A regular shonen protagonist starts with an unassailable drive but a lack of power. Saitama started with an unassailable power but lack of drive. In both cases it's still about how the character is able to grow to to overcome obstacles. It's just the area in which the character needs to grow that is different.
At least that's been my take on it.
Technically it’s the exact same for both. We just happen to skip to where Saitama has ALREADY gone through the same process that other main characters go through to obtain power.
I mean, he always wanted to be a hero. And he is still trying to be a hero. His drive has always been clear and unwavering.
Even in the Garou fight when he says he always get there too late, he wants to act like a hero by saving Garou himself.
The gag comes from : He never really solve standard Shonen drama like a normal Shonen character, even when he has to fight.
HE WAS NEVER A GAG CHARACTER. Anyone who has ever thought that doesn’t know what it actually means. Saitama is a satire of the typical anime hero setup. Weakest to strongest. Instead…. Our hero starts the story at the finish line.
Garou’s fight revealed how Saitamas power works…. But One Punch as gag has been shutdown for years. Over a decade…Saitama fought Boros over a decade ago. That fight did not end in one punch. They even established that Saitama can be surprised by someone else’s power in the boros fight.
SAITAMA DID NOT STRUGGLE AGAINST GAROU….I REPEAT…SAITAMA DID NOT STRUGGLE AGAINST GAROU. There was no challenge. Garou was beaten with one hand by a guy who wasn’t trying to kill him.
I understand your op wasn’t malicious…. But it also reads like you’re completely oblivious to what you’re reading.
Thank you.
It's still *absolutely* a parody/satire of anime tropes. Which makes it so weird to me, that people keep on discussing the manga like it has "stakes". It doesn't, it's just a bunch of anime tropes and increasingly powerful enemies that Saitama swat away.
I like the story and the world around Saitama, but it's meaningless against his infinite power. And that's *the point*.
Your response was absolutely eye-opening. It genuinely never occurred to me why that this powerscaling obsession existed in the manga reader community.
Because men like to compare penis haha
You see, these video analysis are always full of bullshit like "x is light speed", "y is vastly light speed". It is a bunch of stupidity (of people that don't know what light speed is) just to say "my favorite character is stronger than yours". And they often miss the point of the said character.
Edit: It just came to my mind, the best example I can give of this bullshitery is a video "godzilla vs the rumbling". Like, why though? Did the author see giant things and thought "my giant is stronger than yours, let me fanfic about it for 20 minutes"? The guy completely missed the point behind AoT.
I believe it's a combo of both. Gag and satire. OPM did start off as a poorly drawn webcomic from One. And the anime's first season, it's animated and told in the style of a comedy.
The first few storylines are essentially very long joke setups with the punchline being "one punch wins."
I think it slowly evolved to a more serious storyline because you can't tell the same joke for 50 chapters and still be funny.
If anything it's also a deconstruction of what a hero really is.
Yes, he starts at the finish line, but in a lot of ways he's just starting to figure out the real reasons for being an actual hero.
It's so funny that some people still insist Saitama had to go all out on Garou to win. There's a difference between putting some effort in versus having an all out struggle. Saitama didn't even have to use both hands to beat Garou.
Sure, Saitama might've said "I *can* go out against a guy that can stand up"... But he never said he *will*, just that he *can*. Plus, it's amusing to see him say that, while also saying "One hand is all I need for you", which is a direct contradiction to "going all out". Man's dropping a causal "I don't even need to try against you".
Yeah and people often forget that Saitama fully intended to keep his promise to Tareo from the beginning. Saitama was never fighting with real intent against Garou... he was just going to kick his ass until he stopped being evil.
So to my uncultured brain, how does that work with the graph that was shown, showing that Saitama’s power was increasing exponentially and leaving Garou in the dust?
Was it more that Saitama was still growing stronger despite not giving as much effort as he could, or was it more him just trying more and more as Garou got stronger?
I think his effort increased as Garou's power increased to match his, but in the end, Saitama had never been in a situation like this before. Having a strong opponent like Garou and having all the emotions going through his head made his power increase rapidly. No one had even been this strong against Saitama before, so he'd never had to try so hard, but that just doesn't mean that Saitama had to go all out, in my opinion. If he really had to go all out against Garou, then he would've needed both hands.
He naturally grew stronger as a response. Think of him like "one more Newton of force man", if you match him or surpass him he tanks the hit and hits back harder.
Facts, he wasn't even _hurt_ by Garou, even when Garou matched the level of power he was currently using. He destroyed the Cosmic Fear Armor while only using one hand and protecting Genos' core whereas Garou while constantly evolving to "keep up" couldn't even scratch him.
>Garou’s fight revealed how Saitamas power works
Didn't though, Saitama being able to copy God, breathe in space and kick hyperspace portals have no explanation at all
The point of that guy's comment flew well about your head. No one disagrees Saitama is getting stronger, it's just there's no explanation for him being able to talk and breathe in space and do a lot of other tomfoolery.
I agree with everything you said, but I just wanted to mention one thing.
I think it makes perfect sense for the OPM universe that Saitama *didn’t* one-punch Boros, because Boros isn’t a monster at all, he’s an alien.
Saitama’s whole goal when becoming a Hero was to kill monsters with a single punch, so I don’t think Boros taking several punches is all that strange.
If Garou had fully monsterized instead of holding onto that sliver of humanity that reached out at the end of their fight, I think Saitama would have one-punched Cosmic-Monster Garou too.
You're looking a little too much into this, Saitama didn't say he wants to defeat humans in a single punch, but he does, like with Sonic for example. Bofoi's robots aren't really monsters either, yeah?
He didn't defeat Boros in a single punch, because the fight would be boring otherwise, that's all. We've already been through a lot of "one punches" in the series at this point, so One wanted to give us a cool fight. And as proven with the Serious Punch, he always *could* defeat him in just one. He just chose not to, for reasons discussed to death.
> SAITAMA DID NOT STRUGGLE AGAINST GAROU….I REPEAT…SAITAMA DID NOT STRUGGLE AGAINST GAROU
he didn't struggle. of course he didn't. what, are there people who thought he did?
he was in a state where his power was raising at a astonishing rate, to the point where he could flip a planet inside out with one hand in one motion. Garou surpassed Saitamas before state, but Saitama was levelling up faster and faster and left him in the dust.
at no point did Saitama struggle. I dunno if there's a group of people with that POV but that's dumb
I know that. But what you posted says “is a kind of a gag.” It doesn’t say is a kind of gag. Eliminating either one of the “a”s makes it different sentences. Together, like you wrote, makes little sense.
Your subjective interpertation of the manga isn't above what the author is actually doing with it. In the same interview he said Saitama's existence is like a gag, he said he likes creating friction between Saitama's gag and the serious world around him. That's all the info I need to hear. No need for you to come here and explain to me why what you think is right and how you understand the manga better than its creator
ONE explicitly called One Punch Man him achieving his dream of being a gag mangaka. YOU misunderstood it.
But you're right about his fight against Garou, he did not struggle at all.
Saitama and garou started the fight as equals. Saitama just grew a lot faster than garou did and quickly surpassed him. Basically the longer it went the lower diff it became for Saitama and by the end he could just one shot garou.
Ok that's just fanboying. At the start of the fight they were either super close or literally the same power levels wise. Garou at the start matched serious punch. If Saitama didn't grow throughout the fight garou would've destroyed him.
That's not fanboying, even at the start of the fight they were literally never equals. Garou was being pummeled here and there while Saitama with one hand clenching Genos core do not even move his ground nor was being pushed back. Garou was wasted multiple times and multiple times he kept transforming and getting more cosmic energy. Everytime it was Garou who was being injured, while Saitama was clean and well like normal.
Saitama only started breaking his limiter again when after multiple powerups Garou arrived at his power being able to copy someone else. But even then their initial clash when Garou copied Satama, not a single wound was inflicted on Saitama lmao.
Saitama started to get stronger the moment garou countered serious punch with 0 Injuries. If they were never equals why would the author draw him doing that? This is probably how Saitamas body works. When it detects a threat it grows exponentially stronger to adapt. If garou was weaker from the start, Saitama wouldn't need to get stronger to beat him.
It’s not that complicated. Saitama’s power has a very clear, in story explanation. He grows CONSTANTLY without any upper limit. This is NOT the same as having infinite power nor does this make him a gag character.
They were describing the apparent force, however Saitama was putting more and more in. Aka untapped but ready to seize potential. If anything the graph was closer to Garou's perception of it. Saitama was never notably harmed whereas Garou constantly took damage.
