#metal knight

[badjohnspeakeasy]

Being a Mad Scientist sure is lonely.

I think it's thematically appropriate that Mosquito Girl survived, and that Genus repaired her. Mad Scientists in OPM are lonely, dependent people.

Kuseno has Genos.

Fukegao had his brother, Marugori/Beefcake.

Genus surrounded himself in clones, now he surrounds himself in his remodeled, reformed experiments.

Psykos started out with Fubuki and her stuffed cycloptic bear, then she leveled up to Orochi, a horde of monsters, and her little flying eye critters that she used to spy on people.

And WIIIIIILD Emperor (that name is such a sad but hilarious overcorrection) has his Underdog Men, and now that he's of the opinion that he can't trust anybody now (even his homie Zombieman), he's more isolated and insecure than ever.

I hope Isamu manages to let some positive influences in his life, or he'll end up like Metal Knight, the loneliest and most paranoid guy of all.

After losing Isamu as his assistant, all Bofoi has is his robot army, his action movie figurines, and a dark laboratory from which he broods and watches the outside world.

[elcuervoborracho]

So I made that Genos and Tatsumaki logo, and I'm putting these in their own post. More S-Class coming soon!

[kimochi-ubiwai]

opm webcomic update 148

[no1monstersimp]

I'm slowly going insane.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Update 229 Review:

No reason for this image, just me enjoying Saitama's meaty thighs. That's all.

Story: Like putting lipstick on a hyena

We open with Tatsumaki taking a phone call. She's dismissive of the idea of shooting a commercial to promote the Hero Association to prospective heroes -- until she remembers Saitama talking about how he'd once been weak and agrees. Let it be noted that Tatsumaki doesn't do anything half-assed: she throws herself into the role of ambassador with such enthusiasm that she ends up trashing the studio.

She is less than impressed with what comes out of the session: a cutesy, saccharine call girl simpering in a commercial, about as true a reflection of Tatsumaki as lipstick and a pink bowtie on a spotted hyena. Fubuki, unfortunately, comes home [1] just as Tatsumaki gets hung up on. Oh, dear, there goes the roof. Looks like they'll be staying in hotels for a bit -- ar at Hero Association HQ -- while the damage is fixed.

More goings on under the cut.

I'd love to blame Amai Mask for producing the AI-edited monstrosity. But the true blame lies with McCoy. He orchestrated the campaign. The public lap it up, it conforming to an image that's palatable to see [I have A LOT to say about this but that's another post.]

Nastier-minded people would have asked, 'which organization', but so it goes when one has the benefit of the doubt

After the HA executives praise McCoy for his adroit management of the HA's image, they (especially a guy I'm calling Walrus 'stache) turn to the recruitment figures to find...

...ah, let me wind back a second. It's true that the Hero Association is always recruiting, but it's taken on additional urgency with Metal Knight having apparently thrown billions of Yen away on infrastructure and weaponry that don't work [2] and Tatsumaki being unmanageable. We return to the story...

...that...

...the ad campaign had made no difference. The Hero Association approval ratings were up, but recruitment was still on its downward slide.

What gave?

The answer comes from two other conversations happening contemporaneously. One is between a Hero Association scout and Axel, the leader of a vigilante group known as The Hunters, the other between another scout and a super-sumo champion named Raiden. In each case, the scout is sent off with a flea in their ear as the prospect in question has another engagement.

Yes, there's another hero organization in the wings, and it's hoovering up as much talent as it can find. It's even reaching out to current heroes.

We cut to a very dapper-looking Genos being asked by a very tired-looking Dr Kuseno what his intentions are, given this information and the former's feelings about the Hero Association. Genos starts to answer, but we'll have to wait for the answer as the scene switches to Saitama doing a spit-take as he sees the commercial.

Meta: Finally, some good fucking food

Everything can be faked (except truth)

Many people have already noted the jab at AI fakery inherent in 'Tatsumaki's ad,' so I won't belabour the point. I shall leave it to another post.

