previous interactions, telling him he is "cool".]]
* ExperiencedProtagonist: He starts the series already possessing his renowned strength, endurance, and agility with years of fighting monsters under his belt. He also mentors his younger, less experienced Genos, even sharing the exact training methods he used to become strong with him in the House of Evolution arc.

* FastestThingAlive: His fight with Boros shows Saitama can easily reach lightspeeds with a ''jump''. In movement speeds Saitama also casually outpaces Flashy Flash, the fastest Hero in all of Hero Association, and later on keeps pace with foes who are even faster than Flash is ([[spoiler:Awakened Garou]]).

** His other flaw is more common: {{Wrath}}. When he does find something which legitimately challenges him (especially in a way he doesn't like), he often gets very angry. So much so that he once almost killed Bang over a game Bang had challenged him to. His opponents tend to not take him seriously up until he gibs them; when he gets mad at them, every villain panics when they see his Nightmare Face. [[spoiler:When Garou kills Genos and all the other heroes in the BadFuture, Saitama gets so mad he throws a Serious Punch at him that Garou returns. If Blast wasn't there to redirect the resulting explosion, Saitama would've have been compliant in destroying the entire planet.]]

** To Tatsumaki. Both are characters that have ArtShift between goofy webcomic and serious detailed appearance, look non-threatening but have incredible power, and have a weaker student in Genos and Fubuki respectively, but they have some opposites: where Saitama had a normal life before becoming a hero, has a calm demeanor, is low ranking and gets no respect, and fights entirely physically, Tatsumaki had a traumatic past, is the moody and easily annoyed second highest rank in the Hero Association, and uses her psychic powers.

* FriendToAllChildren: Multiple times in the series, even in his earlier days this was one of Saitama's noble qualities how despite being a guy who's only for fight and before CharacterDevelopment, saved many people, including children. Interestingly, [[AdaptationalNiceGuy this appears to be more of a manga original trait]].

** In first omake he helps a kid to get back to his house and defeat snowman monster.

** In an omake, while Saitama doesn't care about being fired if he doesn't do his job of finding a cat, he does quickly cave when the girl starts to cry, and puts her on his shoulders throughout the search.
** He saves Child Emperor from Phoenix Man abuse and later from being attacked by Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame. He shows admiration towards Child Emperor upon him defeating the monster and says he's a cool hero for such young age.

* HeroOfAnotherStory: Played with in-universe. Most, if not all of his accomplishments are credited to other heroes, and as such, both the general populace and most of the Hero Association members barely know who he is, then there are the ones that think he's a hack, while there's only a select few who know him and respect him for what he's done. By design, his fellow heroes are TheProtagonist of the stories that the in-universe public sees and they are ''tiny'' compared to Saitama (who is TheProtagonist of the story we, the out-of-universe public, sees) who would be a ''titanic'' background character of sorts.

** Played straight and later invoked by the man himself. Because of his anonymity and the fact that he beats villains without any effort, people have accused him of being a fraud who isn't a "real" hero. He saves a town from a meteor but the debris destroys the city anyway, although everyone lived. After he kills the Sea King, a random {{Jerkass}} starts mocking the heroes who couldn't beat him before Saitama showed up. Saitama decides to paint himself as a selfish GloryHound so said heroes get the credit he feels they deserve at the cost of his own reputation.

** Despite the absurdity of Saitama's initial claim of how he got his powers from his "training regimen", flashbacks imply that he never started off by gradually building up his body to the point where he could do [[spoiler:"100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10 KM run"]] without any problems, but went straight ahead and performed that amount ''right at the very start of his training''. Adding in other factors; he never took any breaks in between, powered through any sort of internal pains and muscle damage that he could've done to his body (despite the fact that a normal person's body would've shut itself down from all that extensive physical effort), did other odd jobs to support himself financially, also fought Mysterious Beings during his 3 year-long training, ''and'' did all of those with a strong obsession in the mind of becoming a "strong hero who can defeat everyone and everybody with one punch" (not unlike how most people had done in their own activities that resulted in them becoming Mysterious Beings, with Crablante being one such example) adding more to the [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane mysterious origin of his powers]].

