REVIEW: ‘One Punch Man’ Season 3 Episode 11 — “Top Dragons”

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 11 is chock full of exciting fights featuring several S-class heroes. While it is one of the more entertaining episodes in the season, these fights are, yet again, unmistakably affected by the awful, inconsistent animation quality.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 11 begins with Child Emperor (Minami Takayama) and Waganma leaving the Monster Association’s hideout. After mildly complaining about having to lead the heroes despite being a child, Child Emperor successfully extracts Waganma, but learns that Tareo is still in trouble.

He then decides to head back in to help him alone, proving how responsible he is as a hero and showing why he’s such a likable character. The scene then shifts to Atomic Samurai (Kenjiro Tsuda) fighting the Dragon-level threat monster Black Sperm.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 11 features fights that should stun, but the animation lets them down.

Horrible names aside, the two fighters are incredibly prideful, underestimate one another, yet possess incredible skills and abilities. Despite being short, the fight is the most engaging in the episode. It’s just a shame that J.C. Staff’s inconsistent animation quality also ruins it.

While one specific moment showing Atomic Samurai evading Black Sperm’s multiplications and executing a powerful slash is well-shot and decently animated, with visible movement, most of the fight is a collection of stills and GIFs with audio over them. The fight ends with Atomic Samurai burying Black Sperm’s multiple clones in debris.

The next scene shows a newly monsterized human named Homeless Emperor attacking Zombieman (Takahiro Sakurai) with his powerful light-manipulation abilities. His first explosive attack looks incredible, and the visual effects showing the aftermath of the flames are impressive. Zombieman starts a conversation with Homeless Emperor, during which the monsterized human reveals his comedic, somewhat sad backstory.

Unfortunately, the fight between Atomic Samurai and the Black Sperm underwhelms.

This flashback, combined with similar flashbacks from previous episodes, confirms that most monsterized humans are just people who harbor a disdain for society and forgo their humanity to gain greater control over their lives. The flashback sequence also notably features the episode’s most interesting-looking visual. The mix of filters, colours, and visual elements that displayed Homeless Emperor’s dwindling mental state was superb. The character designs, most evident in these scenes, are notably better than those in the previous episode.

Unfortunately, before they can resume their battle, One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 11 instantly shifts to Puri-Puri Prisoner (Masaya Onosaka) being bombarded by several monsters. The scene opens with a massive electric shock from two monsters, animated incredibly well, with fluid motions supported by the attack’s striking visual effects.

He then gets attacked by Vacuumer, another high-threat monster that consumes other monsters and uses their abilities to attack Puri-Puri Prisoner. However, this proves futile as he absorbs the attack and deals a singular blow to Vacumer, defeating him instantly. Monsterized versions of his former cellmates then approach the hero. While he clearly wants to turn them back to their old selves, his overly affectionate nature makes them dislike him, and he ends up creating a funny back-and-forth.

Flashbacks fill in the gaps on the Homeless Emperor, with his mental state as the full focus.

A new Dragon level monster named Nyaan appears and attacks Puri-Puri Prisoner, but instantly leaves after becoming uncomfortable with his personality. The monster escapes, and the scene ends with the hero’s cellmates dying from collateral damage caused by his actions.

Puri-Puri Prisoner’s scenes are humorous and feature the most consistently decent animation in the entire episode. While the fights are incredibly short and lack choreography, they aren’t plagued with stills, unlike the other fights. The character designs for the monsters and heroes are also among the best.

The animation in One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 11 is, overall, incredibly inconsistent. Some moments are well animated, while others are just another collection of stills and gifs. Additionally, while some fights feature decent choreography, others don’t feature any at all. The inconsistency is a shame, especially given how clearly the anime’s animation potential shows in this episode alone.

Inconsistency, as shown in One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 11, continues to plague the series.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 11 ends with a brief cut to Saitama walking alone, as has been the case for most of the season. He isn’t actively involved in anything but just reacting to the noises and distant explosions. As in previous episodes, his appearance serves only a mediocre comedic effect. Hopefully, he’ll actually fight someone or be involved in some meaningful way this season, in the next episode.

It’s also worth noting that this arc isn’t even close to finishing, considering the next episode might be the last. This is disappointing, as the season would’ve been better-paced if more unnecessary fluff had been cut from the anime.

All in all, One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 11, while moderately entertaining and featuring some good visual elements, is still plagued by the issues seen in previous episodes.