One-Punch Man - Deep Sea King Arc

[informationgeek]

Writer: One
Artist: Yusuke Murata

If I had to name one of my favorite story arcs in manga, it would have to be One-Punch Man’s Deep Sea King Arc. It’s an incredible, absolute amazing arc from beginning to end as the heroes try to fight against one of the most unstoppable forces they ever faced. Let’s take a look at it.



We start with Punch 23: Threat from the Sea. One day in one of the various cities where One-Punch Man takes place, a huge swarm of sea monsters come out of the ocean and start attacking random citizens.







“Good thing you showed up while I was on patrol. I was bored! Well now, who’d like a big air hole in their torso?!!”

However, talk is fine, but after a while, he seems to be clearly outmatched and hurting badly.










Our chapter ends with Saitama and Genos, hearing about the destruction the news, heading over the city as fast as they can.

And now we move to Punch 24: Deep Sea King. Our main villain has arrived and everyone is in danger with Stinger being. However, watching from afar, is another hero…





Our hero tries attacking him, but it has absolutely no effect on the Deep Sea King.













But before Lighting Max can be killed himself, a Rank S superhero appears and saves him. It’s Puri-Puri Prisoner to the rescue and up to fight the Deep Sea King!

Next up is Punch 25: Deep Sea King 2!

I’m going to skip the stuff with Puri-Puri Prisoner because… ah… he’s a… “unique” character and there’s something to him that’s not particularly pleasant (I might do a post on his introductory chapter to show what my problem with him).

As such, I’ll just skip past it and just say he gotten beaten up… REALLY badly. Sonic, a recurring villain who just escaped prison, then encounters the Deep Sea King himself.















Yeah… No. No he can’t and he’s ultimately forced to flee. As such, the Deep Sea King moves on to somewhere else now that there isn’t anyone else around.
























Then we come to Punch 26: Unstoppable Hope.





Saitama tells the Association he will go and help, and while the guy on the line seems worried, he lets him go. And it’s probably a good thing as well, since the heroes from the last chapter are all one-shotted and wiped out.

But that’s also when Genos arrives on the scene…


















Then comes Punch 27: Shining in Tatters. The acid thoroughly wrecks Genos, which allows the Deep Sea King to grab him and throw him straight through the wall and out onto the rainy streets. He’s prepared to kill him when suddenly… a bicycle smashes into his back…





















It’s then, as Mumen Rider can no longer stand, when Saitama finally arrives.


Next is Punch 28: It’s Raining, So. Basically, he one-shots the guy like expected and in a pretty glorious way (you need to see it for yourself sadly since I don't have enough pages to show it).

Now everything is good and everyone is happy, but suddenly this random Marvel Comics citizen appears and starts talking…



















The chapter, and arc itself, end with this narration from Genos as Saitama looks on happily, rain finally ending:

Master Saitama… is this all right? If this is the path you choose to walk… I will not interfere. But if you turn the people against you… will you be able to function as a hero? This worries me.

But if you ever get into a tight spot… I will be there.


And that’s that. Even though I couldn't do the action scenes justice, I hope I was able to sill get across why I absolutely love this arc. Jaw-dropping fight scenes, great characters, an intense thrill ride from beginning to end, it shows how great and selfless superheroes can be, and not a single drop of cynicism anywhere that annoys the hell out of me in a lot of comics that think they are above superhero stories or they are so "smart" in what they are saying about the medium.


But, what did you think?

Comments

[doodleboy]

One Punch Man is a dragonball style shonen drama with high stakes, long battles, and themes of determination saving the day. Then you put Saitama in...

Kind of a parody where everybody except one character is playing things completely straight.

As for Saitama himself I kind of like that he's kind of a dork despite his abilities.

Also Murata can outdraw pretty much everybody.

[q99]

Yep!

It even has unstoppable villains who plow through 3 strong heroes + a strong villain on the way to the real fight, a makeshift alliance, one of the main characters in a gutwrenching battle, and a desperate last stand!

