#ninja arc

[regnigt]

Katsura through the series (fanart), part three

Continuing this series with drawings of Katsura based on panels in manga volumes 6, 7, 8 and 9

Original panel is from Lesson 46, the story with the lovesick nurse.

Seventh pic is based on a panel from Ikumatsu's first story!

And these two drawings are based on panels from the Ninja Arc, which starts in volume 8 and ends in volume 9. (The second pic is from a moment that never got animated, unfortunately.)

[gofancyninjaworld]

And so I punched him [Review of Ninja Arc]

Yo, it's been a minute! Damn. being old and busy sucks. Ah well, let's get on with reviewing the third (and hopefully final) version of the 'Ninja' arc.

SUMMARY

?!???

Yeah, yeah, I said I liked skipping those but with so many versions, a quick recap is worthwhile.

As you know, the Obstreperous Flash[1] barged into Saitama's gaming session, wouldn't take go away for an answer, challenged him to a fight that saw his life flash before his eyes, got saved by the bell (um, I mean reports of a monster attack), tagged along, met Sonic, Saitama saved Manako on his own, and they all went to Sicchi to try to arrange a meeting with Blast only to find him conveniently there.

So, what happened this time? Well, Blast came, not to see if monsterization can be undone (more thoughts on that later), but because of his evil ex-partner, Void. It was handy that Flash was here as that meant he could warn him that That Man was back and out for his blood. Also, to leave it to Blast to deal with the dude -- for reasons he couldn't disclose. Saitama, finding out that Flash too was a ninja understands why Flash is so like Sonic, being a clingy, violent-addicted pervert. This upsets Flash and he's determined to set the record straight.

Said record-straightening comes in the form of a lengthy glob of backstory on the Village culminating in Flash's triumphant slaughter of nearly everyone in said place, for which Flash commandeers Saitama's flat. As appreciation, Genos comes through the wall to thunk a mug of hot tea onto Flashy's head, along with a preroration on letting Sonic live. Anyway... Flash leaves after that, and Blast and Sicchi take their leave too, after a very pleased Genos (at last! he must have thought, they're taking what I said seriously! [2]) tells Blast to consult Saitama if he runs into any issues. Flashy gets a letter of challenge from Sonic and goes off to meet him. In the meantime, Blast and Sicchi discuss where and how to lay hands on Void, as the latter is of vital strategic importance in the fight against God (no ID). Turns out Blast has Sonic's hideout bugged, so he knows about the trap set for Flash.

Unfortunately for Blast's plans, Sonic did challenge Flash and so the two of them are in a random forest somewhere having a scrap for old times' sake and other ninja nonsense. Contemporaneously, Saitama declares that he's off to Sonic's hideout to help the dude and give him and the other ne'er-do-well ninjas a drubbing and theorises that they're acting this way because they have nothing better to do with their lives. He then says that perhaps it's not good to be alone [3] and scurries off quickly before Genos can ask any awkward questions about what he meant.

Anyway, back to the scuffle. Sonic tries some fancy moves only to see Flashy Flash bat away all his techinques before sending him flying with some fancy kicking of his own. The Tenninto show up in their variously-weaponed glory (oh, did I forget to introduce them earlier? Never mind! We know who they are) and try to execute Flashy Flash. Sonic reappears, tells them to get lost, and then it's the two ninja frenemies against the Tenninto. Just as Flash and Sonic are about to turn the other ninjas into very poor quality sashimi, Blast shows up out of nowhere to stop the fight. He's fed up with the fratricidal tendencies of ninjas and there's no longer any point to this fight. The Tenninto try to jump him and all get punched down. Voilent Force then declares that their master, That Man, being a serial killer without equal, will totally take care of Blast, even if they couldn't. To which Blast says he's got something to show them.