* HumbleHero: Saitama is very humble, as he purposefully let the masses turn against him for the defeated heroes to be given credit for their efforts against the Deep Sea King, even claiming that they had weakened the monster before his arrival. He did the same for the police station, killing a monster while disguised as a police officer, despite potentially gaining much fame had he revealed who he actually was. He also did not mind that [[spoiler:King took credit for all of his achievements]]. Despite his humility and modesty, he still retains some sense of pride, since he wants to beat up Garou after realizing that the latter didn't want to hunt him during his hero hunt, just because he is a low-ranking hero who is not worthy to be hunted. However, Saitama's desire to pummel Garou mostly comes from his desire for an exciting and challenging fight, not from his pride as a powerful hero. Even though he expresses faint protests at it, there's the fact that his apartment is open for all heroes who he's met, to the point where there's a RunningGag of just interlopers crashing in his apartment.

* InformedFlaw: WordOfGod explains that Saitama lacks coordination, but this is barely suggested in the manga through his awkward posture in a few frames.

* ItAmusedMe: Played with. According to Saitama, he's a self-proclaimed "hero for hobby" and has some undesirable traits that wouldn't make him an IdealHero. Yet time and time again, he shows that he's willing to do the right thing, and, in the manga, shows to be more compassionable than he lets on.
* IWorkAlone: Highlighted in one of the extra chapters. Saitama doesn't value teamwork very much and his teammates are ignorant of his power. WordOfGod states that Saitama would do poorly in team sports. He was also hesitant to accept Genos as his disciple, but he does seem to care for him and his small group of hero friends.

** In his middle school years, he gets [[CurbStompBattle curbstomped]] by Piggy Bancon after failing to try and get his 200 Yen (and the other amount of Yen that the Mysterious Being stole from the two upperclassmen) back, with the end result having him thrown against a ''concrete wall and creating a huge crack'', with only minor injuries that involve his head bleeding. Know this, the one-sided fight with Piggy Bancon happened ''after'' he'd got beaten up by his two upperclassmen.
** Later in life as a 22-year-old on a job hunt, he took hits from the super-strong Crablante, who is easily capable of killing multiple civilians beforehand, and that only lead to Saitama having blood pouring from his head and having his outfit messed up.

* MoralityPet: It's implied few times that Genos is what keeps Saitama from going berserk and still having his humanity. [[spoiler: In fact due to loosing his house, wasting time on looking who makes all the noise in his neighberhood, he is very close to outright destroying the planet. [[FromBadToWorse And during his fight with Garou, the latter outright rips Genos's heart from his body]], so when Saitama arrives, he gets '''so''' mad, he performs a Serious Punch that could outright destroy the Earth, if it wasn't for Blast's intervention.]]

** [[spoiler: When Cosmic Garou rips Genos's heart out of his body, Saitama arrives lately to the scene, having a TranquilFury face. Cue to him making a Serious Punch to Garou, making a similiar move to when he fought with Genos during their pairing.]]

* NotSoStoic: Played with. In the introductionary episode, Saitama says in his monologue how the emotions he once felt are now gone. This is very much not true, as right in [[EstablishingCharacterMoment his first scene]] when he defeats Vaccine Man, he's seriously angered over winning once again with a single punch. And while Saitama usually has a bored expression, he is capable of making a serious face or getting really mad, though it's usually for rather mundane things such as missing the big sale in a supermarket or him being insecure with his lack of hair.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: After Gouketsu wrecks the martial arts stadium and heads back to the Monster Association's hideout, Suiryu warns Saitama not to go after the four-eyed giant. Saitama casually brushes off his warning to be a real hero. With the manga being told from Suiryu's perspective, at this point, all that's shown is a severely injured Suiryu listening to a few rumbling sounds, followed by Gouketsu's head landing in the arena in Chapter 75. And Gouketsu's pierced corpse isn't shown until Chapter 79, when Gyoro Gyoro investigates why the giant hasn't returned from his recruitment drive.

* PersonOfMassDestruction: His "barely trying" punches turns monsters into LudicrousGibs and can leave massive holes in buildings, while his strongest seen punch negated a planet-ruining KamehameHadouken, killed the one who fired it with the shockwave alone, and ''left a miles-wide split in the cloud cover of the planet until it reached the horizon''.

* PowerCopying: [[spoiler:In the Manga version, at the end of the Awakened Garou fight Saitama is told by Garou that after copying his techniques so many times he could see Saitama is actually a martial arts prodigy like himself who can also effortlessly copy techniques, Saitama just never bothered to care about martial arts well enough to get to know that. Saitama proceeds to copy Awakened Garou's time reversal in order to end the fight at Garou's request after coming to his senses]].

