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One-Punch Man
Episode 9

by Jacob Chapman,

How would you rate episode 9 of
One Punch Man ?
Community score: 4.8

Just when the citizens of J-City were on the verge of becoming fish food, Saitama has finally arrived to knock the Deep Sea King's crown to the ground. (Won't Sonic be surprised when he comes back with more weapons the next morning!) Still, this isn't going to be the happy ending everyone hoped for. It seems that the One-Punch Man's casual tardiness has finally become a critical handicap that affects everyone around him. Even after the mighty villain has been reduced to chum, the Heroes' problems are only beginning, and it's hard to really know who to blame.

Since everyone knew how this story was going to end, let's return to the beginning. It actually takes Saitama another half an episode to get his deadly fists to the party, and in the meantime, every other Hero gets their clock thoroughly cleaned by this baddie. Not even Genos can put a dent in the scaly sovereign when the Deep Sea King starts playing dirty by lobbing his acid spit at innocent bystanders. The series has officially adopted a trend of melting and shredding poor Genos down to some-assembly-required mode, and it's a trend I can totally get behind. This battle leaves the blond cyborg in the worst shape yet, revealing slimy synthetic musculature and greasy twisted metal under his skin that rings a little more Attack on Titan than One-Punch Man. There's some downright nauseating artistry on display in this episode's first half, worth running back and watching again and again. If last week's episode gave you a sakuga-stiffy, episode 9 wants to assure you that you ain't seen nothin' yet.

While Genos's fight carries the brunt of this episode's breathtaking spectacle, Mumen Rider's fight carries all of its heart. With nothing but a bicycle and a thirst for justice, he hurls himself through the pounding rain at the giant monster that just got done tearing Genos into pieces, as the cowering crowd looks on. Of course he doesn't have a prayer of taking the enemy down, but he already knows that. Mumen Rider confesses that he has nothing but his can-do attitude, and the best he can do against a monster like this is buy time for weaker people to escape and stronger people to arrive. Since Class C requires its Heroes to fill quotas every week to keep their certification, Mumen Rider must throw himself into conflict day after day and just pray he survives to even be considered a Hero at all. Is that selfish? Is it noble? Mumen Rider doesn't know and Mumen Rider doesn't care. He just wants to be a Hero. The crowd agrees with his impassioned speech, so they cheer him on even as he throws his life away in battle.

Then Saitama shows up and takes out all that good will Mumen Rider engendered with just one halfhearted punch.

Given how much pain and suffering the other Heroes had to endure before Saitama showed up and just shrugged away their foe, it's all too easy to see both sides of this thorny problem. Sure, the crowd goes wild for the monster's sudden demise at first, but they're already confused and desperately seeking answers for this incongruity, now that their fight-or-flight responses have been tempered. (As always, it's the bitter cynics who claim to have the answers first. This episode's first voice of dissent comes from a miserable-looking nerd who seems to think that disaffected faux-superiority is the only tone that anyone around him will take seriously.) If a Class C Hero was able to take out the monster just like that, then what the hell were the higher-ranked Heroes doing this whole time? People are always quicker to question individuals (ranked Heroes) than they are to question a system (Association's criteria for ranking Heroes), because we want to believe systems are objective conglomerates of "stuff that works," powered by the desires (popularity rankings) and tax dollars (donations to the Association) of the common man. So rankings don't mean anything? Is the Association incompetent? Why did they send out all these powerful Heroes to die if all they needed was one punch from this Class C nobody?

Unfortunately, Saitama's attempt to nip this "misunderstanding" in the bud only makes the problem worse. He immediately starts cackling about how the other Heroes "weakened" the Deep Sea King for him, and how much he enjoys sniping other people's kills to rise up the ranks. Eager to believe that the system still makes sense, the populace believes him, despite a few murmurs among the crowd that his claim doesn't match what they saw with their own eyes: the monster going from completely healthy to dead in one shot. Nevertheless, the rumor takes hold, earning Saitama a smattering of hate mail in the coming weeks to mirror Genos's growing pile of fangirl letters. He seems pretty okay with it, though. He even wonders if this will get him fired from the Association soon, expressing neither dread nor hope at the possibility, just resignation. Whatever Saitama wanted from legally sanctioned Hero-dom, he's not getting it. He's already started slipping into patterns of self-sabotage.

But why? What does Saitama want at this point? Why would a guy this passive go out of his way to martyr himself on the altar of public opinion for the sake of his fellow Heroes? Well, the answer is basically embedded in the question: Saitama cares more about peerdom than he does popularity. Sure, he wants the populace to like him, or at the very least he gets extremely upset when people perceive him in the wrong way, but he seems willing to be painted as a villain if he thinks it will bring him closer to his colleagues. He'll happily give up a sea of fans for the promise of equals in his field: Heroes who inspire him with their passion and Villains that can give him a real fight for his life. This also makes Saitama the polar opposite of Amai Mask, who refuses to read the news about Saitama defeating the Deep Sea King because he only wants to know about the exploits of Class A Heroes and up...so he can make sure none of their actions reflect poorly on himself. Saitama flounders in the Association as structured, while Amai Mask flourishes. So what does this say about the Association?

Long story short: the Association is a capitalistic meritocracy, which also makes it a compelling argument against the supposed "efficiency" and "fairness" of such systems. The Heroes' Association isn't an "evil" group and they certainly perceive their methods as just (it's not like they employ outright villains), but equating a person's deeds to a person's reward to a person's worth is a surefire way to destroy camaraderie and empathy in a group, especially one as large as this pool o' Heroes. Saitama would be a stellar asset in any superhero team, but the Association isn't in the business of fostering teams. They're in the business of promoting small brands that make enough money to promote bigger brands that in turn promote even smaller brands and on the wheel of classist segregation turns. That's why every Hero we've seen so far has been so intent on flying solo. As the world's truly most powerful man, Saitama himself is just a symbol of discouragement for Heroes, as the Class A and Class S superstars we met last week pick up the paper to see a headline mocking them for "losing" to a Class C Hero. Aren't they all on the same team? No, they're Class C's, B's, A's, and S's, and they're ranked by number even beyond that. Battles against evil are all about who gets there first and how many people see them get the job done. The people at the bottom claw at each other for scraps while the people at the top hoard their spoils with paranoia, because at any moment, the status quo could change and leave them with nothing. Justice is good, but greed is necessary.

So if you were waiting for One-Punch Man to take a definitive stance on its scattered themes of classism, this was definitely it. The only way to "win" in a system like the Heroes' Association is to function without caring about your place in it, and we see this peace of mind in Mumen Rider. After being deposed by Saitama as the #1 Ranked Class C Hero, he keeps on smiling and even sends Saitama a thank you note for saving everyone. Even after Saitama takes the opportunity he was once denied and moves up to the bottom of Class B, Mumen Rider has a nice chat with him at an oden stand. Saitama may have found his second friend, and I think he could stand to learn a few lessons from this super-cyclist about the key to happiness. The Rider seems to have it all figured out.

This was an absolutely stellar episode of One-Punch Man not only for its amazingly visceral battle sequences, but its humor, heart, and sharp social commentary. It looks like the mightiest threat of all will be crashing to Earth next episode, so I'm eager to see how Saitama responds now that he's started to realize he's entering a "cruel and callous world," in the words of one Association member. Hang in there, One-Punch Man!

Rating: A+

One-Punch Man is currently streaming at Hulu, Daisuki.net, and Viz.com.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.


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