Alas, heroes don't grow on trees

The Hero Association's newfound desperation to find new heroes has been a long time coming. People who make good heroes are rare critters. There is not only the need for exceptional ability (even C-Class heroes are incredible), but there's also a need for willingness to serve as a hero, moral principles, and stability under very trying circumstances. Fooled by the previously buoyant numbers of applicants, leading to 55 Hero Tests being conducted as of the time Saitama and Genos applied, they've applied an 'easy-come, easy-goes' attitude to their recruits. When they should instead have recognised them as rare talent to be nurtured, even the lower-class heroes. Looks like there have been seven more Hero Tests since those two joined, and the news has not been good.

At no point does the HA appear to have had more than 600 heroes on the books: retention seems to have been a big problem. It fits in well with the executive Gobrich's frustration with the situation that support for heroes is too top-down and hasn't listened to their actual needs and concerns. Bushohige (the Bearded Worker) has made similar points -- but no one's listening to him, either!

Sekingar at least appears to have seen the light in this regard and at least appreciates that heroes, whatever their abilities, need to be used *well* rather than be treated as a disappointment for not being S-Class heroes. But he's just one person and has only recently been promoted.

And now... with the advent of actual competition, the spigot of fresh new bodies to take in and use up has largely dried up. What a to do!

Speaking of drying up

Genos is draining the very life out of Kuseno at the moment -- it reminds me of Uu and Reigen. Yes, the doctor made him a cyborg, and so on one level, he can't really complain if he's the it man when it comes to giving him upgrades. But Kuseno is all alone. The stress of worrying about Genos when the latter casually dumps horrors on him and the burden of designing upgrades (how do you God-proof a person, anyway?) is really getting to him. And he has no one to talk to, let well alone share the burden with. [3]

Try not to die of overwork, doctor! At least not before you can find Genos a new situation.

Asides

[1] Looks like Fubuki lives with Tatsumaki in the manga. Either that or she lives close by and has a key. Love to see it.

[2] Truly an eavesdropper hears no good of themselves. The manga change from Metal Knight being scolded in person to overhearing it is brilliant.

[3] In a kinder world, Kuseno would be able to call Bang to at least have a sympathetic ear (heh, and Bang had a personality transplant). Kind and ONE don't mix, at least when it comes to his fictional characters, so too bad.

[divisionull]

two anime styled drawings. It's fun for me to draw metal like this⚙️

[aforrestofstuff]

Chapter 173 Expert Review: The "Hey, my boyfriend saw you across the bar and we really dig your vibe" Edition

The cover makes me so uncomfortable it's like I'm at a party and said something weird just as the music went quiet and everyone heard and they're all looking at me and everyone hates me and I'm so anxious and

Welcome to the Chapter 173 Expert Review! I have completely lost count of how many of these I've done. If you're coming here for a well-thought-out meta-commentary on the hit series franchise anime manga One Punch Man, then look elsewhere because I put a grand total of ten minutes of thought into this post that took me 45 minutes to write.

I hope you're all well. If you're new here from Twitter then yes, I'm really always like this and I apologize. I don't know how to segway to the actual commentary, so um......... here we gooooooo.....

I don't know what I was expecting. Could I have predicted that Murata would yassify Bofoi? Probably. Do I ever want to come to terms with the fact that he did? No.

Shut up I'm not saying anything. I'm not saying anything. I'm not. He looks like he's wearing those really oversized dentures at Party City. His head looks more like an egg than Saitama's. Why does he still look kinda.... no I'm not gonna say it. I'm not. I'M NOT. GET OUT OF MY HEAAADD RAAAAAAEERERARAAAAWW

I'D FUCK HIM!!!! I'D FUCK BOFOI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M TIRED OF PRETENDING HE'S NOT AN ENDEARING SORT OF UGLY OK IM SICK OF IT!!! I'M GONNA DESTROY HIS OLD MAN CERVIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANNA FUCK HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How many enemies has Saitama made just by existing already. Is this number three? Sonic, God, and now Bofoi? Oh, well, I guess Saitama did fuck up his robots but that was self-defense 100% and it WILL hold up in the court of law.

