One Punch Man Volume 1 - Review
Welcome to a review of One-Punch Man, Volume 1 by ONE and Yusuke Murata! In my previous post, I reviewed “This Is Marketing” by Seth Godin. This book is a little different.
For those who don’t know, a manga is a Japanese comic book. The only difference is that you read it from front to back. So if you’re a fan of comics, consider subscribing!
One-Punch Man Volume 1
This series is written by ONE (that’s his pen name) and is drawn by Yusuke Murata. This story is about a superhero who is so strong that he can defeat any villain in one punch. When you are that powerful, life gets pretty boring. Nothing excites him anymore. He has stopped feeling the same emotions as he did before. He’s bored. This is his story!
Manga volumes are just like comic book volumes, they are a combination of several chapters plus some extra bits. In this series, for example, each volume has few non-canon bonus chapters that weren’t released anywhere else. One-Punch Man Volume 1 contains the first 8 chapters and 1 bonus chapter.
To start this review off, let’s talk about —
Story Summary
Since this is the first volume, nothing happens that would be considered spoilers. Regardless, this is a spoiler warning. Here’s a brief summary of each chapter:
Punch One: One Punch
An evil villain named Vaccine Man descends onto Earth and terrorizes City A! Who will rise up to stop this powerful threat? The answer: Saitama, the main character. Vaccine Man goes down in one punch… Saitama is kind of pissed about it too.
Punch Two: Crab and Job Hunting
Three years ago, young Saitama was searching for a job. Walking home from a failed interview, he encounters a crab monster named Crablante. Crablante sees how miserable Saitama looks and lets him go but says he’s looking for a kid with a large chin. Later, Saitama comes across this kid. After instinctively saving this kid from Crablante, Saitama decides he wants to be a hero and takes down the big crab.
Punch Three: Walking Disaster
Very large man starts destroying cities. Saitama punches him.
Punch Four: Subterraneans of Darkness
An evil race of monsters surfaces from the underground and wipes out 70% of Earth’s population. These monsters are strong enough to damage even Saitama! Has he finally found enemies that will give him an exciting battle?
Punch 5: Itch Explosion
Saitama tries to kill a mosquito. Introducing our second main character: Genos, the cyborg! Genos fights a mosquito monster lady.
Punch 6: Saitama
Genos is on the brink of defeat at the hands of Mosquito Girl. At the last minute, Saitama kills Mosquito Girl and saves Genos. After seeing Saitama’s strength, Genos asks to be his disciple.
Punch 7: A Mysterious Attack
Genos arrives at Saitama’s place a few days later. Saitama isn’t too excited about taking on a student, but after hearing Genos’ long-winded backstory, he gives in and decides to show Genos how to get stronger. Suddenly they are attacked by some animal monsters!
Punch 8: This Guy?
Following the previous chapter, Genos fights an armored gorilla monster named Armored Gorilla (yeah) and Saitama deals with a big lion monster called the Beast King. Both of them win but Genos interrogates Armored Gorilla to find out where he came from.
Bonus Chapter: 200 Yen
This chapter is about a 12-year-old Saitama who struggles with bullies and is falling behind in classes. This chapter shows one of the early experiences that one day inspired him to get strong.
Review!
Strengths
This is a fun read and a great introduction to the series. ONE gives you the whole vibe and energy of the series in the first chapter. Compared to other manga, the artwork by Yusuke Murata is top-tier. Reading this on the Kindle app, I can clearly see and understand what’s going on in each panel which is surprisingly uncommon in many manga series, especially Shonen.
Weaknesses
Given this is the first volume, this book isn’t as heavy on action as the later volumes. This volume is about introducing Saitama and Genos and showing their personalities. Since this series started out as a parody of other Shonen manga series (especially Saitama being a gag character), the story is pretty basic in this volume. For example, all the monsters are just bad guys who want to kill people and destroy things. Even their names are just what they are (Armored Gorilla, Mosquito Girl).
Recommendation
I give “One Punch Man: Volume One” a 15/20! Great introduction to a fantastic series!
Affiliate Link to the Book
Here is the link to buy this book on Amazon. It’s $6.99 for the Kindle version and about $8-9 for the paperback. If you buy the book with this link, I will get a small commission so thank you! Clicking on the image below will take you to the same link.
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(PS: I’m planning on starting the job summaries up again. I haven’t gotten my LinkedIn back yet, but I’ll still find jobs somehow.)