ONE PUNCH MAN REVIEW [English no first language]
One punch man. The anti-history of an anti-hero. The destruction of the classic shonen structure (and much more!). Saitama ... legendary! Everything was born as WebManga in 2009 by ONE that with his drawings and his writing manages in a short time to make his work exceed 50 million visits. Subsequently, the manga is redesigned by one of the greatest Japanese designers of recent times, Yusuke Murata, allowing the work to lead to the Young Jump Web Comics site, literally depopulating in Japan and then in the rest of the world.
The protagonist is (at least for the first part of the comic) a 25-year-old boy named Saitama who, after losing his job, decides to pursue the dream he had as a child, that of becoming a hero capable of defeating monsters and calamities. that afflict the world of comics. At this point, a hard training will follow, so heavy for him to lead him to become bald from the effort, but to overcome, with the simple willpower of an ordinary man, the limits of the human being. This is how the birth of the strongest hero in history takes place, the one who is able to defeat any enemy with a single punch. However, this force will cause him to enter a state of perennial apathy, due to the lack of opponents worthy of facing him and to a society that does not recognize him as a hero.
In this way, the manga develops going to ridicule the typical aspects of the action manga by no means covertly, destroying every canonical shonen cliché, which perhaps requires both physical and psychological training of the protagonist, in step with the evolution of the plot. Saitama doesn't need any of that. He just trained like anyone else in the world could, but with the willpower needed to push his limits. The design is also in stark contrast to that of the protagonists of the battle shonen, who often sport recognizable and iconic hair.
But while the first part of the manga describes Saitama in all its complexity, focusing on his psychology and destructive force, the second part takes the work, already so extraordinary, a further step: to the parodic element that we have come to know and to appreciate is joined by a profound social criticism. The superheroes in the reality of ONE are not supermen, but human beings like the others, and therefore subject to corruption and misleading. The hero becomes part of the society towards which he wants recognition in a "harassing" way, because it is not fully needed. The mass is the entity to whom it is up to give judgment, progenitor of heroes and the one who often sinks them, trivially praising those who seem to have a more audacious air and discrediting those who deserve. The Heroes Association exploits the potential of their guinea pigs and judges the heroes on the basis of illusory or prospective votes. These elements throw a superhero comic into the absolute driest, swinging its characters between corruption and heroism. There are few ways: to fall into corruption, or become someone necessary to safeguard humanity (the so-called S-class heroes), or ... do as Saitama, the hero as a hobby! He does not care about the crowd, the society, the awards but he has the strength to face all kinds of obstacles. The canons are destroyed and then embraced again. Saitama, despite becoming the deus ex machina of the series from a certain point on, actually has a goal that he wants to follow, one that would lead him to understand how to become a true hero because, to be one, be strong, even the strongest, it is not enough.
But there would be still another path, which is actually followed by what will later turn out to be, if you like, the real protagonist of the manga: Garou, the hero hunter. Once the true selfish and overwhelming nature of the Heroes Association and its members has been revealed, this new character intervenes, ready to take the reins of situations to overthrow the world that disgusts him, allowing monsters to prevail. At this point, reflections will take place on many issues, for example what is justice, what is evil, what is good and what is to be fought because it is conventionally wrong, and much more. The slap to the Shonen reaches its maximum power right here, when we find ourselves for the first time cheering for the "bad", for the "monster" through which ONE has come to the genesis of the concepts of "evil" and "good", putting them in discussion and creating one of the greatest manga of recent years.