One-Punch Manhas once again become the talk of the town in the anime community, but not for the best of reasons. Withseason 3 confirmedto come out later this year in October, fans are more worried than ever that the highly anticipated return of Saitama and the S-Class heroes are going to fall short of their expectations in the case it doesn’t bomb entirely. There have been too many red flags to ignore, leading up to what may be a repeat of the terribly-received second season.
Sadly, cases likeOne-Punch Manhaving a lackluster sequel isn’t limited to just ONE’s creation, as this seems to be a rising trend given what’s happened to other franchises likePromised Neverland,Blue Lock, andUzumaki. For the sake of a timely product, studio management will resort to cutting out quality to deliver when an anime hits its peak, but this has only proven to hurt the success and frustrate fans.
The Curse Of An Awful Sequel
It’s Not Limited to Just One-Punch Man
One-Punch Manisn’t the first of its kind to receive a bad sequel, and it may not be the last given how stressful work conditions have been for animators and the anime industry these last few years. For example,Blue Locksaw a massive dip in quality, with some animators even walking out on the project midway through. Instead of using the drafts of characters in motion, the second season is littered with stills and weird CGI that made it look like a supped-up PowerPoint presentation rather than an anime.
In other cases, it’s not so much the animation that takes a backseat as much as it is the adaptation itself and the story. ThePromised Neverlandrepresents this well because while on the surface, the second season doesn’t look inherently bad, but fans of the manga were quick to remark that theanime skipped major arcs. This shotgunned the story into pieces, with some anime viewers even noticing the slight difference in writing that lacked the fluidity and cohesion of season 1.
Some studios don’t even bother to drop the ball in between seasons, instead opting for the very next episode.Uzumakistunned fansby the depths the first episode took to bring Junji Ito’s vision to life, only to completely flunk the very next episode, using stills and stock motion to quickly publish the latest installment.
Studio Deadlines Are Pushing Their Workers Too Far
The Writers And Animators Shouldn’t Be Blamed
In the case of many of these incidents, what it comes down to is the studio rushing their workers, pushing for steep deadlines, and settling for half the product quality.Blue Lock’s season 2saw the departure of one of their directors halfway through the project and animators themselves spoke out against being paid unfairly for their work despite having to rush it in half the time it needed to take to prepare properly.
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The same happened withUzumaki, studios were rushing the artists, and they found that in the time allotted, they could only publish what they had or elsetheir entire work would have been canceled and thrown out. Nothing is known or confirmed about what happened with season 2 of thePromised Neverlandaside from a few fan theories.
One-Punch Man is Another Case of Falling Standards
The Anime Industry Has Much to Learn and Catch Up On
ForOne-Punch Man, there’s a collective of warning signs that hinted the following sequels were never going to live up to the standard Madhouse flaunted. From the studio change to the missing director and the majority of the writing/production team, not to mention leaving an entire promotional video up to one singular animator to put together and animate became a bit too much for most fans. Instead of getting angry, everyone has been left feeling resigned and saddened for theanimators struggling with the negative backlashcaused by a studio’s mismanagement.
There are talented workers currently under the direction of J.C. Studios working onOne-Punch Man, but the anime industry’s poor work standards are clearly affecting the work that’s being published and fans are no longer blind to it. The management of the franchise is hindering the quality of what the anime has the potential to be by not being transparent with their lack of time, effort, and connections to properly giveOne-Punch Manthe attention it desperately needs and deserves.