That something is the exterior of Sonic's hideout, where there's Saitama sitting on the pavement watching a man-shaped hole in the ground. Saitama might not have fancypants portal technology but he can still beat Blast to the punch. Even loaned him his dog as compensation, so he could go find the other ninjas. The Tenninto naturally don't believe that Saitama really beat their master, but they start to change their minds as the baldie lays them all out.

Proceedings are interrupted by the sky opening up and some chimeric beasts coming through. Overgrown Pochi spits fire at them and they return the favour, after which it's a very good thing that a) no one lives there any longer because it's all been turned to ash and b) that Blast has a handy-dandy shield or the ninjas would be toast. Saitama goes to teach the beasties manners but before he can do so, the hole in the ground starts to smoke and Void explodes out of it to slice and dice said critters, and Blast punches them mightly to send them back whence they came and shuts the dimensional rift after them. Saitama decides it's nothing to do with him after all and makes to head home...

...only he lingers a bit. Looks like Empty Void is indeed back to his senses, Saitama's punch having driven God's influence out of him (Blast wonders what the hell Saitama is). Sonic and Flash try attacking Void, who dodges them easily and Blast stops them. With some very fast talking, Blast insists that Void's actions weren't truly his fault, being rather undermined by Void himself as the latter says he remembers what he did perfectly well -- it was just that being under the influence made the worst of him easier to access. Anyway, he had things to do now, so would his ex-victim ninjas please get along and not make trouble? Bye! And the pair are gone, though not before Blast tells Saitama that he'll be back for him when he really needs his help.

The Tenninto have a bit of a think before deciding that the best thing to do would be to follow Saitama around as their new leader, much to Saitama's dismay. Flashy Flash confesses to Sonic about poisoning him, which Sonic brushes off, saying he was more disappointed than angry. Besides, they have more training to do. The arc closes out a few days later with Saitama beseiged by ninjas. The Tenninto want him to lead them, Flash wants to train him, Sonic wants to challenge him, and Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame want to fight Flash. It's all very chaotic. Genos remarks that well, looks like Saitama's not alone any longer, to which Saitama protests that that wasn't what he meant!

Poor Saitama, he can't win for winning.

Baldie keeps attracting the wrong kind of attention.

Meta below the cut.

META

Where to start? Let's go with the extradiegetic.

Extradiegesis

The biggest difference between this arc and the previous version is that the previous one was meant to be the culmination of an arc, where it would draw together the disjointed pieces of Saitama putting his life back together again in the aftermath of the Monster Association raid, introducing the new challenge the Hero Association is facing in the Neo Heroes, filling in and using details of what happened when Garou turned Cosmic, and topping it all off with a terrifying preview of an Avatar of God. In this version, we're no longer rising to the culmination of an arc: the issue with Void and the ninjas is just one more thing happening and something else is going to be the capstone. Or, in simpler terms, if the previous iteration felt a lot more epic, that's because it was intended to be a closer!

Void was going to go out with a bang.

Many of the facts established earlier are still congruent with this arc but the means of storytelling used have changed a lot. We've got a lot more webcomic-style telling rather than showing, which has made the chapters more compact at the expense of exploring the characters more deeply. Some things, such as Blast and Void's history, will probably come out later. Some things, such as the demonsterization attempts, have probably been sent to another storyline (as u/Nanayon123 suggested, it'd have an incredibly powerful impact in the Amai Mask arc). And some things are gone, such as Sonic's dream place for his new village.

The biggest change in emphasis has to be Void. He's less proactive, being happy to wait for his minions to work rather than start proceedings with an attempt to take out the Hero Association. Since Saitama smacks him into a hole rather than wandering around and accidentally spoiling his plans, we don't get much of him. Well, at least he's alive. So are the Tenninto. They've all been saved for something later. I hope it's cruel and full of pain for them.

Well, at least Blast is happy. And he's left without even trying to visit his son.