Oh, okay. Now we have a better idea of the timeline since Saitama became a hero.... only two months???? Dude, I've had packages lost in the mail for longer than that.

I kinda thought he'd been a hero for at least six months. I guess what Garou said about coming back to fuck up the heroes after six months at the beginning of his arc was only a sort of red herring to make it seem like he'd be the world-ending Shibabooby prophecy, but in relation to how long Saitama's been a hero, turns out my guy only fucked shit up for like, what? One month?

Was this just obvious to everyone else except me. I really should've never learned how to read dawg.

THANK YOU Amai Mask for being the "Please explain the plot so readers with the comprehension skills of fourth graders can know what's going on" character in this because I swear to fucking god I had no clue what anyone was talking about.

Also, Ninja Leader makes an appearance as Blast's totally super platonic partner. Supposedly they were "searching for a mysterious cube" together. People these days make up such weird euphemisms for skipping work to fuck each other in a ditch, I swear. 🙄🙄🙄

A couple of things:

Is Blast wearing the Ninja Leader's glasses in the present? Oh, so they really were super platonic, huh.

You mean to tell me bro aged THIS MUCH in two years? 700 days ago he was late-twenties rager at Planet Fitness and now he's a 57-year-old salt and pepper daddy at the gay bar?

I guess it could have something to do with his powers, manipulating space-time and all that. Blast teleports through something that is basically a copy-and-pasted black hole, which could explain why time flows differently for him, but doesn't time slow down near a black hole? So he should be aging slower if anything.

So, did God age him? Is this even the same Blast that came in contact with God? Something something uuuhh time travel something something...

I don't fucking know. This could also just be a case of "Murata doesn't know how to draw people that look their age" although he's been getting better about that, at least... Just seems ODD to me that Blast has aged like an avocado in a manga where characters only seem to look younger as time goes by.

Very noble that he's fighting God alone with the Interdimensional Justice League and their Pocket Dimension Pool Table to protect everyone else. Something still feels fishy about this, though........ especially since he's a deadbeat ass dad in the webcomic. I don't trust a GODDAMN thing this boy has to say. I DONT CARE IF HE'S HOT!! And I think that is so brave of me.

Forrest has a theory and everyone's gotta hear about it a million times until he's proven otherwise.

Y'all already heard me say how God has one-sided beef with Saitama because Saitama broke the limiter God had placed on him, and I suppose that alone is still a decent reason for God to be pulled to Earth, but I still think God's full body (and power) is imprisoned in the dimensional seal Blast was screaming about as Saitama was fighting Monster Garou V2.

And Saitama's habit of fucking shit up as collateral for saving the world is further eroding God's jail cell, so he's unknowingly helping his enemy get closer to him. This fucking goober.

It makes sense because the massive body in the seal looks like a fully-formed person, whereas whenever we see God free, he's always a sort of unfinished skeletal figure. He's incomplete.

Is this another one of those things where it seems painfully obvious to everyone else except me. Y'all are free to hop in my inbox and call me a dumbass if you want.

Final thoughts because this review is already too goddamn long and I wanted to shitpost a bit more but I guess I can do that on other posts because I'm TIRED.

All in all, we really needed a good expo-debrief chapter to put everything in perspective because the Monster Association arc was a load of reveals with not a lot of resolutions. I think the ending was still very anticlimactic because, although we were introduced to a lot of shit like God and Blast and whatnot, none of that was really tied up in a satisfying way, nor left on an interesting cliffhanger. Just more and more questions. Even Garou's arc hasn't ended really, and all the development he and Saitama had gone through was forgotten (for NOW, because of Genos' core, but I digress) so it almost feels like... not much really happened at all. Nothing really ended, it was just a collection of more plot threads beginning.

