One-Punch Man ensemble illustration by Yusuke Murata with Saitama, Genos, Tatsumaki, Fubuki, King and others

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.

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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.

How It Spread

An anime adaptation was announced on March 10th, 2015 in the 15th issue of Weekly Young Jump, with Madhouse confirmed as the studio at Anime Japan later that month. The first episode, titled 'The Strongest Man,' premiered on TV Tokyo on October 5th, 20151. By then Murata's manga had already shipped 4.5 million printed copies (as of November 2014) and picked up a 2014 Manga Taishō nomination.

The fandom built out infrastructure fast. The One-Punch Man Wiki launched on November 9th, 2012, and /r/OnePunchMan opened for discussion less than two weeks later on November 22nd. A Facebook page followed on March 1st, 2013, and a TV Tropes entry on April 5th2.

Season two premiered on April 9th, 2019, and the drop in animation quality became its own running joke. Redditor Agentgamin reportedly posted a comparison of Saitama's redesigned face and the first-ever image of a black hole to r/OnePunchMan on April 11th, 2019, which was upvoted more than 3,300 times inside four days3.

Timeline

2009-06-03

Artist known as One posts the original One-Punch Man webcomic to his personal blog Galaxyheavyblow.

2017-09-25

Second season officially announced with J.C. Staff attached as producing studio.

Frequently Asked Questions