#Fubuki: ''Are you going to call me a bitch again''

[crystalkleure]

I’ve said before that Akira is basically that “I didn’t know how to deal with having a crush on a classmate so I just wrote them a letter that said ‘Get out of my school’” post towards Zac, and he absolutely is, but Suoh is actually even more Like That towards Fubuki.

Suoh’s got whatever the homosexuality version of Cuteness Aggression is going on there.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Chapter 147 Review:  Toxic

Story: Preview to a catastrophe

I’m going to do something a little unusual.  Rather than give a summary of what happened, I’m going to save everything else that happens that for the meta and focus the story itself on just one thing.  Garou’s return.

For a guy of many many words, Garou here is wordless, a creature of instinct, rage, and an unstoppable desire to put down any hero he encounters. Social niceties be damned.

no, Fubuki, you don’t belong in this battle

Bomb realises very quickly that this isn’t going to be a fight that he can afford to not engage fully with.  He wastes no time unleashing his trademark long-range offensive move, although he’s no slouch in close- up fighting either.  I love how the panel below superimposes several snapshots in time in a single image, as if the cameraman hasn’t enough time to separate the action into individual frames. It sells the speed and fury of the fight better than many blurry images.  Also Murata is flexing on us with regards to his portrayal of fight choreography, he’s allowed. :)

For his own part, Garou flows effortlessly from conventional to unconventional in his fighting, bending improbably out of the way one moment, parrying in an orthodox manner the next.  Eventually the seeming balance between the two breaks inexorably in Garou’s favour, leaving Bomb marvelling at the former’s incredible evolution.

Nothing for it, there’s no choice but to kill Garou if possible. Bomb hides a hand behind his back as he readies his iron-cutting fist one last time.  It’s unfortunate that Garou has long since intuited how to do the same when he faced off against the Monster King, half a day ago ( I know, it’s been years for us), and does exactly the same, matching up timing and intensity perfectly with Bomb’s, thus cancelling it out.

Bang finally catches up to where the two are fighting to find his elder brother defeated.

Just as at the end of chapter 83, master and disciple face off.  But the atmosphere between the two could not be more different, and the stakes are about as high as they could possibly get.

What new awakening will come from the next fight?  Portents are dire.

Meta: Elsewhere

What doesn’t kill me has made a tactical mistake

For a story whose big schtick is that surviving what should have killed one makes one stronger,  it’s surprising the amount and variety of mileage it gets out of that idea.

Making light of the idea, we have Genos literally rocketing back to his feet and casually dusting himself off after being smashed into a hole in the ground by Black Sperm.  After being thrown into or through so many bits of masonry and earth, getting up with elan is nothing to him.  Damn, he’s become tough! Awesome.

On the opposite side, making dark of the idea, we have Fuhrer Ugly, whose strength of hatred and rage is such that he keeps continuously reforming despite being continually digested by Gums’ digestive fluids... and has turned that into a new ability, able to melt anyone who touches him, kill with his spit, and reform after being cut.  Terrifying.

And on the other other side, a perfect hypotenuse of awesome and terrifying, we have Garou.  He has disinterred himself from the remains of the Monster Association base and while apparently fighting more by instinct than reason, his moves reprise everything he’s learned to date through his life-and-death fights with incredible fluency.

And of course, there’s Tank Top Master whose tank top seems to have magically preserved his life.  I wonder what Fubuki has in mind for Pig God to do to help her help Tank Top Master.

Anyway, talking about serious injury...

Let’s talk about gore, baby

I’ve said before that I’m tired of all injuries accruing to either Genos or Zombieman and wanted some flesh-and-blood to be mangled.  I don’t take that back: share the pain, baby!

But even for my evil heart, hoo, the brutal suddenness with which Fuhrer Ugly ended Zambai’s life was yikes!  Heroes may never die, but those next to them have no such protection.  I’m sorry man.  You paid the highest price for supporting a hero.

Heroes may never die but that doesn’t mean they can’t suffer horribly.  If Tank Top Master being turned into a human patty wasn’t grisly enough, finding out that SuperAlloy’s famously resistant shine isn’t chemically resistant is enough to give one a shudder of horror/disgust:  his hands have been defleshed down to tendon and bone.

Never mind fear; it’s going to be a while before  SuperAlloy *can* fight at all. And with his chest being burned as well, I think that he will be lucky not to come away with disfiguring scars.  He might start wearing a shirt after this...

