English Dub Season Review: One-Punch Man Season Two

When I first laid my eyes upon One-Punch Man many moons ago, I thought it was decent enough. I enjoyed the humor and, surprisingly enough, the constant one-punch kills by Saitama. Everything wrapped up nicely in a bow as well. Now, about three years later, Saitama and the gang return for another season. I was fairly enthusiastic about the debut since I had liked the first season three years prior. Unfortunately, while it had a great start, things went down into a tunnel of unfulfillment, lacking a lot of the energy that made the first season such a fun affair to watch.

For starters, the season tended to make a focal point out of areas that weren’t particularly necessary. This feels particularly evident with the Martial Arts tournament. They draw it out for so long that it grows stale and uninteresting. Most of the time, there wasn’t even actual fighting going on during the tournament. The little fighting we did receive was so short, it’s nearly a blink-and-you’ll-miss situation. Plus, the entire point was to have Saitama perhaps learn some martial arts skills. Yet, by the end, he wipes everyone else clean, ultimately making the entire adventure pointless.

I also think that the season dragged out the Monster Association’s uprising for way too long. Considering their chaotic uprising is only phase one of their overall rise to power, it shouldn’t have been the only part of focus this season. With the season only focusing on all of this chaos, it ends up leaving the rest of their devious plots on a cliffhanger. If they hadn’t placed all of their eyes on this one aspect of their plan, they may have had more time to flesh out the endgame to their scheme. It just doesn’t feel necessary to split this up into two halves when it likely could have been wrapped up in one.

Another oddity involves Garo. It’s not so much focusing on his journey that I have a problem with. It’s the focus on his unbearably repetitive battles with the heroes. Nearly every single one he meets gets wiped out by his massive skill. The utter repetition here sucks out any energy that these fights could have had. Is it so much to ask that the fights be a little less predictable? The reason Saitama’s predictable outcomes in battle work is because of how absolutely absurd it is in defeating an enemy with one single punch! But if all you’re doing is winning every time with nothing extra to add to it, it just lacks any enticement.

None of that compares to the ending though. There’s not really enough closure to make it a satisfying conclusion to the season. When I kept thinking about this issue, my mind went back to Seis Manos. That show’s first season wrapped up the main conflict, while still leaving some threads open for future storylines. Here though, almost nothing feels resolved. Sure, we get the big conflict between Bang and Garo. However, it doesn’t seem to change anything one way or the other. The concrete’s still wet here, and it’s rather disappointing. It most certainly doesn’t help that Garo gets a get-out-of-jail-free card via Phoenix Man either.

The only other main issue I noticed was between Garo and the Almanac-holding kid. They continue to show the two together, as to hint a possible connection between Garo’s past self and this kid. However, there’s no real substantial evidence for that route other than towards the very end of the season! It’s rather unfortunate, as I feel like this could have been an interesting concept to follow more in-depth.

Additionally, there were also some other rather minor issues I noticed throughout this season. There were a bunch of characters added to the roster (such as Metal Bat, Metal Knight, Tank Top Master, etc.), only for most of them to do not much of anything after their initial debuts. A ton of other tiny threads weren’t resolved either. What was up with that Gorilla acting like a human? What happened to that one group that was after Garo? Why didn’t we see a resolution with Speed O’Sound Sonic? It just feels like too many things were added to this season that either didn’t serve a purpose or were utterly forgotten about.

To wrap things up, this season didn’t really do justice to the One-Punch Man saga. The animation work is passable, and the action and comedy are still pretty high up there (plus, you can never go wrong with JAM Project for your opening theme!) However, all of the unnecessary pieces added onto the series really weighed it down. And with so many pieces left unsolved, it just gives off such an unfulfilling feeling overall. I do at least hope for another season, just so we can have the necessary resolutions that this season utterly lacks.