One Punch Man is so overrated.

[danasider]

Just watched OPM for the first time (the anime, I haven't read the manga). I watched all 12 episodes and the only release OVA. I liked it, but not for the reasons that many people like anime. I liked it, because it was poking fun at all the stuff that many people dislike about anime (many of those people who don't even watch much anime, because they can't relate to some of the tones and melodrama that a lot of shows contain).

I, myself, am no anime expert. I like Miyazaki's work (who doesn't?), I adore Akira, and enjoyed the first Dragon Ball. I love Satoshi Kon's movies. Again, because they aren't really like a lot of anime I've been exposed to (my sister is an anime fanatic). She tries to get me into stuff, but I just find a lot of it to have drawn out, unnatural dialog, DBZ and their ilk, I just get tired of the same crap. Something is nearly unbeatable, every single friggin' move has to be explained/narrated and then the bad guy, when on the brink of losing, reveals the most powerful form.

At least when OPM does this stuff, it's making fun of it to relate to both demographics who don't like it and do. And it actually successfully makes us who aren't anime fans enjoy the cliche's while making fun of them, because I can't say that the Boros fight wasn't awesome even though it had all of those things I complained about in DBZ. Or how when Genos is doing a monologue (the stilted dialogue I was referring to earlier), Saitama shuts him up and tells him to keep it to 20 words or less. The entire show is hilarious and subversive. It throws the entire anime genre on its head while simultaneously doing everything an standard anime does. I'd call that brilliant.

I think a lot of people who don't like it, may just dislike the subversive nature of it. How it is an anti-anime of sorts and therefore doesn't carry the purity of other shows they've been accustomed to for so long. Shows that never end, with boss battles that never end, with dialogue that never ends. A swift punch is too short and simple, but I really think it's a clever show. And the action and animation is still damn good even though I really watch it for the laughs.

The scene where Carnage Kabuto is going on a rampage on Saitama and all the while he's having this inner conflict/epiphany for the triumphant punch to reveal he realized it's Saturday and he's going to miss the sale at the Grocers. They way the slow and dramatic inner monologue matched your typical hero's awakening moment in an anime only to reveal such a silly, unpredictable and unceremoniously shallow ending. Again, brilliant!