One-Punch Man Season 2

One-Punch Man Season 2 arrived in 2019, more than three years after the hit first season. This time a different team made it. J.C.Staff animated the 12 episodes, and Chikara Sakurai took over as series director from Shingo Natsume. The season aired on TV Tokyo from April 10 to July 3, 2019, after a recap special on April 3. It was also shown on Hulu in the United States, and later on Adult Swim's Toonami block from October 2019 to January 2020. Like the first season, it is based on the manga drawn by Yusuke Murata from the original web comic by ONE.

The joke at the heart of the series stays the same. Saitama is a bald, bored man in a yellow suit who is so strong that no enemy can last more than one hit. Because every fight ends so fast, he finds his life dull. He cares more about grocery sales and cheap noodles than about fame. His student Genos, a serious young cyborg, follows him everywhere and writes down everything he says. Saitama is now an official member of the large group that ranks and pays heroes, but few people know how strong he really is.

The big new face this season is Garou. Garou is a young martial artist who once trained under Bang, an old master of fighting. Garou has always rooted for the monsters in stories, not the heroes. Now he sets out to become a "hero hunter." He attacks one pro hero after another to prove that the heroes are not as great as people think. Each fight makes him tougher and more dangerous. Many viewers find him the most interesting part of the season, because his anger comes from a real place, and he is not a simple bad guy.

At the same time, monster attacks are rising across the cities. A huge group of monsters, known as the Monster Association, starts to make its move against the heroes. A fortune teller had warned that the planet was in great danger, and her words start to seem true. The season spends a lot of time with other heroes too. King, who is ranked very high but hides a funny secret, becomes a friend of Saitama. Bang, Genos, Watchdog Man, and many others all get their own scenes.

While the heroes deal with this growing threat, Saitama gets pulled into something much smaller. He wants to learn real martial arts, so he enters a fighting tournament. He uses the ticket of a young fighter named Charanko and even wears a wig to pass as him. These scenes are some of the funniest in the season, because no one at the tournament knows who they are dealing with.

The show is a parody, which means it makes fun of common superhero and action stories. It asks what happens to a hero once winning becomes too easy. Season 2 also looks at what makes someone a hero or a villain at all. Some fans felt the animation was less impressive than in the famous first season, but the story still offers big laughs, fun new characters, and a strong rival in Garou.