There’s something about the stories by ONE that demands great animated adaptations, and it is a standard not only demanded by the stories themselvesbut the legacy ofOne Punch Man. The 2015 anime from Studio Madhouse and director Shingo Natsume took the community by storm and even non-anime fans were swept up by it, but its second season… less so.
After four long years of waiting,OPMreturned in 2019, no longer produced by Studio Madhouse and instead animated by J.C. Staff (Edens Zero,DanMachi). This studio switch alone led many people to write off the series, as the suspicions of lesser animation quality were proven true upon airing, leading some fans to not even give it a chance. But the complications ofOne Punch Man’s sequel are about so much more than what studio was behind the production. It was a matter of how it was made and the significance of that production within the industry. First and foremost comes down to the fact thatit wasn’t really a Madhouse production.
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The Freelance Fantasia
So much of anime and the art of sakuga hinges on the use of specialist animators; the artists who are brought in because they’re great at animating fights, or magic, or explosions. While many studios have in-house animation talent that is contracted to them, anime is big on bringing in freelancers.
When people praise Madhouse for creatingOne Punch Man, it’s not unwarranted, per se. After all, Madhouse is one of the most recognizable names in the industry and has an illustrious reputation dating back to some ofthe sickest anime of the 90s and 2000s. But their studio has definitely changed over the years, notably after the departure of founder Masao Maruyama.
But Madhouse still has an identity and a brand, which leads them to take on projects that seem fitting, hence whyOne Punch Manseemed like such a strong investment. So it made perfect sense to bring in a director like Shingo Natsume, who had already proven himself with the highly underrated Space Dandy.
Madhouse needed a strong director, but also way more animators, so Natsume filled the creative team with some of the most experienced animators in the business. It was one of the more expensive anime out there, and it was a stacked team. It’s more accurate to call it a Bones production than a Madhouse one, fitting since Bones went on to makeMob Psycho 100.
Yutaka Nakamura,a famed action animator at Bones, even went under a pseudonym to animate forOne Punch Man. For those who are unaware, Nakamura is the guy that Bones brings out every season/film ofMy Hero Academiato create the coolest fight scenes (or more recently, the newest opening). It seemed like everyone wanted to work onOne Punch Man.
Even with the enduring legacy of this first season, it can be easy to forget without a rewatch just how much stuff is happening on screen. The sheer variety of styles just in a single episode - regardless of which - is mind-boggling and really sinks in just how uniquely motivated this production was.
Every few years a show likeOne Punch Mancomes along that feels like a playground for the best of the best.Fate/Grand Order Babyloniawas similar, andMob Psycho 100, another adaptation of a comic by ONE, was such a breeding ground for excellence for three seasons. The question is, why didOne Punch Mannot continue under the same team that brought the series to new heights?
The Studio Change
The simplest answer, though perhaps not the most satisfying, was that Shingo Natsume wasn’t available to direct it. Natsume has been busy since then, directing many projects with similarly exceptional animation teams, forging an identity for himself asone of the industry’s best directors.
Perhaps without Natsume’s leadership, it was difficult to get the animators needed or the funding to justify anything as grand as Season 1. But given the success of the show and the following, it seems like there should have still been enough faith in the brand to invest in something that would meet expectations. What fans got instead was something underwhelming.
None of this is to suggest thatOne Punch ManSeason 2 doesn’t have redeeming qualities, and there are many who still enjoy it despite its lower production values. It isn’t as if J.C. Staff is some barren wasteland without any good talent. They certainly have a brand image that is much different from Madhouse,but some of their shows likeDanMachihave some great animation.
Compared side-by-side, Season 2 is undeniably a downgrade that certainly has to work around a much tighter budget to occasionally deliver cuts that pale in comparison. There seem to be fewer people working on it all around. Kenichiro Aoki, one of J.C. Staff’s best, is credited with almost half of the cuts from season 2 on Sakugabooru.com.
A One-Hit Wonder
The animation quality dropping off is well-documented; most people know about it, and it’s a primary reason so many people didn’t even bother giving it a shot. But surely the reason that people cared so much about this show and wanted a sequel wasn’t just because of the pretty colorsbut also because the story was interesting, right?
ONE’s most popular stories (One Punch ManandMob Psycho) are both predicated on overpowered characters who are compelling and interesting in spite of how overpowered they are. In Saitama’s case, he is a compelling character because of his overwhelming strength that has made him feel disconnected from others.
He’s bored and wants to find someone who is as powerful as he is because he’s lonely. There’s some inherent sadness to his quest, all the while the supporting cast who aren’t as overpowered have legitimate struggles that feel like anAvengers-level threat each episode. Is it a weakness ofOne Punch Man’s story that it lost so many peoplethe instant the animation took a hit?
Absolutely not! Storytelling is not just one element but a vehicle, with things like the script, visuals, music, and performances making up the passengers. Just because one element falters doesn’t mean that the whole has to be bogged down because of it, andOne Punch Man, whether in Anime or Manga, is a beautiful story because of its visuals.
TheOne Punch Manmanga published by Shonen Jump that retold the webcomic was illustrated by Yusuke Murata, and it looks incredible. It looks so incredible in fact that the show needed to be animated by the best to have any chance of replicating it, henceShingo Natsume and co.’s stellar work.
Despite having the same screenwriter, composer, and character designer, Season 2 just couldn’t recapture that spark, because, without the same creative team, it simply couldn’t be done again. Less than a year after Season 1,Mob Psycho 100began and arguably stole a lot of that thunder with a similarly powerful production team led by Yuzuru Tachikawa.
Fast-forward to the present andMob Psycho’s anime has been completedwith not an ounce of its creative spirit lost in the process. Meanwhile, a third season ofOne Punch Manis in the works at as yet unknown studio. And while it sounds pessimistic, it’s hard to imagine anything matching the seismic force that Natsume’s team was capable of conjuring some seven years ago.