Thanks for the scans!

[deh_tommy]

So... how many heroes have died here, and how many are just injured?

Re: Thanks for the scans!

[penguinzero]

I believe they all survived. Genos and Jet Niceguy got partially dismembered, but they're cyborgs, so that's repairable. In the anime, they expand on things a bit, and we see EMTs arriving shortly after the battle and tending to everyone, and a few of the heroes at the hospital later. Despite everything, there's a certain level of optimism to the One-Punch Man world. And Saitama's little scheme at the end wouldn't mean much if the other heroes were too dead to reap the benefits.

Licenceless Rider makes an appearance later, too, having recovered enough to buy Saitama some ramen. He's honestly one of my favorite heroes in the series -- he's at exactly the opposite end of the spectrum from Saitama. He's weak by hero standards, just a fairly athletic guy who rides a bicycle. He's not strong enough to do any great heroic feats, and he knows it. But he still steps up and tries to do whatever he can, because if he doesn't, who will? He's determined and brave beyond any kind of logic, and I've got to respect that.

Re: Thanks for the scans!

[q99]

He does manage to be the top C class hero, so he puts in the time, but yea. He's a fit, pretty tough guy in protective gear on a bike with a whoole lot of determination.

Lesse... I think some of the other wounded heroes dropped out of heroing, but none of 'em except for Mumen even took more than one shot.

Re: Thanks for the scans!

[lordultimus]

Mumen Rider can actually be a B-Class hero if he wanted; the #1 C-Rank always has that option, as Saitama finds out. MR just doesn't want it.

Re: Thanks for the scans!

[q99]

Yep. He's happy where he is and would rather sit there rather than fight it out among the Bs, I think.

Re: Thanks for the scans!

[theflames]

Well its pretty clear in the anime and manga that every other hero was taking on full scale punches from the Sea King. Mumen was just shaken up and down and relatively toyed with, so not a fair comparison, luck played a lot in his survival.

[q99]

Aw yea, Mumen Rider!


Mumen Rider's just such a legit heroic guy... and so's Saitama. In a way, he's what Saitama wants to be, a guy who gets into legit life-and-death situations to save lives.

[crinos]

I also love how Saitama throws himself under the bus just to make the other heroes who got their asses kicked look good.

[lordultimus]

It is moments like this where you realize that without Saitama, the world of OPM starts to look like WH40k levels of awful to live in... Only with more shonen tropes.

[thehood]

How did they manage before Saitama got his powers? I mean, it seems monsters existed even before he became a hero for fun. Like that crab guy.

[skjam]

Monsters appeared rarely, one or two a year, and they could eventually be stopped by the then-unorganized heroes once one actually got to the right place. Or the military. About the time of the crab monster, the frequency increased, as did the scale of the monsters, but about the same time the number of heroic-type people* also began skyrocketing.

*There are apparently a bunch of wanna-bes who have some powers or skills or excess testosterone but aren't even good enough for Class C beginner status--we see a good forty or fifty when Saitama goes to the entrance exams.

[thehood]

Sometimes i think Saitama is a pretty good foil for Empowered. Even with their differences in power levels, they do seem to have a hard time getting respect from their peers.

Big differences seems to be that Saitama doesn't seem to care to much and is even willing to let others take credit. Emp just gets denied respect and recognition.

[remial]

the difference between this Marvel universe guy and the ones from the actual Marvel universe tho, is the rest of the people realize that the one in OPM is full of shit.

[skjam]

Note his "NEET" t-shirt, which tells us he's (stereotypically) a jobless, not going to school, not trying to gain skills guy who lives in his mother's basement.

And while we're here, the parent/child pair wearing "OYAJI" (my old man) and "GAKI" (brat) shirts.

[big_daddy_d]

I finally started getting into this series and been watching the anime... I fucking love it!