Superhero Manga: One Punch and My Hero Academia

[Q99]

Recently there's been a trend in Japan for manga to venture into US style superheroes. Rather than a team with similar powers, or a world where supernatural abilities are common but usually not focused on heroism, they have the whole nine yards- Unique and varied abilities, individualized costumes, and so on.

So quick question- who reads them? Who wants to talk about them?


The biggest one of these is One Punch Man. A series that examines the 'superman problem' of how to write an overpowered hero, and does a really good job of it, as well as making a developed hero society.

Then there's My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia. In a world where 80% of the population has superpowers from genetic 'quirks,' a quirkless kid who looks up to All Might, the greatest hero of all, seeks above all else to be like him and become a great hero. A really good supers-school series with even more world building.

There's also Tiger and Bunny, another fun one where a company sponsored team of heroes doubles as a reality show (but does honestly hero, they don't make it up for the show).

There may also be others, but currently I'm big into the first two

[Ahriman238]

Not much of a manga/anime guy. I have heard of One Punch Man, mostly through memes. Saitama punching out Superman, Saitama explaining for the thousandth time the source of his strength to a highly skeptical audience. That sort of thing.

My Hero Academia sounds interesting.

[Q99]

Not much of a manga/anime guy. I have heard of One Punch Man, mostly through memes. Saitama punching out Superman, Saitama explaining for the thousandth time the source of his strength to a highly skeptical audience. That sort of thing.

Ah, memes may give you a warped impression He explains the source of his strength all of once in the series. The audience was, to be sure, pretty skeptical.

He's not the only main character, there's also, Genos, a cyborg who was saved by him and decided to be Saitama's disciple. Or Saitama putting up with hero association rank BS and a ninja/villain who's decided Saitama is his eternal rival. And it does a solid examination of just what being heroic is, too. Believe it or not, it's a really good superhero story, more than the premise would make you think.



Hm, do you know the real-life backstory? The author, ONE, started it out as a webcomic, with pretty crappy, sketchy art. The writing was good enough to hook people, hits skyrocketed, and then one of the big manga publishers approached him and said, "Here. Have one of the best artists in the industry." Then after that did really well, it became an anime.

[Vendetta]

One Punch Man is getting a lot of spotlight right now because the anime adaptation is ongoing, the comic has been around a while.

It's fucking hilarious as well.

The premise is that the main character has trained himself to become so powerful that he defeats every enemy with a single punch, and so he's unfulfilled as a hero because nothing is challenging for him any more, and he only started being a hero for fun. (Also nobody has ever heard of him because other heroes have been taking credit for what he's done).

Also Saitama is one of the better dopey but lovable shonen protagonists, so there's that.

(Really though, most shonen manga is just superhero stories anyway, just developed in a slightly different way due to different cultural influences and narrative tradition).

[Q99]

Also Saitama is one of the better dopey but lovable shonen protagonists, so there's that.

(Really though, most shonen manga is just superhero stories anyway, just developed in a slightly different way due to different cultural influences and narrative tradition).

Right- and Genos is to an extent a much more conventional shonen hero. He's got an angsty past, is focused on getting stronger, runs into a mentor.... it's a contrast that's certainly done purposefully.

[Ahriman238]

I am aware that there's a hero association that ranks people by powers, and that Saitama is unfulfilled because he casually stomps anyone he wants. And something about bizarre obsessed aliens? First I've heard of Genos.

[Vendetta]

Genos is the sidekick/straight man that shows up a couple of stories in (some of the episodes have two 13 minute stories).

[Q99]

I am aware that there's a hero association that ranks people by powers, and that Saitama is unfulfilled because he casually stomps anyone he wants. And something about bizarre obsessed aliens? First I've heard of Genos.

There's an alien arc, but it's awhile in, and they're straight-up space pirates/conquerors. I'm surprised you haven't heard of Genos.

Here's a bit from his sparing match with Saitama

(And yes, those are just manga panels put together in a gif)

Talking about the hero association and ranks, it's an interesting facet of the hero manga that hero organizations are assumed, and generally pay too. In OP, the Hero Organization formed to sponsor and support the heroes, and ranks them to keep track of their power and reliability (though with S-class being a bit of "the heck is with these people?" in how they throw off the curve). In Tiger & Bunny, the team was made in order to give powered people a better reputation. In My Hero Academia, heroing has become a fact of life so it's a government-sponsored job, though more fame and success brings benefits and some heroes get lost in the shuffle/spent their careers as sidekicks to more major hero groups.


It's not unknown in US comics- Empowered has a similar setup where superheroing is a job and things are run by an umbrella organization of teams, movie-marvel heroes are all under SHIELD, and even 616 marvel, Avengers get paid- but it's caught on there.

[Q99]

To talk a bit more on My Hero, the main character, as mentioned, is quirkless and desires to be a hero.

The biggest hero of the setting, All Might, was unbeknownst to most, wounded against a villain several years before, and has been steadily weakening, and unique to him, can pass on a quirk. And he needs a successor. And despite having no quirk, Midorya has the heart for it. Though even once given the power, due to zero experience it has a lot of blowback and he has trouble using it without injury.

A lot of the series is showing the effort and skills it takes to train to become a hero.

[Mr Bean]

Let me provide an alternative summery One Punch Man
One Punch Man
A loser at life Saitama is suffering from depression when he runs into a monster one of the first that's started showing up around the world threatening civilization. But the monster named Crabrante seeing how nihilistic Saitama is lets him live because it feels the same way telling him that he's here to kill some other prey. Minutes later Saitama runs into said prey, which turns out to be a weird looking, just then Crabrante shows back up and Saitama seeing that the monster is going to kill the kid reacts and fights back. He gets his ass kicked but through a gutsy and semi sucidal charge gets the better of Crabrante and kills his first monster. The act of fighting and saving someone energize Saitama he feels good about what he did and he decides there and then to become a hero...

Three years of intense training he has become a hero, the strongest man in the world who could defeat any foe in a single punch and Saitama is depressed again often lamenting he trained to much. At the start of the series we see how strong Saitama is and every arch of both the series introduces new characters and hypes up the next threat only for once again Saitama to defeat it in one punch. But the series does a masterful job of introducing new characters you'll like from Genos a typical shonen hero who's parents died from an evil immensely strong cyborg which destroyed his hometown, so Genos has become a cyborg himself in order to track down his parents killer, he becomes Saitama disciple after seeing him in action and the two become a great buddy cop movie.

Those are the basics of the world. There are monsters, they show up from "somewhere" we meet the new/returning heroes who show up to defeat said monsters and then either the heroes win, someone stronger shows up or everyone is defeated/dead on the ground and Saitama shows up to save the day. Whenever he's not there it can be a very serious series but once the titular One Punch Man arrives (Via walking, running, catching a bike ride, via subway or on accident) the day will be saved.

Here's the takeaway from the series however, the premise might sound silly and you get some very Japanese local jokes from time to time but over the long haul jokes are excellent and the redrawn series (It's original a web comic) art is amazing and that's present in both the show and the manga but the art really holds everything together since It can be half the jokes

[Q99]

The protagonists of both series:

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[Q99]

The OPM episodes have been *really* good, I like how the company recognizes this is worth putting effort into.


Sea King arc is complete, coming soon: The Boros Fight.