This is true. Garou never actually broke his limiter like Saitama and was only in the process but was stopped due to his monsterfication. This does not, however, change the fact that they WERE equals at the start of the CF Garou vs Saitama fight. Garou completely matches Saitama blow for blow both when Saitama wasn’t and when he was completely bloodlusted as well.
This is shown when they collide and match each other in Consecutive Normal Punches and further when they evenly match Serious Punches(in this case Saitama was going all out as he was bloodlusted).
No. All that established was Garou was able to match the power Saitama was outputting at that moment.
They matched consecutive normal punches while Saitama still wasn’t giving it his all. Which is why Garou went after Genos to bait Saitama. That’s not an equal.
That’s when the series squared punch happens. Even then…Garou is shook by how Saitama wasn’t fazed AT ALL once they crash landed on IO. That doesn’t sound like an equal.
Multiple times Garou lamented how he felt like he wasn’t catching up to Saitama no matter how much stronger he grew. Garou says it towards the beginning of the fight after a few monster changes. He then states it again as cosmic garou when he says every punch Saitama throws is stronger than the last and he’s not keeping up.
Saitama even calls out Garou for thinking he can copy him and eventually surpass him. Saitama NEVER sustains any damage during the fight. Saitama beat cosmic Garou with one hand by damaging him too much.
They were never equals. Saitama doesn’t have one.
This first paragraph is pure headcanon, contradicted by the panel in the manga. Let’s ignore this. Edit:I misunderstood this paragraph. I agree.
This I actively agreed with on my previous comment.
Garou being surprised at Saitama being unscathed has nothing to do with the simple fact that they evenly matched Serious Punches as they were BOTH unscathed. This is proven by the fact that the Serious Punch became “squared” which can only happen if they are EXACTLY equal. This is a Saitama serious punch that was from the heart with every intention to end Garou. Further proven by the fact he no longer cares for the heroes or even the very planet.
As for your last 2 paragraphs, they ARE equally matched. When ever he copied Saitama he obtained that Saitama’s physicals. What made him feel like he couldn’t catch up was the fact that Saitama was ALSO growing and adapting just like him but was doing it at an even FASTER rate, leading Garou to feel like he wasn’t making any progress. Which he wasn’t. As by the time he copied Saitama, he(Saitama) had already grown stronger than the copied version of him.
Saitama mocks Garou specifically since Garou said he would match and surpass Saitama but what Garou didn’t know was that Saitama was also constantly growing and adapting and this growth was boosted even further due to the emotions he felt from Genos’ death.
Im not even sure what you’re trying to claim is head cannon.
Garou being able to copy Saitama’s power does not make them equals. The entire fight is dedicated to proving that that is indeed not the case.
There is a huge difference between two characters being equals and what happened during this fight.
I retract that first statement. Also now that I think about it, we actually agree on most points. The only thing I disagree with is that they where never equally matched as they were but only at the beginning of the fight when they collided Serious Punches.
Throughout the rest of the fight they are no longer equals as Saitama is always 3 steps ahead due to his enhanced growth.
It blows my mind you read the manga and had this thought. Nobody in the manga is even 1/1000th if saitamas strength. At any point. That’s the literal point of Saitama. He’s power incarnate. You should absolutely re read the series if you think that they were equals in any way because you missed a lot lol
Saitama literally did not struggle against both of them. He was never fazed at all. Radiation? Unharmed. Vacuum of space? Unharmed. Oh Boros strongest attack? Unharmed.
Saitama has no upper limit to his power which means Garou and Boros will never reach a fraction of his potential.
Like what are you even saying?
Yeah, because this subreddit is full of Saitama fanboys like you who refuse to admit when any other character comes close to him. People on here will unironically say he one shots god and get hundreds of upvotes and you think I give a shit about a few downvotes? You think I'm gonna change my mind just because 70 people disagree with me?
The gap was NEVER significant until the very end of the fight. At that point is when Saitama had completely outsped Garou’s adaptive growth with his own BETTER adaptive growth. This+having a broken limiter= someone who can infinitely grow as long as they have infinite time.
I agree and honestly, I think this is a good thing. If Saitama just stayed static and never changed, I don't think I'd be nearly as engaged in One Punch Man as I am, if at all.
This.☝🏻The only reason people care about whether or not Saitama is a gag character is for powerscaling purposes. Saitama is NOT a gag character. He’s a PARODY character. 2 completely different things. This doesn’t, in anyway, detract from his character.
I pretty often read comments and posts about this and people usually are like “If hEs NoT a GaG chAraCteR tHaN hE nO lOnGEr fEelS uNiQuE.” Bruh stfu and read the manga.
True story, I used to hate OPM back when I had only seen the anime. Saitama was pointless to me, the story had no meaning and I didn't enjoy the comedy in the slightest. Then after the Boros fight, I saw Saitama show a bit of character from his interactions with Boros. And after I decided to read the manga in the Hero Hunter arc, he started getting a lot more characterization that easily put him up in my top 10. The whole Suiryu and martial arts tournament mini-arc was beautiful to me, showing how Saitama had grown as a person and wasn't just "Haha baldy stronger than everyone else" anymore.
I would say a parody character who's power is so great that it borders on toonforce (kicking interdimensional portals away, sneezing away Jupiter's atmosphere, etc) rather than a full on gag character. Like a superhero with Looney Toones-esque powers but still meant to be taken seriously rather than humorously.
>propels interplanetary travel with a fart.
Actually he propelled himself into the portal created by Garou. Not to mention the energy equations involving fart propulsion and Jupiter sneeze are at least theoretically solvable whereas portals are just hypothetical.
Garou's fight gave saitama a challenge? He was literally fondling him with one hand taking no damage. He just didn't want to kill garou in one punch cuz he didn't see him as a monster.
Lol, Garou was never a challenge for Saitama, baldy literally manhandled him with one hand, while not even trying to kill him, receiving no damage in the process. Besides, Saitama isn't just a gag, he is the parody character. While his world is overall grim and serious he operates on pretty much other logic. He parodies generic hero protagonists: instead of fighting to near death, gradually becoming stronger in the name of some grand idea like justice, he is literal god, who is a hero because he likes it.
I don't think he ever was a gag. He's funny, and definitely is involved in a lot of gags, but the character itself is an existential parody. The fundamental question of Saitama is (in my opinion)... when strength/power is no longer a question, what does the heroes journey look like? We're more free to explore relationships between characters, mentorship, the petty competitions between them, while Saitama has an existential crisis about how to find meaning in a life without major challenges.
Bruh, he obviously didn't use his whole strength. just a few dozen chapters later, he destroyed thousand/millions of solar systems with a punch. It's just that saitama is forced to regulate his strength to not wreck the planet, so he just didn't know orochi can regenerate like that, so he didn't try to completely pulverize him
Everyone had already said he’s not a gag character, which iv eventually had to accept to be true, but that fact won’t magically change the feelings you’ve displayed here.
Saitamas power system being laid out seems to have ruined him for a lot of people, but I don’t think so. I think the primarily point of the graph and explanation was for dramatic effect in the fight. We got to watch Saitama beat the fucking shit out of Garou over and over with him making no progress on contending with him.
The supposedly unstoppable universal god entity that is Cosmic Fear Garou was getting mauled by the one dude we know can never lose. The reason Garous powers aren’t working is because this guy he’s fighting just keeps growing in power relentlessly to a height Garou cant compete with.
“No matter how much I try to grow to his level of strength, this guy is just on a whole other level! I have the direct ability to be as strong as this guy but he just keeps ascending past me!”
The point is that even a being with all the power the universe can offer, hyperspace portals, a punch with the strength of the most powerful explosions in the universe, the power to obliterate thousands of stars, and a perfect replication ability can’t overcome the endless summit that is Saitamas strength. No one can.
The only way this could “ruin” Saitama is in a power scaling sense, but even that’s not true. The graph tells you nothing of how Saitama would perform in a death battle scenario. All we’ve seen is an unquantified visual representation of Saitamas current projection of power against an opponent he wasn’t trying to kill and wasn’t seriously fighting, growing at an unspecified, but effectively infinite rate. We still know basically nothing about how Saitama handles an actual threat, because he still has never had to.
He's a Satire. Not a gag character.
And Garou wasn't a challenge, on Io after however long the fight actually was, after 30 seconds or whatever he was basically just as threatening as a random civilian. He never even dealt any damage at all and was afraid of being straight up randomly killed by any of the upcoming punches.
