One-punch man
Irony Fist
released OUT NOW! 2015 | 15 | Blu-ray/dVd
Director shingo Natsume Cast Makoto Furukawa, Kaito Ishikawa, aoi Yuki, Kazuhiro Yamaji
Anime takes on superheroes are often interesting. One-Punch Man is the most Looney Tunes, pitting a stone-faced, bald-headed caped crusader against aggressively silly monsters. Who’s for a lobster-man in white Y-fronts?
The show’s about what happens when a hero’s so ludicrously powerful that he can pulverise anything with one blow. Saitama doesn’t have any Kryptonite-style weaknesses, so he finds fighting horribly boring. Even his way of protecting citizens is lackadaisical; this is a show where cities are destroyed and it doesn’t really matter. The minimal plot has Saitama saddled with a brighteyed “disciple” (a boy cyborg) and later meeting other heroes, but mostly it’s a load of fights.
The animation is sometimes interesting and occasionally dazzling, but usually not so special. The humour’s a bit Buffy-ish, but The Lego Batman Movie was sharper. Saitama is too disengaged to care about, though a few episodes give us other characters to root for, like a far braver “loser” hero, who pedals a bicycle into battle. Together with the funny monsters, they lift the show up to adequate.
Extras Interviews with cast, crew and the theme band; six extra half-length episodes made for video. The Blu-ray comes with an 84-page booklet.
The character’s Japanese name, Wanpanman, riffs on Anpanman – a hero with a bean paste-filled pastry for a head!