One Punch Man S3: Profit over Passion

 Shonen anime One Punch Man’s third season aired its first episode on October 12, 2025. Up until this point, the series had been considered a contender for one of the greatest anime of all time. However, the third season has been nothing short of underwhelming, with critics and audiences alike claiming that the prestige of One Punch Man has successively crumbled with each new episode. Criticism about everything from the lazy animation to the poor pacing started to arise. This is a complete 180 from the greatness and near reverence with which Season 1 was treated, so why is this the case?

One Punch Man follows the story of Saitama, who is a “hero who does hero things for fun,” in his own words. He does not take being a hero seriously because he outmatches everyone around him in power. The author of One Punch Man, Tomohiro (or simply ONE), has explained that Saitama’s concept is that of a main character at the end of an anime series placed at the very beginning. He can defeat anyone he comes across with a single punch, and he does it comically as well. However, despite this bizarre narrative choice and fights lacking difficulty, the show shines through with its cinematic choreography, dynamic pacing, and fluid animation that make these fight scenes visually stunning. For these reasons, the first season exceeded audience expectations, with animation far ahead of its time and a charming, hilarious, and comically overpowered protagonist. The first season was produced by studio Madhouse, known for outstanding anime such as Hunter X Hunter and Death Note. However, director Shingo Natsume used his extensive industry connections to recruit freelance animators from various studios, who were all eager to work on the project. They formed a “dream team” that worked “for the love of the game,” favoring passion over budget. They pushed their creative freedom to their limits while also being given adequate time to completely flesh out the season.

This is why the first season of One Punch Man made the show a household anime name. However, these are the same reasons why the third season went on to be a complete mess. The anime switched from Madhouse to J.C. Staff for Season 2, which was mainly known for romance anime. Since Madhouse was too busy to handle another season of the IP, it passed it over to a studio they trusted. J.C. Staff then went on to animate Season 3 as well. This does not mean this studio couldn’t work on the action-comedy that is One Punch Man, but on top of that, animators were faced with a serious time crunch, having only six months to fully animate the season. This is where the first problem of the third season arises: lazy animation and errors. 

Many scenes are barely animated at all, as exemplified in the infamous Garou slide, when, in episode three, the character Garou is essentially dragged down a hill without any changes to his appearance, looking like a still image being dragged in Photoshop. 

 There’s also an excessive amount of speed lines (visual cues of curved lines as a vignette to create a dynamic feel) over still images, which further added to one of the show’s main criticisms: the overuse of static images. On top of that, many errors were made in the animation, such as the character Royal Ripper gaining cleavage for a few frames despite being a male, and another character, Mizuki, losing a bandage on her face as she’s on screen for over a second. This has led to allegations that the animation could have been AI-generated, which lowered the already terrible credibility of the season.

The explanation for the downgrade in Season 3 can be traced back to Bandai Studios, the production company for One Punch Man. They announced the third season three years before it was released, but because the second season had already caused the prestige of One Punch Man to drop, other studios did not want to take over the season. The second season had soured the reputation of One Punch Man due to its lower quality in animation when J.C. Staff took over. That’s why Bandai decided to turn back to J.C. Staff, which had agreed to animate the season once more. J.C. Staff’s entire business model is to animate as much as possible, which explains why it was the only studio willing to take the job, and it is not a favorable sign in terms of quality. 

By the beginning of production, there were only six months left until the release date, and Bandai didn’t extend the deadline for the season to come out because they believed the publicity buzz would have died down if it were pushed any further. Bandai knew the season wasn’t going to turn out great, but still went forward with it to turn a quick dollar. Thus, audiences were given a trainwreck of a season. 

One Punch Man’s third season was doomed from the start. From the tight deadline to the switch to an animation studio known for mass-producing anime on conveyor belts, it was inevitable that the season would end up being the subject of criticism from critics and fans alike. Names such as “One Frame Man” arose because of the lack of animation in general, demonstrating the deep disdain fans have for the new season. The third season encapsulates how some people will always prioritize profit over art, and unless that changes, One Punch Man will forever be an example of how high you can reach with passion and how low you can fall with greed.