The first episode of One-Punch Man Season 2 had finally aired last week, with the second episode coming in a few days. For some who did not came up with the recent news regarding the animated series, J.C Staff is now animating the second season as opposed to Madhouse (though, to be more accurate, the freelancers that the director, Shingo Natsume, managed to gather to make a interesting spark that of season one).
Now, there were rumors and reports about the production issues and troubles that the second season faced. Combined that J.C Staff had ton of other animated works and the lack of strong directorial power to get freelance artists to join the project, the animation will be off the mark or at least, not as good as the first season.
I went ahead, coping with the idea that, based on fan perception, changes in studios, different directors and production issues, it would be going to be the worst thing of all time. However, it is not as bad as I hoped it would be, but not as good as season 1.
Now, comparison aside, I have many several key problems with the production of the first episode. For starters, the episode begins immediately with Genos and Saitama walking in the city after shopping.
This is a huge issue for me—it been three and half years since the first season aired, so a it of recap or an introduction to display the characters needed to be add in, to help newcomers and veterans of a reminder. Something like—
“It been several weeks since the events of the invasion of aliens that appeared over A City. After countless lives lost and city in uttered ruins, it managed to be rebuilt immediately thanks to the efforts of Metal Knight, an S-Class hero. The leaders of the Heroes Organization realized that the earth had been spar, but the looming threat still remains at large… prompting them to start calling on high level criminals to assist whatever threat that will appear.”
This is where you can start the scene with the criminals in the Heroes Organization based, as it slowly transition to Genos and Saitama (after Sonic spoke about Saitama being the strongest hero—in which, King in introduced).
Composition, pacing and timing matters, but it feels like J.C Staff cut corners and simply adapt the scene 1:1 without much creativity. It works in the manga, because there isn’t a time-gap between chapters of that capacity. The anime team could have used it to their advantage, but they didn’t.
The story is fine (because that's the easiest part and they really can't fuck that up), but there is limited liberties from the anime side. There were too many awkward transitions. Like that one scene where Saitama hold the bird in King’s Apartment, then transitioned back to Genos’ fight with G4, then back to King. It was poorly timed, that it felt like an amateur amv creator did this.
The opening song is a baller, but the actual content of the opening is such a mess and all over the place. I know they attempt to capture the chaotic feel, but it feels to erratic for my taste. Thankfully, if you used the second opening and play over the first, it fits too damn well and enhanced the song even further.
It’s a damn shame that One-Punch Man is such a promising series, but the J.C. Staff had little to no endeavor to take some liberties or take chances—it feels like they simply thought they could get by from the namesake alone. Who knows, perhaps in future episodes, it might change, but until then, I stand by that belief.
Also, Murata and ONE updated their respective manga and webcomic ( the latter being updated finally after two years!)
