Six years after the second season, One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 1 is finally here from J.C.Staff, and the first episode of season 3 makes it very clear how high the stakes are for the heroes and how serious a threat the monsters can be once they organize themselves. While far from dull, the episode mainly provides necessary exposition and a buildup to what appears to be one of the biggest fights of the series.
One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 1 takes place immediately after the events of the second season and opens with casual exposition as the head of the Heroes Association discusses the threat posed by the Monsters Association. They’ve not only caused havoc across the city but also kidnapped a seemingly important official’s son.
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Garou clearly did serious damage to the Hero’s Association during season 2.
The episode also highlights how much damage Garou (Hikaru Midorikawa) has done to the Hero’s Association last season during his hero-hunting escapades. Given all that, the association creates a task force of S-class heroes, including Tatsumaki (Aoi Yûki), Atomic Samurai (Kenjiro Tsuda), and Pur-Puri Prisoner (Masaya Onosaka), to search for the monsters’ hideout and begin a mission to take them on.
Meanwhile, the monsters are making their own moves, seen through the lens of Garou, who awakens in their hideout after being rescued by them. He’s then tasked by the extremely powerful head of the association, Orochi, to prove himself by killing at least one Hero. Finally, after the credits, we see number one Saitama hater Sonic, who, after being fed Monster Cells, is still alive, has gotten stronger, and is ready for another fight.
One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 1 effectively sets up the battle to come.
The first episode effectively builds up to an upcoming battle between the monsters and heroes, doing a great job of explaining the threat the heroes face and the stakes involved. The after-credits scene also seamlessly shows how the Monster Cells work and the Monsterfication of humans, revealing how faint the line between a natural human and monster can be.
That said, the exposition-filled episode is far from the best the series has to offer, as the only entertaining part comes from Fubuki visiting Saitama (Makoto Furukawa) and Genos (Kaito Ishikawa), who seem as unbothered as ever, given current events, and are just hanging out with the other heroes after their last battle. Fubuki’s (Saori Hayami) interactions with the two present a pretty funny dynamic and prove the series can still provide some laughs after several years.
One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 1 is a mixed bag, production-wise.
Production-wise, One Punch Man Season 3, so far, is quite mixed. While the first episode displays an impeccably detailed art style and character designs, the animation is less than stellar. The few scenes showing major character motions look stiff, and the episode featured no fight scenes to better showcase J.C.Staff’s animation quality.
Overall, One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 1 provides some buildup to major events but not much else. It does a good job of showing all the monsters and heroes involved in the big conflict to come, as well as the stakes. However, the animation quality so far leaves a lot to be desired until a future, preferably action-heavy episode shows more.
One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 1 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.
