There was a good long while there I hadn't really been watching Anime anymore, outside of one or two I'd catch on occasion. However, I can pinpoint the two shows that started getting me back into anime again. Those were Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist, and One Punch Man. While I hadn't been reviewing anime at the time, nor was I keeping up with several seasonal releases as I do now, I started watching more and more shows again and finding a lot of stuff I like. So while One Punch wasn't a show I feel I'd rank even in my top ten anime, probably not even twenty, it has a special place in my heart.
And now we get into season two, and the difference in quality between seasons is astounding. If you've been following people talking about season two since it came out, you've likely heard people complain at how poor the animation in this season is compared to the first season. This is definitely true, and nothing that happens really looks as intense nor does anything feel like it hits as hard. That is saying something considering they fought against a centipede monster so giant it could seemingly cover an entire city and possesses a carapace that is seemingly indestructible. A small spoiler about who defeats it, skip the rest of this paragraph if you'd rather not see the spoiler (Though it's a pretty small one), The killing punch on this thing, delivered by Saitama himself, doesn't look nearly as impressive or cool as the atmosphere splitting punch that took down the Deep See King, and that wasn't even the most threatening enemy from that season.
But it's more than just the lacking animation, it's how bizarre the pace of this season is. The number of fights in this show that just start and stop in a matter of minutes is pretty crazy. One of the antagonists getting built up this season is Garo. Here are all the people Garo fights throughout the course of this show: Tank Top Master, Mumen Rider, Metal Bat, Genos, Master Bang, Death Gatling and his group, Some dude with a slingshot and a guy with a fencing blade whose names I forgot, Watchdog, one of the other Tank Top guys, and the criminals and heroes during the meeting where the executives of the hero association wanted to get criminals to help fight monsters. That is ten fights, and I'm not sure I even got them all.
Just stop and think about that, this guy was not the main antagonist, he was only getting built up as the season progressed. There are twelve episodes in this show, and he took part in at least ten fights. You have all of those fights, then you have all the fights going on during the Martial Arts Tournament going on, many of which give each fighter a bit of dialogue to give you some insight into them, and then throw in all the fights going on as part of the assault by the seasons main antagonists, the Monster Association. None of these fights were given any time to breathe, and they constantly came and went in the blink of an eye. And the problem is this is how the season goes from beginning to end. All that really happened is the Monster Association attacked, kidnapped someone and ran to their base, and Saitama crushed a bunch of people in a Martial Arts Tournament. For all the short and chaotic fights, the incredible number of characters introduced, and a twelve episode run, I felt like almost nothing actually happened.
That said, not all is lost in the second season. While the show suffers because the animation isn't nearly as good as the previous season, when not comparing the two the show does have some pretty great looking action scenes. Most of the time Garo is in action it's pretty fun and impressive to watch, however short the fights actually are. Same applies to the martial arts tournament.
And the characters are just as fun as before. I dig some of the new additions, as little screen time as they got, and more time with Genos facing off against new foes, including him facing off against Speed O' Sound Sonic from the previous season was a great touch.
I really do hate to say this, but even ignoring the obvious drop in animation quality season two just isn't very good. Yes, there are some highlights, but it's really hard to go from some truly outstanding fights like Deep Sea King and Boros to the showings here. Throw in how little actually happens despite the sheer volume of fights and you are left with a season that feels like almost nothing was accomplished with no flair or style to make up for it. While I will still watch the third season whenever it airs, this season does not give me much hope going forward.
