The animation in One Punch Man Season 2 is bad. Why? The second season of One Punch Man has bad animation mostly because the director and animators that worked on the first season were not present in season 2. The first season of One Punch Man was adapted by Madhouse, whereas the second season was adapted by J.C Staff.

Compared to the first season of One Punch Man, the animation in One Punch Man season 2 is very disappointing and just bad.

Why Were the Director and Animators in the First Season Not Present in the Second Season?

Background

One Punch Man started out as a web comic created by the artist ONE. It was later adapted into a manga by Yusuke Murata. After huge mainstream success, it was adapted into an anime by studio Madhouse in 2015 and directed by Shingo Natsume. The second season would air four years later in 2019 but with a different studio (J.C Staff) and a different director (Chikara Sakurai).

One Punch Man is an anime filled with action, comedy and satire. There’s a wide range of super heroes with interesting powers and abilities as well as bizarre villains. One Punch Man effortlessly switches between hilarity and brutality. One of the appeals of the anime is how it defies shounen convention and the anti-climatic moments it delivers. Despite that, there is a deceptively smart message beneath some of the hilarity. The social satire elevates the show and makes it really stand out.  The One Punch Man anime was able to become such a massive success because it is the kind of hero fiction that crosses multiple demographics and cultural boundaries. It’s comedy and action was really well done and able to connect to the masses.

One of the biggest appeals in the first season of One Punch Man was the spectacular animation, which was on a whole another level compared to other shounen and action anime.

When the trailer for One Punch Man Season 2 was announced, fans were already prepared for a massive downgrade when it came to the animation quality.

Why the Animation in One Punch Man Season 1 Was So Good

Before we delve into the animation in One Punch Man Season 2, lets look at the staff in the first season.

The biggest reason why One Punch Man was a success was because of the staff.

Studio Madhouse

Madhouse is an animation studio founded in 1972 by Masao Maruyama, Osama Dezaki, and Yoshoiaki Kawajiri.

Madhouse has a track record of success and is responsible for adapting some of the best anime between 2000 – 2010. Some of their works include Trigun (1998), Monster (2004), Black Lagoon (2006), Death Note (2006), Paprika (2006), Hunter x Hunter (2011) and more.

Madhouse has a knack for finding ways to make unconventional stories in anime form. That’s why they were the perfect studio to adapt One Punch Man. Furthermore, they were able to skillfully allocate resources and use the animators for the best scenes.

Madhouse did an amazing of adapting Yusuke Muruta’s original artwork and was faithful to the source while improving it.

One Punch Man was adapted by Madhouse, but since most of the animators, including director Shingo Natsume, worked at studio BONES, it is considered by many to be a joint collaboration between BONES and Madhouse.

Director of One Punch Man Season 1

The director of the first season of One Punch Man was Shingo Natsume. He worked as a key animator for Gurren Lagann (2007) episode 27. His most notable works as a director is Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019),  Space Dandy (2013), and the underrated ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka (2017).

Shingo Natsume has done great work but what he’s really good at is building relationships and delegating. He was able to get some of the best animators in the industry and use their talents to make a cohesive project.

Best Animation of One Punch Man Season 1

One Punch Man channels the style of american comic books and the animation goes for fluidity and the result is gorgeous dynamic movement.

Here are some of the highlights of season 1 from an animation standpoint along with the best animators:

Episode 1: Saitama vs Villains

Notable Animators: Se Jun Kim, Gosei Oda, Yoshimichi Kameda, Norifumi Kugai

Summary:

The premiere of One Punch Man easily established the show as an animation powerhouse. The animation was incredible and it had many noteworthy moments. The action sequences were beautifully and imaginatively drawn. The villains looked very distinct. Saitama’s facial expressions can go from comically simple to extremely detailed (when he gets serious).

The animation of the Vaccine Man fight with Saitama was done by Se Jun Kim, whose notable work is Gundam Build Fighters (2013). Se Jun Kim specializes in flashy mecha fights and this was made apparent with him adding well animated beams for the fight between Vaccine Man and Saitama fight.

Gosei Oda animated the fight between Saitama and the brothers. Oda is known for his work on Eureka (2005) episode 7 and his fluid style.

The first half of the amazing dream sequence fight between Saitama and the Subterraneans was animated by Yoshimichi Kameda. He became well known for his action scenes in Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (2009) and he also worked on Space Dandy (2013). He has a rough, erratic loud style.

The second half of the fight was animated by Norifumi Kugai , web gen animator. A web gen animator is a term used to describe mostly young digital animators that have gained attention through gifs and fan made animations online.

