Up until last year, One-Punch Man was one of the few animewhere the anime vs. manga debate was a toss-up. Both properties are so beyond reproach in quality that such a discussion would likely end in a stalemate. The same discussion could happen today, just on a more limited basis on the animation side of things.
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Both the manga and anime continue to have their merits though and manage to outshine the other in various ways. Hopefully, the aspects below can help break bread between the two sides to convince an anime fan to check out the manga, and a manga fan to check out the anime.
10 Manga Does Better: No Dips In Quality
Better to address the elephant in the room immediately. Season 2of the anime took a rather extreme dip in animation quality from the first season. And to that extent, the manga cannot be rivaled.
Yusuke Murata took ONE’s webcomic and turned it into manga gold. After a stint in the hospital, Murata teamed up with ONE and turned One-Punch Man into a manga passion project, which you can see in every panel he draws. That quality, unfortunately, did not translate from Season 1 to Season 2 of the anime.
9 Anime Does Better: Accessibility
There's really no competition here. If manga is your preferred way to consumeOne-Punch Man, you either have to buy every volume as it comes out or have a VIZ Media subscription. Those are your legal options.
What if you want to watch the anime? Well,you can catch the first seasonon Netflix, Crunchyroll, and VRV. You could also catch the entire serieson Hulu. But wait! Say you somehow don't have any of those services and you're broke? Well, you can watchthe entire series for free, without signing up for an account on VIZ Media or on TubiTV. Easy breezy.
8 Manga Does Better: References and Easter Eggs
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the first two seasons of Mob Psycho 100 involved catching all the One-Punch Man easter eggs and references hidden within the anime. And even though the Mob Psycho 100 webcomic existed forthree years before the One-Punch Man anime premiered, there has yet to be aMob Psycho 100easter egg in the series. This, however, does not ring true for the manga.
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While they aren't exactly hidden, the One-Punch Man manga throws some love towards ONE's other creation on at least two occasions. Up above, you'll see a young Saitama lyinginbed wearing a "Mobu Psycho 1000000" sweatshirt. That happens in a bonus chapterin the very first volume of the manga.Later on, in the 12th manga edition, 65th chapter, Mob, Tome, and Dimple can be seen in the background promoting the airing of their show.
7 Anime Does Better: The Carnage
For the most part, the anime ofOne-Punch Man was very faithful to the manga. But when it came to blood and carnage, the anime decided to ramp it up to 100.
This level of gratuity is evident is just about every fight Saitama has, butwe'll focus on two in particular: Mosquito Girl and Crablante. As you can see above, Saitama basically turns Mosquito Girl into a coat of red paint in the anime. But in the manga? Not a drop was spilled. And while Crablante's death in the manga isn't pretty by any standards, the anime took that panel and made this grotesque fatality.
6 Manga Does Better: MoreSaitama's Backstory
In nearly every volume of the manga, there is a bonus chapter. A good chunk of them are side stories involving our heroes, but a precious few give us a deeper look into Saitama's backstory and what helped motivate him to become a hero.
In the first volume of the manga, a young Saitama goes after some bullies and then a pig monster after he is beaten up and robbed of 200 Yen. He's beaten up pretty badly and never recovers his money. In later volumes, we get to see him doing this "training regimen" and his initial heroic deeds and fights before he loses his hair.
5 Anime Does Better:Mumen Rider
There are no characters in One-Punch Manlike Mumen Rider. He's powerless. His best attack is hurtling his bike into his enemy. Mumen Rider is basically Midoriya before All Might gives him his quirk.
It's understandable why a character like this would get played for laughs in a superhero parody. But the anime gives him respect where the manga does not. Saitama's and Mumen's scene together in the ramen house at the end of Episode 9 is all you need to see that. The flashback with Mumen talking to Saitama while they ride towards Deep Sea King isn't in the manga. He's scared to death but still trying to comfort Saitama. He's proud to be a hero, even if all he can do is be heroic. He's a true hero.
4 Manga Does Better: Murata's Unparalleled Skill
Showing the manga like this might very well be cheating—after all, it's essentially animating thepanels of a manga—but Murata's skill transcends static images. These panels come from Chapter 15 during the first fight between Saitama and Speed O' Sound Sonic.
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Murata's art doesan other-worldly job of depicting speed and distance covered. What makes this even more impressive is how much better a job it does than the anime in this aspect. It's not that the anime couldn't have pulled this off, but it would have been exponentially more difficult to do.
3 Anime Does Better: The Power Of Saitama
The anime undoubtedly one-upped the manga in this regard andone scene makes this abundantly clear—Saitama's sparring match versus Genos. In the fight against Genos, Saitama satisfies Genos' wish to take the fight seriously and show him his true power.
The anime (pictured above) reveals what the wind impact from Saitama's punchdoes to the rock formation behind them, not the punch itself, mind -- the wind from the punch. It creates a new path through the mountains and even affects the clouds. The manga ends it here. No gigantic chasm formed or clouds altered. Just dust.
2 Manga Does Better: The Bonus Stories
As mentioned previously, nearly every volume of the manga contains tiny stories about the everyday goings-on of heroes. The anime also does a series of OVAs after every season (three of Season 2's OVAs are currently out and they're shockingly good). But between the two methods of bonus stories, the manga is far superior.
Something that's commonly lost inOne-Punch Manis the kind of hero Saitama is. Sure, he candecimatemonsters the size mountains in one punch, but these stories expand who Saitama is. He's a kind, unselfish hero who isa heronot just because of his strength, but because he's a genuinely great person.
1 Anime Does Better: The Fight Scenes
This should almost go without saying and might be a little on the nose, but the fight scenes benefit so much from animation. Heck, even season 2 did manage to do one fight better than the manga. Just look at this by comparison—you could almost mistake it for Season 1! Thankheavens for Kenichiro Aoki.
But Season 1...whew. Season 1 featured powerhouse names like director Shingo Natsume, Shuuei Handa, Toshio Ishizaki, Yutaka Nakamura, and others behind its animation. Their immense skill, flair, and stylistic idiosyncrasies are plastered in every gorgeously crafted and choreographed fight scene. This is no easy feat considering the masterful hand of Yusuke Murata, but the animators and anime were up to the challenge.
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