** This is demonstrated during the Anime OP in something of an EstablishingCharacterMoment: Partway through the intro, Saitama fights a monster horde in a canyon, socking them one-by-one into the cliff-face behind them when all of a sudden a bunch of them [[LeeroyJenkins rush him]] from behind. Saitama immediately turns around and throws a flurry of punches so fast the attack not only hits all of them at the SAME TIME, it blasts them all into the canyon wall so hard that that part of the canyon itself EXPLODES.
* RealityWarper: At first Saitama's immeasurable physical abilities seemed to operate on a certain level of logic, as in he attacked and deflected material foes and projectiles, even punching away Boros' final attack is under such logic, the sheer impact of the Serious Punch diverting a massive beam of energy; however, the little logic Saitama's abilties seemed to have is thrown out of the window in [[spoiler:the final revision for the Phoenixman vs. Child Emperor fight (effectively the canon one), Saitama intrudes in at the last second, punching away Phoenixman's warped reality space, leaving a crack on thin air, the monster is left completely in disbelief after the fact, as seconds prior he thought nothing could stop his final attack; that is to say Saitama can literally punch and obliterate immaterial concepts, shooting the scope of his abilities to absolutely out of the realm of any logic or reason]].

* RequiredSecondaryPowers: He possesses ''ridiculous'' control over his own power. He can punch any adversary just hard enough to either kill or incapacitate them instantly, obliterated a mountain range while leaving Genos unharmed at the end of their sparring match (when his fist had stopped right in front of Genos' face, no less), and can control his strength to the point where he can do everyday tasks without issue... mostly. He did break one of the buttons on King's handheld console, after all. The strange part is that this seems to be an entirely subconscious ability. When he mistakes Garou for a mugger, he strikes him so hard that Garou's legs were embedded in the cement underneath him. Saitama had no idea who Garou was at the time, yet hit him with a blow that would have killed a normal human. Admittedly, Garou did attack him and give some indication of his strength, but Saitama still -- in mere moments -- calculated precisely how hard to hit him to incapacitate him without further injury. If Saitama intends non-lethal damage, then 99% of the time, it's going to be non-lethal. It doesn't matter how strong or weak his opponent is.

* {{Retcon}}: ONE previously established Saitama as getting by with his immeasurable physical strength. He has no coordination, and if he was a regular human, Saitama would be terrible at any sport. [[spoiler:In the webcomic, the Awakened Garou outright calls Saitama a total amateur in terms of fighting techniques. In the manga, however, Garou instead says that Saitama is an innate martial arts prodigy just like him, which Saitama proves by copying Garou's time reversal technique to end the fight. It's just that Saitama [[HowDoIShootWeb has no idea he has that innate potential]] nor is he [[BrilliantButLazy really interested in actually learning to harness it]]]].

** This is still present in the video game, ''VideoGame/OnePunchManAHeroNobodyKnows'', still able to OneHitKill all enemies along with receiving no damage from all attacks. To balance this out, if Saitama is selected for a party then he isn't playable at the start of a fight, rather he serves as a countdown mechanic where he will be absent for most of the battle and will need to run over to the scene in 120 seconds. The party members present must survive for long enough for Saitama to show up, with combos able to speed up Saitama's arrival. In fact, the only character able to deal damage to Saitama, is another Saitama.
%%* StrongAndSkilled: After a long time of looking like an aversion of this trope, Saitama turns out to play it straigth. He is the most powerful being in the universe, with his strength, speed, durability, agility and endurance being unmatched by anyone in the whole series, but also possessing control and skill over his abilities. And while he spends most of the series looking like an untrained brawler, it's later revealed during his fight with Garou that he is an innate martial arts prodigy, probably even more than Garou himself, as Saitama quickly copies all of Garou's techniques without even training. Saitama also has plenty of fighting experience as well, since he fought several villains and monsters during the three years of training that took him to get his power.

* TranquilFury: Makes this face sometimes, usually by then he goes into Serious Mode. [[spoiler:He gets ''very'' mad at Garou killing Genos, which proceeds to quickly make Saitama use his famous tactic, Serious Punch]].

** Also PlayedForLaughs since he does this approach to everything, including video games. He loses in what appears to be a Pokemon-like video game against King because Saitama didn't bother with type-advantages, instead just hoping on higher levels. He hasn't gotten this in his head yet.

