One Punch Man Season 3

Episode 8

Like a true hero, the real One Punch Man season 3 has arrived late to the scene, just as we thought all hope was lost! I cannot believe I'm typing this out right now, but episode eight is easily the most visually impressive episode of the season thus far, and is the first to begin to harken back to the stunning visuals that played a major role in the series' critical and broad acclaim. Today, I am thrilled to say that this latest episode of One Punch Man is officially…mid.

In the half a dozen hours since the episode aired, and I was able to start writing this review, I've seen countless folks across forums and social media platforms celebrate episode eight as some kind of return to form for One Punch Man. Even if the animation is markedly better than the last several episodes and the events of this episode feel appropriately paced, it's still a far cry from the banger, after banger, after banger episodes that made season one so special. While the fight between Flashy Flash and the duo of Hellfire Flame and Tempest Wind is competently depicted, it's far from an interesting one. Flashy Flash wins simply because he's better and/or faster than the other two ninja from his village, and this whole affair feels like a precursor to a confrontation between Flashy Flash and Speed o' Sound Sonic, which has been teed up for more than half a decade of real-world time at this point.

That being said, Flashy Flashy and the monster ninjas espousing a bunch of cool-sounding dialogue that does not matter and likely will never matter was pretty funny in a meta sense, and that felt like a return to some of the strongest jokes from season one.

Perhaps because he's been established as more of a character than Flashy Flash, I actually appreciated the portion of the episode that focused on Child Emperor more than the opening stretch. Beyond having some of the most captivating background visuals of the season so far, seeing everything break as badly as possible for a character who prides himself on his organization and preparedness was pretty entertaining. I'm also intrigued by the setup of Child Emperor attempting to escape from the Monster Association hideout with the rescued hostage. There haven't been many encounters in One Punch Man where the priority is something other than one person having to beat up another, and I'm hopeful that this different motivation will result in a more interesting action sequence.

On the one hand, I'm pleasantly surprised that One Punch Man season three was able to produce a “good” action sequence and a wholly competent animated episode of television. On the other hand, the fact that I'm using these kinds of terms to describe an entry in a franchise as illustrious as One Punch Man means that season three has still completely lost the sauce. While I'm more excited to see what season three cooks up next, I'm still not expecting anything close to a Michelin-star experience.

Rating:

---

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.