Memes about this show are so hard to avoid. After a week of seeing like 4-5 a day I said fuck it and watched a synopsis of the series. The ending seemed insanely contrived which put me off but for some reason I ended up downloading the show and starting it. I got the point where I personally thought they should have ended and then I stopped watching the show.
I’m still confused as to why the hell I watched it in the first place. I mean, it wasn’t a waste of my time. Was rather quite enjoyable. At least I can get the fuckin’ memes now. Hasn’t really changed my opinion on anime (nothing negative, just not really for me 9 times out of 10) but I’m still just… why the hell did I watch that?
Anything you’ve watched for reasons that you can’t quite place? Whether you loved it or hated it?
One Punch Man does the monologuing well and the fights are mostly over before they begin because the entire schtick is the guy beats things in one hit. The B story is what will grab you: the introspective exploration of what it means to be a hero and how to help people who may not understand you, will not support you, but who need you nonetheless.
The entire first season is some of the slickest satire of anime ever and if you don’t have a big attachment to other anime titles then you may enjoy it more than traditional anime fans. It pokes a lot of tropes directly and is built around subverting the “hierarchy of power” that is pervasive through anime as a genre.
The isekai anime Overlord does something similar but lingers on the fights. The premise is a guy gets stuck in a fantasy world that he thought was a video game - one in which he hit max level and nothing is a challenge. He is now the most powerful individual in a world and all he wants are friends. But he is so powerful that he is left with the assistant NPCs who are one dimensional and no friends. He is desperate to find his old MMO friends and starts to conquer his local area as a way to advertise his presence to the guild members who would know him. It’s a good time but relies a lot on genre tropes, sometimes subverting them but usually leaning into them.
So One Punch Man has been suggested to me before. What you said about the B Story is partially why I’m not interested in it.
I’ve become real fuckin’ jaded. I am so tired of heroes. I grew up on Bond who is hella flawed and has serious problems but then its just like everything got saturated with that. When I was watching Death Note I was enjoying it because the main character was the bad guy for once. Not to mention the point at which I quit meant that the bad guy won. I’m tired of heroes and of the conflict within and having to cope with that. Also I’m a Superman stan and that’s the majority of his shtick when you analyze it so I’m familiar with it as a story.
Overlord I’ve heard mentioned a lot and might sell me because he’s not necessarily a good guy. He’s just a dude.
Yeah, you will like Overlord.
Not anime but def check out M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap. It is such a breath of fresh air!