The existential crisis of One Punch Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U42pmZilfTA - 11:19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr9ThDBuibA - 13:37

    One Punch Man is another anime that students in my summer anime classes like due to

the fact that it has fighting in it, even though in this anime, the fights involving the main character are

usually not very interesting, at least not to him.  Of course, I would not really expect adolescents to

know, and probably even care about, this part of the main character's fighting, but it is the part of his

fighting that I would like to focus on here as his existential crisis with the help of two videos.

     In the first video, we learn more about this main character Saitama, also known as One Punch Man

due to his ability to end most of his fights with just one punch.  This is not only the reason for his

nickname, but also his existential crisis.  Saitama used to be an average person until one day he ended

up in a fight that made him re - evaluate his life that led him to his desire of being a hero.  However,

he worked too hard in becoming a hero, which is what he wanted, resulting in being able to end most

of his fights with a single punch.  Basically, the only fight that had any purpose for him was his first

fight that made him question his purpose and work too hard to achieve it.  He wants to be a hero

for fun, but is it really fun for him anymore?  He tries to make his fights more entertaining for

himself, and last longer, by not attacking first and avoiding hits, but this does not seem to really help

him either.  So what does help Saitama?

     The first video also answers this question and also has scientific support seen in the second video.

Saitama's relationships with others are not only what he needs to help himself, but also others.

The relationship that Saitama has with the character Genos is the best example of this.  While most

people do not really understand or know about Saitama, which helps Saitama by letting other people

know who he is, Genos can see past this to get to know Saitama himself.   This is due to who Genos

is.  In this anime, Genos represents the typical anime protagonist in that he had a rough childhood that

influenced his fighting mentality, which is something that he thinks Saitama can help him with due to

Saitama's strength (Saitama easily beats Genos in a fight).  Even though Saitama does not really

know how to interact with others, even Genos, doing this it what will help Saitama help with his

purpose of wanting to be a hero.

      The existential crisis of Saitama involves what he is known for doing and what he needs to do in

relation to that.  There are reasons Saitama needs to do this, but these reasons involve that he needs to

resolve his existential crisis.


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