One-Punch Man Season 3 has finally arrived after a long six-year wait. Sadly, its premiere brought a wave of criticism following the anime’s underwhelming animation quality. While the trailer teasing Saitama’s return was already a bad omen that fans wouldn’t be entirely satisfied with the animation, One-Punch Man presents another glaring problem that few have noticed so far.

Despite not much happening in the first episode of One-Punch Man Season 3, the overuse of close-up shots and still images has raised many eyebrows and made fans wonder if it can live up to the story once the action ramps up. However, One-Punch Man Season 3‘s biggest hurdle isn’t its animation but rather a problem present in the manga.

Inconsistent Pacing Gets in the Way of One-Punch Man Season 3

The first episode of One-Punch Man Season 3 already hints that the anime’s pacing might be too slow to successfully adapt the Monster Association’s story arc without affecting fans’ overall enjoyment. One-Punch Man Season 3‘s episode 1 only adapted chapters #85 and #86 and even then had to cut a few scenes to fit the episode length.

Most anime adaptations of action manga cover 3–4 chapters per episode. However, due to the irregular release schedule of One-Punch Man‘s manga, its chapters are often longer than those of other shōnen series, ranging from around 50 pages to even exceeding 100. But by covering two chapters, One-Punch Man Season 3 has already drawn criticism due to its slow pacing.

Although it’s necessary to properly establish the Monster Association headquarters’ raid, instead of increasing the pace to get to major developments faster, the episode was almost a 1:1 adaptation of the manga, only skipping a couple of scenes from Chapter #86 depicting Royal Ripper’s ruthlessness against Narinki’s Private Squad, which built up his character before his fight against Garo.

One-Punch Man Season 3 Has a Lot of Content to Cover

Covering from chapters 78 to 175, The Monster Association is the longest story arc in One-Punch Man. Despite being action-heavy with a gigantic-scale battle leading to an incredible climax, The Monster Association Arc features many subplots that interrupted the flow of the story and resulted in inconsistent pacing, which will be even harder to deal with in the anime.

Several clues suggest that One-Punch Man Season 3 will cover up to chapter 115 of the manga, such as Garou being chained and the glimpse of Saitama vs. Orochi in the opening. This means that if One-Punch Man Season 3 will only have a single cour, there’s just 11 episodes available to cover nearly 30 chapters.

Although the length of One-Punch Man season 3 hasn’t been confirmed by J.C. Staff, and the first two seasons covered 37 and 47 chapters, respectively, the new installments still need to cover more than 2 chapters per episode. A slow pace at the beginning of the season may result in more scenes being cut later, which could impact the story.

One-Punch Man Season 3 Needs to Pick Up the Pace

Due to the number of heroes and Monster Association executives, One-Punch Man Season 3 needs time to lay the groundwork and introduce the new characters before the upcoming fights. It’s not until after chapter #90 that One-Punch Man‘s story shifts to featuring multiple consecutive fights, which will likely happen after episode 3 of the season with the anime’s current pace.

One-Punch Man Season 3 can’t afford to waste time, as taking too long for the action to begin may cause viewers hoping for more intense developments to determine the quality of the animation to give up and decide to drop the series. Also, unlike in the manga, which can include longer chapters, or other series that go for double episodes or 1-hour specials, J.C. Staff has confirmed its limited production. Therefore, One-Punch Man must quickly deliver massive story beats to capture viewers’ attention ahead of the best moments of the season.

One-Punch Man Season 3 Has to Make Smart Choices

An example of an anime that managed to increase the pace of its story was Solo Leveling Season 2, which cut many scenes to cover almost 65 chapters of the manhwa in 12 episodes. However, this isn’t easy for One-Punch Man, whose essence lies not only in the action but also in its humor and gags present throughout the series.

Furthermore, the main charm of the Monster Association Arc is that the focus is not on Saitama, and it is Garou and the S-Class Heroes who gain relevance. That means that if a part of the story has to be cut, it must be carefully selected so that it doesn’t affect the character arcs of the heroes or the monsters.

One-Punch Man Season 2’s Major Problem Wasn’t Its Animation

Despite the backlash, One-Punch Man Season 3 already boasts a superior production compared to its previous installment. The anime returned with an improved character design and art direction, which were two of the most criticized aspects of season 2, along with the sound design.

In addition to its inconsistent animation, One-Punch Man Season 2 has a rushed pacing in order to reach chapter #84, considered the best midpoint to end the season. This caused One-Punch Man Season 2 to skip and rearrange many scenes, shorten dialogues, and even cut characters like Bones’ participation in the fight against the Hundred-Eyes Octopus.

Yet, One-Punch Man Season 2 managed to live up to the feeling of the manga in some fights, like Metal Bat vs. Elder Centipede. This highlights the potential of One-Punch Man Season 3 to meet fans’ expectations if the production team does justice to the story and focuses its resources on carefully adapting the awaited fights in the arc.

One-Punch Man Season 3 Already Nailed the Anime’s Signature Comedy

Despite the time constraints, One-Punch Man Season 3, episode 1, included a post-credits scene adapted from a manga extra, set after Chapter 85, which showed what happened to Speed-o’-Sound Sonic after eating the monster cell. While this may seem irrelevant, it demonstrates the passion for the project, as this type of humor is what makes One-Punch Man a unique shōnen.

One-Punch Man Season 3 is the most hyped anime in Fall 2025, and its popularity is bound to increase once the anime reaches the best moments of the Monster Association Arc. If it can fix the pacing problems of the previous season, One-Punch Man Season 3 could mark the generational comeback for the franchise that fans have been waiting for.

Release Date

October 5, 2015

Network

YouTube, TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, TVh, TVQ, TSC

Directors

Shinichiro Ushijima, Makoto Sokuza, Nobuhiro Muto, Ryoh Ando, Shuuji Miyazaki, Youhei Suzuki, Miyuki Ishida, Katsushi Sakurabi, Hideki Okamoto, Yoshio Suzuki, Hiroyuki Okuno, Riki Fukushima, Shigeki Awai

Writers

Tatsuro Inamoto

• 

  Makoto Furukawa

  Saitama (voice)

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  Kaito Ishikawa

  Genos (voice)