I wish ONE waited a bit longer to really delve into God and Blast because I think the Monster Association arc could've been a lot more comprehensive and well-paced if it had just been (mostly) contained to what was happening between the heroes and monsters. But I can appreciate how comprehensive the plot is now after the fallout, just... the road to get here was rocky. I lost all the tires on my jeep.

I'm excited for Psychic Sisters.

In conclusion: if you were at the Whole Foods down the street and took a blue bike tied to the railing then you're a fucking bitch GIVE IT BACK!! THAT'S MY FUCKING BIKE!!

GIVE BACK MY FUCKING BIKE!!!!! YOU STOLE MY BIKE!!

p.s. -- I'm still waiting for the Zombiedad and Child Emperor Get Milkshakes Together omake. Murata, pls. Also give my bike back.

Thanks for reading. Please, I need my bike.

[isittigerortigger]

One Punch Man Character as Wild TikTok Screenshots

Metal Bat

King

Metal Knight

Genos

Watchdog Man

Amai Mask

Garou

Pig God

Dr Genus

Puri Puri Prisoner

Part 2 coming up!

[giihzinha]

*Clears throat* Metal Knight my beloved

... I'm sorry lol

Btw here is the old version

[theomnicode]

I love that Saitama is still salty about Tatsumaki sending Genos flying to a wall.

Also, Saitama's under the radar, big heroic moment.

--

Instead of yeeting her away when she was breaking up the entire foundation of HA and accidentally murdering all the people living above from building collapses and breaking her wrist in the process of flinging her away, he instead chose to just get her into bodily contact and cart her out of there. Because she didn't seem to give a damn. That she stopped using her psychic powers out of sheer shock and bewilderment was an added bonus.

Really, Saitama saved Tatsumaki from committing accidental mass slaughter with earthquake of greater magnitude than 6 and getting into far worse mess than she bargained for. Tatsu is a great hero, but she needs to be talked about causing far too much devastation in her wake, especially when she doesn't need to; she's perfectly capable of precision.

She doesn't need to show off to be feared. It's understandable that she does...but she needs to have a talk with a therapist.

She should be grateful too, because with all her issues, she's not thinking with her head.

Buildings collapsing during earthquakes is no joke. People get trapped beneath collapsing buildings all the time and it's why Japan especially where EQ's happen frequently, have to build buildings resistant to that sort of thing. HA is not that kind of building.

I know Metal Knight is ambiguous character at best, but he did do his work well...one just can never be prepared for overzealous OP psychic destroying everything at the base. One that is supposed to be on YOUR side too.

I feel sorry for the guy now, he's gonna get the blame again, nobody will trust him again and he could do so much good with his cybernetic technology in field of medicine, for instance.

In this, Saitama is again, showing his true heroism and his actual heroic intuition that he thinks he does not have and pulls the fight out of the danger zone before the structural integrity was too compromised and quite possibly, saved tons of lives doing so, without even harming anyone.

Shame he doesn't trust himself. He's a real hero, through and through.

One could argue that he was too lenient on Tatsumaki and should've just knocked her out, but the moment he saw the structural integrity was being compromised, he sprung to action.

I can't do anything but commend Saitama for his quick thinking.

Knocking her out would've been fine, but the difficulty would've been to have the technique in the heat of the moment to pull it off without hurting her or inciting her even more. And it would not allow Tatsu to actually vent her issues and start healing from her childhood traumas since Saitama is apparently the appointed therapist. Saitama's approach allows her room to actually calm down without further violence.

[taki79]

OPM SPOILERS!!!

(THEORY/PREDICTION) !!!

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THEORY I WANT TO SHARE THAT I HAVE HAD IN MIND FOR AWHILE!

(Genos, Drive Knight, Metal Knight, Mad Cyborg related)

I had a theory awhile ago about Metal Knight and Drive Knight working together secretly, but now something tells me that is not the case whatsoever.