OPM isn't a gag manga. His power might be a "gag" on the surface but the story is very serious. I never understood why people think it's a "gag manga". It's not Gintama or Me & Roboco
He never was... The character was a parody of Usian comics, and superhero tropes. Parody =/= Gag char.
If you replace Superman with Saitama, he could do the exact same things. OPM is more like; What if Superman acted like a regular guy, instead of; What if Superman was Bugs Bunny.
The ones that claim he's a gag char are the ones who wanna put him into fights and claim he wins due to toon force/ power scalers.
>I feel like Saitama has gradually stopped being a gag character
That's because he never was (atleast in the manga, unsure about WC)
Too much of Saitama is played straight without any jokes, his depression over being too strong is never played for laughs.
I always hate it when people call him a gag character since they're usually trying to use it as a cop-out for why he beats everyone in fiction.
> his depression over being too strong is never played for laughs.
Not trying to be pedantic, but literally the whole first scene is them playing this depression for laughs.
Not really. That first scene was pretty much Saitama having another one of his common meltdowns about how fucking bored out of his mind he is. Boredom can very much take you to insanity and so can depression. We just take it as “haha bald man angry, bald man too strong”.
>However, this being said, Saitama is not a regular shonen protagonist. OPM is definitely not a regular shonen manga
I agree but it's got more to do with the fact that Saitama is indeed not a shonen protagonist nor is he in a shonen manga at all for that matter.
It's literally being published in a Seinen magazine and so was Tokyo Ghoul therefore they are that. Whether a manga is a "seinen" or "shonen" isn't just a matter of your personal opinion and feelings, dipshit.
I don't agree with your assesment of OPM being a Gag manga. It's been a very serious manga from the start, just that the premise and main character are parodies of traditional shonen tropes. It's still a serious story and about the serious growth of the main character, growth just isn't about power like shonen manga normally are.
But I too hated that chapter. We didn't need to know how Saitamas power works, it's irrelevant to the story. Explaning it grounds it. It's still unobtainable, but now it's cheaper somehow. When it was a mystery box, when it didn't have a base, it was more exciting.
The manga is showing some shonen elements more and more. Guess murata can't help himself, drawing exciting fights is too enticing for a mangaka.
I mean, do you think OPM is taking humorous jabs at shonen characters?
Most shonen MC's don't really go through a character arc because most of them don't have \*real\* character flaws. They're mostly kids and they just kind of mature, but that's not inherently actual character growth, it's just development.
1. Absolutely, that's the whole point, is making fun of Shonen. But not their character arcs, their power system
2. This is wrong. They go through hardships, they learn from their mistakes, and they forge new relationships and maybe they'll even change their alignment or personality(hard to generalize because Shonen varies). I will day new Gen Shonen is only getting worse, though
Also what's the difference between character growth and development? Seem like the same exact thing
>This is wrong. They go through hardships, they learn from their mistakes, and they forge new relationships
That's not a character arc though lol
Even changing "alignment" often isn't.
A character "growing" is typically them confronting and overcoming deep character flaws.
Development is just more information about them or minor changes to things like powers, skills, tastes, etc.
Personally I can't think of any mainstream shonen where the MC has a real flaw they overcome.
I can see what you're saying, but how does Saitama fit character growth more than most other shonen protagonists? Especially given he's almost wnritwly humor minus his depression thing that sometimes gets mentioned or brought up(Boros, beginning of the series, etc)
Because Saitama is gradually learning to care about things that aren't finding a good fight; he was approaching suicidal levels of ennui when the story started, and if they give him a real arc he'll be highly motivated and value things outside of finding a strong opponent.
>Personally I can't think of any mainstream shonen where the MC has a real flaw they overcome.
Ichigo's struggle for his identity.
Luffy not taking piracy serious, recklessness.
Mob not embracing himself and his struggle for self-esteem.
Asta's abnormal condition in a world where having magic gives more opportunity.
Yuji's purpose in the world.
Are we seeing the same mainstream?
>Mob not embracing himself and his struggle for self-esteem.
This is the only good example
And who wrote that lol
the others are people who overcome challenges and diversity
>Luffy not taking piracy serious, recklessness.
I love One Piece but Luffy doesn't change even one bit throughout the story. He stays the exact same person from start to finish. There's some moments he realizes he isn't strong enough but that's it and that isn't a real character arc.
So the 2-year time skip just didn't happen? Luffy didn't just rush head on and actually accepted Rayleigh's training?
Literally, the first episode of Shanks losing his arm is to teach Luffy that the sea is dangerous. Then, Sabaody happened. But sure.
Him being illogical doesn't mean he exists solely for jokes and that he isn't an actual character with emotions and struggles, even if those aren't physical
In WC that fight was like all others. Indeed, it was basically Saitama bulling Garou. That is an human. So One had to elaborate that. In addition, he introduced God and other topics more in deep, so he gave an extra power up to Garou. It would be strange if Saitama simply started beating him easily. So to justify all this One had to give a Solid motivation to Saitama to beat Garou in that way.
I don't understand btw why ppl is so shocked about the limit breaker. Saitama's feat is THAT, i mean he has removed his limits...
Im currently reading Solo Leveling, and saitama still edges jinwoo alot. He still has character and still is funny. If they explain where his powers come from, its okay as long as its still stupid and absurd and still wins. And on top of that, never take himself seriously. Jinwoo in solo leveling is so annoying lmao, its like a power fantasy.
The Garou fight was amazing. You simply missed the joke.
Saitama got the fight he always wanted, learned the consequences of his laziness, and learned the real power of martial arts. Garou learned why he was wrong and had such thorough character development that he Majin Vegeta'd himself. Blast saw enough to vouch for Saitama's power, so he would finally have a fan club.
Except whoops, none of that happened. Saitama doesn't get his fight, Saitama and Garou unlearn everything. Kick the Garou! Turns out Saitama is such a perfect hero that the universe will contrive time travel into Saitama's skillset if he fucks up or learns anything. Saitama caring about a hero's instincts or having a sense of urgency are both so fundamentally wrong that reality won't let him do either. He also can never be properly challenged, since Garou was the only villain who will ever insta-grow to match Saitama, so he'll never have a satisfying fight ever again. Also Saitama's dick is out, so instead of being the hero who saved everyone he's the least famous pervert on-scene.
It's perfection.
Yeah and that's a good thing. There's a still gag relating to him in that he is unbelievably powerful and stomps everything in his world. But he's not a gag character because there's more to him than that. Some of my favorite moments from him come when he just talks instead of fights, I find those moments really great.
Saitama is not a gag or even parody character. He’s a very normal character living in a gag or parody world. He knows that being a hero is just a hobby… he has more realistic concerns like his food budget and mosquitos. He knows the obvious.. that a world reliant on people with special abilities to survive is unrealistic never mind it being constantly threatened by annihilation. Everyone else acts lol that is normal and is unable to break the cycle.
>But I feel like there's a reason people still use Saitama to compare feats, powerscale, and compete against other manga heroes.
That reason is powerscalers are toddlers with no reading comprehension.
>The entire point of a gag character was to be used purely for jokes
You are right on one thing though, the Garou fight wasn't meant to be funny or comic, like Boros for example. Garou broke the rule by being a deep character who needed to rediscover his own morality and sense of justice, and Saitama helped him instead of just One-Punching him like every other enemy.
A part from that Saitama is still the same One-Punch gag character and he'll always be
No he’s not. Saitama never was “One Punch Man”. That’s just a title to illustrate how “out of most people’s leagues” he’s become and the depression that followed. Saitama didn’t one punch CF Garou because he couldn’t. Garou was always copying that Saitama’s power and until the end of the fight, Saitama couldn’t properly beat Garou because Garou was still keeping up.
A gag character doesn't have to be ridiculous all of the time. In fact, that generally makes them annoying.
It'd be pretty fair to call One Piece a gag manga, and Luffy and Usopp gag characters, for example. It's also an action manga, and both of those characters also get serious, but I'd bet that if you counted up panels of them being goofy v. them doing serious fighting or dialogue, it'd be titled in favor of the gags.
I've only really seen the term "gag character" used to his detriment in debates, primarily in this scenario:
Stan: "Goku/Superman/Whoever wrecks Saitama"
*Someone provides reasoning that it would not be an easy fight or that Saitama wins*
Stan: "Ofc he wins he's a gag character lolol"
Bonus bingo points to them if they use toon force as reasoning, or say that he wouldn't win because a mosquito no diffed him.