  ONE, have some mercy for your heroes or half of them will never work again. But not too much mercy, they’ve had it too easy for too long.

There’s more to help than rescue

If you’d told me that this day would see Genos earning the trust and respect of the heroes he has called the bitch and the witch respectively, and that feeling would be mutual, I’d have told you to stop fantasising.   I’ve spent enough words talking about the unexpected compassion he showed to Fubuki when the latter was beside herself with worry for her sister.

Tatsumaki has internalised the advice Blast gave her so thoroughly that she’s come to think herself as being beyond help.  But there’s more to help than haplessly accepting rescue.   Help can also be someone intervening only when you most need it, respecting that you can generally take care of yourself.  Help can be sharing the burden, enabling you to achieve more, more easily.  Help can be having your back so you can fight without fear of ambush.  All of these forms of help Genos has provided to Tatsumaki from the moment the battle pitched high into the sky.  And she’s had his back too.  Seeing her consciously acknowledge that and lean into it was an amazing gift I didn’t know I needed. 

from allies in name only to comrades-in-arms, what a fearsome pair!  Gambatte!

Of course it can get worse

The heroes’ situation seems to be getting worse and worse.�� Their number is being whittled down to size: Tank Top Master is out for the count, Bang is tied up, Superalloy Darkshine is maimed, Atomic is out of his main weapon, Child Emperor is lost somewhere and Puri Puri is looking for him, Zombieman and Amai Mask are still pulling themselves together, and Tatsumaki and Genos are standing more by spite than strength. 

On the other hand, the monsters aren’t out of monster by any means.  There’s still lots of Black Sperm, Evil Natural Water is surely sloshing around somewhere,  Vomited Furher Ugly is a pungent threat, and Homeless Emperor is watching proceedings with an amused eye.  I called the monsters the sundew monsters for a reason -- they waste heroes by outlasting their efforts.

The standing heroes are going to need respite, or a diversion, or reinforcements pretty soon or they’re going to all die for real.   Preferably all three.  We’ll take two out of three.

Further notes:  The Cyborg is Listening

The first thing Kuseno says to Genos when the latter comes back after a bruising encounter with a monster is ‘are you alright?’  That we know.  The second thing has to be ‘did you bring me good data?’  Everything that happens to Genos, everything he touches, everything he sees, everything he hears, all that information is recorded for later recall and distillation into useable data.   We’ve been admiring how capable and tough this new upgrade has proven to be.  It’s all hard-won insights, built one on the other.    Does that mean I’m discounting what Genos does?  Hell no.  It’s his extreme courage and willingness to step into the most hopeless situations that has enabled this valuable data to be gathered in the first place.  And it’s his using these wonderful upgrades to push as hard as he can despite the risk that makes it worth Kuseno’s while to stay up late to craft them.  Now I’m super-interested in finding out what new insights the pair will glean from today’s fighting.

...polite engineer for ‘fuck you’

Sure, like many serious things in One-Punch Man, it initially appears as a gag,  but if you’ve not been paying attention to date, hear this: good data is like gold dust in this world.   And people will kill for it.   As we watch the dissipating contrails where Drive Knight was as he carries his precious samples home, don’t way you weren’t warned.

[foryoumyheroes]

Celebrity C-C-Crush

[Bakugou + Todoroki + Amajiki]’s crush has their own crush on another Pro-Hero.

A/N: 

I know that this is obvious, but I thought that I should reinstate that the “reader” is depicted as being in high school and all of their crushes are over eighteen. While they are nice to the reader, they are in no way reciprocating, pursuing, or even entertaining the idea of being with a minor. It is purely one-sided. Happy reading! 

Warnings: slight OPM crossover. 

Bakugou Katsuki: 

Bakugou probably spends so much time to get you to notice him. I headcanon that when he’s attracted to someone, he just has the urge to show off 100% more to silently tell his crush that he’s capable. 

Whether it be by teasing you more than others, shouting at you to fight him, or getting your attention by being such a tsundere he obviously puts in a lot of time and effort to get you to look at him, so when others are able to get you to notice them easily, he becomes pretty petty. 

That’s why when he sees you across the street over the weekend his eyes immediately follow your figure and a soft smile appears on his face despite the fact that he’s surrounded by the “dumbass” Bakusquad. When he sees who you’re with however, that smile immediately drops into a scowl. 

