Warning: Contains SPOILERS for One-Punch Man chapter 168.
Why does One-Punch Man have three separate manga series, and which ones are considered canon? Like many anime, One-Punch Man is based on a manga, but the way that the manga is handled is less conventional than other series, most notably from having three different versions. This is an explanation of how all of that works, including which manga is the best to read.
The One-Punch Man manga first started in 2012, illustrated by Yusuke Murata and written by ONE of Mob Psycho 100 fame. The manga quickly rose in popularity thanks to its stellar art and fight scenes, and the anime made it an even bigger name by further emphasizing those traits. What many people might be unaware of, though, is that Murata's One-Punch Man is a remake of a webcomic by ONE of the same name, and the manga, itself, often goes through multiple revisions before a new volume is published.
It's very unusual for a manga to have three different versions, and this is an explanation for why One-Punch Man does. Every version of the manga has its own history behind its structure, and the ins and outs of it all are certainly worth getting into. Here's a breakdown of the process behind each version of the manga, and it should help One-Punch Man readers understand the differences and why they're necessary for the One-Punch Man story.
The Three Different One-Punch Man Manga Series, Explained
The first One-Punch Man manga was a 2009 webcomic written and illustrated by ONE, who also both wrote and illustrated Mob Psycho 100. The most notable difference between the webcomic and the manga is that the webcomic's art is incredibly unrefined and often looks like crude doodles; ONE would gradually improve his art over the years, but it would never fully transcend his simplistic stylings. Nevertheless, the comedy and scale of the fight scenes still allowed the webcomic to attract an audience, even if it was a small one.
Among the people who became fans of the One-Punch Man webcomic was Yusuke Murata, a mangaka famous for illustrating the football manga Eyeshield 21. Murata was such a big fan of the series that he asked ONE to collaborate with him on a remake, which led to the manga that most people are familiar with. The manga is largely the same story as the webcomic, but there are some original stories, and the Monster Association arc, which began in One-Punch Man season 2, was greatly expanded to create more worldbuilding and flesh out the characters in greater detail than the webcomic did. All of that is coupled with Murata's incredibly vivid art and stellar scene composition, which quickly led to the manga becoming a massive hit around the world.
The third version of the manga is probably the oddest, in that it's essentially an alternate version of what had already been written in the manga. Every now and then, ONE and Murata would go back to an older chapter and change what happened in it, either by adding extra pages or by completely reworking the story; notable examples include extending the fight between Child Emperor and Phoenix Man and retconning Saitama's fight with One-Punch Man's Garou so the manga can have its own take on Awakened Garou. Sometimes, it's done to improve on a fight that was originally lacking in quality; other times, it makes a fight line up better with the worldbuilding of either the webcomic or the manga. Whatever the case, if a chapter becomes the subject of a rewrite, then the rewritten chapter should be seen as the definitive version.
Which One-Punch Man Manga Is Best?
Clearly, many fans will only wish to read one iteration of the One-Punch Man manga, so which version should they read? In terms of content, nothing is missed out by choosing one version over another, as they all follow the same basic story. The manga goes even further in that regard with how much it diverges from the original webcomic with its story and worldbuilding. Accompanied by Yusuke Murata's incredible art, Murata and ONE's One-Punch Man is definitely worth reading. That being said, if someone could only read a single version of One-Punch Man, then they should read the webcomic. While the webcomic's art doesn't compare to the manga's, its story is actually better than the one in the manga. While the manga expanding on the webcomic's story does work in some areas, it also has the effect of causing story arcs to drag on for too long, especially when chapters end up going through rewrites that force the story through an even more drawn-out progression.
The story in the manga also often overcomplicates itself when compared to the manga, almost to the point of being an empty spectacle. A notorious example is how One-Punch Man's Saitama used Garou's martial arts to travel back in time and stop him from destroying the Earth, the mechanics of which were completely nonsensical. The manga's handling of certain characters is also a point against it at times, as the manga often discards the subtleties of the webcomic to be completely forthright about its themes, which often makes them work less effectively than they originally did. Thanks to all of that, the One-Punch Man webcomic, with better handling of the characters and a quicker, less-convoluted story, is probably the best version of One-Punch Man to read.
How The One-Punch Man Manga Series Compares To The Anime
As with most anime, the differences between the One-Punch Man manga and the anime are largely negligible. There are sometimes original scenes or extended fight scenes, but it largely follows the Yusuke Murata-illustrated manga to the letter. The One-Punch Man anime has had a few OVAs filled with original content, but besides that, there aren't any major differences between the anime and the manga.