Episode 2: Flame Animation

Notable Animators: Atsuki Shimuzi

Summary:

There was alot of cool effect animations in episode 2, specifically the flame animations. Atsuki Shimuzi, who specializes in effects animation, really stood out with the flame scene. The flames erupted from the heart of the city and wrapped around the buildings with extreme force and flourish, engulfing anything in it’s path.

Shimuzi has animated special effects in Boruto the Movie (2015), Tokyo Ghoul (2014) episode 2 and Bleach episode 341 (2011).

Episode 3: Genos vs Carnage Kabuto

Notable Animators: Toshiyuki Sato

Summary:

The fight that stands out in this episode is Genos and Carnage Kabuto. This fight was located in a open space used to test combat abilities of experiments made by Doctor Genus, leader of house of evolution. The white open space allowed for animators to truly shine and show expressive movement and explosions.

Toshiyuki Sato is responsible for most of this fight. To fully appreciate his work, it helps to slow down his cuts. Sato is known for his frames and sequences. He was able to showcase the sense of speed between Genos and Carnage Kabuto. Specifically, Geno’s cuts were really well done and the frames gave the audience a sense of how fast he was really moving. He also was able to display Geno’s fire attack through paintbrush strokes in one sequence.

Sato would later shine again in episode 9, where he uses impact frames that are similar frames to Yoshimichi Kameda when he animates the punches Genos throws against the Deep Sea King.

Episode 5: Saitama vs Genos

Notable Animators: Arifumi Imai

Summary:

Attack on Titan’s (2013) action animator Arifumi Imai, whose known for his explosive action scenes, worked on the friendly fight between Saitama and Genos. He is responsible for most of the action on Attack on Titan (2013) but his work on Attack on Titan episode 25 ( fight between Eren and Annie) especially stands out.

Saitama and Genos’ practice match is one of the best fights in the series and is an absolute sakuga explosion.

The fight was wonderfully animated and really showed just how huge the gap is between Saitama and Genos. Most scenes with Genos is given an animation overhaul and you are able to see the animators’ passion in his fights.

It is a nice experience watching Genos fight with his mechanical parts and jet boosters. Moreover, the camera angles following Saitama and Genos as they fight in midair was exceptional. The choreography was dynamic and the animation in this scene has so much character. Imai completely knocks it out of the park.

Episode 12: Saitama vs Boros

Notable Animators: Yutaka Nakamura, Arifumi Imai

Summary:

Attack on Titan’s action animator Arifumi Imai handled a good portion of the Saitama and Boro fight. Imai has proven that he excels at animating action sequences. In this fight, Imai was able to emphasize the trails of energy and sonic booms created by Saitama and Boros. He also got help from Yutaka Nakamura, one of the best, influential animators in the industry. He is the heart and soul of studio BONES. Nakumura was able to draw the highly detailed impact frames of Boros’s attack on Saitama and completely bring them to life.

The adaptation of this episode couldn’t have been more perfect and the fight is some of the best animation you’ll ever see. Saitama and Boros was truly a animated marvel to witness. It was one sided until Saitama decided enough was enough and fought back and it looked incredible. Having Yutaka Nakamura animate parts of this epic fight was truly special.

Why the Animation in One Punch Man Season 2 Was Bad

How does the animation in One Punch Man season 2 compare with the first season? It’s very underwhelming. Expecting the same quality of animation as the first season was not realistic since the best animators are no longer working on the project. Despite this, there are plenty of moments where the animation in season 2 is bad, which is unacceptable, given one of the biggest appeals of the first season was the animation.

 Almost every episode has a outstandingly awful visual blunder to notice. The few well-animated cuts in the show, which is towards the end of the series, don’t make up for that.

Even the most basic scenes are done with voice-over narration to make sure that there is no need to even animate mouth movements. If there is a way to save money and time, it was chosen every single time.

Also, the coloring is off. There was a darker and more off-putting color palette than before. This made the show generally awkward and strangely bleak to look at. Even if the show was somehow animated beautifully, the color palette alone would make it aesthetically displeasing.

Lets take a look at the studio and the director:

Studio

The second season of One Punch Man was adapted by J.C Staff. Despite their handling of One Punch Man Season 2, J.C Staff is a good studio that has adapted alot of great romance and slice of life titles. Some of their works include Toradora! (2008), Bakuman (2010), Amanchu (2016), High Score Girl (2018), and more.

Director

The director of the second season of One Punch Man is Chikara Sakurai. Sakurai’s most notable work is working as an animation director for Naruto Shippuuden Movie 3 – Hi no Ishi wo Tsugu Mono (2009),  Naruto Shippuuden Movie 4 – Lost Tower (2010), Naruto Shippuuden Movie 5 – Blood Prison (2011). His work as a director are limited and underwhelming.

