Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! In this week’s episode of single hit individual we witnessed one of the moments where Garou was truly crowned as a monster – his victory over Tank Top Master, an S class. After this the hero association truly begins treating him as a threat.
While most heroes are aware of the hero hunter’s rampage I don’t think all of them are aware that he’s one of Bang’s former pupils (Tank Top Master certainly was). This becomes all the more evident when we see Garou unleash the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist, something very trademark of the S class rank 3 himself. I was glad to see we got a fight scene almost completely devoid of the ghosting we had seen in the previous two episodes. Gotta admit, it was a really good looking fight scene, and considering how excited I was to see it animated, it delivered.
What’s more, it’s made note that Garou’s strength is more than just what we had previously scene with the unknown beings that inhabit the many cities of one punch man – it isn’t just a display of strength, but a display of technique – Garou is able to efficiently observe someone’s strategies and habits, and effectively disarm those strategies through complete skill. As Tank Top Master astutely notes, it’s his technique that truly makes him worth of the moniker “The Human Monster”.
Despite clearly not being in his league, I always enjoyed the brief but pretty cool fight with Golden Ball, who took me by surprise by not being completely sloshed during the battle as he let on initially. We also have Saitama’s “battle” (Can it even be called that?) with Garou, even if neither of them knew who the other guy was at all.
I always have people who have yet to experience this series in any light ask me “How can this series be interesting if the main character is so strong he can’t lose?” It’s because they’re viewing this show through the lense of a shonen, that is, continuous power escalation to achieve tension that they won’t understand what One Punch Man is all about. I’ve said it before but the author One really understands how to not only deconstruct a genre but tell compelling character stories for people who are so ridiculous they couldn’t possibly exist in real life. That testament is completely insane but true of all his works. Of course, judge for yourself, but if you like how that sounds, I guarantee you have a lot of enjoyable material before you.
