Category: One Punch Man S2

Oh OPM, you never make it easy. Even in your finale, you can’t just let me love or hate you. You have to show some good animation besides terrible, good sound design beside horrific, good CGI alongside bad. It’s enough to make a man wanna scream. Lucky for you I suppose I get to write a review about you in full this week. If you thought Dororo was scathing, watch this. For now though, OPM S2, lets jump in.

Starting off, the production. This was a wild ride. Everything 2D was sub-par, disappointing even after episode 11’s showing with Garou. Meanwhile the CGI for Centichoro actually looked quite good! There were some moments where it seemed like it wasn’t fully rendered, but hey. This thing almost killed Murata just to draw it. I imagine making a CGI model for it wasn’t much easier, nor was rendering it. So kudo’s on that front at least JC Staff. Specifically, thank you Kenichiro Aoki, for doing your best to save this season. If nothing else, OPM S2 burned your name into my memory, for making a majority of the best scenes of it’s season. Sadly, even your heroic effort cannot save it. Because however good your scenes, almost everything surrounding it was just trash.

Continue reading “One Punch Man Season 2 – 12 [Cleaning Up the Disciple’s Mess]” →

I don’t understand it JC Staff. You make it so difficult for me to like you and by extension, OPM. I want to of course, every week there are these flashes of brilliance. These moments where I think “they understand. They care. They can do it”. And then in the very same episode, you manage to ruin it, in every aspect of production. This week you managed to impress me in so many ways, and then instantly destroy it a few minutes later. For instance, you manage to add your own spin on some scenes that were basic panels in the manga, like the above. Yet earlier in the same episode, say the tree branches pull of Garou for example, you manage to lessen it. Switching up the camera angle so there is less to animate. Weakening the scene. Long story short. you just leave me confused JC Staff.

Continue reading “One Punch Man Season 2 – 11 [Everyone’s Dignity]” →

Welcome one and all to a rather surprising week of One Punch Man Season 2! This week the animation was mostly fine, and interesting things happened, so let’s just jump right in!

Starting off, I rail against the series a lot, but credit where it’s due. The sections of the Garou fight done by Aoki look pretty slick. This man is carrying OPM on his back at this point it seems. As he is responsible for basically every well animated shot of the season. From Tank Top Master to pretty much every Garou shot, Aoki is our guy. He seemingly has fun with it all as well. The thick black lines, fun angle and dynamic camera make it much more of a treat than anything else seen in this episode. Just look at other cuts of the fight to see that for yourself, or Darkshines… shininess? Neither were particularly great, but for this series, they were on the upper end. I just hope that the 2 big finale fights coming up soon are given the same treatment.

Once again a short post, as OPM really speaks for itself I feel. Outside of Garou, there isn’t much to like. Saitama’s segments with King were fine, if blandly delivered. It’s a bit sad when a video game fight has better animation than some of your legitimate ones to. Darkshine also just came off a bit weird, and I wouldn’t blame anyone for being concerned about his design. He is made to be a caricature, every S-Class hero is. From the Samurai all the way to Genos. I don’t believe ONE intended to be offensive, and rather just wanted to portray the japanese stereotype for a black man. Regardless, having followed this manga for awhile, it doesn’t bother me much. All of the S-Class heroes get some development later on, but not in this season. Hell, maybe not in any season with how this one is shaping up.

Suffice to say, while the episode was decent, the series as a whole is still woefully disappointing in almost every department. Maybe Aoki can save the ending. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Sigh, it was nice having a free week of no OPM. No disappointment, not falling opinion of an acclaimed manga series. Just free time and no post I had to write. Now we are back though, and JC Staff has once again screwed it up. So join me as this week we talk music.

For me, the biggest issue with this week was the choice of music. Simply put, OPM S2 not only doesn’t have any good original tracks, but it reuses the same ones to much. For example, the “emotional” music of this episode was used a ludicrous amount. Being thrown over every scene they could. One or two of these is fine, its a fine piece of music. But when played over and over and over, it loses all power. And that’s not even mentioning if the scene even fits the music in the first place. Really, the sound design has been horrible across the entire series. From punches, to VA work and now to music, the general quality of the sounds in OPM are simply disappointing.

Sadly, I am going to have to cut this one short here though. While there isn’t much to say beyond this, I feel bad for leaving such a short post. But I seem to have come down with something, and its making even writing coherent sentences now difficult. Hopefully it clears up tomorrow, and I can get Lain written up for you. Until then though, suffice to say, OPM S2 is still a dumpster fire and if your actually still watching it, I pity you. Its not worth your time and I promise you, its not going to get a good score here.

So, my shame at writing virtually nothing aside, I will see you next week!

Welcome one and all to another week of mediocrity, as OPM continues to flounder. This week OPM speeds up dialogue, almost blinds me with flash-fades and in general just disappoints me. So, that said, lets get into it! And fair warning, this is going to be a short one.

Now, I could rail against a lot of things this week. From the continued use of flash-fades, to the terrible impact or just covered up animation. However, I feel like a better way to spend our time, is to dial in on a specific issue each week. This week, I choose to rail OPM’s pacing, in both animation and dialogue. You see, OPM’s big issue in this department is it never gives anything room to breathe. It burns through dialogue and fights at light speed. It knows exactly where it wants to end, but to get there, it has decided to just hit the 2x speed button. An exaggeration on my part, slightly, but the point is made. Take this week for instance, ending on a dramatic cliff-hanger instead of the humorous one the manga did. As if they don’t know what kind of show OPM is.