You are the complete fangirl/fanboy image. You’re stuttering and blushing as you shyly go, “H-Hi, Mumen...” You’re hanging off every word he says and you even hand Mumen a homemade lunch (Bakugou notices that it’s a reusable bento so you have to see him again). Bakugou nearly rages. 

What’s worse is that Mumen easily accepts your kind words and the lunch you made for him. And he’s nice to you??? Mumen’s able to hold a conversation with you without one of you getting annoyed?? 

“Heya, [Name],” Mumen says with a small smile, and Bakugou fumes. Why are is this second-rate Hero so familiar with you? “I saw you during the U.A. Sports Festival! Congratulations on getting Top Ten. I was rooting for you! I know you’ll get them next time.” 

Inner Bakugou is just screaming. Why the FUCK are you so uwu baby eyes 👉👈 right now?? What was there to blush for?? You’ve never blushed for Katsuki, and every time he steals a morsel from your lunch you always get annoyed with him, but you’re here giving out lunches!! The double standard!! he thinks. The audacity of this bitch!! 

Obviously the Bakusquad sees all of this unfold before their eyes, and they all glance at each other knowingly when Bakugou rants about “What’s so great about Mumen Rider?” and that he can beat the Pro-Hero “to the fucking ground.” 

“Maybe he has something called a nice personality,” Kaminari jokes and Sero snorts in response. 

RIP them ig. 

Knowing that you have this celebrity crush, Bakugou would immediately go to you the next day and start talking about how weak Mumen is, how shitty of a Hero he is, how he’s ten years older than you guys, etc. etc. 

Of course you don’t hear any of it. You insist that Mumen is a well-liked Hero in the community, and most importantly he’s nice. 

Bakugou nearly gags. Nice?? NïCë?? That’s all it takes to get to you? He spent all this time trying to get your attention and the secret was kindness this entire time?? Well, fine then. 

Tries to win you over by sheer Pavlovian response. 

You think Mumen’s glasses are cute? BAM. The next day he’s wearing his dad’s spare glasses even though they have different prescriptions. 

Mumen once saved you and got you [favorite snack] while you waited for your guardians to come? Every time he sees you he gives you [favorite snack]. Just outright slams it down on your desk without a word. 

He’s going to beat you at your own game. You think you can make Mumen these cute bentos? No bitch, he’s going to be making you BETTER bentos. 

He’ll even ride a bike to school every day if that’s what it takes. 

It’s clear that what you have for Mumen is admiration, and when Bakugou matures and changes he doesn’t mind you stanning another Pro-Hero. Once you guys are older and are in an established relationship he even willingly buys you Mumen merch and supports your obsessions, even if it is grudgingly. 

He tells himself that it could be worse. You could be like Deku and All Might. 

Todoroki Shouto: 

To Todoroki, your appeal comes from your strength and your composure, He acknowledges how strong you are and doesn’t see it as a challenge to him, so his admiration and affection for you is through the roof. 

So when you guys are walking down the street together and Genos, AKA Demonic Cyborg, crashes down in front of you due to a villain attack on the city, he expects you to stand your ground. 

Of course his first instinct is to hold out his arm to protect/guard you, but instead he finds that he’s just swatting empty air and when he looks over at your figure, question marks just fill the space near his head. 

You’re strangely huddled behind Genos with a large blush on your face and you’ve left Todoroki’s side completely. You’re clutching on the older male’s bicep with a strange nervous look on your face. 

[”G-Genos, y-you’re here!” you stutter uncharacteristically, and Todoroki’s head is calculating at the speed of light at your behavior. 

Genos barely spares you a glance as he readies another heat blast. “Be careful, [Name]. Stand back if you have to.” 

“T-Thank you...! I feel so much safer with you!”] 

What, is the only word that Todoroki is able to say. When Genos is done saving the day and leaves, the boy immediately confronts you about it. He’s blunt to a fault, so he has no problems asking what the hell was that while you avoid his gaze and poke your fingers together.

You look cute, he thinks, but your display is not for him. 

Obviously what he feels is irritation, because that was a side you reserved solely for this stranger, he thinks, but he’s more confused than anything. You never look at Todoroki like that.  

“W-Well... I just think he’s so cool and his Quirk is really amazing. His fire abilities are really something else... A-And on the weekends sometimes I see him at the supermarket and he helps me pick out groceries...” 

You talk about how dreamy it is that Genos helps you get the best bargains at the supermarket and Todoroki sets out the next day with his dad’s credit card. 

