One-Punch Man, created as an epic manga in 2009, has been a favorite anime of my entire family since it came out in 2015. That was 10 years ago. Season 2 ended in 2019 with anti-hero Garou being dragged off by the Monster Association, and good old Saitama and crew heading home after defeating the massive Elder Centipede…with one massive punch, of course.
I was eagerly looking forward to Season 3, but unfortunately I had to wait awhile. Six years, to be exact. Finally, this weekend, Season 3 of One-Punch Man hit globally with Episode One.
Was it worth the wait? Well, it was mostly exposition, getting everyone caught up on the happenings. It picks up after the end of Season 2, so Saitama and his pals are having some recoup and repairs. We don’t get to see Saitama in action yet, but he does suit up for hopefully some action in the next one. We do get to see what happened to Garou, so his bigger part of the story looks pretty promising.
Personally, I am looking forward to seeing more of Zombieman, sort of an anime version of DC’s John Constitine, but much, much cooler. His part of the season has a lot of potential. However, don’t expect any of the great, signature, One-Punch Man action yet in the first episode. It’s just great to see the series back..with a new metal intro from JAM Project and featuring, Babymetal.
One-Punch Man‘s return hit at a good time for anime action fans, as the first season of the anime adaption of the manga Sakamoto Days wrapped up last month. If you still haven’t seen this one, Taro Sakamoto is a retired assassin living a happy little life as a plump convenience store owner with his family. Yet there are several other assassins who haven’t quite accepted that. It’s loads of bloody, comic fun, with surprisingly sweet moments.
This show has been extremely popular, and for good reason. It’s great fun…and a live action movie has been already been announced. They even gave us a brief character teaser. It’s still early on, so there’s no English subs yet. You won’t need them for this one.
This already has two things going for it. One, it’s Japanese so they hopefully won’t mess with the original vision of the manga’s creator Yuto Suzuki. Second, they got Japanese hottie Ren Meguro in the title role. Meguro is not only a busy actor, but member of J-Pop group Snow Man and doing pretty well for himself.
It’s still too early to see if both the next season of One-Punch Man and live action Sakamoto Days live up to past offerings, but right now it’s just nice to see new things coming from both Taro Sakamoto and Saitama!
The release date for the live-action Sakamoto Days movie is set for a 2026 release, but you can catch the entirety of Season 1 of the anime on Netflix.
One-Punch Man Season 3 Episode 1 is currently available on Hulu. Season 1 and 2 in English dub is available on Amazon Prime.