One Punch Man Season 3

Episode 10

Well, it was fun while it lasted, but One Punch Man season three is back to sucking with episode ten. The previous episode felt like not only the first competent episode of the season, but one in which the team at J.C. Staff really understood what made the encounter between Child Emperor and Phoenix Man work in the manga. Episode nine also felt like the team behind this anime had the tools and creative vision necessary to execute fully on this adaptation. Episode ten, however, regresses in virtually every regard and makes me think that this team can't even conceive of a vision for this show when it's not trying to be a hyper-polished shonen experience.

Except for the ones that are deliberately jokes (looking at you, Watchdog Man, Pig God, and Tanktop Master), the S-Class heroes all overtly draw from different sources of inspiration that inform their character and how they fight. Metal Bat is a riff on delinquent shonen characters like Yusuke from Yu-Yu Hakusho, Bang is a stereotypical wizened master from old kung-fu movies, and Atomic Samurai is obviously inspired by samurai media tropes. These influences are what make fights and scenes with each of them feel refreshing and unique. For instance, Puri Puri Prisoner, drawing upon magical girl media, is what makes his fights and character moments feel different from Superalloy Blackluster's, even though they're both ostentationally just big buff dudes.

The regenerating hero Zombieman, who is the focus of the opening segment of this episode, is clearly influenced by works in the slaughterhouse horror genre. This fight is supposed to be bloody, gritty, and filled with more grounded violence. Instead, this fight features overly dramatic hand-to-hand action sequences (that are barely animated) and explosive flashes of color that feel discordant with the rest of the material that's on screen.

The rest of the episode doesn't fare much better, with less established characters like Atomic Samurai's pupils fighting obvious jobbers, Amai Mask maybe finally killing that dominatrix monster that VIZ loves trotting out in promotional materials, and Atomic Samurai beating that robot monster from previous episodes and running into the Monster Association executive Black Sperm. (Also, I know that the official translation for this monster is “Black Spermatozoon,” but I'm not calling him that.) These sequences all have similarly limited animation and, outside of Amai Mask being further outed as some kind of freak, nothing that happens in the back half of this episode feels particularly consequential.

The only redeeming qualities of this episode come from some solid jokes and instances of good character writing. Atomic Samurai saying “raise your hand if you didn't get slashed” after killing a bunch of monsters off-screen is both funny and drives home just how bored this cocky character has been so far. Similarly, the visual of Zombieman having one of Child Emperor's lollipops after his fight, and his appreciation from the younger hero stemming from his own desire for acknowledgement for his efforts, was a cute moment.

None of those little glimmers make up for this episode's myriad of shortcomings, though. I am now once again skeptical of One Punch Man being able to look “good,” and have entirely given up on it ever being an interesting work of animation again.

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When he's not doing 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10k run every day, Lucas DeRuyter is penning some kind of media or social critique. You can get updates on his hero ranking by following his Bluesky account, and keep up with his heroic exploits by checking out his portfolio. When he isn't bargain hunting, you can find him contributing to ANN's This Week in Anime column.

One Punch Man Season 3 is currently streaming on Hulu and Disney+ in the U.S., and Netflix and Crunchyroll in other regions.