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One-Punch Man
Episode 11

by Jacob Chapman,

How would you rate episode 11 of
One Punch Man ?
Community score: 4.6

For the citizens of City A, the day the invaders graced their world was the most important day of their lives. But for Saitama, it was just "OK."

In the penultimate episode of One-Punch Man, we learn a lot more about these invaders who call themselves Dark Matter, and it turns out their leader may have more in common with Saitama than we could have imagined. Well, one of their leaders. Lord Boros isn't the only captain of this galleon of space pirates, and the S-Class Heroes (plus One) will have to take out Lord Melzargard and Lord Geryuganshoop before they can save the world from the self-made "Dominator of the Universe," Lord Boros. (In the meantime, the always-terrific Mumen Rider has been booking it all around town rescuing civilians, and even the formerly humiliated Stinger and Lightning Max have been inspired by his part in the battle against the Deep Sea King enough to stow their pride and join in the recovery effort. D'aww!)

The big mud monster we met last week turns out to be Dark Matter's third-in-command, Lord Melzargard, and he's still putting up one hell of a fight trying to exterminate stragglers in the rubble before the ship scootches on to another chunk of City A. He won't be taking any more lives if the S-Class Heroes have anything to say about it! Metal Bat, Puri Puri Prisoner, Atomic Samurai, and Silverfang all take turns pulverizing the mud monster without success as he continues to mold himself back together every time. The A-Class Hero Iairon (who's officially out of the fight after getting an arm blown off) begs them to back off and consider a different angle of attack, but the S-Class Heroes have been doing things their own way for too long, and they don't really know how to stop and listen at all. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though! Sometimes stubborn perseverance can be its own reward. After all, the Association rewards hard work if nothing else. S-Class Heroes may be set in their ways now, but they had to work hard to get there, so they must be doing something right.

The turning point of the fight arrives when Melzargard decides he's had his fill of playing around with these infuriatingly persistent Heroes, so he sends a call to the mothership to Set Them Up The Bomb. These foolish good guys may have finally found his weakness (five tiny blue marbles that form the core of his consciousness under all that mud), but they'll only have time to crush a few of his five heads before a thousand tons of explosive shells rain down and destroy them all! Then again, Melzargard probably shouldn't have shared his plan out loud, because with only two heads remaining, he has twice the face to frown in shock when Tornado pouts her way onto the scene and flips all those shells around in mid-air. Let's just say Dark Matter's mothership is about to get a whole lot skinnier. On the one hand, it would be nice if the S-Class Heroes could learn to work together and fight a little more shrewdly, but on the other hand, if they hadn't insisted on plugging away at Melzargard even when all hope seemed lost, they would never have gotten the opportunity to eviscerate the mothership with its own hastily deployed weapons. Saitama may be the "perfect" hero on the surface, but all the other Heroes from the powerless-yet-brave Mumen Rider to the tactless-yet-bold Tornado deserve to be appreciated too, warts and all.

The whole fight against Melzargard is an action-driven fist-pumper delivered with 100% sincerity, so Saitama's fight against the second-in-command Lord Geryuganshoop carries the goofier side of the show. Geryuganshoop is a telekinetic octopus-meets-Roswell alien who prefers to micromanage the control room, while Melzargard smashes heads at ground zero and Boros broods in his throne room. He makes the mistake of being too clever by half when he tries to coax Saitama out of the mothership by giving him directions to the exit. All our favorite chrome-dome has to do is go in the complete opposite direction from where Geryuganshoop insists and he'll end up smack in the heart of the ship. Throughout all of this, Geryuganshoop's flustered reactions are priceless. The poor stooge has the incompetent middle-manager thing down perfect, and you almost have to feel bad for him before he gets blasted into takoyaki chunks by a nonplussed Saitama. Poor guy. Even if his attitude is unspeakably lame, he'd probably be a terrifying psychic to face in battle against anybody who wasn't The Strongest Man in the Universe.

On that note, it looks like we're finally about to find out if that title really holds true in Saitama's fight with Boros next week. When the gigantic neon cyclops steps down from his throne, he's not confused by Saitama like so many before him, but elated. You see, he actually came to Earth specifically to find him! He's been on a galactic road trip of destruction for twenty years in search of the perfect rival to his own almighty strength, as prophesied by what I can only assume is the alien version of Madame Shibabawa. (Did he/she/they/it choke on an alien cough drop today too?) Through all his planetary plunderings and pillagings, Boros felt nothing but anticipation for the day he might find this rival, on the next planet or the next planet or the next. Nothing gave him joy apart from the dream that he might finally stave off his soul-consuming boredom by finding a real challenge in battle again. Why, some might say he's just like Saitama--

Saitama immediately punches this comparison (and Boros's suit of armor) away as hard as he can. Being lonely at the top is no excuse for terrorizing so many innocent people. I mean, that's just scummy, like worse than predatory telemarketer scummy! That's not what being the strongest is about, man. So we can't be sure yet if Saitama has finally found a rival in outer strength through Boros, but even in his world-weary state, he's in a different league to this chump when it comes to inner strength. This isn't the kind of rival he wanted to fight, and even if the battle turns out to be intense, it's not really worth it if so many others had to die to cure his boredom. (Even when he seems genuinely surprised by Boros's strength as he survives that first punch and unleashes his true form, Saitama is so underwhelmed by his crappy attitude that he can only make the "meh" face depicted in the screencap above. If there's a single "joke of the series" for One-Punch Man, that's gotta be The One.) Poor Saitama. When faced with the greatest evil he's yet confronted, it looks like the only thing left for him to do is punch out Boros and go home to his microwave meals and variety shows (and Genos!) once again. But...will it finally, really, truly...take more than one punch this time?

This episode was a fantastic setup for One-Punch Man's final big bang. In fact, there was only one thing it was missing: Genos. I hope Saitama's best friend can somehow join him in this last battle, at least for moral support if nothing else. Bring on the grand finale!

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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