He doesn’t see the appeal of Genos’s actions, but if that’s what gets your attention, then he’s willing to try. He can do better than bargain meats. 

For the next couple of weeks your eyes absolutely bug out when you open the door to your house and see premium meat and vegetables are just sitting on your doorstep. 

He gets you the 7600 yen beef and this is Japan, the vegetables are expensive.  

When you try to get him to stop, he’s just like, “Well, do you like them?” or “Is there something wrong with the produce? I can return it and get you new ones.” 

You two end up going to the grocery store together on weekends because you try to physically stop him but it ends up as a supermarket date. ^^ Inner Todoroki is like take that Demonic Cyborg. 

Your celebrity crush encourages him to do better with his fire side. He watches Genos’ powers online and recreates the same power the older Pro has, since that’s what made Genos so cool in your eyes. 

High-key petty. He doesn’t throw away your Genos merch, but rather he constantly moves them around your shared home so your always taken back. 

Amajiki Tamaki: 

Of course, he thinks. Of course you have a crush on Hellish Blizzard. She’s prettier than he is, a lot stronger, more confident, if he were you he would choose Fubuki over Tamaki any day. 

She does so many impressive things with her Quirk and even though his own is versatile, he’s never able to recreate the feats that she does, so he has no hope of grabbing your attention. 

That being said, he encourages your interests and would find more excuses to talk to you without making a fool out of himself by talking about her most recent fights or about her in general. 

If you guys do meet her in real life and you’re just there freaking out because you’re her biggest fan, he’s going to be just standing off to the side like yea ;;; I deserve this. 

He does watch her videos too and maybe he would recreate some of her “coolness”? He would be revving up for a fight, and the climax of the battle is near, he’s about to win and he’s going to pull those witty “one-liners” to make you fall for him in a way that Blizzard does but then he remembers that you and other people are watching him and just ;;; fumbles. 

He made a fool of himself, he totally did. He’s a complete loser in your eyes, he thinks, especially compared to your Hero. 

Once you guys get together he’s completely over the moon, but thinks back to your celebrity crush and he’s like honestly? Even if he is the rebound, or the “placeholder” until you’re going to date Fubuki, because he has no doubts that you will reach any goal of yours, he’s fine with that. 

Or at least, that’s what he tells himself. 

He thinks his temporary happiness would be worth it. 

When you come to him saying that you’re going to be working underneath Hellish Blizzard, and you’re so giddy with excitement, he just gets so sad all of a sudden. His shoulders sag and shake and he sighs so deeply. 

“O-Oh... I-I knew this day was coming... D-Do you want to break up with me first? P-Please make it quick and painless t-though...” 

And you’re just like, “What.” 

He eventually explains that he thought you were just dating him for a while until you managed to date Fubuki and you’re just like ??? 

[“I mean--I like her, but it’s just a celebrity crush.” You grow sheepish at this point. “I-I do like her, but she’s just a figure in my head. I like you most of all, Tamaki!” 

“B-But if you had the chance you would choose her over me, right? S-She’s strong and cool...”

“But I think you’re cool and strong too, Tamaki!”]

If you get stronger and she’s still going around doing the “rookie crushing” rounds, Tamaki is the only person strong enough to hold you back as you yell at her. 

[“FUCK you, Fubuki! I followed you for years! I swore by you! I supported your career--I talked about you nonstop to my friends. My boyfriend was insecure for years--!” 

“P-Please calm down, [Name]!”]

It turns out that Tamaki was the only celebrity crush you needed. 

[metalbatandzenko]

“Dude, you’re like, an asshole.”

Aka which of the characters are assholes and which ones aren’t. 

Judged on my completely unbiased scale of which characters I find intolerable and which ones I have a soft spot for, so take this with a grain of salt as canon.

Disclaimer: This is a joke list and very few of these are thoughtful placements.

Minor Assholes.

Kind of a variable category. Mostly characters who are assholes in the sense of like. Being terrible people, but at least they like, have morals and shit. There’s a lot of variation here.

Sonic-Already a hot take. Listen. Maybe he does murder sometimes but like. He’s somehow less intolerable than the major dipshits below. And at least he has like, morals and shit. You think Metal Knight has that? No way.

Garou-Once again, suuuper not objective. He’s 100% an asshole, but he’s got a pretty strict moral code and lines he would not cross, and his end goal is good. I do wonder how he was planning on becoming a symbol of fear without killing anyone though. Like I’d say he’s an “ends will justify the means” kind of guy but like...his plan was to scare people into banding together and killing him and...not killing anyone himself? I’m confused and he is too. Anyways he’s somehow less of an asshole than some of the other characters.

