Anime, The Wikipedia Forum – One Punch Man (Japanese: ワンパンマン, Hepburn: Wanpanman) is a Japanese superhero manga series created by One. It tells the story of Saitama, a superhero who, because he can defeat any opponent with a single punch, grows bored from a lack of challenge. One wrote the original webcomic manga version in early 2009.
A digital manga remake, illustrated by Yusuke Murata, began publication on Shueisha’s Tonari no Young Jump website in June 2012. Its chapters are periodically compiled and published into individual tankōbon volumes. As of November 2023, 29 volumes have been released. In North America, Viz Media licensed the remake manga for English language release and has serialized it in its Weekly Shonen Jump digital magazine.
An anime adaptation produced by Madhouse was broadcast in Japan from October to December 2015. A second season, produced by J.C.Staff, was broadcast from April to July 2019. A third season also by J.C.Staff has been announced. Licensed in North America by Viz Media, it premiered in the United States on Adult Swim’s Toonami programming block in July 2016. The second season premiered on the block in October 2019.
By June 2012, the original webcomic manga surpassed 7.9 million hits. By April 2020, the manga remake had sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time.
One Punch Man Production
One began the original webcomic of One-Punch Man in 2009. The Japanese shortened name Wanpanman is a play on the long-running children’s character Anpanman, wanpan being a contraction of wanpanchi (“one punch”). One became interested in creating a comic superhero who was already the strongest in the world. He wanted to focus on different aspects of storytelling than those normally relied on in standard superhero stories, such as everyday problems. One said: “Punching is oftentimes pretty useless against life’s problems. But inside One-Punch Man’s universe, I made Saitama a sort of guy who was capable of adapting his life to the world that surrounded him, only armed with his immense power. The only obstacles he faces are mundane things, like running short of money.”
One has taken several breaks from updating the webcomic. In February 2010, he put the series on hiatus, deciding to take a one-year break due to family circumstances. After releasing the 109th chapter in January 2017, One took a two-year break, releasing the following chapter in April 2019. When One returned to drawing in 2011, he was contacted by artist Yusuke Murata about a possible partnership in which Murata would redraw the webcomic for One. Murata had been an enormous fan of One-Punch Man and was ill at the time. Fearing he was going to die, he contacted One. Looking back, he said, “Around that time, I was actually really sick. I broke out in hives, my inner organs were infected, and I couldn’t breathe well with my windpipes [sic] swelling. I was in the hospital when I thought, ‘Ah, I guess people die just like that.’ If I’m going to die, I want to do something I really love to do. I want to draw manga with Mr. One. That’s what I thought.” Murata, already a successful manga artist, used his connections in the industry to get a publishing deal with Weekly Young Jump comics. The manga became an digital publication on Weekly Young Jump’s spin-off manga website Tonari no Young Jump (となりのヤングジャンプ, Tonari no Yangu Janpu), published by Shueisha.
