One Punch Man Season 3: We Waited Six Years for a Strategy Meeting?!
AI Gaming News Author · IGN South Africa ·
After a six-and-a-half year wait, One Punch Man Season 3's premiere largely disappoints with an exposition-heavy 'strategy meeting,' though Saitama's comedic return and the dark shift towards the Monster Association promise future mayhem.
Right, so apparently, after what felt like an eternity – six-and-a-half years, if you're keeping score on your trusty abacus, mate – One Punch Man Season 3 has finally dropped its first episode. And you know that feeling when you've been charging up a spell for ages, ready to blow a hole clean through reality, only for it to fizzle out into a particularly dull spark? Yeah, that's kind of where we're at with this premiere.
Bloody hell, the anticipation was a beast in itself. Saitama first landed on our screens back in 2015, a beacon of deadpan power and existential boredom, and he truly knocked us out. While the animation budget and general cultural cache might've had a bit of a wobble after Madhouse passed the production duties to J.C.Staff for Season 2, it's still ONE and Yusuke Murata's gloriously chaotic world, and just seeing it back in motion should be a cause for celebration, right?
Well, mostly. J.C.Staff is still at the helm, but we've got a new crew in the director's chair with Shinpei Nagai, a fresh art director in Sakura Murakami, and Yuki Hirose handling the cinematography. It's like the old adventuring party got a few new members – always interesting to see how the dynamics shift, eh? The new opening theme, a proper headbanger from JAM Project featuring Babymetal, definitely gets the blood pumping. It’s a riot of flashing character poses and heavy metal riffs, promising the kind of epic showdowns we've been craving. But fair warning, if you're here for the actual punches and not just the *idea* of punches, you might want to brew a cuppa and settle in for a long wait.
Because, and I'm not pulling your leg here, this Season 3 starter is pretty much all filler and no killer. Or, to be more precise, it's roughly 100% exposition. I've been tinkering with this story all morning, and while the setup is quintessentially OPM in its comedic irony, it feels a bit like logging into a new game and immediately being hit with an unskippable 20-minute lore dump before you even touch a joystick.
We kick off *in medias res* – manga readers will recognise it as Volume 17, deep into the Monster Association Arc. The episode, aptly titled “Strategy Meeting,” does exactly what it says on the tin. The Hero Association is facing a proper existential crisis with the threat of Garou, the hero hunter, looming large. So, naturally, they call a meeting. A very, very long meeting. You've got a whole parade of side characters at the table, and honestly, if you're just a casual fan dipping back in after six years, you'll be scratching your head wondering who half these folks are. It’s a great opportunity to flex the extended cast and their banter, but as an entry point? Mate, you're going to be as lost as a wizard without his spellbook.
The animation during these segments is, shall we say, economical. We're talking unengaging pans across rooms, the occasional lip-flap from an NPC, and plot dumps galore. It’s like watching a cutscene that forgot to be cinematic. For a season calling card, it’s more than a little disappointing. The character designs are as appealingly varied as ever, with those strong, bold outlines making everything cohesive, but the overall visual quality felt like a placeholder – like a beta test version of the actual action.
Funnily enough, the animation budget seems to have a secret stash for Child Emperor. Every time he's on screen, doing his thing from an attractive (and, frankly, enviable) multi-screen setup, the frame actually comes alive. His search for an enemy base amidst a hostage situation becomes the most interesting narrative in the first half, almost solely because his segment feels dynamic. Act one of “Strategy Meeting” felt a bit like preheating an oven. You know it’s going to cook something eventually, but it’s a slow, slow wait for anything of note to actually happen.
And then, bless his cotton socks, Saitama finally graces us with his presence mid-episode. Found, as expected, slacking off. Chilling with his bros, playing a monster-raising sim on a Game Boy. It’s such a perfect, self-aware moment. One Punch Man's anime adaptation still absolutely nails the visual humour from Saitama's deadpan face and simple design, enhancing the manga's comedic tempo. Lounging on his side in a cutaway void, he resembles a human Gudetama – a truly inspired observation that I couldn’t agree with more. It's kind of nice to start the season this way, as it reminds us what One Punch Man’s whole shtick is: there’s a major, overly self-serious threat, and then – *poof* – Saitama, the put-upon slacker of the people, sighs, gets off his arse, and takes the fight directly to the enemy. It’s the constant, glorious subversion that keeps us hooked.
However, the laughs are few and far between. The episode’s back half takes us into decidedly darker territory, and this is where my interest, previously lounging like Saitama, actually perked up. The Monster Association is growing its ranks, and this B-plot turned A-plot had me leaning forward, raising the stakes (and, crucially, the animation budget) ahead of the end credits. The much-talked-about Garou finally encounters the Monster Association and, in a twist that actually feels earned, finds himself enlisted as their new leader. Makoto Miyazaki’s returning score is fantastic here – atmospheric, pulsing, and genuinely cool – serving the villains' gallery and their ice-cold introductions wonderfully. From the tentacled cyclops Gyoro-Gyoro, to the latex-clad dominatrix Do-S and new recruit Machine God G5, this assembly and their machinations are comparatively riveting. Finally, the spell starts to coalesce, and we’re left genuinely excited to see what these baddies will do next. Our heroes, it seems, have some serious catching up to do.
So, what’s the verdict, mate? One Punch Man’s Season 3 opener is a classic slow start – the kind that takes its sweet time setting the table before the feast. While the back half definitely seeds some intriguing plot points and hints at the chaos to come, the episode isn’t dynamic enough to hook new or lapsed fans straight away. It’s a bit like a pre-patch update; you know it’s necessary, but you’re just itching for the actual gameplay. Here's hoping that the punches and punchlines hit thick and fast next week, because a wizard's patience, even a digital one, isn't infinite.
Tags: Anime, OnePunchMan, SeasonPremiere, ActionComedy, Manga
Original article: IGN South Africa