One Punch Man

Funny you posted that, because there's a new chapter of the webcomic live today.

Murata has mentioned that he's been feeling the pressure of drawing the manga on a bi-weekly schedule. I wonder if he might eventually push for a once-a-month format. His health needs to be a priority.

Murata has been taking a lot on himself, given how many pages of detailed art he was churning out. The extensive redraws certainly didn't help his workload either.

Come to think of it, it's been almost a year since the climax of the Monster Association arc and that massive retcon.

Still have to wonder what that was all about.

Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on May 25th 2023 at 2:41:43 PM

Yeah, that was weird. I wonder what happened behind the scenes there.

I doubt we'll really know for a good long while, assuming we ever do.

It's strange to me, because I would assume that ONE has a lot of control over this, and that any rewrites of the script are primarily by his discretion. So what I don't get is why take something that was working well and change it so dramatically? The only real reason I can think of is to establish Blast a lot earlier in the manga as compared to the webcomic, where he hasn't even appeared yet outside of flashbacks. God's role was expanded as well, but the webcomic did that fine on its own without the need for God-Garou.

I really can't help but wonder about the path not taken, where Saitama and second form Garou sit down and have a talk. That certainly would've been more in keeping with the tone the webcomic was going for.

Cosmic Fear Mode would still have likely happened, though I see it as being Retconned due to Murata and ONE not knowing how to transition to it in a way that felt natural.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on May 25th 2023 at 6:13:32 AM

Now that the webcomic chapter has been translated, some thoughts:

Lightning Max losing both his feet was pretty brutal, but it's nice to see that Mumen Rider making the save. It's sad that the Neo Heroes higher-ups have already proven to be just as shady as the Hero Association ones, because there are people on the ground on both sides that just want a better, safer life for people in general. It's the higher-ups that are shady as hell and mostly out for it for themselves.

I wonder to what degree there is an aspect of emotional and/or mental manipulation to the Neo heroes, since, aside of Mumen Rider (but again he is a paagon of justice) the rest of them feel odd. And even with Axel (nice synergy between manga and webcomic with him being in both on the latest chapter, by the way) thinking about a noble goal, his actions and words don't fully match that, so I wouldn't be surprised if later on they turn into soilders to whoever is behind the Neo heroes.

It is all but stated that at the very least they're turning people into cyborgs, and not everyone that was turned gave consent or was even in the condition to. Not to mention that some of the people we see are more cyber-zombies than actual people anymore. So yeah, the Neo Heroes might have better press than the Heroes Association at the moment, but seem to be even shadier. The Heroes Association isn't great either, but at least they don't seem actively malicious in their treatment of heroes.

Haven't we seen that many of the monsters the Neo Heroes beat are fake and designed to die easily from Neo Hero attacks? I suspect that these robots are the same, the Neo Heroes aren't nearly as strong as they look, the robots are just designed to die when attacked by them.

Small wonder the Neo Heroes look better to the public. They're employing Engineered Heroics. The Heroes' Association may have fewer victories and more losses, but at least their victories are real.

I think that's true, it's been years since I read new chapters of the webcomic, but I remember something like that coming up. Child Emperor was dissecting a monster that the Neo Heroes killed and found it had mechanical parts, making it artificially stronger or weaker when receiving a signal. If I remember correctly. And the theory goes that those monsters were made by Metal Knight, which seems to be supported by the monster that Genos killed last chapter.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on May 30th 2023 at 2:28:31 AM

New manga chapter out, mostly just checking in on characters. No translation yet. Flashy is looking for Manako, Darkshine still sees his scars, even though his body has long since healed, Kid Emperor confronts the still living Phoenix Man who seems to be behaving himself for the moment, and Genos is showing off his upgrades. Man, Tanktop Master can just never catch a break though.

Flashy Flash is investigating "God" it seems. Glad to see one person in the HA who has his head in the game and is looking at the big picture. The others could learn from him.

Wait, that guy is still alive? I though he died after taking his costume off.

Darkshine is not well. Those are some nasty scars both on his body and mind.

Tank-top Master keeps collecting L's. Now he gets shown up by Genos of all people.

Webcomic update. Mostly just the Neo Heroes cleaning shop.

