ONE has never been a writer who disrespects his readers, and his time and Murata's time are precious. If he was planning to cut Genos's life short for real and so as to get a cheap rise out of Saitama, then he could have left him pretty much as he did in the webcomic -- the guy who rushes hard into things without much of a plan.
It'd still hurt. It'd still be a disgusting and senseless loss.
But…
...I make no apologies for how long this is. I want to show just how much outrageous work ONE and Murata have put into developing this guy.
Since 2016, ever since Gouketsu smashed him into the ground (remember? That was update 99 and we're 112 updates in, not counting redraws), he's been on a steep climb It's like he woke up to a series of ephiphanies that he's wasted no time in enacting.
Ever since, the heat has really been on.
He stopped rushing unthinkingly into battles, bringing a terrifying analytical edge to his fighting. He also changed his attitude to paying attention to the situation around him. His situational awareness of both the locations of the fallen heroes and of monsters looking to ambush him was flawless.
He literally stopped being the guy who fell apart when things went wrong.
We've known Genos as the guy so determined to enact revenge on a cyborg that he gave up his own body. We've known him as a diligent pupil of Saitama, keen to earn his way into the top ten of the S-Class. Now, we saw him decide on a life goal on his own that had nothing to do with what anybody had told him.
He's long had a say in what parts he gets, but this time, he's taken charge and specified to Dr Kuseno exactly what he wants from him, even if he's upset at having upset the old man.
With that reckless body, he's saved lives like they're going out of fashion, such that there's heroes looking up to him. He works those reckless parts with such power and precision that he's able to stop Psykos-Orochi from using the Earth as their hostage while Tatsumaki saves the rest of the heroes. He's kept going far beyond their stated limits. He's literally gotten Tatsumaki's back right up to the bitter end.
The Spirit of Audacity is an indelible part of Genos. It's why he got the hero name Demon Cyborg, for the relentless aggression with which he faces any enemy. Recent developments have taken nothing away from that audacity -- it's only grown -- but we have gotten insight into him thinking soberly about what he's proposing to do. It is not recklessness, nor the assumption that things will work out that motivates him, but rather his principles of doing what is right at any cost.
ONE and Murata want us to know and took the time to show us that Genos does not just have a physical brain (that we got to see in chapter 40), but also a mind, a heart, and a soul. He makes momentous moral decisions, then questions himself as to whether he's done the right thing. He's falliable -- assuming that his sensors must be malfunctioning rather than considering that King might not be as mighty as he assumes him to be. And praise and acceptance mean as much to him as they do to anyone...well, provided it's coming from the right people, heh heh.
His interpersonal skills have come on greatly. S-Class heroes are famously as leadable as cats. He tells them what he expects of them and they get up off their asses and make it happen. To see it spearheaded by Atomic Samurai, the very guy who initially thought Genos might just be good enough to entertain his disciples, is extra sweet. It's absolutely true that he can be a total asshole, but when he wants to, he can be empathetic as well (to people not named Saitama). That's not to say that he's tried to appoint himself king. On the contrary, we've watched this guy seamlessly flow between taking the initiative, cooperating with others, and supporting others. Without batting an eye. If it's getting the job done, Genos will do whatever it takes.
So when he rammed Garou because otherwise Bang would just have kept walking forward until he was overwhelmed by radiation and died, we know it doesn't come from a stupid or suicidal place. Genos would have been relatively safe if he'd just laid doggo, but with Blast not looking like he was about to stop Bang, he just couldn't ignore the old man's plight. Genos introduced himself to the story as the Cyborg for Justice, and to the end, he's been true to his principles.
Will he wake up a fourth time? That we don't know yet. Signs are not looking good.
If, against all odds, he does and if, against even greater odds, he recovers, then there's only one fitting hero name for Genos: Phoenix.
Storyline is all very well, but that's not all. Off the field, we've long known that Genos has a keen fashion sense. Increasingly, he's been getting Kuseno to make him clothes. Since there's no chance that the old man in his secret lab will be au fait with street wear, these one-off pieces are an expression of his creativity. An aspect of him completely separate from anything else that he does.
We've lost the character of a young man who was just beginning to come into his own person, not a trope. For no good reason. That is why we feel it so keenly.
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