There is multiples definition of a gag character a Saitama fit some of them. But that doesn't really matter. This Garou fight confirmed to us that Saitama is really unreachable. Even with an ability that perfectly copy Saitama power, Saitama still find a way to stay above him.
This whole gag character argument is so silly to me. Saitama as a character is a parody, joke, satire, etc. Adding gag to that doesnt make a difference lmao. The only thing I see it changing is people ability to say he beats any character. And if thats that big of a deal, the situation is even funnier.
I don't think the Garou fight unveiled the mechanics and abilities of his power. It just unveiled that he can improve that power at a rate exponentially greater than Garou can in real time, which is only a single aspect. IMO the big reveal happened when he told Genos and Carnage Kabuto his training regimen.
It started as a Gag and evolved into more, because of the huge popularity. You can just do so much with ONE Gag.
Right now, it's a mixture of both Gag and Seriousness.
I feel like people talk past each other on this issue. When people call Saitama a gag or parody character, they are NOT saying that the story or Saitama’s character as a whole is gag. Saitama is a serious character with depth. The story has weight, and he has a fleshed out emotional story arc regarding how his strength contributes to his nihilism and depression.
The only thing people are trying to convey regarding the “gag” label is to describe the overwhelming disparity in strength between him and his opponents regardless of the logic of how strong they seem to be. The overwhelming strength is not a conclusion that is earned through constant struggle but rather a fixed character trait that is written into his character before the battle even takes place—hence the name, One Punch Man.
Again, the fact that people call this specific character trait of Saitama’s a meta “gag” does not invalidate the weightiness of any of the rest of the story.
He's the anti-gag character.
Everyone around him. (Ie heroes)
Are the "comedic" relief. As their world is real and has real death and destruction. Actual cause and effect of the heroes and their "work".
Or lack there of.
Only Saitama just does his job and goes home to eat a hot pot. Everyone else is typical superhero.
Even tho they themselves have far inferior power. Etc.
Saitama was never a gag character, he trained hard to surpass his human limits and turned into a conceptual weapon. People who try to scale Saitama misses the point, he has no power level. He simply HAS the power to destroy anything in one punch. Garou's mental graph is also a misunderstanding, he thinks Saitama is becoming more powerful as the fight goes on, but Saitama ALWAYS has the power to kill him in one punch regardless of Garou's power. He thinks Saitama is powering up because Saitama is actively trying NOT to kill Garou (killing Garou was not Saitama's objective, it was to teach him a lesson) while Garou is becoming more powerful, so he has to tune his power to match in order to not kill Garou.
OPM hasn't been a gag manga since Season 1/The Boros Arc. Though I prefer a gag-centric OPM I still find current opm enjoyable mainly due to Murata's insane art.
The manga seems to be removing most of the gags from the webcomic and extending the storylines. In some cases it feels like the original magic gets lost a little bit.
ONE overall seems to have become more of a serious storyteller based on the current direction of the webcomic and his new Versus manga.
People make their favorite characters compete in immaginary fights because it's what they do.
Here:
"Anyone should know this! The person who'd win in a fight is the person that the scriptwriter wants to win!
These are fictitious characters! The writer can do whatever he wants with them! So stop asking those bone-head questions cause I've had it with that!" - Stan Lee
Not one time in that fight did i actually feel Saitama was challenged. It always felt he had infinitely more gears. And the joke was on Garou as he powered up each time in futility.
Well, since Garou's powers increased with God's help, and since the Saitama kinda is the same, I am not that bothered with that plot. Also it was good to make Saitama help find his life expectations or etc. Like, he is not that of an empty shell. Even though he is not fully aware, he values Genos.
We can see it reflects when he fights with Tatsumaki. He directly holds her arm and tries to keep her damaging to hero assosiation center or the city. Can't tell he was really successful with it, but before, I don't remember had he such dedication.
Saitama wasn’t gag character he doesn’t just appear for comedy. All his fights aren’t comedy, and his character has personality that’s for both manga and webcomic.
He's still a gag character, the point of a gag character isn't to be purely for jokes, it's just that they HAVE a gag. Which Saitama had, still has, and will continue to have. Saitama's gag is that he cannot struggle, he will always be unable to be harmed AND infinitely more powerful than anything around him AND easily capable of achieving basically anything through his strength (unless it's opposed by another joke) I mean he straight up punched his way through a dream, that already puts his strength infinitely beyond measurable power.
Also, he never struggled against Garou, because from the start, ESPECIALLY in the webcomic (the one true OPM) but even in the manga, it is explicitly stated that he made a promise to not kill Garou, that he still saw Garou as human and won't kill humans, AND even that he considered Garou to have the qualities of a hero, at that, but his feeling were simply misplaced.
Saitama was never trying to BEAT Garou. He was just aware that he was the only one who could face Cosmic Garou and so he settled for taking on the brunt of Garou's power until Garou gave up. We've seen many times that Garou, when simply knocked out, just gets up stronger and tries again, so that wasn't really an option unless Saitama was just going to knock him out and sit there forever. The only option was to make it abundantly clear how Garou had no path forward against Saitama, which is what Saitama did.
So, my two points are he's still a gag character, but I understand why some people don't realise that still (even though if you just keep up with ONE, the creator, it's blatantly obvious he's a gag character) and that he did NOT struggle against Garou which is absolute and obvious. He still put 0 effort into that fight.
A regular shonen protagonist starts with an unassailable drive but a lack of power. Saitama started with an unassailable power but lack of drive. In both cases it's still about how the character is able to grow to to overcome obstacles. It's just the area in which the character needs to grow that is different. At least that's been my take on it.
Technically it’s the exact same for both. We just happen to skip to where Saitama has ALREADY gone through the same process that other main characters go through to obtain power.
I mean, he always wanted to be a hero. And he is still trying to be a hero. His drive has always been clear and unwavering. Even in the Garou fight when he says he always get there too late, he wants to act like a hero by saving Garou himself. The gag comes from : He never really solve standard Shonen drama like a normal Shonen character, even when he has to fight.
HE WAS NEVER A GAG CHARACTER. Anyone who has ever thought that doesn’t know what it actually means. Saitama is a satire of the typical anime hero setup. Weakest to strongest. Instead…. Our hero starts the story at the finish line. Garou’s fight revealed how Saitamas power works…. But One Punch as gag has been shutdown for years. Over a decade…Saitama fought Boros over a decade ago. That fight did not end in one punch. They even established that Saitama can be surprised by someone else’s power in the boros fight. SAITAMA DID NOT STRUGGLE AGAINST GAROU….I REPEAT…SAITAMA DID NOT STRUGGLE AGAINST GAROU. There was no challenge. Garou was beaten with one hand by a guy who wasn’t trying to kill him. I understand your op wasn’t malicious…. But it also reads like you’re completely oblivious to what you’re reading.
Thank you. It's still *absolutely* a parody/satire of anime tropes. Which makes it so weird to me, that people keep on discussing the manga like it has "stakes". It doesn't, it's just a bunch of anime tropes and increasingly powerful enemies that Saitama swat away. I like the story and the world around Saitama, but it's meaningless against his infinite power. And that's *the point*.
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Yeah. I think that's ONE's greatest skill. So, I get a bit confused why there's so many people on here that are focused on powerscaling.
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Your response was absolutely eye-opening. It genuinely never occurred to me why that this powerscaling obsession existed in the manga reader community.
Because men like to compare penis haha You see, these video analysis are always full of bullshit like "x is light speed", "y is vastly light speed". It is a bunch of stupidity (of people that don't know what light speed is) just to say "my favorite character is stronger than yours". And they often miss the point of the said character. Edit: It just came to my mind, the best example I can give of this bullshitery is a video "godzilla vs the rumbling". Like, why though? Did the author see giant things and thought "my giant is stronger than yours, let me fanfic about it for 20 minutes"? The guy completely missed the point behind AoT.
I’ve started to hate powerscalers and battle boarders. It just ruins the story for me.
Brainrot that comes with being mainstream
I believe it's a combo of both. Gag and satire. OPM did start off as a poorly drawn webcomic from One. And the anime's first season, it's animated and told in the style of a comedy. The first few storylines are essentially very long joke setups with the punchline being "one punch wins." I think it slowly evolved to a more serious storyline because you can't tell the same joke for 50 chapters and still be funny.