I think it’s strange on how Drive Knight tells Genos to not trust Bofoi off the bat in the beginning from the end of season 1.

Like he’s trying to turn on the possibility of a traitor in the HA in the mind of Genos (so he becomes worked up about it, which works and favors DK later on). Like he needs someone else to do his dirty work for him, due to DK already being seen as suspicious by MK.

(ik ik im stretching here and there but, let me cook)

But I feel like it’s strange on how Drive Knight tries to pin point it all at Metal Knight particularly because of his absence throughout the Hero Association. Like he’s trying to make it out as HE is the one Genos needs to target particularly. Especially because he’s the only other robot besides the 2 of them being part cyborg.

Does Drive Knight tell this information to anyone else, BESIDES GENOS?

No, not at all (at least that’s just from what I know and see, as he’s a very secretive person).

And I think it’s really strange when Drive Knight starts to mention about ‘knowing’ something evil about MK. It’s like he’s inserting himself, or with the people he might work with in secret. Like a new hidden organization yet to be announced in the storyline.

Especially on the first panel below this, when he tells Genos why he’s telling him this. It all seems so manipulative, stalker kind of vibe, trying to share common ground/change his persona to be likable/trust worthy. He’s suspiciously trying a little to hard to gain his trust, he’s trying to be a victim like him, I guess gain sympathy in a way?

It’s like Metal Knight KNOWS he’s in a mentally unstable condition, that Genos seems desperate enough to find out about his ‘mad cyborg’ killer sooner or later.

If someone very important to him happened to die, Genos would whole heartily (maybe with a grain of salt) follow Drive Knights information. (Wanna know what happened? KUSENO DIED, HIS FATHER FIGURE, SOMEONE WHO WAS THERE FOR HIM IN THE BEGINNING. And wanna know what he did after? He used that information from Drive Knight to go after Metal Knight.)

Also-

HOW DOES DRIVE KNIGHT KNOW THAT GENOS’ES VILLAGE AS BEEN DESTROYED BY A ‘mad cyborg’ AS WELL???

NO ONE TOLD HIM??

SO HOW DOES HE EXACTLY KNOW!???

(It’s like out of the blue.)

This only furthers my suspicions on Drive Knight.

Especially on the after math of Kuseno’s death and when robots invade nearby cities. In which Genos automatically assumes it’s the work of Metal Knight.

And now with new evidence from the newest webcomic chapter shows Metal Knights base, with no robots forming out of the base itself.

As all of his robots are by the HA HQ fighting the new other robots.

(Although the chapter isn’t fully translated yet, you can see DK, which proves my previous point up above in the third section.)

I actually think Drive Knight might be working with the association that destroyed Genos’es village. It would explain on why he’s trying to pin the blame on Metal Knight and to not become suspicious from Genos POV, giving him a good alibi for the most part.

And if anything that ‘mad cyborg’ killer could be Drive Knight himself, but that’s a bit of stretch if anything.

(IM PREDICTING IT THO! MARK MY WORDS!!)

————-

A little bit more evidence mentions: (from the top of my head)

-Metal Knight tells Child Emperor to not trust anyone as his final message to him. We are shown a text of both of them used to being friends.

It’s like Metal Knight had to cut his connection towards CE for his safety as he MK already felt he was being watched himself. (But that might change due to the recent chapter that has yet to be translated, can’t fully confirm until then but just putting it out there.)

-Saitama tells Genos to just talk to Metal Knight and ask. But Genos pays no head to that, which might become his biggest mistake.

I feel like this is foreshadowing that once Genos gets close to Bofoi, and Bofoi tells him that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about/tells him straight up he had no relation to the event he speaks of. I feel like Genos might lose it completely even if Saitama is next to him and tries to calm him down.

Like I feel like Genos might almost kill Bofoi but Saitama stops Genos in time. And both start to argue and it’s starts to become sad from there.

-It’s strange how after Genos talked to DK for a bit, then Kuseno dies.

