What is One-Punch Man?

A Japanese superhero parody manga and anime centered on Saitama, a bored bald hero who defeats every opponent in a single punch[4].

Where did One-Punch Man come from?

The amateur artist known only as One posted the original webcomic to his personal site Galaxyheavyblow on June 3rd, 2009[3].

What does One-Punch Man mean?

The name is a straight description of Saitama's ability: he wins every fight with one punch, which drives the show's central joke that he is too strong to enjoy being a hero[4].

How do you use One-Punch Man?

Fans clip panels of Saitama's deadpan face as reaction images for underwhelming situations, and after the 2019 season swap they pasted his simpler new design onto Megamind and a black-hole photo[3].

Is One-Punch Man still popular?

Yes. Urban Dictionary submissions from the mid-2010s describe the manga as 'REALLY popular' after years of slow burn[4], and the anime is still cited alongside its 4.5 million-copy manga print run as a defining shonen title of the decade.

One-Punch Man

2009anime/manga franchiseclassic

Published September 18, 2026

One-Punch Man is a Japanese superhero parody starring bald hero Saitama, who beats any enemy with one punch. It began in 2009 as an amateur webcomic on a personal blog, became a redrawn Yūsuke Murata manga in 2012 and a Madhouse anime in 2015, then birthed a wave of animation-downgrade memes after the 2019 second season swapped studios.

anime manga powerscaling memes webcomic memes reaction memes otaku culture memes

Overview

The comedy of One-Punch Man works by inverting the shonen power-fantasy setup. Cosmic-tier villains get elaborate multi-page buildups before the protagonist Saitama flattens them in a single frame, defined by fans as a hero who defeats every foe with one punch and nothing else4. Fans clip those exact panels as reaction images for anything overhyped or trivially easy, and Saitama's blank stare works as internet shorthand for unimpressed.

The 2019 second season handed the show a second life as a meme source, though not a flattering one. When studio J.C. Staff replaced Madhouse, r/OnePunchMan filled with side-by-side edits of Saitama's simpler new-look face pasted onto DreamWorks villain Megamind and the first-ever released image of a black hole3.

Origin & Background

Platform

Personal blog Galaxyheavyblow (webcomic origin) / Young Jump Web Comics (manga remake)

Creator

Unknown

Date

2009

One-Punch Man first went online on June 3rd, 2009, when a Japanese artist working under the pen name One posted the amateur webcomic to his personal site Galaxyheavyblow3. On June 14th, 2012, Weekly Young Jump's web comics platform started running a polished digital manga redraw by Yūsuke Murata, who had reached out to One on Twitter to pitch a collaboration. Viz Media added an English translation to its Weekly Shonen Jump digital magazine in March 2015.

One-Punch Man

Overview

Origin & Background

How It Spread

Frequently Asked Questions

References (4)