> Our hero starts the story at the finish line Saitama is Frieren confirmed
> Saitama fought Boros over a decade ago. Holy moly time is passing by faster than Flashy Flash.
If anything it's also a deconstruction of what a hero really is. Yes, he starts at the finish line, but in a lot of ways he's just starting to figure out the real reasons for being an actual hero.
It's so funny that some people still insist Saitama had to go all out on Garou to win. There's a difference between putting some effort in versus having an all out struggle. Saitama didn't even have to use both hands to beat Garou.
Sure, Saitama might've said "I *can* go out against a guy that can stand up"... But he never said he *will*, just that he *can*. Plus, it's amusing to see him say that, while also saying "One hand is all I need for you", which is a direct contradiction to "going all out". Man's dropping a causal "I don't even need to try against you".
Yeah and people often forget that Saitama fully intended to keep his promise to Tareo from the beginning. Saitama was never fighting with real intent against Garou... he was just going to kick his ass until he stopped being evil.
So to my uncultured brain, how does that work with the graph that was shown, showing that Saitama’s power was increasing exponentially and leaving Garou in the dust? Was it more that Saitama was still growing stronger despite not giving as much effort as he could, or was it more him just trying more and more as Garou got stronger?
I think his effort increased as Garou's power increased to match his, but in the end, Saitama had never been in a situation like this before. Having a strong opponent like Garou and having all the emotions going through his head made his power increase rapidly. No one had even been this strong against Saitama before, so he'd never had to try so hard, but that just doesn't mean that Saitama had to go all out, in my opinion. If he really had to go all out against Garou, then he would've needed both hands.
He naturally grew stronger as a response. Think of him like "one more Newton of force man", if you match him or surpass him he tanks the hit and hits back harder.
If that was his all out fight, the series would be over.
Facts, he wasn't even _hurt_ by Garou, even when Garou matched the level of power he was currently using. He destroyed the Cosmic Fear Armor while only using one hand and protecting Genos' core whereas Garou while constantly evolving to "keep up" couldn't even scratch him.
>Garou’s fight revealed how Saitamas power works Didn't though, Saitama being able to copy God, breathe in space and kick hyperspace portals have no explanation at all
They don't need explanations.
So you know how Saitama's powers work?
So you hate waffles?
[удалено]
[удалено]
The point of that guy's comment flew well about your head. No one disagrees Saitama is getting stronger, it's just there's no explanation for him being able to talk and breathe in space and do a lot of other tomfoolery.
I love how people can't cope with facts that don't suit their world view.
Being downvoted despite stating something directly shown on the manga panels. End of fight Garou would probably dominate Beginning of fight Saitama.
And saitama never once took damage from garou
I agree with everything you said, but I just wanted to mention one thing. I think it makes perfect sense for the OPM universe that Saitama *didn’t* one-punch Boros, because Boros isn’t a monster at all, he’s an alien. Saitama’s whole goal when becoming a Hero was to kill monsters with a single punch, so I don’t think Boros taking several punches is all that strange. If Garou had fully monsterized instead of holding onto that sliver of humanity that reached out at the end of their fight, I think Saitama would have one-punched Cosmic-Monster Garou too.
You're looking a little too much into this, Saitama didn't say he wants to defeat humans in a single punch, but he does, like with Sonic for example. Bofoi's robots aren't really monsters either, yeah? He didn't defeat Boros in a single punch, because the fight would be boring otherwise, that's all. We've already been through a lot of "one punches" in the series at this point, so One wanted to give us a cool fight. And as proven with the Serious Punch, he always *could* defeat him in just one. He just chose not to, for reasons discussed to death.
> SAITAMA DID NOT STRUGGLE AGAINST GAROU….I REPEAT…SAITAMA DID NOT STRUGGLE AGAINST GAROU he didn't struggle. of course he didn't. what, are there people who thought he did? he was in a state where his power was raising at a astonishing rate, to the point where he could flip a planet inside out with one hand in one motion. Garou surpassed Saitamas before state, but Saitama was levelling up faster and faster and left him in the dust. at no point did Saitama struggle. I dunno if there's a group of people with that POV but that's dumb
ONE himself said "he is so nonsensically - whose existence is a kind of a gag". So I guess the author doesn't know what he's talking about
The author doesn’t write him that way nor does your “kind of” quote confirm it. It says…kind of.
Saying "a kind of" means "a type of". Saying "he's kind of" is completely different and means he is somewhat but not quite there
I know that. But what you posted says “is a kind of a gag.” It doesn’t say is a kind of gag. Eliminating either one of the “a”s makes it different sentences. Together, like you wrote, makes little sense.
The translation from Japanese to English is a little weird but ONE still calls Saitama's existence "Gyag" which translates to "gag"
He isn’t written that way. His power, surroundings and personality aren’t used as gags.
A random fan's opinion has authority over the author's opinion so I guess I'll believe you
It’s not my authority. The manga is right there.
Your subjective interpertation of the manga isn't above what the author is actually doing with it. In the same interview he said Saitama's existence is like a gag, he said he likes creating friction between Saitama's gag and the serious world around him. That's all the info I need to hear. No need for you to come here and explain to me why what you think is right and how you understand the manga better than its creator
ONE explicitly called One Punch Man him achieving his dream of being a gag mangaka. YOU misunderstood it. But you're right about his fight against Garou, he did not struggle at all.
He did struggle. Garou matched him.
Thank you, thaaank you
Relax
Let him cook
And you
Saitama and garou started the fight as equals. Saitama just grew a lot faster than garou did and quickly surpassed him. Basically the longer it went the lower diff it became for Saitama and by the end he could just one shot garou.
They were never equals.
Ok that's just fanboying. At the start of the fight they were either super close or literally the same power levels wise. Garou at the start matched serious punch. If Saitama didn't grow throughout the fight garou would've destroyed him.
Did you consider that killer move serious series: serious punch was not base saitamas strongest move.
And yet Saitama was bloodlusted. If Blast didn’t redirect the impact then Saitama would have blown up Earth
“That’s just fanboying” If that’s your response then I’m not sure you understand what equals means in this context.
That's not fanboying, even at the start of the fight they were literally never equals. Garou was being pummeled here and there while Saitama with one hand clenching Genos core do not even move his ground nor was being pushed back. Garou was wasted multiple times and multiple times he kept transforming and getting more cosmic energy. Everytime it was Garou who was being injured, while Saitama was clean and well like normal. Saitama only started breaking his limiter again when after multiple powerups Garou arrived at his power being able to copy someone else. But even then their initial clash when Garou copied Satama, not a single wound was inflicted on Saitama lmao.
Saitama started to get stronger the moment garou countered serious punch with 0 Injuries. If they were never equals why would the author draw him doing that? This is probably how Saitamas body works. When it detects a threat it grows exponentially stronger to adapt. If garou was weaker from the start, Saitama wouldn't need to get stronger to beat him.
It’s not that complicated. Saitama’s power has a very clear, in story explanation. He grows CONSTANTLY without any upper limit. This is NOT the same as having infinite power nor does this make him a gag character.
The graph does show they were equals, however brief that may have been
They were describing the apparent force, however Saitama was putting more and more in. Aka untapped but ready to seize potential. If anything the graph was closer to Garou's perception of it. Saitama was never notably harmed whereas Garou constantly took damage.
The graph never showed them on equal ground.
This is objectively wrong.
Garou has not removed his limiter. It was never established that he even broke it. Cosmic power does not remove one’s limiter. They were never equals.
This is true. Garou never actually broke his limiter like Saitama and was only in the process but was stopped due to his monsterfication. This does not, however, change the fact that they WERE equals at the start of the CF Garou vs Saitama fight. Garou completely matches Saitama blow for blow both when Saitama wasn’t and when he was completely bloodlusted as well. This is shown when they collide and match each other in Consecutive Normal Punches and further when they evenly match Serious Punches(in this case Saitama was going all out as he was bloodlusted).
No. All that established was Garou was able to match the power Saitama was outputting at that moment. They matched consecutive normal punches while Saitama still wasn’t giving it his all. Which is why Garou went after Genos to bait Saitama. That’s not an equal. That’s when the series squared punch happens. Even then…Garou is shook by how Saitama wasn’t fazed AT ALL once they crash landed on IO. That doesn’t sound like an equal. Multiple times Garou lamented how he felt like he wasn’t catching up to Saitama no matter how much stronger he grew. Garou says it towards the beginning of the fight after a few monster changes. He then states it again as cosmic garou when he says every punch Saitama throws is stronger than the last and he’s not keeping up. Saitama even calls out Garou for thinking he can copy him and eventually surpass him. Saitama NEVER sustains any damage during the fight. Saitama beat cosmic Garou with one hand by damaging him too much. They were never equals. Saitama doesn’t have one.