Atomic Samurai-He’s arrogant, but he’s not a bad person. I love clowning on this man with strict morals and a massive ego.

Flashy Flash-Kinda a mix of Sonic and Atomic Samurai. Like he’s a dick, but boy is it fun to watch him call people out (looking at you Death Gatling). I do think his moral compass is more fucked up than Sonics is though. Does that make me dumb? Has Sonic’s ass rotted my brain? Idk I can’t speak to the webcomic bc I know we get more of his and Sonic’s backstory there but ik vaguely about the Ninja Village.

Watchdog Man-He makes everyone sit at a professional meeting with him while in his fursuit. He eats like a dog. Subjecting people to your fursona 24/7 is rude, man.

Major Assholes.

You know when Sonic “I-assassinate-people-and-play-bodyguard-for-the-dregs-of-society” One Punch Man and Garou are minor assholes, we’ve got some heavy hitters down the line.

Metal Knight-This one is self-explanatory. Fuck this guy. 

Drive Knight-A wise man once said “he’s the kind of guy who’ll send you an NSFW link at work then report you for clicking on it.”

Amai Mask-Listen, [webcomic spoiler] or not, he’s an asshole. I don’t care that he’s sad, man. He’s still a dick.

Puri Puri Prisoner-We all know why.

Blast-This bitch really just fucking noped out of hero work bc he does it for fun. How many people have died bc this blank faced fuck decided he’d rather go take a vacation to OPM!Six Flags instead of idk, helping people?

Not an Asshole.

Mumen Rider-Does not have a mean bone in his body. We all know he is the king of good samaritans.

Tank Top Master-Almost put him in minor asshole bc of Tank Top Tiger and Black Hole, but the rest of the group seems chill. He’s a genuinely kind guy.

King-Kind of dickish for hiding him being a fraud but he’s good.

Pig God-Minds his business. Gentle. Seems to genuinely care about Child Emperor’s safety/concerns.

Child Emperor-He’s baby.

Bang-His advice can sound a bit like a fake deep quote from pinterest, but he means well and he’s not hurting anyone. 

Bomb-Just a supportive bro.

An Asshole, but Has a Good Heart

Tatsumaki-I cannot defend Tatsumaki’s behavior, but I love her and she clearly cares about civilians’ safety. She’s an asshole but she’s doing her best.

Fubuki-Beneath that social climbing, she��s got a good heart too. She just lets her self-doubt control her and ends up being an asshole to others because of it. I mean, she tried to kill or at least seriously maim Saitama.

Genos-He’s mean as fuck to anyone who isn’t Saitama or Dr. Kuseno. And it’s not just because he has a hard time reading social cues, he like. chooses to be rude to Fubuki, and stuff like that. He genuinely cares about doing what’s right though, he’s got a lot of compassion for the defenseless.

Not an Asshole, just Grumpy.

Saitama-Stays in his lane. Does right by people for the sake of doing good. Just wants to get a good deal.

Zombieman-He just wants to take a nap, but this annoying fucking idol won’t shut his trap. So if a few sharp insults come out every once in a while, can you really blame him?

Metal Bat-Full of rage and love for his little sister. Has a lot of bravado and an ego, but will throw all that away to make Zenko happy. Rescues cats in his free time. Apparently is a pacifist despite his entire fighting strategy being braining monsters with a baseball bat.

The Narrative Surrounding This Character Makes Me Uncomfortable and Their Actions Qualify Them as an Asshole But the Narrative Doesn’t Acknowledge That.

Superalloy Darkshine-They really should have changed his backstory.

[the-nysh]

Reporting back from seeing the opm dub ep3, and I can happily confirm that yes, Garou actually curses! 8D

A lot of the language used this ep is pretty fun too, actually. Genos calls Charanko a ‘pissant’ explaining who he is to Saitama, gosh. Bang refers to Garou as ‘that wretch’ when talking about him with Bomb. (Bang’s voice sounds a bit younger than expected.) Just little things I happened to notice.

Anyway, this is a fun Garou-centric ep in general (one of my favs, the other one being ep11), and I pretty much had the same amount of fun as I did when watching the subs. :D

Garou says ‘hey numb-nuts’ to alert Mumen’s attention. Pfft. :P He does the happy whoop ‘I’m friggen stoked!’ when Tank Top Master arrives, heh omg what a dork.