Intradiegesis

Once is a coincidence. Twice is stalking

One thing this arc gave us is an appreciation for why Blast is so rarely seen. He has a post to man, with the job of keeping God's pets at bay. With him having left for a while to see about recovering Empty Void, we've started getting those pets coming through. So far, they've been modeled on Chinese heavenly beasts -- look elsewhere if you're curious.

However, the turtle and the tiger weren't the only ones who came through. We find out that Saitama also took out a Qilin. It is interesting that in both cases, the beasts appeared right over where Saitama was, and that they appeared to be looking for something, or someone, particular.

Congrats, you found me! Have a free fist!

When Sicchi speculated that 'God' was being drawn to something in particular and we were shown Saitama's back, I guess that He's started sending his pets through to find the baldie if they can slip through.

Since they don't seem to resurrect, there's only the Vermillion Bird left. It might wait a while before trying its luck.

So it looks like this preview of 'God' and his soldiers is going to be just that, a preview. Until later. Anyway, let's stick with the baldie for a moment.

The mightiest mountain will be worn down to a stone

Apologies to JAM Project, who have in their season 1 theme song that the mightiest mountain started as a stone. The single most moving thing that happened in the story for me was watching Saitama going to Sonic's place and why.

Saitama's been so passive in his life. We've seen him be the sort of person King has to prompt to even consider checking on his disciple. Whereas in the webcomic, Saitama went to Sonic's place to steal a sword from him so Flashy Flash would leave him alone, here, he's decided to go to get Sonic out of whatever trouble the Tenninto are making for him. That's growth. Slowly, like tiny drops of water wearing away a mountain, living and interacting with people has finally started getting through to Saitama.

But he'll beat Sonic too? Yup, spare the rod, spoil the child, or something like that.

So far, so moving. u/PerFerVidCreator said it better than I ever could, but Saitama talking about maybe Sonic being lonely (well, about it not good to be alone), left me shook. The empathy inherent in it. How close he's come here to telling Genos about his own struggles. And then he yells about having to go. Before Genos asks questions that could lead to a conversation he's not ready to have yet. The cracks are showing, heh heh.

drip, drip, drip…slowly, slowly, Saitama is becoming more human. An awkward and embarrassed one.

Lies, damned lies, and Blast

No matter how generously one tries to view things, the maths that Blast maths about Void only doing evil on account of God's influence just doesn't math. If the Village is a consequence of Void being influenced, that cannot explain the existence of 44 classes. Doubly so when Void has been out of it for the last fifteen years. It doesn't tally either with what we know of Blast's history with the dude.

Blast has to be lying -- it's much easier for him to get Void away if he can spin a tale of Void being a good guy gone wrong and leave while the ninjas still pondering things, than it is to admit that yeah, he knew this guy was evil but he wasn't like evil-evil until recently and he has plans for him. It's not the first time he's told lies of convenience: we first saw that with Tatsumaki when he told her to rely only on herself while himself having a team around him.

Not cool for a guy who claimed to be able to see through lies.

He means this literally.

But then, the story has established that Blast has a ruthless the-ends-justify-the-means streak to him, and he was determined to let nothing get between him and recovering Void. So that's that. For now. This has to come back and bite him later. Hard.

Dangit, he was right after all

I really wasn't expecting Genos to be vindicated. When he went on a four-hour rant about Saitama, even though what he was saying was true, I didn't expect it to go anywhere. Whenever a character suggests a story-shortening strategy, the story usually goes out of its way to make it not happen. Not OPM (I know, subversion of tropes, who does that?).

Happiest guy who ever misunderstood a situation.

And yet, here we are. Blast has indeed seen what Saitama can do and realised that Saitama has a very special ability: when he punches, God flees. He doesn't know what that means yet, but he's savvy enough to realise that this guy is worth calling on whenever he finally tracks his ethereal foe down.

Though Blast had no intention of taking Genos up on his suggestion, he did end up consulting Saitama, whereupon the latter loaned him Overgrown Pochi, so he could find the ninjas.

Always willing to lend a fellow hero a helping hand, or paw.