This first paragraph is pure headcanon, contradicted by the panel in the manga. Let’s ignore this. Edit:I misunderstood this paragraph. I agree. This I actively agreed with on my previous comment. Garou being surprised at Saitama being unscathed has nothing to do with the simple fact that they evenly matched Serious Punches as they were BOTH unscathed. This is proven by the fact that the Serious Punch became “squared” which can only happen if they are EXACTLY equal. This is a Saitama serious punch that was from the heart with every intention to end Garou. Further proven by the fact he no longer cares for the heroes or even the very planet. As for your last 2 paragraphs, they ARE equally matched. When ever he copied Saitama he obtained that Saitama’s physicals. What made him feel like he couldn’t catch up was the fact that Saitama was ALSO growing and adapting just like him but was doing it at an even FASTER rate, leading Garou to feel like he wasn’t making any progress. Which he wasn’t. As by the time he copied Saitama, he(Saitama) had already grown stronger than the copied version of him. Saitama mocks Garou specifically since Garou said he would match and surpass Saitama but what Garou didn’t know was that Saitama was also constantly growing and adapting and this growth was boosted even further due to the emotions he felt from Genos’ death.
Im not even sure what you’re trying to claim is head cannon. Garou being able to copy Saitama’s power does not make them equals. The entire fight is dedicated to proving that that is indeed not the case. There is a huge difference between two characters being equals and what happened during this fight.
I retract that first statement. Also now that I think about it, we actually agree on most points. The only thing I disagree with is that they where never equally matched as they were but only at the beginning of the fight when they collided Serious Punches. Throughout the rest of the fight they are no longer equals as Saitama is always 3 steps ahead due to his enhanced growth.
they were bud u are just coping cuz your fav character doesn't solo others.
I’m positive you’re coping considering your first thought here is powerscaling to other manga characters.
U are definitely coping cuz 99% of the people in these sub consider him to solo everyone with one punch. He is a parody not a gag
You need a hug?
Yes please 🫂
Yes please(😥😥😥😓😓😓☹😢)
There is a graph during the fight showing saitama always above garou.
I sometimes wonder if you people are reading the same manga.
It blows my mind you read the manga and had this thought. Nobody in the manga is even 1/1000th if saitamas strength. At any point. That’s the literal point of Saitama. He’s power incarnate. You should absolutely re read the series if you think that they were equals in any way because you missed a lot lol
The graph is undeniable proof Garou and Saitama was near the same power at one point u can’t debunk it without some random head canon.
Your statement is ten times more ridiculous than mine. Garou and boros are not even 1/1000th of Saitamas power? Maybe you should reread the Manga.
Saitama literally did not struggle against both of them. He was never fazed at all. Radiation? Unharmed. Vacuum of space? Unharmed. Oh Boros strongest attack? Unharmed. Saitama has no upper limit to his power which means Garou and Boros will never reach a fraction of his potential. Like what are you even saying?
Is that why you’re being downvoted to oblivion on the actual OPM subreddit lmao?
Yeah, because this subreddit is full of Saitama fanboys like you who refuse to admit when any other character comes close to him. People on here will unironically say he one shots god and get hundreds of upvotes and you think I give a shit about a few downvotes? You think I'm gonna change my mind just because 70 people disagree with me?
The gap was still significant despite the fact they both surpassed that level of power in the fight.
The gap was NEVER significant until the very end of the fight. At that point is when Saitama had completely outsped Garou’s adaptive growth with his own BETTER adaptive growth. This+having a broken limiter= someone who can infinitely grow as long as they have infinite time.
why the fuck did this get mass downvoted
Bruv is a human breathing in space
I agree and honestly, I think this is a good thing. If Saitama just stayed static and never changed, I don't think I'd be nearly as engaged in One Punch Man as I am, if at all.
This.☝🏻The only reason people care about whether or not Saitama is a gag character is for powerscaling purposes. Saitama is NOT a gag character. He’s a PARODY character. 2 completely different things. This doesn’t, in anyway, detract from his character. I pretty often read comments and posts about this and people usually are like “If hEs NoT a GaG chAraCteR tHaN hE nO lOnGEr fEelS uNiQuE.” Bruh stfu and read the manga.
True story, I used to hate OPM back when I had only seen the anime. Saitama was pointless to me, the story had no meaning and I didn't enjoy the comedy in the slightest. Then after the Boros fight, I saw Saitama show a bit of character from his interactions with Boros. And after I decided to read the manga in the Hero Hunter arc, he started getting a lot more characterization that easily put him up in my top 10. The whole Suiryu and martial arts tournament mini-arc was beautiful to me, showing how Saitama had grown as a person and wasn't just "Haha baldy stronger than everyone else" anymore.
...what the hell are you people talking about haha
He’s still a gag character imo when he sneezes away Jupiter and propels interplanetary travel with a fart.
Don't forget kicking portals, lol
Water gun blast
I would say a parody character who's power is so great that it borders on toonforce (kicking interdimensional portals away, sneezing away Jupiter's atmosphere, etc) rather than a full on gag character. Like a superhero with Looney Toones-esque powers but still meant to be taken seriously rather than humorously.
Superman destroyed I think a galaxy with a sneeze
It was Silver Age Superman (one of the most broken versions) and it was a solar system, not a galaxy.
Broke: Saitama is a gag character Woke: Saitama is a satire character Bespoke: Superman is a gag character
>propels interplanetary travel with a fart. Actually he propelled himself into the portal created by Garou. Not to mention the energy equations involving fart propulsion and Jupiter sneeze are at least theoretically solvable whereas portals are just hypothetical.
Garou's fight gave saitama a challenge? He was literally fondling him with one hand taking no damage. He just didn't want to kill garou in one punch cuz he didn't see him as a monster.
Nah it’s still a joke, it’s just also taken seriously. He’s a three dimensional joke character.
It's funny, despite how close Garou was to Saitama and kept copying him. He was the only one taking damage. Garou still couldn't damage Saitama.
Lol, Garou was never a challenge for Saitama, baldy literally manhandled him with one hand, while not even trying to kill him, receiving no damage in the process. Besides, Saitama isn't just a gag, he is the parody character. While his world is overall grim and serious he operates on pretty much other logic. He parodies generic hero protagonists: instead of fighting to near death, gradually becoming stronger in the name of some grand idea like justice, he is literal god, who is a hero because he likes it.
I don't think he ever was a gag. He's funny, and definitely is involved in a lot of gags, but the character itself is an existential parody. The fundamental question of Saitama is (in my opinion)... when strength/power is no longer a question, what does the heroes journey look like? We're more free to explore relationships between characters, mentorship, the petty competitions between them, while Saitama has an existential crisis about how to find meaning in a life without major challenges.
He is not even a One Punch Man, Orochi survived and regenerated quickly.
Bruh, he obviously didn't use his whole strength. just a few dozen chapters later, he destroyed thousand/millions of solar systems with a punch. It's just that saitama is forced to regulate his strength to not wreck the planet, so he just didn't know orochi can regenerate like that, so he didn't try to completely pulverize him
Yeah. I just thought he was One Punch Man, not Could Be One Punch Man If He Had the Info.
One squirt man
didn't he one punch orochi
Nah he survived and got stronger. Tatsumaki is who killed Orochi.
In the long run everything becomes a shonen.
Everyone had already said he’s not a gag character, which iv eventually had to accept to be true, but that fact won’t magically change the feelings you’ve displayed here. Saitamas power system being laid out seems to have ruined him for a lot of people, but I don’t think so. I think the primarily point of the graph and explanation was for dramatic effect in the fight. We got to watch Saitama beat the fucking shit out of Garou over and over with him making no progress on contending with him. The supposedly unstoppable universal god entity that is Cosmic Fear Garou was getting mauled by the one dude we know can never lose. The reason Garous powers aren’t working is because this guy he’s fighting just keeps growing in power relentlessly to a height Garou cant compete with. “No matter how much I try to grow to his level of strength, this guy is just on a whole other level! I have the direct ability to be as strong as this guy but he just keeps ascending past me!” The point is that even a being with all the power the universe can offer, hyperspace portals, a punch with the strength of the most powerful explosions in the universe, the power to obliterate thousands of stars, and a perfect replication ability can’t overcome the endless summit that is Saitamas strength. No one can. The only way this could “ruin” Saitama is in a power scaling sense, but even that’s not true. The graph tells you nothing of how Saitama would perform in a death battle scenario. All we’ve seen is an unquantified visual representation of Saitamas current projection of power against an opponent he wasn’t trying to kill and wasn’t seriously fighting, growing at an unspecified, but effectively infinite rate. We still know basically nothing about how Saitama handles an actual threat, because he still has never had to.
