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.
ⁱ . this is something of domestic stillness , a suffocating accumulation of all that remains unsaid curdling this atmosphere into something almost palpable. vicious as nicotine-sap clinging to the decaying rot of a trailer that's gone far past it's youth. the ceiling fan turns like a tired augur, air thick with the scents of stale smoke. jonathan byers' hands, utility instruments are more accustomed to lenses and loss but for now, they move with a sort of delicacy around eddie's wounded limb, as if pressure and adhesions might forfend the approach of whatever hungers the town continues to breed. the bandage draws tight. “ ouch ? ” he says, a spliff hanging at his lip, in all it's dramatics.
he says it mostly to fill this silence. annoyed and stern silence. eddie sighs. he sighs and he knows he's in trouble. and intruding upon the low-frequency drone of refrigeration and wiring and unresolved history, jonathan's voice emerges. i just don't want anything to happen to you. @filmdeve10ped peculiar, how a phrase so small might detonate and trigger eddie's interior collapse. the seconds immediately following do not simply pass, they elongate. for who, exactly, is eddie munson to receive such language. who, exactly, has the audacity to offer him this so casually and so without irony. eddie softens the tension, “ naaah. byers, i been side-steppin' disaster since, like, diapers. like a totally vicious ninja. or like a professional pain in the ass. ” his voice is pitched to casual farce, timbre lacquered with mockery as though catastrophe itself had become something of an inside joke. taps the blunt free of debris. “ ninety-percent unkillable. or maybe, like a cool eighty-nine, i dun'no. numbers crunching and marginal error dork crap. ” a statistic for a life reduced into margins. a shrug for a fate. and still, between those joking syllables of his, something tilts. be serious. nonetheless, the brittle silence spurs his train of thought to begin grinding on the track again. his gaze falters, downward to the white bandage binding his skin. a breath, “ sorry, i'm just ... hey. feeling's mutual. ” lowered now. almost embarrassed, it is, of its own existence and utterance. “ y'know. 'case you thought you cornered the market there. ” for what is affection, if not an architectural stress. what is care, if not mutiny staged quietly in narrows rooms ? and finally, what is eddie munson, in this instance and moment, if not a creature allowed for a moment, to be neither a joke or a weirdo or a legend, but a boy with a bandaged arm inside a shitty trailer. the tale of two freaks: boy with a camera and boy with a guitar.
