One-Punch Man Season 2: What to Expect Based on the Manga and Trailer
Batman is about to meet his Joker.
byWill Harris
Posted March 28, 2019, 12:30 a.m.
By the end of One-Punch Man's first season, we'd been treated to ever-escalating stakes, bigger baddies, and larger-than-life battles to save the world, with even the toughest foe being brought down by a single punch from our hero Saitama. The anime is all about the boredom that comes with perfection: the idea that a life without struggle, challenge, and growth is a stagnant and boring one. Saitama, time and again, is promised a challenge and is constantly left disappointed.
So where does the show go from here? Based on what's laid out in the manga and what's been shown in trailers, we have an idea of what could happen next in One-Punch Man. Reconsider scrolling further if you want to keep Season 2's story more of a surprise.
Season 1 established Saitama and a selection of supporting heroes, the most pivotal being Saitama's "pupil," the cyborg Genos. What it didn't establish was a true villain. One-Punch Man season 1 was more of a monster-of-the-week affair, with fantastically designed monsters being quickly established and even more quickly dismissed with a punch. The joke was very much that their motivations and actions didn't matter if they didn't stand a chance against Saitama, but that can't continue ad infinitum. Judging by the manga, Season 2 will be all about the villains. The Joker to Saitama's Batman will be defined, as will a rogue's gallery of more concrete monster baddies.
Who is One Punch Man's Season 2 villain?
One-Punch Man is heavily built on a core theme: challenge is exciting. In Season 1 the joke was that no challenge could be found for Saitama to be excited by. Season 2 brings us Garo, the man who will change that in some interesting ways. Garo is the ex-top pupil of S-class hero Silverfang's martial arts dojo. As a child, he thought that villains (the underdogs) always having to lose to heroes (already beloved by everyone) was a tragedy. Garo believes that big tough heroes are boring, that they should be frightened and challenged, and that monsters and villains should have their chance at winning.
In the recent trailer for Season 2, we hear Garo talk about how he moved from martial arts dojo to dojo, gaining something far more important than brute strength: skills. This is the crux of Season 2 – strength vs skill. Garo's predatory hunt for all the top heroes will form the backbone of Season 2, as he takes down hero after hero and fear of him begins to grow.
Where does Saitama come in? In true shonen fashion, this season must have an obligatory tournament arc, but being One-Punch Man, it won't play out in the formulaic fashion we've come to expect. As Garo continues with his hero hunt, Saitama sees the opportunity for what he's been waiting years for: a real, challenging fight. Saitama wants fun above all other things, and it's the only thing he can never feel due to his immense strength. After learning that Garo is a martial artist who prizes technique over sheer force, Saitama wonders what there is to gain by learning actual fighting skills and so enters a martial arts tournament to find out.
How Will One Punch Man Evolve in Season 2
One-Punch Man's Season 2 story will establish a real series villain and raise the stakes (and hopes) for Saitama, but how is it building on the themes so important to series creator ONE? Well, there was no way for One-Punch Man to continue as it was, with a new monster being slain each week. As we've said, his Batman needs a Joker. Without the Joker, Batman has no purpose. He doesn't only avoid killing Joker because he's adhering to a strict "no kill" code, but also because Joker is the yin to his yang, a reason to be Batman. If Saitama continued on without a challenge, he would be driven mad (or the series would be over without any real conclusion). Instead, he's been promised fun in the form of Garo.
Beyond that, Garo himself balances the hero/villain scales. It's all well and good for Saitama's character to bring up questions of what it means to be a hero; his motivations, actions, and purpose. But now we have the same questions being posed to the dark side: what is a villain's goal, his purpose, his dream? While Batman seeks justice and the Joker is chaos, Saitama is looking for fun and Garo is championing what he considers to be the underdog.
If Season 2's production studio J.C. Staff executes the story well – although we're already a little nervous about the animation – we should have an exciting new villain to keep our eye on. For more stories for ONE, be sure to read why One-Punch Man's sibling show, Mob Psycho 100, strikes as strong a punch as One-Punch Man's first season.