Who Is Saitama in One-Punch Man: Everything You Wanted To Know

By Matteo Drelli. Updated Aug 23, 2023

One-Punch Man, from Manga to International Fame

One-Punch Man is a superhero manga created by One. This manga tells the story of a bald boy named Saitama. This boy trained (100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and 10 kilometres of running a day) and became the strongest hero of humanity. In fact, with one punch, he defeats his opponents, but now he is bored to death because of the lack of worthy opponents like him.

One began writing the original webcomic version of the manga in early 2009.

A digital manga version was recreated in June 2012 and published on Shueisha's Tonari no Young Jump. There are 26 One-Punch Man volumes written by One and illustrated by Yusuke Murata.

As the manga became popular, the creators decided to create an anime adaptation produced by Madhouse. This anime was broadcast in Japan in 2015. Later due to the great success of One-Punch Man as an anime and a manga, a second anime season, produced by J.C Staff, was created and broadcast in 2019. A third anime season has also been announced.

In June 2012 alone, the original manga exceeded 8 million hits. As of April 2020, the manga remake has sold more than 29 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling manga series in the world.

First Season Plot

We find ourselves on a different Earth than the one we know. The Earth of One-Punch Man is full of powerful monsters and villains and has four Moons. To counter these enemies, a millionaire named Agoni creates the Hero Association, an association composed of heroes who must counter the enemies. They are divided into categories decided by initial tests and their progress in missions.

Saitama, our hero protagonist, came from Z City and was not initially a member of this association. In fact, after training hard for a good three years, he decided to be a hero for fun, as if it were a hobby. He is so strong that he can defeat any monster with a single punch, but this unparalleled strength of his bores him so much.

He will become a mentor to Genos (or Genus), a cyborg who sought revenge on another cyborg because he killed his family and destroyed his hometown. Genos found himself in trouble against a monster. Saitama himself will save him, and this event leads Genos to want to learn as much as possible from the strongest superhero of all.

Saitama and Genos join the Hero Association in search of notoriety. Immediately Genos, with his abilities, receives the rank of S-class. Saitama, on the other hand, although Saitama possesses far superior skills to his friend, becomes a C-class hero. Unfortunately, although he had perfect scores on the physical exam, he scored very low on the written exam. Soon after, Saitama saves the world from an asteroid and a sea monster, but even though this action is immense, Saitama gets promoted to B-class hero. His feats seem like nothing to others.

Later a seer named Shibabawa, who is close to death, predicts that the world will soon find itself in a very dangerous situation because an alien named Boros will be close to invading the planet. Boros will be the main villain for a while. All the heroes from the Hero Association gather, kill the invaders and destroy Boros's ship, while Saitama defeats Boros in a single battle.

Here ends the first season.

Second Season Plot

Even though it seemed that we had saved the world and returned to peace, many more monsters began to appear. Meanwhile, a martial artist named Garo (or Garou), a former apprentice of the hero Bang, begins tormenting and scaring heroes by calling himself a Hero Hunter. What we know about him is that he was bullied as a child and hates anything defined as heroic.

The heroes realize that a considerable number of monsters come from the Monster Association, a monster organization in Z City that intends to destroy the Hero Association. They decide to attack various cities and recruit fighters by persuading them with 'monster cells,' which mutate humans into monsters. They also kidnap the son of an executive of the Hero's Association.

Meanwhile, Garou bonds with a child named Tareo, an idolizer of heroes, while hunting other heroes and slowly improving his fighting skills. The Monster Association attempts to recruit him, but he refuses, and they decide to kidnap the child. Garou decides to storm the association's headquarters to rescue the child, but he fails and is imprisoned.

The Heroes Association decides to invade the monster headquarters to rescue the two people, causing a battle that destroys Z City and kills almost all the monsters. During the raid, Saitama encounters the high-ranking hero Blast, who is there to collect artefacts and warns Saitama that a threat known as God is coming.

Many heroes are badly wounded when Garo, now mutated into a monster, arrives. However, he cannot match Saitama's power and is defeated. God appears in a vision to Garo and gives him exceptional powers. He thus emits radiation that kills all the heroes. He also rips the core out of Genos so that Saitama takes the situation seriously and fights at full power.

The two clashes in a crucial battle, even crossing the solar system and the whole cosmic universe, but Saitama, with his deadly punch and hero's cape, still wins.

After Garo is defeated, he is shocked by Tareo's death. He decides to teach Saitama how to time travel to avoid all that catastrophe. He returns in time and solves the whole situation, causing Garo and Tareo to escape. Everyone has forgotten what happened except Genos, who has reconnected with his core from the original timeline and remembers everything.

The Monster Association is destroyed, and Saitama is promoted to Class A hero. Z-City is destroyed and moves to A-City. Public opinion detests the association for its poor performance. Because of this, many heroes and officials decide to withdraw and defect, as a rival group seems more effective in dealing with the growing monster threats. This group is called Neo Heroes, led by the hero Blue, who claims to be the son of Blast, the formidable hero we saw before.

Here ends the second season.

Who is Saitama, our simplistic hero

Saitama, or Caped Baldy, is an ordinary bald man with a well-trained physique. Even though Saitama seems weak, his punch is brutal, and he proves to be a real superhero in the series. According to Saitama in the anime and manga, Saitama would like to have his hair back. Previously to the training regimen, he had black hair. The author drew the hero much simpler than the other characters, with simple facial features and a cone-shaped head.

Saitama, throughout the series, performs great skills with his body, although the origin of his power is unknown. There were times when its power would be revealed, but we do not know the origin to this day. In fact, this power is called incomparable in the series. He says he has been training every day with medium-intense training. Also, Saitama is sometimes more interested in bargain sales than in fights. But many laugh that such training would not guarantee even 1% of his power.

Saitama's abilities are the classic of any superhero: infinite strength, inhuman jumps, unparalleled reflexes and speed, and remarkable stamina (in fact, we never see him tired). Essentially this character is unbeatable, as far as we have seen so far. Such abilities, however, are matched by amusing stupidity in more intellectual matters, such as thinking. Saitama could probably improve in this as well, even if he always showed annoyance with Genos' explanations.

The fandom loves very much Saitama, as he represents their fans in many aspects. Saitama likes playing video games, reading manga, and all these mundane actions. The fun fact, however, is that at the same time Saitama is stronger than an s-class hero.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Saitama Beat Superman?

Until now, we don't know and can't know, but maybe if Saitama started doing squats, he would also beat him.

Did Saitama Beat God?

In the animated series, he doesn't beat him but doesn't clash with him. However, God gives powers to Garo, and with his new immense strength, he fights Saitama, losing.

Can Saitama Beat Naruto?

The two fighters are very strong, but we cannot know a winner. Saitama, however, does everything with little to no effort, while Naruto puts his all into even the little things, such as eating ramen.

Has Saitama Ever Used 2 Punches?

No, never. There were times in the series, however, when he threw a serious punch.

Saitama Quotes

Here are some of Saitama's most famous quotes.

• I told you, I’m busy. So anyone who gets in my way gets punched.
• I'll leave tomorrow's problems to tomorrow's me.
• OK.

To see more Saitama quotes, we recommend visiting the Saitama Quote section in Quotes Analysis.

We hope we have been helpful to you in this "Who is Saitama" article, and we hope you have a better understanding of who this amazing character of the anime world is!