Coincidence? I think not.

It’s like Kuseno was on DK’s hit list for him and the people that he works with/the association that killed Genos’es village. And they had to get rid of him one way or another, it would explain why there was random strong robots there. They were being tracked and targeted, mainly Dr.Kuseno (as if he was getting close to the truth).

Like they to manipulate Genos just so DK could earn his trust and lose a lot of suspicion in his eyes. Even after Kusenos death.

-THE 2 MF ROBOTS FROM SEASON 1 THE SOUND O SONIC EP! (I think)

They appeared after taking back the suit of the big strong bald head guy.

It’s like very early foreshadowing of members for another association, yet to still appear out of thin air. (IMO)

————-

That’s all I wanted to share for now, I’ll edit this if I happen to remember more and study the chapters closely.

If you guys wanna add on or put in you own input, on this theory, please do! I would be happy to hear your opinion!

(And correct me if I’m wrong!!)

Until then, thank you for reading my theory! (If it makes sense 😭)

Have a nice day/night!! :D

[the-nysh]

have you heard of child emperor = mad cyborg theory in this very chapter, I bet that HE is the "rogue AI" that he mentions they tinkered with, except he's been programmed to forget that and instead to think that he co-engineered and then shelved it instead, so that he'd have multiple mental blocks preventing him from going rogue again on top of any hard-coded blocks. his text conversation with Bofoi underground during the MA attack in the manga. They barely said anything and hegot pissed

....lol okay at this point the "character x = mad cyborg" theories are reaching the same "Blast = character x" crack theory levels! Cause this one's completely out of left field. Especially the leap in reasoning thinking a child is an ai simply because he.....gets emotional/irritated at his former master's seemingly irresponsible (in)actions and avoidance??? Um.

I think child emperor and metal knight accidentally created the mad cyborg ( with their ai experiments)

At least this one's more sensible. :'D Especially following all their talk about what's human vs machine, how a human would not have been able to complete the ai's creation, and the conditions for it to become unstable and go mad, etc. That I WONDER if ONE's been recently inspired by the Pluto anime release, cause the entire theme - that of a 'perfect ai', the boundaries between what's human vs robot, the mystery of one accidentally creating itself, and what leads one to kill/rampage in hatred all feel Very on brand. I def got some similar vibes.

But truly, for anything else, only ONE can stop the crack theories give us those answers!

[cherryhands]

Metal knight blowing up shit

[no1monstersimp]

Guess what he told him about?

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM webcomic chapter 142 review: Unforgivable.

Story

So after nearly two years of absence, ONE once again drops a ninja update of the webcomic on us. This is a normal-sized (15-16 pages) webcomic chapter, but we've no idea whether there are any follow-ups to come soon. Combined with the fact that this is an action-packed release with very little in the way of conversation, it's a chapter that just whizzes by in a kinetic stream of beautifully-composed action shots.

We open with the city under attack. A bird (looks like a crow) is perched on a telegraph pole. As it is startled into the air by the laser beams cutting through the building in the background, we see the building explode. The next scenes are confused voices emanating from the surrounding buildings, with people asking what is going on so early, what alarms there are, urging loved ones to get up and get out… and these voices become less coherent as the horror of the reality overtakes them.

The robots march through the city, systematically and thoroughly destroying every building, car, person, and object in sight. They miss no one and overlook nothing and they keep formation to ensure that no one gets a chance to double back and slip through their ranks. This is not an attack. It is an extermination.

Their progress is halted by a figure landing in front of them. It's Genos and the footprint he stamps into the road is apparently a challenge, a wordless declaration that none shall pass this point. He doesn't spend time posturing, but charges straight into the ranks of the robots and…

…robots start to disintegrate, some punched so hard they fly to pieces, some slashed in two, some apparently shocked. Genos mows them down so fast they appear suspended in the air, their slowly falling bodies the only indication he had ever been there. As the entirety of the division is destroyed, we finally see Genos again, walking through them in the same manner that Saitama had walked through the attacking robots the night before.

