Note: This post contains spoilers about One-Punch Man Season 2
The Ringer, Vulture, and EW had multiple posts for seemingly every episode of the most recent seasons of Game of Thrones and Stranger Things, but I didn’t find any in-depth looks into the newest season of One-Punch Man. In my social bubble that show seems to be just as big in the zeitgeist. So, now that Season Two is done, let’s look at the outstanding issues that I’m hoping (and I’m assuming the majority of fans) will be addressed in Season 3.
What it Garou’s ultimate motivation?
Season 2 introduced the “hero-hunter” Garou and gave us quite a lot of backstory to explain why he’s always rooted for the monsters and against the heroes. He took some losses against the S Class heroes, but he improved after each loss and humbled every A Class and lower hero he encountered. It looked like he had come to the end of his rope against S Class Hero Bang and his brother Bomb when he was saved by a monster from the Monster Association.
Despite all the time we spent with Garou this season we still don’t know his ultimate goal. If he hates heroes so much why didn’t he kill any he faced? Does he just want their respect?
He doesn’t seem to be evil for evil’s sake. There was a multi-episode subplot of him befriending a kid. When the heroes hunted him down, it seemed like he tried to protect the kid. An all-out villain wouldn’t have cared about the child, he would have been collateral damage.
The show did partially explain why he refused to become a full monster, but it wasn’t completely satisfying. He wants to bill himself as the “Human Monster” and see what he can accomplish on his own. To that end, he’s rebuffed the Monster Association multiple times. However in the final episode, it doesn’t look like he had any options left, he’s being taken to the Association whether he likes it or not.
Will Saitama unwillingly assemble a team?
In Season 1, Genos the cyborg became a disciple of Saitama and in Season 2 Saitama worked with S Class hero King (who is actually just an otaku who accidentally took credit for others heroes’ work) on a few occasions. After Saitama saved the martial artist Suiryu from the monsters (after Suriyu and Saitmana fought in the martial arts tournament and Saitama lost on a technicality), Suriyu no longer wanted to be a martial artist only for personal gain – he wanted to become a hero. And he wanted to become a disciple of Saitama.
It’s not just that it looks like Saitama will have two disciples- we’ve also seen how he’s inspired other heroes. In Season 2, Glasses was one of the Class A heroes who attempted to take down Garou and in flashback, we saw how Saitama inspired him to improve.
In Season 2, we also meet Fubuki (Hero Name Hellish Blizzard) and her hero gang when she tries to force Saitama to join her gang. He declines and tells her that surrounding herself with henchmen won’t help her improve, as eventually, she’ll run into stronger monsters. Saitama easily defeats her gang and then later defeats the ninja Speed-o’-Sound Sonic (who has his own mixed history with Saitama). Fubuki is impressed by his skills and by the stronger heroes who are drawn to him.
Creating a team and leading it is counter-intuitive to Saitama’s personality and goals. However, it seems like more and more people are starting to admire and want to emulate him. It wouldn’t be out of the blue if a team of Saitama followers played an important role in defeating the Monster Association next season.
Who is the cyborg who destroyed Genos’ city?
Throughout the whole series Genos has been searching for the cyborg who killed his family and destroyed his city. S Class hero Metal Knight is not actually a cyborg, but he’s an inventor who controls various robots while fighting. He never appears near the actual fights and has shown that he doesn’t place as high a value on human life as the other heroes. At the end of Season 1 the cyborg S Class hero Drive Night warned Genos that Metal Knight was his real enemy. But was Drive Knight just trying to take suspicion away from himself?
Will the Monster King Orochi take more than one punch?
Orochi is head of the Monster Association and seems to be pretty tough. Most of the other monsters followed him willingly, and when one spoke out against him, he quickly killed him. If there’s an inevitable showdown coming against Orochi and Saitama is it going to be an actual fight? Or will Saitama be able to defeat the King of all Monsters in one punch, as he has with every previous monster he’s faced?