Genos is even completely unharmed this arc. That's one happy boy. Speaking of boys...

Ooos a good boi?

Yes, you are!

Finally

You'll have noticed I've not said anything about the Tenninto. Whichever version you happen to be referencing, they're victims in a much larger story than they. They should be grateful that they're alive this time!

ASIDES

[1]Flash: "That's the worst name yet. You make me sound like a very stubborn pervert." Genos: "It's also the most accurate."

[2] See chapter 173, "Secret Intel". There, Genos tells Sicchi to call on Saitama if/when he hears from Blast as that's who is needed to deal with the 'God' problem. He left annoyed because he thought he wasn't being taken seriously.

[3] That IS what he says, and without that, what Genos says at the end of the arc literally makes no sense. The translators chickened out and mistranslated it as him talking about Sonic. Shame on them.

[faceless-dude]

Hear our fear.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga chapters 193-4 Review

Introduction

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, and before you know it, a year has gone by.

I have been putting off writing reviews about One Punch Man, and currently, I believe my last review was Heroes, which was chapter 192. That was a while ago. I have been waiting to see how this now intricate story was going to develop, and it has not disappointed me. However, I need to start or be forever buried, so while it isn't perfect, I am starting with chapters 193, and 194, 'Worlds I know nothing about' and 'Right away', respectively.

Summary

In brief, it starts with Saitama dealing with the sort of situation only he can: a dire, potentially world-ending threat that would take the greatest of heroes many sacrifices to counter. And he does it without breaking a sweat. Indeed, then he gets out of it to have a bit of fun chasing after artefacts as if he is in an Anime series.

While recounting the story to King, a knock at the door interrupted him. The knocker turned out to be Flashy Flash, and Saitama shut the door on him, remarking to King that the visitor seemed annoying.

Flashy Flash had mentioned the magic word disciple, and this word quickly brought Genus out of his apartment. He challenged Flashy to explain why he was at Saitama's door, and when the latter refused, a fight broke out. Saitama rushed out and asked Genos to desist before he broke his new apartment, much to Flashy Flash's disdain and amusement. Flashy was much less amused when it turned out that Saitama didn't remember his name, calling him Shoulder Blade Crush after much mind-racking.

Or Clavicle Smash. Close enough.

Nevertheless, he invited himself into the apartment and started to explain his business. He wanted Saitama to join him in finding Manako and to become his disciple, as he saw the bald man as a person full of potential in need of training. Genos wasn't done, though: he had been listening through a tunnel that he had dug between their apartments. He refused to permit Saitama to become Flash's disciple and invited himself in, stating that he knew all about the God affair, which was true.

Saitama tricked Flash into leaving the apartment by pretending to follow him, and an enraged Flash kicked down the door and challenged Saitama to a fight.

The next chapter carries on where the last one left off. We find ourselves in a training room where Flash explains the terms of the bout. If Saitama can land a blow on him within 30 minutes, then he will leave him alone. No sooner does he say 'begin' than Saitama is already in his face. Realizing that he has no hope of winning if he holds back, Flash unleashes his best moves only to fight himself, quickly cornered and about to see his light knocked out.

He is rescued by Genos, who has been checking his phone while this bout has been going on. There's been a monster alert, and he'd interrupted to let Saitama know that it was close by, so they might as well attend to it. A shaken Flashy Flash tags along, trying to cover up his fear with bravado.

Over in E-City, the situation turns out to be quite The Party. We see three heroes try to do their best against three Monsters but they assume overcome and kicked away. Sonic is first to the party. He urges the monsters to ignore him as he is waiting for the guest of honour. The monsters do not like this but before they can attack, Saitama, Genos, and Flashy Flash arrive. Saitama Sonic expected, but Flash he did not. Before he can digest this, more partygoers arrive: Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame. They urge Sonic to join them in eliminating Flashy, to which he refuses, saying that the cell that they gave him was rotten.

