What does it mean to be the strongest hero?
What They Say:
“The Troubles of the Strongest”
Just as Suiryu finds himself in the depths of despair, Saitama suddenly appears to help him out. But despite all Saitama’s strength, there’s still something bugging the hero that he just can’t seem to shake.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One Punch Man took off last week, and I can’t say I was too broken up about it. It has slowly been sliding down to near the bottom of my slate for the current season, and with competition like the past few episodes of Attack on Titan, it’s very easy to forget that it’s currently airing. I’d like to believe that, given how behind schedule the production has apparently been, this break will have given the team some extra time to deliver something relatively strong with one of the final episodes, but at this point, it’s hard to imagine that be anywhere near the level of its source material, predecessor, or contemporaries.
If there’s one thing that helps this episode, it’s that it doesn’t cover much material that would necessitate intricate animation. It has by far the longest period of characters standing around and talking, and while we can’t even get decent artwork for simple talking-heads scenes, it does rely mostly on the writing to carry it. The tournament arc spanned a good chunk of the season but was fairly underwhelming and didn’t matter much in the end. Here we see its conclusion as Suiryu’s recent ordeal prompts a major change of heart and an idealization of Saitama as a source of inspiration. Naturally, he doesn’t live up to this hope, but even in his awkward, standoffish way, his outlook on heroes begins a long stretch of philosophy that mostly takes place on a walk with King.
I’ve mentioned Saitama’s existential ennui as a highlight of the story’s writing, which is important to note since even the most amazing visuals can’t carry a poorly-written series. This season hasn’t touched upon it much, but only because the content for this portion of the series happens to be fairly lacking in Saitama. King and Garou were the more interesting characters early on in this stretch, while Suiryu has taken a central role in the past few episodes, but now we can really dig into what keeps Saitama up at night, with King serving as an equally thoughtful counter. Saitama may not have the best personality and King may be a weak fraud, but they become much richer characters as they hash out their respective philosophies on the relationships between the natures of heroism, strength, and loneliness. While the very flat direction and lousy art is still distracting, this kind of exchange is valuable material that shows that One Punch Man can be deeper than simply gags and punches, and that even the most troubled adaptation can’t kill that. Of course, it still gets interrupted with a physical altercation played for laughs, but it comes late enough that it doesn’t undermine any of the preceding discourse.
Honestly, with a little more variety to the presentation and better art, I could’ve watched more of that kind of content. The tournament arc frankly wasn’t going to be a highlight of the series no matter how it was handled, and anything that does involve action is all the more disappointing due to how sloppy and stiff it ends up being. We could use more of a focus on dialogue. Alas, it’s not meant to be, so we move onto Sonic for his first appearance in a while to cover most of the rest of the episode. Aoki’s one good sequence of animation per episode comes from this confrontation, and while it’s not as good as some of the material from Garou or the tournament, it’s nice to mix it up a bit and get Sonic involved in the current arc. The episode covers enough different threads (including an effectively comedic encounter between gorilla monsters) that it continues on even as the credits roll, building up the scope of the situation.
In Summary:
While this season of One Punch Man largely ranges from disappointing to ugly – and this episode is no exception – it can’t mess up the writing too badly, so it benefits from dialogue-heavy sequences like an extended exchange between Saitama and King following Saitama’s own version of a motivational speech to end the tournament arc. The exploration of existentialism, ennui, and loneliness are timeless, but the dissection of a hero is particularly apropos to the current climate of superhero-consumed media. Unfortunately, even the simplest scenes are still mired in distractingly bad technical inadequacy.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Hulu
Review Equipment:
LG Electronics OLED65C7P 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K