A figure appears before Genos in the dust and smoke, and he punches it, realising too late that it's Saitama. Fortunately, Saitama had adroitly dodged around him, and no harm was done. Saitama smiles slightly as he declares that Genos has become strong: the doctor's final upgrade was a success.

Genos does not acknowledge the praise, thinking briefly before suggesting that he and Saitama split up, Saitama to tackle the remaining forces in the city while he Genos goes ahead to Metal Knight's hideout. For a few moments, Saitama is silent. He slowly turns around and then waves to Genos as he starts walking off, telling Genos that he understood and the latter was to be careful.

Genos doesn't spend time looking wistfully after Saitama. If anything, the inner rage stoking him seems to flare up even hotter. He takes off (the very first time we've seen him fly in the webcomic -- anyone wishing to dispute that is confusing it with the manga) and flies off. En route, he encounters a monster nonchalantly perched on a building, playing with a truck like it's an overgrown Lego piece. Thinking that it stands to reason that Metal Knight would use monsters as biological weapons in conjunction with robots, Genos slashes at the air with his fingers, and the monster is cleaved in several places as if with a sword. Genos isn't to know it but it is Meat Dumpling and with the monster's destruction, Zaedat's murder is avenged.

Unforgiveable, Genos says to himself, as he flies off.

That's where the chapter leaves off. Shall we meta?

Meta

A: It's Needs O'Clock

I'm going to try to make this the only place I compare this with the manga. Manga readers will notice a similarity between the slashes that Genos used to dispatch Meat Dumpling and Bomb's Whirlwind Cutting Iron Fist. It can't be because of the former having observed the latter in the webcomic as Bomb never used such a move in the webcomic. It's something he (well, Kuseno) has come up with independently.

One of the things you have to accept as a webcomic reader is that characters are capable of doing things when the narrative requires that they are: there isn't time or space to go into development unless it's super-critical to the plot. If you want to see characters grind, you need to read the manga. It doesn't bother me, but it's something to note and respect.

B: A whodunit resolved

With the appearance of Meat Dumpling, an important set of troublesome coincidences ties itself up into an incriminating body of fact beyond a reasonable doubt. The fact that Meat Dumpling was out there in the middle of a robot uprising clinches it: it was sent out precisely to target Zaedats. This ties in perfectly with how Destro and Erimin were able to recover both Zaedats and Infelsinave: the monsters are under their control and of course the monsters relinquished them without a fuss (or without harming those precious heads of theirs).

this looked like such bad luck, including the suit's failure to allow him to escape, but no longer

Those two Neo Leaders weren't unlucky, they were the subject of hit jobs so that their resources could fall under The Organization's control.

A's total lack of surprise was also suspicious but then again, it's A: a guy without a shred of morality

Hoo, so now we know that the robot uprising and the cyborg conspiracy (and whatever fuckery is going on at the Neo Heroes) are all linked. We suspected it was because the body suits they'd been handing out to Neo Heroes looked suspiciously like modified versions of the suits Hammerhead and crew the Organization allowed them to steal. Sonic recognising those suits strengthened our suspicion.

The appearance of cybernetically modified, remotely-controlled monsters whose actions happened to benefit the Neo Heroes but not pro-heroes strengthened our suspicions still further.

With the Machine Gods (an Organization special) declaring to Genos that the day of reckoning was about to begin, we knew that The Organization was up to something big.

However, there was still a tiny bit of room for there to be another bad actor to take advantage of the situation to carry out their evil plans. With the monster appearing, there is doubt no longer: Destro, Erimin, the rampaging robots, the Machine Gods, and the Neo Heroes are all of a piece.

If someone had tried putting these pieces together, they'd have been shouted down as a swivel-eyed conspiracy theorist. But there you go: occasionally, what seems to be a shadowy, well-resourced, well-organized conspiracy to subvert justice and subjugate society IS JUST THAT.