Getting crowded...

While all this backchat is going on, the monsters get increasingly impatient at being ignored and try to attack all: a lethal mistake as they are shortly killed. Sonic goes to attack Saitama, Flash goes to attack the ninjas, and Genos ends the monsters, punching them to pieces and then burning their corpses up before the pieces have finished hitting the ground. The ninjas flee after leaving a decoy for Flash to dismember, and we see that Sonic has been smacked into a hole in the ground.

After all the excitement, Saitama asks to be left in peace to find Manako on his own. He says that he does not want to be a teacher, disciple, or a rival to anyone. Unfortunately, the trio misunderstand him and try to encourage him to have confidence in himself in their own ways. Saitama texts King to come over and play video games. While playing, he asks King if he has seen a monster that looks like the sketch Flashy Flash showed him, and King says that it looks familiar. They head to the place where King had seen Manako earlier and successfully trap her using a plate of curry rice. She is all too glad to be brought back to civilization and fed, much to both Genos's and Flash's surprises.

Flash, realising that she doesn't actually know much about 'God', decides that it's probably best if they consult Blast. He, Saitama, and Manako head off to see Sicchi about seeking an audience with Blast, only to find that the great man himself is already there.

Meta

Small things

Saitama really is a misplaced One Piece character: the world of fantastic adventures, treasures to collect, monsters to summon, and companions to travel with that he desperately wants to inhabit is all around him. He's just so strong that it all bounces off his head. Literally, in some cases.

Nice to see that some heroes have been rewarded with promotions. Heavy Kong has been promoted from A-Class Rank 34 to 33, and Peach Terry from A Rank 30 to 29. Bone has had the best bump: he's gone from B-Class 77 to 57. Guess that full-body fracture wasn't in vain! [Also, damn, how fast do heroes HEAL?]

It's interesting that Genos hasn't spammed rocket-boosted anything since his return. Today, he's practising his punches, and for once, he's not solely head-hunting! Progress at last.

Saitama being able to stop Genos at a single word: neat but not surprising. Genos being able to stop Saitama with a single well-timed 'Sensei!': more surprising. Those two have each other's ear.

The number of defeats Sonic has suffered at Saitama's hands. Three is right if you're counting what we've seen on screen. Six if you're also accounting for bonus material, that time Sonic slipped on dogshit, and audio books. Fourteen? Well, Sonic can't be faulted for lack of determination!

Manako is indeed not a regular monster: she nearly starved out there. Her dependence on cooked food is pretty human -- like termites and some species of ants, humans are unable to sustain themselves off raw food and need to process it to extract enough energy from food to survive.

More substantial things

This is where the first set of our major long-running threads starts to twist together to form a rope. I had wondered back in chapter 173 (Secret Intel) if the payoff for seeing the heroes sharing what intelligence they had on 'God' would be so long paying off that we'd need a major flashback to recall it. I needn't have feared! The links between the cubes Blast collected, the Ninja Village, and 'God' start to become clearer.

Like a name almost recalled, something had been nagging at Flashy Flash since the discussion at the secret meeting. He'd tried to recruit Saitama to help him find Manako, who he hoped would help him piece together the story. That wasn't too useful, but the ninja duo helped him place where he'd seen the cube before, and now things are falling into place. With Blast having conveniently shown up, he's now in a position to clarify things.

Yeah, yeah, the 'God' character in the webcomic appears rather indolent, content to wait his turn as the end-of-story villain. The guy in the manga is much more impatient. Gotta problem with that? Tough. He's in a hurry to deal with the problem of Saitama.

Hehe, the ninja duo truly never had a chance. I start to understand why they took monster cells in hopes of slaying Flashy Flash. Poor turkeys.

Now that I'm reading this with the benefit of time passing, I'm looking forward to rereading and reviewing the next couple of chapters. This is coming together nicely.

[faceless-dude]

[neyzuko]

[neyzuko]

[neyzuko]