Here are some of the lows from an animation standpoint along with the best animators:

Episode 1: Genos vs G4

Summary:

This episode had some weird shots and angles. Despite this, the fight between Genos and the G4 robot wasn’t too bad. However, Genos’ CG cyborg body looks off-putting at times.

This episode had instances where there was fades to the next frame like a slideshow, which is not good.

Episode 2: Genos vs  Speed O Sound Sonic

Summary:

The fight between Genos and Sonic was very stiff. It had no real flair. Also, Saitama’s serious attack on Sonic looked like it was cut short and didn’t have a strong impact. It ended too abruptly and viewers couldn’t even tell what had happened. It was not animated properly and this is a serious problem. Fans deserve better.

Episode 3: Garou vs Heroes

Notable Animator: Kenichiro Aoki

Summary:

Garou’s fight against Tank Top Master and Golden Ball was actually done well. The animation was smooth and there were alot of good impact frames. This is the best episode yet from an animation standpoint. The animator responsible for this fight was Kenichiro Aoki.

Episode 5: Metal Bat vs Garou

Summary:

The fight between Metal Bat vs Garo could’ve been much better. There was too much flashes of light in this fight. Alot of the intensity of this fight was lost due to poor animation.

Episode 7: Suiryu vs Saitama

Summary:

There were alot of things wrong with this episode. The scene of Atomic Samurai slashing Haragiri was more detailed and looked better in the manga and could’ve been better animated rather than the single cut that was done horribly.

The fight between Saitama and Suiryu looked off at times and had poor flash fades. There were too many extreme usage of bad, looping ghosting afterimages to simulate characters attacking rapidly and frame rate-killing camera movements. Both also looked really off model at times.

Also, animation played a huge role in the comedy and gags in the first season of One Punch Man. Madhouse made that line clear with their animation. There was a difference in style between the serious and comedic moments. In the second season, there is no dichotomy and it doesn’t have the same impact.

Episode 9: Saitama vs Bakuzan

Summary:

The Saitama punch that killed Bakuzan was weak. Punches use to feel dramatic but now they lack the same impact, especially when you don’t even get to see the punch animated. For example, Saitama also defeated Gouketsu in mere seconds.

Saitama defeating his enemies quickly isn’t too much of a problem but when there’s no cool animation before he ends his fights, the battles become boring. Saitama’s fights in the first season was interesting and the animation was great. However, in the second season the poor animation drastically reduces the enjoyment of the series, especially since the pacing for the second season was all over the place.

Episode 11: Garo vs Heroes

Summary:

Most of the budget was saved for the last two episodes. The fight between Garou and the A class hero was well done. The choreography was also nice. The fight between Garou and Genos was also cool. Any fight with Genos should be well animated and this episode delivers.

Episode 12: Genos vs Centichoro

Summary:

The CGI for Centichoro looked great. This episode was also decent from an animation standpoint.

Conclusion

When it comes to animation, One Punch Man Season 2 had some decent highs and abysmal lows. Even by the standards of an action anime, and even anime in general, the visuals of One Punch Man Season 2 are terrible.

The high quality animation was not there. When there was motion, it was just excessive speed lines and other cheap light effects making it difficult to tell what was happening. Action scenes are edited poorly. Shots jump from one still image to the next rather than animating the character’s movement. The use of still images was used alot and the few well animated scenes lacked real impact, which made many sequences feel hollow.

J.C Staff did not do the second season justice. There were too many stills, too many flash effects, and alot of scenes looked like a slideshow. Not only was the animation weak, but the second season felt rushed. It would’ve been better if it was 2 cours (26 episodes).

Sakurai and the rest of the J.C Staff simply didn’t have the time, physical capacity, or resources to pull together an acceptable product. This was basically an instance of a studio forcing a bunch of overworked, under-scheduled staff members, including a director with almost no prior directorial experience, to make a poor product.

One Punch Man Season 2 was poorly managed, badly scheduled, and doomed to fail.

Most people were not expecting the same level of animation as the first season. There were too many prestigious names involved and director Shingo Natsume was able to bring them all together. This was unprecedented and it would be hard to replicate again.

However, the quality of the animation in the second season was just too bad to ignore. Most fans would’ve preferred to wait longer if it meant getting the team that made One Punch Man a success back together.

Animators need to get more recognition so it’s good the first season exists.

The animation in One Punch Man Season 2 might’ve been bad but hopefully the animation in season 3 is much better.

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