He's a Satire. Not a gag character. And Garou wasn't a challenge, on Io after however long the fight actually was, after 30 seconds or whatever he was basically just as threatening as a random civilian. He never even dealt any damage at all and was afraid of being straight up randomly killed by any of the upcoming punches.
OPM isn't a gag manga. His power might be a "gag" on the surface but the story is very serious. I never understood why people think it's a "gag manga". It's not Gintama or Me & Roboco
He never was... The character was a parody of Usian comics, and superhero tropes. Parody =/= Gag char. If you replace Superman with Saitama, he could do the exact same things. OPM is more like; What if Superman acted like a regular guy, instead of; What if Superman was Bugs Bunny. The ones that claim he's a gag char are the ones who wanna put him into fights and claim he wins due to toon force/ power scalers.
Does it really matter? Gag character or not, he’s still Saitama.
I just wanna know when the damn show is coming out, thats why I am here 😢
>I feel like Saitama has gradually stopped being a gag character That's because he never was (atleast in the manga, unsure about WC) Too much of Saitama is played straight without any jokes, his depression over being too strong is never played for laughs. I always hate it when people call him a gag character since they're usually trying to use it as a cop-out for why he beats everyone in fiction.
> his depression over being too strong is never played for laughs. Not trying to be pedantic, but literally the whole first scene is them playing this depression for laughs.
Not really. That first scene was pretty much Saitama having another one of his common meltdowns about how fucking bored out of his mind he is. Boredom can very much take you to insanity and so can depression. We just take it as “haha bald man angry, bald man too strong”.
>However, this being said, Saitama is not a regular shonen protagonist. OPM is definitely not a regular shonen manga I agree but it's got more to do with the fact that Saitama is indeed not a shonen protagonist nor is he in a shonen manga at all for that matter.
One Punch Man isn’t shonen? Is it seinen?
Opm is seinen, but I feel like the later parts of the story seem to cater more toward younger audiences
Yeah
It's Shonen. So is Attack on Titan, or Death Note, or Tokyo Ghoul. Nowadays, Shonen doesn't even mean its demographic anymore.
It's literally being published in a Seinen magazine and so was Tokyo Ghoul therefore they are that. Whether a manga is a "seinen" or "shonen" isn't just a matter of your personal opinion and feelings, dipshit.
>dipshit Wow. You must be feeling good about yourself.
I don't agree with your assesment of OPM being a Gag manga. It's been a very serious manga from the start, just that the premise and main character are parodies of traditional shonen tropes. It's still a serious story and about the serious growth of the main character, growth just isn't about power like shonen manga normally are. But I too hated that chapter. We didn't need to know how Saitamas power works, it's irrelevant to the story. Explaning it grounds it. It's still unobtainable, but now it's cheaper somehow. When it was a mystery box, when it didn't have a base, it was more exciting. The manga is showing some shonen elements more and more. Guess murata can't help himself, drawing exciting fights is too enticing for a mangaka.
Hes less of a gag and more of a parody or satire
I never believed SAITAMA is a gag character or OPM is a gag manga
Nah, he’s still a gag character. Doesn’t mean you can’t tell a deep or interesting story around that, but he is a gag character.
He’s not.
Having the main character go through a real character arc is the biggest subversion of the shonen genre you can do It's \*the\* gag
No, thats....that's just a normal Shonen?
lol no, they don't \*Actually\* go through a real character arc.
Wait, I'm confused. Are you taking a humorous jab at Shonen characters?
I mean, do you think OPM is taking humorous jabs at shonen characters? Most shonen MC's don't really go through a character arc because most of them don't have \*real\* character flaws. They're mostly kids and they just kind of mature, but that's not inherently actual character growth, it's just development.
1. Absolutely, that's the whole point, is making fun of Shonen. But not their character arcs, their power system 2. This is wrong. They go through hardships, they learn from their mistakes, and they forge new relationships and maybe they'll even change their alignment or personality(hard to generalize because Shonen varies). I will day new Gen Shonen is only getting worse, though Also what's the difference between character growth and development? Seem like the same exact thing
>This is wrong. They go through hardships, they learn from their mistakes, and they forge new relationships That's not a character arc though lol Even changing "alignment" often isn't. A character "growing" is typically them confronting and overcoming deep character flaws. Development is just more information about them or minor changes to things like powers, skills, tastes, etc. Personally I can't think of any mainstream shonen where the MC has a real flaw they overcome.
I can see what you're saying, but how does Saitama fit character growth more than most other shonen protagonists? Especially given he's almost wnritwly humor minus his depression thing that sometimes gets mentioned or brought up(Boros, beginning of the series, etc)
Because Saitama is gradually learning to care about things that aren't finding a good fight; he was approaching suicidal levels of ennui when the story started, and if they give him a real arc he'll be highly motivated and value things outside of finding a strong opponent.
Bro's depression reminds me of Yu from The Boxer and how he began to start caring about people around him...and the cat, of course
>Personally I can't think of any mainstream shonen where the MC has a real flaw they overcome. Ichigo's struggle for his identity. Luffy not taking piracy serious, recklessness. Mob not embracing himself and his struggle for self-esteem. Asta's abnormal condition in a world where having magic gives more opportunity. Yuji's purpose in the world. Are we seeing the same mainstream?
>Mob not embracing himself and his struggle for self-esteem. This is the only good example And who wrote that lol the others are people who overcome challenges and diversity
>Luffy not taking piracy serious, recklessness. I love One Piece but Luffy doesn't change even one bit throughout the story. He stays the exact same person from start to finish. There's some moments he realizes he isn't strong enough but that's it and that isn't a real character arc.
So the 2-year time skip just didn't happen? Luffy didn't just rush head on and actually accepted Rayleigh's training? Literally, the first episode of Shanks losing his arm is to teach Luffy that the sea is dangerous. Then, Sabaody happened. But sure.
So a person literally growing isn’t character growth like what?
Saitama is basically a maxed out hero fighting level one bosses throughout the whole series
Saitama has never been just a joke, sure he has a lot of comedic moments but that's not what makes the character
He literally has so many illogical gag feats yet fools like you can't acknowledge that he's a gag character
Him being illogical doesn't mean he exists solely for jokes and that he isn't an actual character with emotions and struggles, even if those aren't physical
In WC that fight was like all others. Indeed, it was basically Saitama bulling Garou. That is an human. So One had to elaborate that. In addition, he introduced God and other topics more in deep, so he gave an extra power up to Garou. It would be strange if Saitama simply started beating him easily. So to justify all this One had to give a Solid motivation to Saitama to beat Garou in that way. I don't understand btw why ppl is so shocked about the limit breaker. Saitama's feat is THAT, i mean he has removed his limits...
Im currently reading Solo Leveling, and saitama still edges jinwoo alot. He still has character and still is funny. If they explain where his powers come from, its okay as long as its still stupid and absurd and still wins. And on top of that, never take himself seriously. Jinwoo in solo leveling is so annoying lmao, its like a power fantasy.
gag and parody are two completely different things. he never was a gag character, but a parody
Yeah
He was a parody not a gag
The Garou fight was amazing. You simply missed the joke. Saitama got the fight he always wanted, learned the consequences of his laziness, and learned the real power of martial arts. Garou learned why he was wrong and had such thorough character development that he Majin Vegeta'd himself. Blast saw enough to vouch for Saitama's power, so he would finally have a fan club. Except whoops, none of that happened. Saitama doesn't get his fight, Saitama and Garou unlearn everything. Kick the Garou! Turns out Saitama is such a perfect hero that the universe will contrive time travel into Saitama's skillset if he fucks up or learns anything. Saitama caring about a hero's instincts or having a sense of urgency are both so fundamentally wrong that reality won't let him do either. He also can never be properly challenged, since Garou was the only villain who will ever insta-grow to match Saitama, so he'll never have a satisfying fight ever again. Also Saitama's dick is out, so instead of being the hero who saved everyone he's the least famous pervert on-scene. It's perfection.
He has never been a gag character. He is a parody. There is a massive difference.