* TheAce: A highly [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example, almost towards an inversion. While the entire public is [[WeirdnessCensor ignorant]] of Saitama and his achievements, the very few individuals who are aware of his true prowess revere him as one. Saitama single-handedly broke all preexisting records in the Hero Association's physical examinations, and in just over 65 days went from C-Class to A-Class. Saitama can achieve several feats which surpass those of all S-Class heroes. A recurring theme in the manga is that, in any given arc, Saitama almost always defeats the strongest [[BigBad antagonist/opponent]] of that arc. See WorldsStrongestMan below.

--> [[spoiler: '''Fubuki''': I place your strength in high regard... Since you are the one that dealt with the Hero Killer, that means you too have reached the top.]]

* AlmightyJanitor: The strongest hero bar none, but started as a C-Class hero due to scoring poorly on the essay portion of the entrance exam. Not to mention that all of his observed victories are seen by the public as nothing more than flukes. His unobserved victories were all attributed to someone else, who is now the most feared hero in the entire organization, [[spoiler:despite King being an otherwise ordinary person.]]

-->'''Genos''': It's amazing how you always manage to be there on time. I guess that's a hero for you!
-->'''Saitama''': Nah, I usually arrive too late at the scene.

--> [[spoiler: '''Narrator''': And now, the only one on a level to be able to observe Saitama's growth, was getting completely left behind.]]

* BlowYouAway: Whenever Saitama really starts to put any "effort" in his punches, then expect him to cause a powerful gust of wind created from the immense pressure of his attacks.

* CheapCostume: In appearance. Saitama in full garb looks like he's just one step away from using a paper bag as a mask, [[MySuitIsAlsoSuper notwithstanding that his costume is extremely durable]].

* CosmicMotifs: heavily symbolized by Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. In a way, he is also like Jupiter -- largely responsible on keeping threats (like meteors) ever affect earth thanks to its presence.

* DestructiveSaviour: Saitama has shown to be able to control the strength of his attacks, but still tends to go overboard, occasionally causing mass devastation in the aftermath. This is another reason why he's not a popular hero; he leaves a lot of destruction in his wake. When combined with his usual nonchalant and lackadaisical attitude, he comes off as quite unprofessional and uncaring, making it hard to like him at times.

* InvincibleHero: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] and very often played for laughs. Saitama is completely aware of this trope applying to him and the series deals with him coming to terms with this, eventually treating his superheroism more as a hobby than as the standard motive of eradicating evil. In his own words, "having overwhelming power is... pretty boring." And his "fights" '''almost''' always end with OneHitKill, with only a few actually knowing Saitama's true power.

-->[[spoiler: '''Saitama:''' You wanted to save him [Tareo]? You weren't just clinging to him for support...?]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Garou:''' Clinging... Me? ''What would you know'' -- [''Falters when he sees the core, still unscathed in Saitama's hand''] ]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Garou:''' [''realizes that Genos is to Saitama as Tareo is to him''] (... Is that what you're doing too? [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity There's no way a person with that kind of power can keep in their right mind.]])]]
* LonelyAtTheTop: It's implied at different points that one of the prices for his power other than NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction is that Saitama feels fundamentally isolated from basically everyone else, as it's been so long since he had to struggle or feel challenged by anything, he finds it difficult to relate to other people.

* NonStandardCharacterDesign: While many characters in the series are subject to this, Saitama is remarkable in how ''unremarkable'' his appearance is, being distinct not from having particular facial features but from how simplistic his face is. His baldness just adds to the simplicity even further. See the series page image for a perfect example of how he stands out.

* NoSell: Being essentially invincible, he no sells every single attack directed at him either by [[NonchalantDodge being too fast to be hit]], by [[BarehandedBladeBlock stopping attacks in their track]] or by simply tanking everything head-on without even flinching. In extreme cases, he doesn't even realize he's ''being'' attacked.
* NoSenseOfDirection: Despite his speed, he gets lost fairly easily, which is why he tends to be the last person to make it to a fight.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: If Saitama gets angry, he's come across a ''truly'' despicable villain, or someone's managing to bother him by, say, ungratefully insulting a hero's efforts to save people or outright decrying them as a whole.

