In the last few weeks or so, I’ve seen on my feeds and heard from friends about this new manga called One Punch Man (sometimes known as Wanpanman/ワンパンマン) by a guy who goes as the pseudonym One. When I asked them about the story of the manga, I was a little disappointed to hear that it was a simple story about a guy who was so strong that he could defeat anybody with just one punch – hence, his name. It sounded a little too simple, without much thought or imagination put into a manga, so in my head I didn’t think I would ever like, much less read something like it.
Fast forward to a few days ago when on one boring evening, I decided to look for a copy of the online manga. I saw the title character – Saitama, and thought to myself that it was definitely something I wouldn’t like. But still I decided to see for myself if the manga was worth time and effort, and lo and behold, it was!
Beyond some of the initially simple drawings, One Punch Man has a much more deeper story to the character. Saitama is simple, yet complex at the same time. And so are the range of characters around him. What’s more, many of the manga chapters look simple but are actually very intricately drawn, and there are a lot of perspective drawings to it as well. Some manga, are hard to imagine as anything more than drawings on pages, but One Punch Man gives its story and its settings life and dimension. The drawings switch between being simple and being complicated, but in between you can see the shonen-ness of the manga with all its fighting and rough lines, but you also see the detail and humor put into each individually unique character, especially those of the superheroes.
So far, I’m about halfway through the currently existing chapters, but I’ve gotten a lot of laughs from the main character and his interaction with this fictional world full of villains and superheroes – something very similar to the world of the Powerpuff Girls now that I look at it.
I am looking forward to watching the anime once I find the time to extract myself from my current Naruto-filled world.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, do try reading chapters online, and better yet – buying the books if they’re available at your nearest bookstore. 🙂
