The man who can stop anything with a single punch returns in the trailer for One-Punch Man season 2, along with a release date. Season 2 has some big shoes to fill, as the 2015 season 1 of One-Punch Man carved out a spot in the anime landscape as one of the best shonen series of all-time.
One-Punch Man exists as something of an anomaly in the anime landscape. It simultaneously acts as a fantastic comedic skewering of the typical shonen power fantasy, while also delivering a top notch vision of the upper power limits of those shows. Saitama, the titular One-Punch Man, exists in a world that constantly faces danger at the hands of supervillains. Living life as a bored, unemployed layabout who tackles evil as a way of entertaining himself and helping people, Saitama happens to be one of the most powerful creatures to ever exist. Capable of destroying anything with a single punch, his hardest battles are against boredom and existential crises.
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Four years after its initial anime debut, One-Punch Man returns for season 2 in a new trailer posted to AnimeTV. The trailer announcing the new season revealed that the story will revolve around the cast of season 1 facing down Garou, a character mentioned in passing at the end of season 1 by the hero Silver Fang, who talked about his former apprentice's terrifying rampage. The trailer also displays the words “Supreme Power x Ultimate Fear” at the end, which could indicate that Garou will attempt to avoid a clash with Saitama by using more devious means than the head-on fights seen so far in the series. It’s not clear yet on which services One-Punch Man season 2 will stream.
One of the biggest draws of One-Punch Man season 1 definitely was the killer animation provided by Madhouse. The studio imbued the series with a fantastic kinetic energy that relied on a deliberately messy and noisy style of animation to convey the fantastic power behind virtuous and villainous punches alike. It seems like the delay between seasons might have had something to do with a disagreement with Madhouse, as the animation studio will not be returning to work on season 2. Instead, season 2 of One-Punch Man will be handled by J.C. Staff, the studio behind the acclaimed visuals of Food Wars! and Children of the Whales.
It’s unfortunate that Madhouse won’t be attached to the project as they did a perfect job capturing the feel of the original manga by One and the remastered manga by Yusuke Marada. Even the short clips in the teaser reveal a slightly different look that fans of season 1 will immediately notice. It’s also a loss because directing duties will no longer fall to Shingo Natsume, who made a name for himself directing Space Dandy and then One-Punch Man. The director of season 2 will instead be Chikara Sakurai, who stands as an untested director, having mostly served as a leading animator aside from directing four anime episodes since 2010.
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One-Punch Man season 2 will begin streaming sometime in April 2019.
Source: AnimeTV