REVIEW: ‘One Punch Man’ Season 3 Episode 2 — “Monster Traits”

Like the previous episode, One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 2 is less action-packed and instead focuses on the developing incident between the monsters and humans. It also displays Garou’s complicated character. While it succeeds at showcasing these two elements, One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 2 remains to be an underwhelming visual experience for Shonen action fans.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 2 opens with an injured Garou (Hikaru Midorikawa) leaving the monsters and walking into the city. Through his lens, we see that humans are already being divided in the wake of the monster threat. Some have created factions to appeal to them and even consider human sacrifices to appease them. Others have devolved into violence and villany. Despite striving to be the ultimate monster, Garou helps out several people as he walks through town.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 2’s opening does a great job of displaying accurate human reactions to seemingly insurmountable threats and displays Garou’s true character. His conflicting persona of naturally wanting to help people but also wanting to be a villain seamlessly proves that his aim to be a villain is more about wanting strength than anything else. This contradiction gives the character some depth and shows how he’s one of the best characters in the anime so far because of it.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 2 does a great job explaining why the monsters are so interested in Garou.

Garou walks into a diner to eat an absurd amount of food before leaving without paying. Saitama (Makoto Furukawa), who was coincidentally in the restaurant, leaves the bill with Fubuki (Saori Hayami) after forgetting his wallet to chase Garou in pretense of making him pay for his bill when he actually wanted to leave without paying himself. The interaction between the characters involved in this scene was the most humorous part of the episode. It also proves that Saitama, despite being the protagonist, is mainly used for comic relief in the series.

After escaping, Garou encounters the kid he helped out last season and helps him scare off his bullies. However, they are then approached by King the Ripper and Insect God, who, disappointed with Garou’s potential to be a monster, attack them. Meanwhile Gyoro-Gyoro reveals to one of his associates that he intentionally sent the two to Garou to mold him into becoming a proper monster. He also reveals that he created Orochi who was once a human himself. This scene does a good job of quickly explaining why the monsters are so interested in Garou and shows the potential trajectory of the season without over-indulging in exposition.

Unfortunately, before a full fight breaks out between Garou and King the Ripper, One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 2 ends, leaving viewers unsatisfied without a combat scene or any major excitement you’d expect from a typical shonen anime like One Punch Man. The very short combat segment between Garou and King the Ripper was incredibly underwhelming and barely showed any animated movement.

The animation from JC Staff is incredibly mediocre in One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 2.

Additionally, the animation from J.C. Staff is incredibly mediocre so far. The scene in One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 2 showing Garou sliding down the hill to stop the bullies was especially abhorrently animated and looked like a PNG being dragged across the screen. Despite this, the many still frames in the season so far look good due to the detailed character designs and art style.

Overall, One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 2, while filled with interesting developments, is lackluster with action. However, it looks like with the fight to come, the next episode will hopefully be more action packed. It’s also safe to say that this season will likely focus more on Garou than Saitama like the previous season and his development in many ways.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 2 is streaming now on Crunchyroll. 

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