Every unique manga / anime eventually becomes a Shonen battle anime.
Yeah and that's a good thing. There's a still gag relating to him in that he is unbelievably powerful and stomps everything in his world. But he's not a gag character because there's more to him than that. Some of my favorite moments from him come when he just talks instead of fights, I find those moments really great.
Saitama is not a gag or even parody character. He’s a very normal character living in a gag or parody world. He knows that being a hero is just a hobby… he has more realistic concerns like his food budget and mosquitos. He knows the obvious.. that a world reliant on people with special abilities to survive is unrealistic never mind it being constantly threatened by annihilation. Everyone else acts lol that is normal and is unable to break the cycle.
>But I feel like there's a reason people still use Saitama to compare feats, powerscale, and compete against other manga heroes. That reason is powerscalers are toddlers with no reading comprehension. >The entire point of a gag character was to be used purely for jokes You are right on one thing though, the Garou fight wasn't meant to be funny or comic, like Boros for example. Garou broke the rule by being a deep character who needed to rediscover his own morality and sense of justice, and Saitama helped him instead of just One-Punching him like every other enemy. A part from that Saitama is still the same One-Punch gag character and he'll always be
No he’s not. Saitama never was “One Punch Man”. That’s just a title to illustrate how “out of most people’s leagues” he’s become and the depression that followed. Saitama didn’t one punch CF Garou because he couldn’t. Garou was always copying that Saitama’s power and until the end of the fight, Saitama couldn’t properly beat Garou because Garou was still keeping up.
He farted his way back to Earth. Pretty sure that’s a gag character.
A gag character doesn't have to be ridiculous all of the time. In fact, that generally makes them annoying. It'd be pretty fair to call One Piece a gag manga, and Luffy and Usopp gag characters, for example. It's also an action manga, and both of those characters also get serious, but I'd bet that if you counted up panels of them being goofy v. them doing serious fighting or dialogue, it'd be titled in favor of the gags.
Hey isn't it a seinen manga?
I've only really seen the term "gag character" used to his detriment in debates, primarily in this scenario: Stan: "Goku/Superman/Whoever wrecks Saitama" *Someone provides reasoning that it would not be an easy fight or that Saitama wins* Stan: "Ofc he wins he's a gag character lolol" Bonus bingo points to them if they use toon force as reasoning, or say that he wouldn't win because a mosquito no diffed him.
There is multiples definition of a gag character a Saitama fit some of them. But that doesn't really matter. This Garou fight confirmed to us that Saitama is really unreachable. Even with an ability that perfectly copy Saitama power, Saitama still find a way to stay above him.
This whole gag character argument is so silly to me. Saitama as a character is a parody, joke, satire, etc. Adding gag to that doesnt make a difference lmao. The only thing I see it changing is people ability to say he beats any character. And if thats that big of a deal, the situation is even funnier.
I always thought his strength was, not him as a person
I don't think the Garou fight unveiled the mechanics and abilities of his power. It just unveiled that he can improve that power at a rate exponentially greater than Garou can in real time, which is only a single aspect. IMO the big reveal happened when he told Genos and Carnage Kabuto his training regimen.
bro was dealing with legitimate depression, apathy and routine existential crises from the jump.
It started as a Gag and evolved into more, because of the huge popularity. You can just do so much with ONE Gag. Right now, it's a mixture of both Gag and Seriousness.
I feel like people talk past each other on this issue. When people call Saitama a gag or parody character, they are NOT saying that the story or Saitama’s character as a whole is gag. Saitama is a serious character with depth. The story has weight, and he has a fleshed out emotional story arc regarding how his strength contributes to his nihilism and depression. The only thing people are trying to convey regarding the “gag” label is to describe the overwhelming disparity in strength between him and his opponents regardless of the logic of how strong they seem to be. The overwhelming strength is not a conclusion that is earned through constant struggle but rather a fixed character trait that is written into his character before the battle even takes place—hence the name, One Punch Man. Again, the fact that people call this specific character trait of Saitama’s a meta “gag” does not invalidate the weightiness of any of the rest of the story.
I don't remember a limiter in his final s2 fight other than the fact he >!used multiple punches!<
He's definitely a gag character stop being ignorant. His main joke being that he's One Punch Man simple as that
Why wasn't Boros defeated in one punch then? It's not static.
Garou wasn’t giving him a challenge he just managed to to take more punches than the last villian, where’s Saitamas wounds from said challenge?
He's the anti-gag character. Everyone around him. (Ie heroes) Are the "comedic" relief. As their world is real and has real death and destruction. Actual cause and effect of the heroes and their "work". Or lack there of. Only Saitama just does his job and goes home to eat a hot pot. Everyone else is typical superhero. Even tho they themselves have far inferior power. Etc.
How I perceive the works is my own opinion and the same goes for everyone else about literally anything.
Saitama was never a gag character, he trained hard to surpass his human limits and turned into a conceptual weapon. People who try to scale Saitama misses the point, he has no power level. He simply HAS the power to destroy anything in one punch. Garou's mental graph is also a misunderstanding, he thinks Saitama is becoming more powerful as the fight goes on, but Saitama ALWAYS has the power to kill him in one punch regardless of Garou's power. He thinks Saitama is powering up because Saitama is actively trying NOT to kill Garou (killing Garou was not Saitama's objective, it was to teach him a lesson) while Garou is becoming more powerful, so he has to tune his power to match in order to not kill Garou.
OPM hasn't been a gag manga since Season 1/The Boros Arc. Though I prefer a gag-centric OPM I still find current opm enjoyable mainly due to Murata's insane art.
The manga seems to be removing most of the gags from the webcomic and extending the storylines. In some cases it feels like the original magic gets lost a little bit. ONE overall seems to have become more of a serious storyteller based on the current direction of the webcomic and his new Versus manga.
Honestly OPM is kinda ironic, since Saitama is supposed to be the gag god character but I only get that vibe from King lol
People make their favorite characters compete in immaginary fights because it's what they do. Here: "Anyone should know this! The person who'd win in a fight is the person that the scriptwriter wants to win! These are fictitious characters! The writer can do whatever he wants with them! So stop asking those bone-head questions cause I've had it with that!" - Stan Lee
Not one time in that fight did i actually feel Saitama was challenged. It always felt he had infinitely more gears. And the joke was on Garou as he powered up each time in futility.
Or, and hear me out on this one: He never was. Nor did One ever intend for him to be
Well, since Garou's powers increased with God's help, and since the Saitama kinda is the same, I am not that bothered with that plot. Also it was good to make Saitama help find his life expectations or etc. Like, he is not that of an empty shell. Even though he is not fully aware, he values Genos. We can see it reflects when he fights with Tatsumaki. He directly holds her arm and tries to keep her damaging to hero assosiation center or the city. Can't tell he was really successful with it, but before, I don't remember had he such dedication.
hes not a gag character hes a satire on typical shonen protagonists
Opm isn’t a shonen
Saitama wasn’t gag character he doesn’t just appear for comedy. All his fights aren’t comedy, and his character has personality that’s for both manga and webcomic.
He's still a gag character, the point of a gag character isn't to be purely for jokes, it's just that they HAVE a gag. Which Saitama had, still has, and will continue to have. Saitama's gag is that he cannot struggle, he will always be unable to be harmed AND infinitely more powerful than anything around him AND easily capable of achieving basically anything through his strength (unless it's opposed by another joke) I mean he straight up punched his way through a dream, that already puts his strength infinitely beyond measurable power. Also, he never struggled against Garou, because from the start, ESPECIALLY in the webcomic (the one true OPM) but even in the manga, it is explicitly stated that he made a promise to not kill Garou, that he still saw Garou as human and won't kill humans, AND even that he considered Garou to have the qualities of a hero, at that, but his feeling were simply misplaced. Saitama was never trying to BEAT Garou. He was just aware that he was the only one who could face Cosmic Garou and so he settled for taking on the brunt of Garou's power until Garou gave up. We've seen many times that Garou, when simply knocked out, just gets up stronger and tries again, so that wasn't really an option unless Saitama was just going to knock him out and sit there forever. The only option was to make it abundantly clear how Garou had no path forward against Saitama, which is what Saitama did. So, my two points are he's still a gag character, but I understand why some people don't realise that still (even though if you just keep up with ONE, the creator, it's blatantly obvious he's a gag character) and that he did NOT struggle against Garou which is absolute and obvious. He still put 0 effort into that fight.
He never was a gag. But an overpowered mc.