For his fake out apology, he turns around with the counter, ‘Like hell! I’ll slaughter every last one of you bitches!’ Like whoa, didn’t expect that particular word choice! :O But ayy nice.

The fight is fun cause he keeps the energy going with just the right amount of comeuppance, cockiness, and trash talking. Good stuff.

Meeting Tareo! Oh yes I was waiting for it. X3 Instead of the ‘old dude’ translation for ‘ojisan,’ Tareo calls him the more neutral ‘Mister,’ which is totally fine! :D Tareo’s voice sounds pretty cute and cheery, simply excited to talk to him about heroes, aww. :’)

My FAVORITE line in the whole ep is when Garou says, ‘Catch ya later, turd!’ when he pats Tareo’s head. Omfg I burst out laughing, that was just hilarious. (It’s precisely what my sister and I used to call each other, so oh man, that’s perfect. X’D Esp cause Garou kinda becomes like an older bro to Tareo, so ahh I love it, ahaha.) He also says, ‘don’t call me “mister,” got it? I’m not some old Grandpa. It’s like that, huh? Go home, runt.’ So omg, even more fun. Yeah, I love their dub interactions already.

Golden Ball says stuff like ‘kick rocks’ ‘dweebs’ and ‘jerk off’ as insults (along with some punny ‘ball’ innuendos), but also calls Garou a ‘cocky dirtbag’ to his face, ahaha. (To which Garou replies he’ll stay as cocky as he wants. :P)

Punching out the sleazy HA guy with the ‘kiss’ to the cheek, Garou muses he felt like he just ‘stepped in shit.’ Ooooh REALLY!!! 8D Combine that with his use of ‘bitches’ above, and he actually says shit out loud without getting censored, oh man I’m so glad. (Obviously no explicit f-bombs or anything yet, but I’m both relieved and happy with this amount at least, yay.)

Saitama chopping him out (esp after Garou refers to himself as a ‘big fish,’ heh) is just as funny to see this time again, too. Saitama is also a delight when he passes out bananas to everyone in the hospital; it’s just so cute and charming with a good chuckle every time he does it. :’D Mumen’s a good lad as well, both when he takes a punch from TTM standing up for Garou, and then when talking with Saitama in the hospital later. 

Overall a fun dub ep I’ll probably end up rewatching sometime again too. Metal Bat’s teased in the next ep preview, and I like the attitude I can hear from him already.

For my mom’s reception of the ep (cause yep she was following along pretty intently too, even whining with another ‘aw that’s it??’ again when the ep ended), aha she definitely called me weird (in a tongue in cheek way) for laughing so hard at Garou calling Tareo a ‘turd.’ X’D Buaha, classic. But she mainly wondered about why Garou was fighting heroes, with her question, ‘Is the silver haired guy trying to knock out the competition?’ Following the previous ep with Fubuki’s obsession over hero ranks and all (which my mother didn’t approve of), this is actually a pretty interesting thing for her to think about Garou, in response to that. :O She’s still on the assumption describing him as evil (as he’s presented), so I had to stay cryptic about it and remind her of how he acts around the kid (doesn’t steal the hero book when he could have), and how he doesn’t actually ‘kill’ anyone either, only beating them to the hospital. So he has his reasons, but is he really as evil as he seems?? ;D Oho, she’s all, ‘ahhh it’s too confusing!’ so ahah, I’m really curious what she’ll think about him later in the upcoming eps.

[onepunchmiss]

OPM Live Blog S2e1

Note that I’m watching this from the perspective of someone who is up to date on the manga, so spoiler warning on that. Now WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY LETS GET TO IT

“Return of the Hero”

“Sensei” I wouldn’t have had season 2 start any other way if I’m being honest.

Ok right off the bat, the animation difference is noticeable. Especially on Genos’s arms, But! I was expecting this and honestly I don’t mind it all that much. “I will call toy manufacturing companies” Genos stop you’re being too precious and my weak heart can’t take it.

Oh. My god. There he is! The King engine! Man it really is no wonder everyone is so quick to assume King is such a hero. The fluidity of the scene being animated really lends to the believability, despite how absurd it is on paper. Like if you told me that someone, completely by accident came to be seen as the strongest man in the world despite trying to avoid exactly that, I’d say it’s corny and unrealistic. One and Murata already worked magic to have it work as well as it has in the manga/webcomic, but hearing and visualizing the scene makes it even better. His voice over monologue here too really sells it. He just sounds so resigned oh my god

Paused just for 3 things-this face, the little chuckle while making this face, and “Doki doki Hottie Sisters 2.” King I love you.

