One Punch Men is clearly the new The Attack of the Titans: a manga-animated phenomenon that set the Japanese on fire, then quickly contaminated the Internet !

However, the license started in 2009 on the manga blog of the artist ONE, who remains anonymous. In spite of a more than rough, almost childish line, it quickly became popular with otaku and then with the general public (a bit like Georges Clooney in our latitudes). In 2012, a manga adaptation was released by Shueisha with Yusuke Murata in pencil, following a simple discussion on Twitter!

The end of 2015 was a turning point for One Punch Man since :

• on the one hand, Kurokawa signed the French localization of the manga which starts on January 14th, 2016;
• while on the other hand, Madhouse took care of the anime adaptation.

It is the latter that interests us here, since the studio has delivered a delicious one-shot of twelve episodes broadcast on TV Tokyo and in streaming subtitled on ADN, soon to be joined by six OAVs on Blu-Ray.

In One Punch Men, Saitama is a young working man who goes through a series of unsuccessful job interviews. After defending a little boy from a man-crab monster, he decides to train for three years to become a hero. Having become the strongest man in the world (and bald), he now defeats all his enemies with a single punch and gets bored stiffly while nobody notices him.

One Punch Men : The Best manga !

What is most appealing in One Punch Man is the humour that the series shows on all levels. Absurd as we like it and full of puns and references, often reminiscent of the atmosphere of Yusha Yoshihiko, the finished product mixes the codes of shonen to the point of making fun of it tenderly and seducing fans with its well felt retreat.

You never have time to get bored and the episodes and chapters follow one after the other very quickly. The script shows an unfailing creativity, without ever indulging or dragging on like so many (yet excellent) lazy people on this market. In many ways, Wanpanman is eminently refreshing.

The joke extends to the real thing, where Twitter fans have been having fun and have managed to find their way back to Saitama’s apartment!

But the real trigger is probably in this incredible on-screen adaptation. The animation of the fights proves to be quite simply remarkable, on the edge of the animated film, at least at a level far superior to anything usually seen in japanimation TV. It is imperative, in this respect, to salute the superb work of Madhouse and director Shingo Natsume.

If no second season is planned to date, the first ten volumes of the manga have already sold more than six million copies in Japan (updated: thirteen million by July 2017). A long serialization can therefore be expected if we follow the usual codes in Japan. Let’s hope that the author knows how to stop it in time to keep the exceptional success of his breathtaking One Punch Man.