I wonder about the pacing of the fifth episode – I know the manga wasn’t exactly what you’d call “focused” during this time but there are so many plot threads getting set up that if you didn’t follow this series religiously you’d probably be annoyed at how much the show is jumping around.
Monsters continue to rampage throughout the cities as the monster association continues it’s coordinated attack against the heroes – worse yet, they’ve certainly become more intelligent than ever, such as the two tiger level threats who were able to defeat Lightning Genji, an A class hero, due to his inability to cause them harm. Somebody didn’t play Pokemon, I take it! We’ve also been introduced to Phoenix man, someone who is the association’s “lower management” in a way – he’s responsible for corralling the monsters on the surface to stay focused on their objective, including Elder Centipede (Centichoro). He’s not too important right now, but he will be in the future.
We finally got what was one of the best fights in the manga, Metal Bat vs Garou. As for how it was animated – it was ok. There were a handful of scenes that I felt could have been done a little better, but I feel they still adequately captured the fiery passion that Metal Bat has – his tenacity and unwillingness to back down. It’s worth noting that Murata (the artist) has stated that if Metal Bat connected with that last hit and hadn’t been interrupted by his sister, Garou would be a paint blotch on the sidewalk. That’s as close to canon as you can get as for “how the fight would go had it continued” – food for thought.
While all this madness is occurring in the city however, Saitama, er, sorry, “Charanko” is happily going through the motions of “experiencing true martial arts.” Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t seem as though he’ll get his wish as he ends his first battle in one slap. Suiryu watches on and already begins to understand who it is that he will be fighting in the final match. The idea is that he’ll understand Garou’s fighting style and potential motivations a bit better once he experiences it himself, completely unaware he’s already bested him.
One thing I should mention – I feel as though Suiryu’s distaste and hatred for heroes wasn’t conveyed to the fiery extent it was in the original source material. I seem to recall that during his fight with Snek his words seethed with a venom about the lazy, incompetent, accomplishment-seeking heroes that was not present here. It’s possible they are putting that one in their pocket for later, as it makes a scene towards the end of the tournament pretty gratifying.
Random aside – I wonder what Awakened Cockroaches’ threat level is. High demon or low Dragon is my guess (Probably the former?)
Garou readies his attack on watchdog man (You might remember he expressed interest in taking him on a few days ago) and we finally see some of the upper echelon of the monster association – the head associate, Gyoro Gyoro (the fat eyeball looking guy) and Lord Orochi, the ruler of all monsters. As the monster attacks on all cities continues, our heroes will certainly be stretched thin – which is exactly why Saitama is busy doing something very not important right now. Wouldn’t want him cleaning up this mess in a second, right? That would be boring!
