REVIEW: ‘One Punch Man’ Season 3 Episode 5 – “Monster King”

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 5 features some of the best fights this season and finally picks up the pace with the action. Despite some flaws and the focus being mainly on Garou’s escapades, it still does a fantastic job of being engaging from start to finish.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 5 picks up with Garou (Hikaru Midorikawa)  killing off King the Ripper and saving Tareo (Natsumi Fujiwara). However, before they can catch their breath, they encounter a giant monster of Dragon-level threat called Overgrown Pochi.

They’re able to evade the monster quietly but are then interrupted by other monsters aiming to take Garou’s head. However, Garou dispatches them quickly as he’s clearly leveled up since his last bout on the brink of death, which Tareo acknowledges. The fight between Garou and the monsters is disappointingly brief and simplistic, with little movement between the characters.

The fight between Garou and Overgrown Pochi delivers stellar visuals. 

However, during the fight, the monsters accidentally provoke Pochi, who kills them and approaches Garou. He and Takeo split up, and the second-best fight of the season begins. The battle between Garou and Overgrown Pochi showcases awe-inspiring visuals, featuring actual animated motions between the fighters and detailed background art from J.C. Staff that excellently conveys the destruction made by both fighters.

Unfortunately, like other fights in the season so far, it also includes some annoying stills, and the sections showing Pochi less detailed than in other frames slightly devalue the viewing experience. Despite this, the fight is incredibly engaging, and while Garou doesn’t win his fight with the dog, the frames showing him crashing to the lower levels of the monsters’ base are immaculately drawn.

Garou crashes to the bottom of the base, where he reunites with Gyoro Gyoro (Takehito Koyasu), who compliments him. Gyoro Gyoro also traps Garou, promising that he’ll train him to become the strongest and most fearsome monster, even stronger than Orochi. Garou breaks free, and before he can enact his plan to take out Gyoro Gyoro, King Orochi (Atsushi Ono) appears and starts a fight with him.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 5 features the best battles of the season. 

This begins the best fight in the season thus far. Despite being faced with Orochi’s monolithic size, Garou is swift and agile, able to evade all his attacks. The animation does his inhuman movements and fighting style justice, but the most impressive part about the fight is its overall composition.

The character designs for King Orochi and Garou’s battle-torn form are incredibly detailed. The stage and its epic transformation, as the fight progressively gets more intense, look fantastic. The fight ends with Orochi copying Garou’s fight style and seemingly knocking him out.

Meanwhile, throughout the episode, we catch glimpses of Saitama’s day as he reads a manga and acknowledges the distant sound of destruction from Garou and Orochi’s fight. The episode ends with him unenthusiastically wiping out monsters on his patrol. His lackadaisical actions are presented humorously, but they feel inconsequential, as they add nothing to the episode and aren’t particularly funny.

While not without faults, One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 5 is a highly engaging episode that showcases the best fights this season so far. However, with previous episodes setting up the imminent battle between the monsters and heroes, hopefully, the next episode will be even more exciting.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 5 is streaming now on Crunchyroll. 

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