WOW OK WAY TO JUST CALL US ALL OUT THERE THANKS

Aaaaaand panic attack. Oof. Poor guy. Two monsters just on the way home. This is actually kinda getting to me too, like hearing the hyperventilating while he hides in the bathroom stall is WAY too personal King my guy I feel your pain it will be ok ouch

On a side note, not only am I completely used to the animation already, but I am REALLY digging the visuals through the whole King introduction so far.

Ok I take that back but only a little. You can tell with the fight scene they’re trying SO HARD to live up to the animation MadHouse put out for season 1, but it just feels slightly off. Though i’m 100% certain that (at least with this sequence specifically) if I didn’t have s1 to compare, I wouldn’t think twice about the animation. Also, you go bby kick robot ass strive for top 10! Gosh I missed Genos.

King wtf you have NO business being this adorable

Oh fuck that got me good. The cutesy music and king talking to himself/Saitama without noticing and then SILENCE I am cackling. This is the good stuff, this is why I watch the anime even though you can read the manga. The comedic effect is just that much better with scenes like this oh god. And King, for not wanting the reputation of being an S class hero, you sure whipped that gimmick out quick.

Ok, I keep pausing every few seconds wanting to write something about this whole King-Saitama exchange, but that would just be excessive, so I’m just going to say I have been consistently cackling the whole time the humor is not lost at all this is a blessing thank everyone who made s2 happen

“maybe you’re just bored fighting monsters” With all the jokes and action aside I forget sometimes that Saitama is still struggling with the burden of being too powerful. I honestly feel bad for him because here he thinks he might have found someone to relate to but poor King is the exact opposite. I mean he gets a great friend out of it, but I wonder if he had a glimmer of hope for a second there. Now I made myself sad, ah man. anyway

Ohhey Vaccine man. Fitting that the first villain of the first season makes a cameo in the first ep of the second.

I’m so torn between having all these feels for King being all emotional, and oogling over Genos being actual badass oh my god. Good fight scene good animation badass Genos i’m 0% mad

There it is. Just wow. I know so many people were waiting to see that moment and I hope everyone felt that as much as I did. So good. I had to watch it twice it’s so satisfying to finally see it I wish it were longer? Saitama is just such a good guy. Although, I was kind of expecting the episode to wrap up with this bit, but there’s still 10 minutes. My curiosity is piqued.

Oh right, Genos needs his post-battle repairs. I hope they tone down the weird metal shading just a tad. Its a bit distracting ngl

OH HEY WELCOME TO THE ANIME GUYS

Ah, how could I forget all the Sonic fans out there? Mouthing off as usual. We missed you. Welcome back you charming disaster.

AH THERE SHE IS QUEEN BITCH SUPREME. Ok ok I actually feel dumb now for not realizing that every scene in the preview was from the first episode I should’ve seen Sonic and Fubuki popping up I’m a fool. And so the fubuki group ordeal begins. The back and forth of Fubuki and Sonic hyping up Saitama’s power with the intense music playing is getting me more and more hype. I’m getting excited despite the fact that I know how it all plays out for a while, which is a great sign

And I’m cackling  again. Saitama is a mood when I play video games I love them but I suck. God their dynamic is perfect please I need more please SAITAMA you better buy King a new controller don’t be that guy

oh

OH

Ok so the ENDING THEME has me MORE HYPE than the ENTIRE EPISODE I WAS BUMMED BY THE LACK OF OPENING BUT LIKE NOW I CARE ZERO

OH OHHO YES. GUYS. IM SO READY TO WATCH THE S CLASS KICK THE FUCK UP OH MY GOD

Alright now that I’m breathing like a normal person again-

All in all, I thought it was great! Barely feels like we skipped a beat from season one even though its been three years. I GUESS I can understand why some fans may not like it, but at the same time I feel like anyone going into the episode with a negative mindset is bound to be disappointed. At the end of the day I can’t complain about the animation, the story and framing stayed true to the manga and the pacing felt right, so I’m really happy.

Sorry this was messy but now that I’ve actually done this once I think the next episode will be a bit cleaner on my end. And I cannot WAIT