Happy Sunday everyone and welcome back to this new episode of Anime Breakfast! Today we’re having a laugh with an anime that is nothing short of brilliant, completely distorting the superhero and demonstrating it in a comic way: the anime series protagonist of this Anime Breakfast is One Punch Man!
Today’s episode of Anime Breakfast will be much quieter, more chill and above all funnier compared to the last episode where we talked about that Studio Ghibli masterpiece, The Tomb of the Fireflies. The anime protagonist of today’s Anime Breakfast is in fact One Punch Manfrom the brilliant mind of the young mangaka One, author of the web series, and Yusuke Murata, who handled the manga. After talking about the horror of war and the loss of innocence in the last episode, also in view of the Christmas holidays, it’s time to be a little more cheerful and carefree with something fun, do you agree? Good because Saitama he is one of the best comedians you will ever find in the world of manga and anime.
Saitama, the comic superhero | Anime Breakfast: One Punchman, when superheroes make you laugh
One thing that really characterizes the One Punch Man series is the protagonist himself, Saitama, which creates the perfect superhero parody. To blindly trust a superhero, he must be invulnerable, invincible and immortal. Someone like Saitama would certainly be useful for the safety of civilians, but let’s try to ask ourselves a question: what would it be like if we were the strongest on the planet? This is what happens to Saitama, he becomes the strongest man the universe has ever known, he can defeat any enemy with a single punchwhich is why he is given the title of One Punch Man. But is it really that good to be the strongest?
The protagonist of this series answers this question directly: no, in fact, it’s very boring. Try to imagine that you are truly the strongest creature the universe has ever known and that not only no one can beat you, but Is every fight extremely easy? The beauty of the superhero is that, no matter how strong he is, he often finds himself in difficulty. This never happens in Saitama, which makes everything particularly funny because it underestimates every single threat or risk of death. Guess what? He never makes mistakes. Underestimating an opponent is often a mistake, but he can afford it, because there is literally no one strong enough to beat him or even put him in difficulty (no, not even Batman).
The boredom of being the strongest | Anime Breakfast: One Punch Man, when superheroes make you laugh
Let’s make one thing clear: One Punch Man is one of the funniest anime you’ll find out there, but for Saitama this is not the case. Indeed, being the strongest is a real curse, it has deprived him of every emotion, such as worry, fear, joy, enthusiasm and happiness. This status he found himself in thanks to his daily training (literally do 100 push-ups a day) has led him to a real apathy, fighting against aliens and supervillains who threaten the Earth with deadly boredom. Sure, maybe at the beginning it might have been fun to be able to beat anyone with a single punch, but after days, weeks, months, years, always managing to get the easy victory gets very boring.
During his fights, Saitama doesn’t worry about getting hurt at all, because he already knows that no one can beat him. To make the fights fun, the protagonist he utters lines completely out of context while fighting the bad guy of the moment, for example, despairing because he missed the big discount day at the supermarket. Everyone fears and admires Saitama, he’s even there Genusa cyborg boywho makes One Punch Man his idol and begs him to teach him to become as strong as him, but the hero is so bored and not interested in the matter that instead of giving him a speech about responsibility and helping others, he responds with a simple “ok”a word he often repeats even against all his opponents who are convinced they will defeat him.
Valid opponent wanted | Anime Breakfast: One Punch Man, when superheroes make you laugh
The story of One Punch Man is very simple, the protagonist hero is the strongest creature in the universe and everyone tries to beat him, failing miserably. Saitama, on his part, He has been looking for a worthy rival for a long timeUnfortunately, however, he is disappointed every single time. The search for a valid opponent who can fight, someone who can at least make him have some fun, someone who can put him in difficulty, it becomes an endless search. The whole story of the series revolves around the protagonist who is looking for some stimulus, a challenge that can truly be considered such, while between one fight and another the series makes us laugh out loud with how little Saitama takes situations seriously. Whether it’s a supervillain threatening the earth, a young man who wants to become his apprentice, or someone who wants to give him a task, Saitama will always be terribly bored.
The only case (we won’t talk about it specifically so as not to give spoilers), in which Saitama “tried” a little more, was when instead of just one punch, he landed two. Wow, really tiring, right? The comedy of this series is brilliant precisely for this reason: it breaks through all the theatricality and seriousness with which the story of a noble, stoic and majestic superhero is told, replacing him with a literally unbeatable man, who he is so bored that he doesn’t take anything seriously. A comedy show for us, to have fun with other friends, while under the eyes of the protagonist, his life is far too boring.
Is it worth being the strongest in the universe?
We have reached the end of this last episode of the Breakfast Anime year. Now, it’s clear that the creators of the series wanted to create a real one parody of the superheroes of Marvel and DC comics that we have seen in the comics, but One Punch Man has a message: if something is too easy, it offers no satisfaction once achieved. In life we reach our goals with a lot of effort, which is why we enjoy them thoroughly, sometimes even with tears of joy. Saitama does not have this privilege, succeeding with such extreme ease does not give any satisfaction, on the contrary, it makes life meaningless. Saitama searches for meaning in all this, searches for something that makes him feel alive and gets him out of his state of apathy. His problem is this: he is terribly apathetic. Is a life like this really worth living? The answer is up to you.
Let us know what you think of the One Punch Man anime in the comments and continue to follow us on TechGameWorld.com.
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