* OvershadowedByAwesome: Despite being the most powerful person in the world and possibly the universe, his plain looks and penchant for finishing fights effortlessly in one hit mean that most people overlook him for the more conventional badass-looking characters. He's also willing to paint himself as a hero who takes credit for others' deeds for people to appreciate the efforts of those heroes who truly have given their all to save people, in contrast to his effortless work. In short, he is invoking this trope upon himself, in part intentionally.

* PowerCopying: [[spoiler:In the Manga version, at the end of the Awakened Garou fight Saitama is told by Garou that after copying his techniques so many times he could see Saitama is actually a martial arts prodigy like himself who can also effortlessly copy techniques, Saitama just never bothered to care about martial arts well enough to get to know that; Saitama proceeds to copy Awakened Garou's time reversal in order to end the fight at Garou's request after coming to his senses]].

* SupermanSubstitute: The most obvious comparison, as he's got a cape, red boots, is strong and invulnerable to an [[ShowyInvincibleHero insanely ridiculous level]] much like [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] Superman and [[IAmNotLeftHanded generally holds back his full strength]] and doesn't go looking for fights unless his friends and innocent people are threatened. There's some difference though as Saitama isn't an alien, [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower he got his abilities through training]], he's bald (similar to a [[ComicBook/LexLuthor certain Superman villain]]), he can't [[{{Flight}} fly]] ([[InASingleBound only jump super high]]), can't shoot EyeBeams and Saitama has a much more bitter and sardonic personality than Supes. He's also more violent to his enemies, being totally willing to kill [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin with a single punch]]. Then again, this AntiHero-like behavior and being unable to fly or use crazy powers does make Saitama akin to [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] Superman.

* SuperStrength: With a single punch Saitama can level mountains, fell giant city destroying monsters, cut planet destroying energy blasts in two and stop an object traveling at ''escape velocity''. And that's not even at his ''full'' power, which we've only seen a fraction of.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Udon, which is a realistic preference for someone so strapped for cash. One of the [=OVAs=] shows that Saitama also gets protective over his french fries -- but only the long ones that are soft in the middle.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Saitama kills obviously-sentient non-human monsters (even ones whose inhumanity is physically slight, like a CuteMonsterGirl) without the slightest hint of remorse; but he refuses to kill humans ever. [[spoiler:This is particularly obvious in the Garou arc, where Saitama decides that Garou is human and won't allow the heroes to kill him.]] Part of this is that some monsters were never human in the first place. Those who were human typically went crazy due to a particular trauma or obsession and mutated; after the mutation, the monsters have lost all humanity and will slaughter and kill without rhyme or reason, so Saitama shows them no mercy. [[spoiler: One reason he refuses to see Garou as a monster is that Garou won't kill other humans.]]

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: Big bad monster terrorizing the neighborhood? Punch it. Unstoppable meteor plunging from the sky about to destroy the city? Punch it. Planet-busting energy blast being fired from a dimension-conquering alien overlord coming straight for you? PUNCH. HARDER.

* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: It's not so obvious, considering how humble and reasonable Saitama is most of the time. However, it remains consistent that Saitama is not... Quite grounded in reality, and in the moments he does slip up, we do get a small glimpse that underneath his blank look is a raging insanity boiling over.
-->'''Saitama:''' [''To Garou''] I go to complain about the noise, and somehow my house gets blown up, so now I'm stuck trying to find my stuff fishing around in a tide pool. '''[[NightmareFace I kinda feel like I'd rather just obliterate the whole planet.]]'''

* StrongAndSkilled: After a long time of looking like an aversion of this trope, Saitama turns out to play it straigth. He is the most powerful being in the universe, with his strength, speed, durability, agility and endurance being unmatched by anyone in the whole series, but also possessing control and skill over his abilities. And while he spends most of the series looking like an untrained brawler, it's later revealed during his fight with Garou that he is an innate martial arts prodigy, probably even more than Garou himself, as Saitama quickly copies all of Garou's techniques without even training. Saitama also has plenty of fighting experience as well, since he fought several villains and monsters during the three years of training that took him to get his power.

* SuperSenses: Saitama can very casually follow enemies that are moving so fast they are barely a blur, and can even accurately track enemies underground (who are trying their best to flee from him).

** He lacks any form of martial arts training, but he doesn't need any, due to being stronger, faster and tougher than anyone else. Eventually subverted since Saitama later proves to have not only control and skill over his powers, but also extraordinary accuracy and combat skills.