Only just about nobody believes it…

C: Half the Reason

…except Genos and Kuseno. Genos seemed mad to a lot of readers when he first came to Saitama talking about rampaging cyborgs and the total extermination of everyone in his home town, and of shadowy enemies that were all but impossible to track down. We'd seen monsters, sure, but what was this about cyborgs? Was he making it all up? Even though we saw at least one cyborg associated with The Organization early on in the series, we had no real leads as to what was really happening, how extensive it was, and how it all fit together (well, we still don't have the last) until now.

Why would anyone in their right mind give up their human body and become a living weapon? Well, One-Punch Man has been clear that there are many reasons that people become cyborgs for, but in Genos's case we now have half the reason: because nobody wanted to believe that what had seemed a random series of attacks was part of a much greater war, and thus nobody was prepared to challenge it. This was the only way available to him to take that stand.

Something that is both observable to readers within their own lives and observable to readers within the confines of the story is that it is really difficult to kill everyone in a place. Kill at least one person? Not too bad. A few? Tougher. Many? Tougher still. Most people? That's quite the ask, even with heavy artillery. Everybody? That takes some serious planning and execution. We've noticed that monsters, for all their strength and size, are remarkably bad at killing lots of people: they can nab some people randomly and knock some buildings down, but the sort of kill numbers are far lower than one would initially expect -- if one forgets about the propensity of people to save themselves. We're not chickens stuck in a chicken coop, painfully shivering as we're grabbed one by one. The heroes are useful, yes, but damn do the monsters help by being more interested in intimidating people than killing and eating them for the most part.

Chillingly, the most economical explanation is that once the method of achieving total kills was validated, it no longer needed the human input of a cyborg and could be automated.

The difference between what monsters do and what the robots were doing is chillingly clear. Not a single person woken up early that morning survived. That's the sort of thoroughness it takes to kill everyone in a town and I praise ONE for showing this to us in such an economic manner. This scene must have been a horrible flashback to Genos's fateful day. It really takes a certain kind of mind to execute this. One thing often misunderstood in the story is the word 'bosu' -- it does not so much mean mad as it means rampaging, out of control. The mad cyborg is less mad than it does go on systematic rampages, rampages that have resulted in the total destruction of multiple towns. The only thing special about Genos's former town is that it's the last known place struck.

And his literally taking a stand to stop repeats of these exterminations is incredibly admirable.

D: Prelude to a Tragedy

However, happy as everyone is to see Genos wrecking the bots like wrecking is going out of fashion, I don't think there are many who are optimistic about what is unfolding. For it's the first act in a tragedy. A tragedy whose full impact we are surely going to see unfold over the rest of the arc, and quite possibly in many arcs to follow. Genos is going to attack Metal Knight, the latter having successfully been framed by Drive Knight. The chances that the Metal Knight who has been watching Organization operatives with such suspicion is himself the culprit is slim. However, Drive Knight gloating about how Metal Knight was blindsided by the rise of the Neo Heroes very strongly suggests that the doctor, for all his crabby, misanthropic presentation, is indeed innocent.

There's still room for reasonable doubt when it comes to Bofoi's intentions and actions, but Genos is not in the mood to listen. He's entirely fixated on killing. Whether he kills Bofoi, is killed by him, or they take each other out, the only beneficiaries are the enemies of mankind currently trying to break civilization with machines and modified biological weapons.

Perhaps Saitama should not have let Genos go alone with only the exhortation to be careful. Genos will need all his wits and all the luck he has never had to thread this particular needle without tragedy.

Good luck: the ease with which the unforgiving can become the unforgiven is truly terrifying.

[divisionull]

Dark colored, no helmet Bishop mode! I think Bishop and Metal Knight are close in size. I wish I could see their combat! Seeing how secretive they are, the chance seems slim though.

Incomplete flat. I painted Metal Knight, his missiles and background buildings on another canvas so I don't have full flat. I believe I'm getting better little by little.