You know, I could ship Darkshine and Captain Mizuki. A Bulky Muscular man who feels like he's a shell of his former self due to battle trauma, comforted and healed by a petite (by his standards) but still athletic and Kind lady like Captain Mizuki.

Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on May 31st 2023 at 10:48:30 AM

Though the fact she seems to think of him as her senpai does complicate things. It's not exactly an equal pairing.

It'd be better if something similar happened without romance being the result.

Edited by M84 on May 31st 2023 at 10:51:03 PM

I mean, it does depend on the reason why Mizuki calls him Darkshine senpai. Maybe she just admires him as top athletic hero, being inderectly an example for her. Or maybe they actually went to high-school together and they were actual senpai and kouhai there. It could just even be that she calls the S-ranks senpai due to being strongest. Not that either case really makes me feel like it causes enough of an imbalance to make things weird, at least for me.

Well, it does for me.

Fair enough, if it was boss and employee, I would possibly find it concerning, but not the hypotetical discussed. Anyways, I'll respect your point of view.

And Darkshine does have a higher position in the organization. Any hypothetical relationship would probably require one of them to leave the organization first.

In the webcomics at least, Darkshine does retire from the organization and joins the Neo Heroes as one of their trainers.

Was planning to leave this be, but an idea struck my head. I don't think having a higher rank as a hero makes them the boss of lower rank heroes. There are cases where some do take leadership or mentorship roles (Fubuki and Tanktop Master being the clearest examples) in which them being bosses does apply; but, as an example, I wouldn't say King is Mumen Rider's boss just because he is ranked higher. The people in charge of the heroes, like big-nose guy, are their bosses, and any of them being in a relationship with an active hero would be weird.

Also, since you find the pairing of Darkshine/Mizuki uncomfortable, do you also find Saitama x Tatsumaki/Fubuki/Genos weird, considering he has been at a lower (or higher in Fubuki's case) ranking than them? (You don't need to answer if you don't want to, since I really prefer avoiding discussing things in a way that can leads to conflict. I'm here for fun, not to make people angry.)

Edited by Shadow-Whisperer on May 31st 2023 at 12:16:55 PM

Just the Genos relationship since Genos explicitly looks up to Saitama as a mentor figure. Saitama's more like a big brother to Genos. Tatsumaki and Fubuki by contrast don't have that kind of connection to Saitama. The fact that Genos' rank in the organization is technically the higher one kind of makes it more complicated.

In a situation where one looks up to the other and is of a lower official rank than the other, the unequal dynamics are a bit more obvious.

And just because one isn't officially the boss doesn't make it iffy. There's a reason co-workers usually are discouraged from dating.

Edited by M84 on Jun 1st 2023 at 2:15:50 AM

Hmm... I think this goes beyond different points of view, and could be due to cultural differences. As far as I have seen and heard, Tacoland/Mexico doesn't really have problems with workplace relationships, unless it involves clear harrasment from either part. The only job with a rule against relationships had it due to produtivity issues, and didn't do anything beyond warnings or discounting hours if caught flirting openly (and some people didn't care). So, maybe that's why we haven't come to an agreement on this, cultural differences affecting how we see the topic.

Lets end that topic here, and change gears back into topic. So Manako is pink, huh? That, and the fact she most likely will get a voice actress, probably means they are going to have to change the joke in the anime when she appears, from: "How was Saitma supposed to know manako was a girl if she looks like Mike Wazowski?" to "Ha, Saitama are Flashy Flash are kinda dumb due to not realizing thatshe obviously was a girl", or something like that.

Manga version, Chapter 184, out in Japan. another 1:1 recreation of a webcomic chapter, Genos and Saitama sparring to test Genos' newest body, and Saitama completely shrugging Genos' upgrades off as looking anything but a brighter lightbulb, then Genos does some exposition about the Neo Heroes and how he has been scouted by them, giving serious thoughts about joining them, and inviting Saitama to go with him, the gag of course being Saitama thinking that is too much of hassle so he refuses, Genos immediately backtracks on his thoughts and says he won't leave the Hero Association either.

Although the webcomic accuracy is now weird with Saitama still wanting Genos to get out of his home, after the manga made Saitama so much better acquainted with Genos than he was ever portrayed to be in the webcomic.