Take for instance Snek and Max this episode, along with the monster conversion of the fighters. In the first, because OPM is speeding through dialogue, it removed a meaningful pause in their appearance with Suiryu. Where in the manga this appears as a “That’s a stupid question”, sort of reaction, here it’s an immediate “We are good guys”, sort of thing. Minor to some, perhaps, but it was a much more interesting scene in black and white. Meanwhile with the fighters, OPM really skipped over some of their dialogue, along with Suiryu’s musings. As if it was to eager to jump into the next fight. Season 1 used fights to fit between the comedy, with the comedy and absurdism as the punchline. OPM Season 2 though seems to be going for the other way around. Focusing on fights it doesn’t have the chops to pull off.

So basically, to finish off my complaint this week, OPM has no calm. Its either doing nothing, or trying to do everything. Early episodes had little happen. Sitting in one place with pointless conversations happening. Recent ones though are now burning through content at a rapid pace. I understand some of that is the sheer amount of fights going on this season. It’s a lot. But I could forgive cutting some of the less important ones short (though they are already pretty short) for the benefit of these more important scenes. All that said though, those aren’t the only issues. Join me next week, as I rage against sound design, and how CS:GO gun sound effects made their way in as bird monsters punching. See you then!

Congratulations OPM, you found a new way to disappoint me. This time, OPM actually straight up cut content from the manga to try and fit it all conveniently into a single episode. All the while, gloriously screwing it up. Lets jump in, I promise this will be fast.

Starting off I would like to say, thank you Kenichiro Aoki for making this watchable. This man is responsible for every reasonable looking cut in the season. From Tank Top Master vs Garou to part of this week’s Seiryu vs Saitama. I don’t know how much work they have given him, nor is it the best I have ever seen. But by god is it the best animated parts of OPM S2. Everything else is just littered with issues. From ridiculous, almost sped up seeming pacing to weightless combat and flash fades, god the flash fades. I don’t know how much more I can say about OPM S2’s production before I start repeating myself. Assuming I am not already repeating myself, which I suspect I am. Suffice to say, if I do repeat myself I apologize. These posts have mostly become venting about the death of a series for me.

Continue reading “One Punch Man S2 – 7 [Class S Heroes]” →

Sigh Welcome once again to the sinking ship that is OPM S2. This week we see a fantastic character done dirty, botched pacing, and more boob shots than you can swing a stick at. Lets dive in.

As always, production, and oof. OOF. JC Staff screwed the pooch this week. I won’t even talk animation, because that’s obvious. Instead lets talk about how JC Staff screwed up direction and shot composition, when Murata had already laid it out for them. Throughout this episode, we have 2 conflicts going on. Genos vs the Monsters, and the Tournament. OPM cuts between the two, progressing both at once. However, what happens in the manga is the tournament comes first in ever sequence. Showing a martial arts technique and its effects, then cutting straight to Genos performing an S-Class Super Hero version of the same thing. High Voltage Fist, Machine Gun Blow, Rocket Stomp, all these mimic techniques of the martial artists. Yet JC Staff couldn’t even do that right. Showing them out of order, with no impact or connection between them. This is a staggering level of incompetence.

Continue reading “One Punch Man S2 – 6 [The Uprising of the Monsters]” →

God damnit OPM. I thought we were past this, I thought we could get along. It was my hope, after these last two episodes, that you could make it. I was wrong. This week OPM disappoints me, and I once again get to go on a rant. Jump in if you dare.

Right off the bat, and I am gonna do this for a few hundred words, let’s talk production. My god, did OPM trip and fall down a ditch this week. There’s so much to talk about here, I have to split it into sections. Starting off, animation. Not only was it limited, reusing it in the same god damn fight, but what little good OPM had was covered up. Flashing screens, cut to black with flashes of light and shaky cam ruin whatever punch any of the fights could have had. Combine that with terrible direction, ruining the flow of blows, and it just becomes a mess. One redditor described it aptly as “The fight wanted itself to end”. Then there’s Metal Knight, flying around like a static image through the sky. This sequence could have been amazing and instead we got… a PowerPoint presentation.

Continue reading “One Punch Man S2 – 5 [Martial Arts Tournament]” →

Hello and welcome to another surprising episode of One Punch Man Season 2! This week OPM gives us another S-Class Hero, Garo’s past and some cool monsters. Lets dive in!

Starting off, I have to say, JC Staff is surprising me. OPM’s animation is actually pretty good, the Centisenpai cuts were fantastic. Not just in comparison to the rest of this season, but as standalone cuts. Check below the break for a clip of that. If JC Staff, and more specifically Kenichiro Aoki who animated this and Tank-Top Masters cuts, can keep this up the season has hope yet. All they have to do is nail the finale and I will be content here. I don’t know what in god’s name happened in episode 1 and 2, but they are in no way representative of the final product so far. Sure, the gradient is still crap and so to are some of the filters. But the actual animation? The 2D animation layered over CGI? Credit where it’s due, JC Staff isn’t completely bombing this.

Continue reading “One Punch Man S2 – 4 [Metal Bat]” →