I want to be stronger.

This is not a spoiler free blog. I draw inspiration from the anime, manga, and webcomic. I'll occasionally reference Mob Psycho 100, and Makai no Ossan stuff here too.

[genos-walking-autoclave]

Incredible

[romapple]

-Garou, can you strike a threatening pose?

Garou:

[just-some-random-lazy-guy]

DSK: So they call you king too but i don't see a crown on your head!

[pancakesprince]

i caught up with opm. whats with me and liking stories with bald men, six eyed dogwolf things, and body modified people

[endermitten]

i promise im still working on Suiko Quest i've just been depressed and busy

[gofancyninjaworld]

The Ninja Arc: Weighing up the Value of Experience

Thanks to trawling the archives for pictures of Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame, I had a look at one of the ideas that ONE has been wrestling with in the ninja arc, particularly when it comes to the difference between Flashy Flash and Sonic: experience.

ONE has been making a point that there is a difference between the skills honed through training and those gained through practice, but it's rarely one that has been made explicit. One place where it came through was in chapter 83 of the manga. If you weren't around in October 2017, then let me sketch out the atmosphere on r/onepunchman beforehand. There was a lot of anticipation for this fight but the consensus was that, good through Genos would be, it was going to go wrong for him. The chapter duly released, and we read, waiting to see when Garou would turn the tables on Genos, and... he didn't. He couldn't. It was he Bang's arrival bailed out, not Genos (like in the wc). Why? Not because Genos had that vastly superior a set of upgrades but because finally, all his painful experiences had started to distil out an effective battle sense. How to accurately size up an enemy, how to stay focused while staying alert of ambushes, even a rough fighting style, all of it Genos has acquired through trying, failing, and learning.

This was the first time we ever saw Genos gain an intimidating aura. May he grow ever more fearsome.

So, let's move onto the ninjas. The first version of the fight between Flash, Sonic, and the Tenninto saw Sonic utterly awed by Flash's refusal to kill the ninjas in favour of beating them down to show his superiority. He used what they saw as their most skilled technique against them and added insult to injury by calling it a basic idea that any actual battle experience would have naturally led to.

Training? No! Battle Experience- and the humility to learn from one's failures.

For Sonic, this was a revelation: the combination of speed and power that he'd been aiming for so long, and his impression was only strengthened by his witnessing how much more Flash could do when the latter challenged Empty Void.

A revelation

Sonic ended up determined to use Flash as his exemplar, one he could understand and outdo in time, unlike the enigmatic Saitama.

Sonic has a new goal, and it's good to see.

But then... ONE kept thinking, and along with Murata, came back.

The second go has Sonic and Flash on much more equal footing. Sonic reminded Flash that he taught him how to use a sword. They work together to kill all the ninjas and then snark at each other.

The squabbling of equals.

They're unamused when Void calls them a pair, with Sonic having the spirit but Flashy the skills. They're equals. We do see Sonic acknowledge that Flashy is much better than he'd expected him to be and wonder at what experiences he'd been through, but there is much less emphasis on the value of experience.

Battle experience here is turned into a secondary theme rather than the primary one.

More thinking ensued...

Currently, it seems that ONE is moving back towards his original view of making battle experience prominent. He's making it come out right away in the spar between Flash and Sonic, with Flash effortlessly parrying all of Sonic's moves, then unleashing his special move before Sonic can ready his own.

The difference in ability is clear from the outset.

So, to sum up, the first iteration saw Sonic see Flash as an inspiration and guide to his future development. The second saw them have to start to recognise themselves as equals with complementary strengths and a shared interest in establishing a better ninja world. Both have real merit for what they say about the characters and where they might go next. What the current iteration is going to say and how this is going to be developed further, I'm very interested in seeing.

[themisterhip]

You took everything from me...

[heartshapedcucumber]

[ghostsandgod]

[schwarzfee]

[worlds-largest-juice-container]

one punch man was made for the gays (me)

Examples: Garou. Thats it that'st he post i want to kiss him so bad

[gofancyninjaworld]

[mxiwa]

tatsumaki

[carma-jpg]

sillies

[1rabong]

Day 6 of Different characters everyday challenge - Genos

[gofancyninjaworld]

Saitama's story is largely one of depression, but do any of ONE's characters suffer from stress? I could use a fictional character to relate to.

There’s a hero, Rabbit, whose notes say that he used to be a stressed out office worker before he made a break for the hero world, but we know nearly nothing about him. 

For stressed-out,  I don’t think anyone beats One-Shotter.  Super-competent when he’s actually working,  a near wreck when he’s not.   I love him and wish there were more of him.

Then again, King isn’t too shabby in the stressed department.  He lives in permanent fear of being exposed, permanent fear of being eaten, permanent fear of being beaten up. And for all his talking to Saitama about getting more of a life, he’s no social butterfly himself.  He lives on Maalox and waifus.

[rayadraws]

Gamer boyfriend

[gofancyninjaworld]

The quiet radicalism of basic respect

When you see Saitama with Genos tucked under his arm, you know that that only happened with Genos's specific permission -- and that Saitama would have asked.

The story makes this basic respect explicit. Dire emergencies aside, he never lays hands on Genos without asking, and he respects whatever answer he gets. Just like regular people ought to be able to expect.

When someone is 'other', it's amazing how often this basic respect does not seem to apply. Just as ONE has unashamedly made it clear that he judges people by whether they treat children decently, it looks like decency towards Genos, respecting that he *is* a person and not a fancy alien toy-man-thingie with few physical needs and fewer emotional ones is a mark of a character being a decent person. I like that ONE goes a bit further and makes the point that respecting Genos as a person does not mean liking him or refusing to acknowledge that he might have different needs, and this standard isn't hard to reach:

There's stories out there where Charanko would be a paragon of virtue for having seen beneath the scary exoskeleton and shown that the Cyborg is Not All Evil Afterall. But why?

Given that Saitama almost certainly went with Genos to Kuseno's lab after the Monster Association Raid (how else would Metal Knight not have dragged him to the lab for decontamination and testing?), there is one thing I would love deeply to see. I would love to see Kuseno extending the basic respect given to people, and not putting Genos on display like a freak of nature but insisting that Saitama wait to see him until Genos is conscious, lucid, and expresses the desire to have visitors. Even if that means Saitama leaving without getting to say goodbye in person.

It shouldn't be radical, but we seem to forget our manners when it comes to cyborgs. I'm glad that so far, ONE remembers.

[fraudulentcareer]

This is the reason the "they should let King control Genos in fights" jokes bother me a little.

[gofancyninjaworld]

Oh, don't get me started on that bullshit. Really don't. I would cheerfully wire anyone joking that way to electrodes and control them against their will. I'm glad that there's actually a plotline about coercion and the sheer horror of someone controlling your actions. Not even as a joke, my friend. It's rancid.