* SuperSenses: To a point. Saitama can very casually follow enemies that are moving so fast they are barely a blur, and can even accurately track enemies underground (who are trying their best to flee from him). However, he can usually find a fight only if someone points him at the right direction.

** He lacks any form of martial arts training, but he doesn't need any, due to being stronger, faster and tougher than anyone else. He's not uncoordinated since he manages his absurd power, but compared to how absurdly strong he is, what precision he has is dwarfed by his strength in any combat situation.

* AdaptationalBadass: Due to the AdaptationExpansion of the manga, most of Saitama's battles against the various opponents are given more context compared to the webcomic, such as being able to bathe in lava with no ill effects and being able to bypass into Phoenixman's pocket dimension, "Phoenix Space". [[spoiler:Made even more overt with the manga version of his fight against Awakened Garou opening a new can of worms regarding Saitama’s power; previously the webcomic acted as if Saitama was someone who simply became too strong compared to literally everyone else, but the manga made it so that even if someone can actually match Saitama, i.e: Awakened Garou - Cosmic Fear Mode, he will simply grow stronger mid-fight to surpass even that, establishing Saitama’s strength as potentially infinite, not to mention it reveals he is actually a innate martial arts prodigy, if only he cared enough to learn it]].

* AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul: In line with Saitama being shown as just a tad little nicer and emotive in the manga than he ever was in the webcomic, Saitama’s care for Genos in the manga is eventually portrayed as considerably overtly than in the webcomic, originally it was largely implicit as Saitama humors Genos with his time by pretending to be his sensei, and later on in the webcomic Saitama spends time scouting with Genos when there’s nothings to gain from it; however, in the manga, by the climax of the Monster Association Arc, in the final showdown against [[spoiler:Awakened Garou - Cosmic Fear Mode, it was shown how much Saitama really cared about Genos, as his apparent death is enough to make Saitama beyond mad; in the aftermath, the time reversal’s events is also only perceived by Genos’ core, giving him an exclusive view of how much Saitama cares about him, in the webcomic Genos got no such special confirmation]].

** [[spoiler: This becomes less and less true as more and more people begin to notice his accomplishments and Saitama moves up the ranks, eventually becoming an A-class Hero in the webcomic.]]

** As Carnage Kabuto and Dr Genus found out the hard way, making him miss Bargain Day at the supermarket.

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Saitama deconstructs the type of shounen hero that [[FollowTheLeader flooded the genre]] after ''Franchise/DragonBall'' introduced Goku:

* DisasterDominoes: Inverted. By saving a butt-chinned boy from Crablante, father of boy funds Hero Assocation, making a lot of heroes in the procces. For better or worse, at least...

--->'''Saitama''': Those impurities you were talking about, have nothing to do with anything. Your name is Suiryu's right? You aren't the only one doing what he wants to do. I'll give you some advice too. If your goal is to have fun, I suggest you don't get any stronger.
** While he did only agree to being Genos' master on a whim, Saitama feels bad that he can't really offer the cyborg any valuable lessons to strengthen himself, and feels like he is scamming the poor guy. Neverless, he still provides to be a rather BadassTeacher who cares for his disciple well-being.

* ExperiencedProtagonist: He starts the webcomic with his renowned strength, endurance, and agility. And he explains to Genos in the House of Evolution that he became that strong via a training schedule.

** To Tatsumaki. Both are characters that have ArtShift between goofy webcomic and serious detailed appearancce, look non-threatening but have incredible power, and have a weaker student in Genos and Fubuki respectively, but they have some opposites: where Saitama had a normal life before becoming a hero, has a calm demeanor, is low ranking and gets no respect, and fights entirely physically, Tatsumaki had a traumatic past, is the moody and easily annoyed second highest rank in the Hero Association, and uses her psychic powers.

