Why Fights Sometimes Take More Than One Punch

The One Punch Man series likes to break many of the conventional tropes of battle anime. It is precisely this subversion of what audiences expect that is one of the show’s key strengths, but it also leads to an interesting breakdown of its premise. This means that despite its name, the fights in One Punch Man sometimes take more than one punch, even from the main protagonist, Saitama.

This singular premise of OPM then starts to get stretched as new things are thrown in to keep things fresh and tease viewers with possibilities. It starts with Saitama beating everything in one punch to Saitama choosing to throw multiple punches to defeat foes. As suspense is built for each new villain, the ante is upped every time, leaving audiences with the question: “Will this be the foe that finally pushes Saitama into struggle?” This process continues until the goalpost is moved further to a point where Saitama doesn’t end fights with one punch, but viewers expect that he could if he’s taking things seriously. But why is this the case? Does the show risk contradicting itself if it keeps letting fights go on past a single punch? Let’s take a look at the foundational core of One Punch Man to discover how this premise has grown beyond its one-note beginnings.

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Subversion as a Strength

The Show Is Founded on Defying Tropes, to the Point It Even Defies Itself

When watching One Punch Man, it seems clear that the intent and original goal was to introduce an unbeatable character like Saitama into a battle anime premise and watch what happens. Many characters serve as stand-ins for common anime tropes, and we get to see how these tropes are turned on their head when faced with Saitama’s overwhelming power..

Despite this simple premise, it is the power of the show’s subversive intent that enables it to break its own rules. While Saitama fights many opponents who are defeated with a single punch, some are able withstand it. Against Lord Boros, Saitama punched him multiple times, even using a move called “consecutive normal punches” which on its face seems to already break the premise of the show.

However, this reveals what the true premise of the show was all along. It wasn’t just about a guy who beats things in one punch. Instead, it was about beating audiences to the punch, allowing them to fall into a sense of security before subverting their expectations.

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Never Let Them Guess the Punchline

A Classic Comedy Rule

The comparison to comedy and punchlines makes for easy puns with One Punch Man. Saitama is a literal punchline for comedic effect, as the jokes often end with one of his punches. In this way, One Punch Man follows a simple comedy rule: never let your audience guess the punchline before you finish telling the joke.

This is why the show could not stick to its promise of a man who always ends things with a single punch. It necessarily needs to keep its audience guessing. What is interesting about it is that the show accomplishes this against a backdrop of stereotypical Shonen character tropes. On the one hand, it seems to be lampooning main character concepts from other shows with humor. However, it also always treats them with restrained care and doesn’t look down on them or seem mean-spirited either.

It combines its premise and stereotype characters’ initial simplicity to create something more than the sum of those parts. At its heart, One Punch Man is more concerned with creating the best comedic or emotional punchline than following its one-punch premise. It uppercuts viewers with unexpected scenes of genuine emotion and fights fused with real tension. The show works despite so many contradicting pieces and manages to keep audiences invested despite the comedic subversion that is in the back of one’s mind while watching it. Guessing whether Saitama will end a fight with one punch makes for a better show than one where one punch always ends things no matter what.

One Punch Man can be streamed on Crunchyroll.