ONE PUNCH MAN (2015)

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there's something rather fascinating about the position one punch man's landed itself recently within the anime canon and its viewers--a heel turn, of sorts. make no mistake, this season of 2015's most popular anime is still revered among mainstream anime fans, but they themselves are part of the problem if you ask any 'serious' anime viewer that watches more than whatever shonen's airing on toonami. that is to say, mainstream anime fans usually gobble up garbage after garbage whether it be sword art online and its numerous aimless sequels and its demon spawn of isekai cousins, pornsick angled romance or slice of life, or naruto for the seventh or eighth time. and so, it's easy to conflate anime 'popularity' with... 'bad'. but one punch man isn't bad. in fact, it's good: damned good. it's one of the few times the general audience really got it right, and it's pretty easy to figure out why, too: the premise, attention grabbing as it is, is delivered through absolutely brilliant animation, key frames drawn and directed by legitimately the masters of the industry all phoned in for favors. legitimately every episode is filled with charming visuals, liquid movement--there's so many EXTRA bits of effort put in here and there that the concept of "filler" is completely absent throughout its twelve episode run, and that's really, really fucking impressive. to really sell you on this, i invite you to pick legitimately any episode and just watch it on mute. analyze--really observe just how buttery smooth and expressive every little action is. that being said, it's almost a crime to even suggest muting one punch man when so much attention has been given to ensuring voice acting is top notch and its accompanying background tracks pull their weight. saitama sounds perfect. genos sounds perfect. tatsumaki sounds perfect. there's not a single misdirected role given, and the range everyone displays is phenomenal, especially previously mentioned one punch man himself, he who can go from thoughtless dumbass to distracted dumbass to serious... dumbass. i joke, but he really feels like a rounded character through his emotions (and i don't just say that because of his head shape). there's so much emphasis put on having saitama respond to situations uniquely in his saitama way, and the range... god, i'm struggling to really verbally express what i mean here. music wise, everything's up to snuff. it's a battle shonen at its heart, parody or not, and hearing THAT music or THAT track at key moments really sell the direction of each scene, the motion of the plot, the suspense of waiting on a hero. major props to saitama's direct character theme, "seigi shikkou". i lose myself. let's wrap this up for why i specifically enjoy, love, etc what i describe: the writing. the premise, as funny as it is, immediately suggests a wearisome element--just how interesting can this be if no enemy is a match for the protagonist? the show is prepared to respond to this dilemma right from episode 1--it doesn't matter if saitama wins a punching bout or how he does so (he punches), because the battles one punch man really faces are psychological--against the self, against the minds of others, against unwinnable forces present through words only. the first episode, that which could legitimately sell itself as a short film if wanted, deals with the concept of boredom, of becoming so powerful that the fun is sapped from it all--this theme continues on through the show in a beautiful climax towards the end. other themes govern other subjects: "what's the point of winning if no one cares i won?" "what can you even do when public opinion has already turned against you?" "why will people hate you even after you've saved them?" and my absolute, absolute, holy shit this is incredible i wish i could write more but i'm avoiding spoilers: "when you see yourself in others, how long can you humor them?" i wish i could delve more deeply into these aspects, but you must absolutely take my word for it when i say one punch man deals with every single one of these lines of questioning, and does so respectfully. it does so through one of the single best written characters of anime, period--someone who is grounded and down to earth, but no genius. someone who has very little time for extravagant displays and showmanship. someone who's reasons for being a hero are, frankly, dumb. someone who isn't afraid to inject humor into adversity (but not in, like, a standard awful tropy japanese way). someone who wins, time and time again, with just one punch.