“If the Heroes run and hide, who will stay and fight?”

Saitama is the main protagonist of One Punch Man and the most powerful hero alive. Saitama faces a self-imposed existential crisis, as he is now too powerful to gain any thrill from his deeds. He is a resident of Z-City, a fictional city created for this anime. Saitama is a bald ordinary looking man with a thin, but well-built physique and of average height and weight. He’s a 25 year year old man that stands at about 5’9. He claims to have lost all of his hair suddenly and prematurely as a result of the toll taken on his body by his intense hero training. Three years before the story line, Saitama had spiky, black hair and brown eyes. His costume is a plain yellow jumpsuit with a short zipper at the collar and a belt. The costume also consists of red boots, gloves and a white or red cape. As the main protagonist he made his debut in both chapter 1 of the manga and episode 1 of the anime.

Personality

Saitama can be considered quite indifferent. Even the most ferocious foes pose no threat to him, so he doesn’t take his hero work very seriously and beats monsters like killing bugs. Saitama does not actually care if people insult him and he usually ignores them and says that they need a hobby, although the only insult that could get a reaction out of him is when someone mentions his bald head. Saitama shows impressive restrain with his power, considering that with his physical ability, he is capable of splitting the sky, or jumping from the moon to earth easily. He manages to beat nearly all of his opponents with a single punch, though occasionally causes more devastation than necessary. While he has no problem killing monsters, Saitama has yet to be seen killing another human, and uses only enough strength to knock them out. The combination of his attitude, unstoppable strength, and distinctively simple and ‘unimpressive’ appearance often cause his battles to become anticlimactic. Saitama will usually allow his opponents rant about their motives and power up into their strongest forms before obliterating them with a single punch. However if they talk too much he will either interrupt them or just punch them.

Relationships

Saitama has very few relationships with other characters. His most notable one is of course with his cyborg disciple Genos. Genos, unlike Saitama, is a very serious character who is first introduced as a ruthless fighter for justice. After witnessing Saitama’s strength firsthand, Genos becomes enchanted by the power that far surpasses his own. Saitama, while uninterested at first, becomes rather close to Genos and allowing him to become his disciple. After officially becoming heroes the relationship became a bit competitive, mostly on Saitama’s part, when Genos was put in a higher class than his master. Although Saitama does great feats, often after Genos fails, he still stays well below Genos. Genos, on the other hand, has a great appreciation and unwavering faith in the strength of Saitama.

Strengths

Immeasurable Strength: Saitama possesses immense physical strength and is capable of effortlessly defeating powerful monsters and villains, with a single, nonchalant punch (although this strength is not limited to punches). Saitama’s punch is so powerful that many enemies simply explode when struck. He is also shown to effortlessly destroy walls and buildings. An example of this casual, yet overwhelming offensive power occurs when Saitama launches himself from the top of a building, and blasts right through a city-sized meteor. Enhanced Leap: His inability to fly is somewhat compensated by his ability to use his strength to leap tremendous heights and distances. Immeasurable Speed: Saitama was able to complete a 1500 meter dash in an instant during his hero tryouts. Superhuman Senses: Saitama’s senses are far beyond the human norm, being able to keep track of extremely fast opponents, such as Sonic easily. Invulnerability: Saitama can withstand blows from extremely powerful beings such as Carnage Kabuto without taking a scratch or feeling any pain. When Genos created a huge, spherical blast of flame to kill Mosquito Girl’s mosquitoes, Saitama remains standing right next to him totally unharmed.

Weaknesses

The only thing that can be perceived as a weakness is power is only limited to heightened human traits, Saitama cannot fly or fire energy blasts, his superhuman abilities more than makes up for the lack of variety in his powers.

Character Depth/Development

“The true power of us human beings is that we can change ourselves on our own.”

Saitama has been shown to be very humble, as he purposefully let the masses turn against him, for the sake of the defeated heroes to be given credit for their efforts; claiming that they had weakened the Sea King before his arrival. Standing triumphant over the body of the Sea King, Saitama overhears the crowd of onlookers start to question the usefulness of the rest of the heroes who battled the Sea King. Not wanting the heroes’ good reputation to be tarnished, Saitama remarks loudly that he got off lucky and that, if the other heroes hadn’t weakened Sea King before he arrived on the scene, he wouldn’t have stood a chance.To further the credibility of his ploy, Saitama plays on the rumors of his underhanded nature by stating that, because he’s the one who dealt the finishing blow, he’ll get all of the credit for the victory regardless of the other heroes valiant efforts.Saitama’s plan proves successful and the people’s faith in the other heroes that participated in the battle is restored, while Saitama, on the other hand, grows more hated in the eyes of the citizens. Internally, Saitama reflects on how dull the battle with the Sea King turned out to be. Another thing about Saitama is that he is surprisingly tactful and insightful, being well able to discern situations and character traits from the people and environment around him fairly easily.

Character Role Fulfillment

Saitama is indirectly responsible for the Heroes Association’s creation, having saved the grandchild of multi-millionaire Chinner from Crabrante three years prior to the story-line; Chinner would then found the Association to protect humanity from the mysterious beings.

Unique Characteristic Quality

Saitama is usually deliberately drawn in a simpler style than all the other characters, with an elliptical shaped head and only a simple mouth and eyes. When drawn in a more serious style with more detail, Saitama is revealed to have sharp features, dangerous looking eyes, and a chiseled musculature. Even his posture undergoes a metamorphosis, with a slack posture and sloping elbows when lax, while possessing a straightened posture and squared shoulders when serious.

Rating

Saitama is a simple character and with a slightly confusing background that led to him becoming a titular character. He undoubtedly has the strength and shows signs of having the valor that comes with being a true hero. Saitama earns a S rating, surely a legendary to be character in anime history.