* RequiredSecondaryPowers: He possesses ''ridiculous'' control over his own power. He can punch any adversary just hard enough to either kill or incapacitate them instantly, obliterated a mountain range while leaving Genos unharmed at the end of their sparring match (when his fist had stopped right in front of Genos' face, no less), and can control his strength to the point where he can do everyday tasks without issue... mostly. He did break one of the buttons on King's handheld console, after all.
** And as pointed out above, other characters are quick to point out that Saitama's insistence that he somehow got his incredible strength by just training every day is just absurd. No normal human could gain the strength to do something like punch an entire mountain range to pieces in a single blow without something else getting involved.
** The strange part is that this seems to be an entirely subconscious ability. The first time he beat Garou, he hit him so hard that Garou's legs were embedded in the cement underneath him. Saitama didn't even know he was the hero hunter at the time and thought he was a common mugger. The thing is, if Saitama had hit any normal person with that blow, they would be very dead. Saitama not only missed this detail, but somehow knew just how hard to hit Garou to knock him out and not leave any permanent damage. If Saitama intends non-lethal damage, then 99% of the time, it's going to be non-lethal. It doesn't matter how strong or weak his opponent is.

'''''{{T|ropeCodifier}}he''''' ComicallyInvincibleHero.

-->'''Saitama''': [[DisappointedByTheMotive Are you an idiot? You can't just go around attacking other planets to liven up your boring little life.]] Even telemarketers wouldn't think of that.

-->'''Saitama''': Those impurities you were talking about, have nothing to do with anything. Your name is Suiryu's right? You aren't the only one doing what he wants to do. I'll give you some advice too. If your goal is to have fun, I suggest you don't get any stronger.

* BrutalHonesty: When it comes to dealing with other people, Saitama is as blunt and straightforward as a [[JustForPun punch]] to the face. He does not sugarcoat, shows zero delicacy in conversations, and just straight up dishes out a piece of his mind to whoever he actually bothers talking to, usually in short, concise sentences. Most of the time, those short sentences are more than enough to leave an everlasting impression on those he talks to, even long after he's done with them.

* {{Retcon}}: ONE previously established Saitama as getting by with his immeasurable physical strength. He has no coordination, and if he was a regular human, Saitama would be terrible at any sport. [[spoiler:In the webcomic, the Awakened Garou outright calls Saitama a total amateur in terms of fighting techniques. In the manga, however, Garou instead says that Saitama is an innate martial arts prodigy just like him, which Saitama proves by copying Garou's time reversal technique to end the fight]].

* {{Retcon}}: ONE has previously established Saitama truly gets by with his immeasurable physical strength, he has no coordination, if he was a regular human Saitama would be terrible at any sport, [[spoiler:in the Webcomic version Awakened Garou outright states he can see Saitama is a total amateur in refined fighting techniques, he is just so strong that his power can just triumph over any refined martial art, which fuels Saitama's complete dismissal of martial arts having any meaning to him; that narrative stays strong in the Webcomic, however, in the Manga version ONE decided to add a new layer for Saitama's unattainable enlightenment, at the end of Awakened Garou's fight he spells out that after copying Saitama's techniques he can now tell Saitama is an innate martial arts prodigy just like him, Saitama just never bothered to put his mind into it before; Saitama perfectly copying Awakened Garou's time reversal technique is vital to end the entire conflict]].

* FastestThingAlive: When serious, Saitama can move faster than light as shown when he outpaced Flashy Flash with barely any effort. The latter starts admiring Saitama.

Saitama is [[HeroProtagonist the main character of the series]], who on his way meets very various groups of people and monsters. Once an ordinary unemployed {{salaryman}}, Saitama was inspired to become a hero when he incidentally saved a butt-chinned boy from a crab monster with nothing but his necktie. He then underwent an intensely unhealthy training regimen for three years, increasing his strength exponentially - he got so powerful, in fact, that he lost all his hair. Now Saitama is so strong, no matter the opponent, [[OneHitKill he can defeat them with a single punch]]. Unfortunately, [[NoChallengeEqualsNoSatisfaction the complete lack of challenge that came as a result has also caused him to grow utterly bored with his life of super-heroism]].

-->'''Geryuganshoop''': Take a right, go up the stairs and wait there for further instructions.
-->'''Saitama''': [[ObfuscatingStupidity A... right?]]
-->'''Geryuganshoop''': E-e-exactly, a right!
-->''[beat]''
-->'''Saitama''': ''[unsettling laugh]'' I guess I'll go left then!

* AlwaysLate: Saitama is forever showing up late to one-shot the giant monsters that have been laying waste to the city, mostly as a DramaPreservingHandicap.

* TheParagon: Downplayed since he's far from an ideal hero, but he still inspires various people to do better.

** [[spoiler:'''A-Class: Rank 39''' after defeating [[HeroKiller Garou]].]]