Anime & Manga What's with Saitama worship?

[KilroywasNOTHere]

Basically what it says on the tin. One thing i've learned spending time on Internet forums, is that if you want to start a flame war and cause fights bring Saitama AKA one punch man into a Vs. Match whether it's superman hulk or even Goku the results are the same. Both sides are basically spiting and fighting defending their god....I mean favorite characters honor and trying to explain why the other character sucks. Thing is it seems like OMP fans have this sort of Aura of superiority about them going as far as to say Saitama beats God. (The big G)

here's the thing. my exposure to OPM is limited but it seems like people miss a glaring part about the charecter. He's not a superhero he's a punchline. He's a punchline in the same sense that popeye is a punchline or bugs bunny is a punchline. Popeye is on the rops till he eats the spinach and bugs let's his foe thinks they've got the edge until he enivatably turns the table with a punch line. he's got more in common with toon force charecters than traditional western comic book charectes We don't pit Superman against Popeye or bugs bunny, so why do we do it with Saitama?

 

[Duke Nukem]

Basically what it says on the tin. One thing i've learned spending time on Internet forums, is that if you want to start a flame war and cause fights bring Saitama AKA one punch man into a Vs. Match whether it's superman hulk or even Goku the results are the same. Both sides are basically spiting and fighting defending their god....I mean favorite characters honor and trying to explain why the other character sucks. Thing is it seems like OMP fans have this sort of Aura of superiority about them going as far as to say Saitama beats God. (The big G)

here's the thing. my exposure to OPM is limited but it seems like people miss a glaring part about the charecter. He's not a superhero he's a punchline. He's a punchline in the same sense that popeye is a punchline or bugs bunny is a punchline. Popeye is on the rops till he eats the spinach and bugs let's his foe thinks they've got the edge until he enivatably turns the table with a punch line. he's got more in common with toon force charecters than traditional western comic book charectes We don't pit Superman against Popeye or bugs bunny, so why do we do it with Saitama?

Saitama is who I think of when I hear the word "No limits fallacy"

Like Saitama is really strong don't get me wrong, but there's plenty of characters that could stomp him in a fight.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Basically what it says on the tin. One thing i've learned spending time on Internet forums, is that if you want to start a flame war and cause fights bring Saitama AKA one punch man into a Vs. Match whether it's superman hulk or even Goku the results are the same. Both sides are basically spiting and fighting defending their god....I mean favorite characters honor and trying to explain why the other character sucks. Thing is it seems like OMP fans have this sort of Aura of superiority about them going as far as to say Saitama beats God. (The big G)

here's the thing. my exposure to OPM is limited but it seems like people miss a glaring part about the charecter. He's not a superhero he's a punchline. He's a punchline in the same sense that popeye is a punchline or bugs bunny is a punchline. Popeye is on the rops till he eats the spinach and bugs let's his foe thinks they've got the edge until he enivatably turns the table with a punch line. he's got more in common with toon force charecters than traditional western comic book charectes We don't pit Superman against Popeye or bugs bunny, so why do we do it with Saitama?

Seriously, I've seen Superman vs. Popeye so many times...

I don't quite get Saitama worship. Some people seem to think stronger=better which makes no sense to me. The Koi Koi 7 could casually stomp Atticus Finch and Huckleberry Finn simultaneously, that does not make the rather hideous Koi Koi 7 better quality than To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn combined. But some people seem to use that absurd logic...

 

[Val the Moofia Boss]

My understanding from having watched the show is that Saitama's power is absolute. If he wills it, he can destroy anything with one punch. So hence his power is unlimited, which makes for rather dull versus debates so I'm not sure why he keeps being brought up in them.

 

[Captain X]

Might as well ask why people insist on pitting their favorite franchises against one another (i.e. Star Wars vs. Star Trek).

 

[bintananth]

Might as well ask why people insist on pitting their favorite franchises against one another (i.e. Star Wars vs. Star Trek).

It's matcho posturing similar to the "My dad could beat up your dad", "nuh, uh! Mine could beat up yours", pissing matches little boys get into.

 

[Lord Sovereign]

It's matcho posturing similar to the "My dad could beat up your dad", "nuh, uh! Mine could beat up yours", pissing matches little boys get into.

Well I can only speak for myself, but I just find the idea of hypothetical explosions to be very engaging.

 

[Typhonis]

OPM is not about Saitama being super strong. It is about the conflict he faces because he desires a real fight, with real stakes on the line but , but he is a level 99 character with all Ultra Rare drops in a MMORPG. Where is his next challenge coming from? Where he seeks the thrill of the fight and the challenge of rising rivals but no one can match him, and THAT is the core of OPM.

You are king of the hill. What comes after? Will you weep for their are no new worlds to conquer? Or will you try to do something else? Afterall what new challenge is their when you can one shot the Ender dragon in Minecraft?

 

[Lord Sovereign]

OPM is not about Saitama being super strong. It is about the conflict he faces because he desires a real fight, with real stakes on the line but , but he is a level 99 character with all Ultra Rare drops in a MMORPG. Where is his next challenge coming from? Where he seeks the thrill of the fight and the challenge of rising rivals but no one can match him, and THAT is the core of OPM.

You are king of the hill. What comes after? Will you weep for their are no new worlds to conquer? Or will you try to do something else? Afterall what new challenge is their when you can one shot the Ender dragon in Minecraft?

A superhero with no supervillain to match him sounds very boring. Not much in the way of stakes.

 

[KilroywasNOTHere]

OPM is not about Saitama being super strong. It is about the conflict he faces because he desires a real fight, with real stakes on the line but , but he is a level 99 character with all Ultra Rare drops in a MMORPG. Where is his next challenge coming from? Where he seeks the thrill of the fight and the challenge of rising rivals but no one can match him, and THAT is the core of OPM.

You are king of the hill. What comes after? Will you weep for their are no new worlds to conquer? Or will you try to do something else? Afterall what new challenge is their when you can one shot the Ender dragon in Minecraft?

you quit the game. and i'm with Lord at best that sounds boring and more likely seems drawn out.

 

[GoldRanger]

A superhero with no supervillain to match him sounds very boring. Not much in the way of stakes.

The show is barely about him anyway, the secondary characters are the actual main characters.

 

[Bear Ribs]

A superhero with no supervillain to match him sounds very boring. Not much in the way of stakes.

The stakes in a story don't have to specifically hinge on combat between main characters.

Hellsing, f'rex, leaves very little doubt from the first episode that Alucard can roflstomp the entire rest of the setting, it just doesn't derive drama from pretending "who will win?" is the important question. Notably, the first anime adaptation introduced an OC, Incognito, specifically to be Alucard's equal and generate said drama, and it sucked before it went against Hellsing's actual themes and source of tension.

In the case of OPM there's never a question of what's going to happen in a fight, Saitama can beat anybody. However, due to his boring appearance and the fact that his fights are always so staggeringly quick and over with, Saitama has tremendous difficulty ever getting respect from other heroes or citizens for his deeds. The primary source of drama doesn't revolve around physical combat but social manipulation that Saitama sucks at.

Additionally, even if Saitama's certainly going to eventually One Punch the current enemy, that doesn't mean the enemy won't mess up a lot of other people before he gets there to do it and the actions of the other heroes tend to make up the bulk of the story before Saitama ends things.