One-Punch Man

One-Punch Man (ワンパンマン Wanpanman) is a franchise created by ONE. The webcomic started in July 2009, with more than 10 million views and 20,000 hits per day. Shueisha's Young Jump Next picked up the series after Yusuke Murata contacted ONE and proposed to redraw the comic for digital publication.

The first chapter of the manga was published on June 14, 2012. The manga series began publication in Viz Media's Weekly Shonen Jump (Shonen Jump Alpha at the time) in North America on January 21, 2013. The first digital volume was released in February 2014. The manga was released for print in the United States on September 1st, 2015.

Plot Summary
The story follows the life of an average hero named Saitama who manages to win all of his fights with just one punch. This ends up being the cause of a lot of frustration as he no longer feels the thrill and adrenaline he once felt in battle. After all, what's so good about having overwhelming power?

Characters

 * Main article: Characters

Webcomic

 * Main article: One-Punch Man (webcomic)

The webcomic is the original publication illustrated and written by the author ONE. It is also the direct source which Murata's own redraw of One-Punch Man faithfully follows.

Manga

 * Main article: One-Punch Man (manga)

The manga adaptation of One-Punch Man is illustrated by Yusuke Murata and written by ONE. While generally following the plot points established in the original webcomic, the manga contains artwork of higher quality, new arcs, redrawn scenarios and bonus content added by ONE's choice. The manga is published by Shueisha's Young Jump Next and has several volumes to its name.

Anime

 * Main article: One-Punch Man (anime)

The first season of the anime adaption of the manga starring Makoto Furukawa as Saitama is animated by the Japanese studio Madhouse and directed by Shingo Natsume (Space Dandy, Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos) and features character designs by Chikashi Kubota. VIZ Media manages the master license for distributing One-Punch Man in North America, Latin America, and Oceania, as well as streaming of the series in the U.S.

Later in the year the second season of One-Punch Man was announced. In September of 2017, it was announced that J.C. Staff would take on the production of the second season. Viz Media secured the rights for the second season. It aired between April and July of 2019.

Sales
In November 2013, it was announced that the manga adaptation of One-Punch Man has over 2.2 million copies in print. By May 2014, 3.4 million copies were in print. In November 2014, the manga had 4.5 million copies in circulation. In a publication of the August sale in 2015, One-Punch Man surpassed 5.8 million copies. By July 2017, there were 13 million copies in print. As of April 4, 2018, the manga had 15 million copies in print. . In July 2019, Yusuke Murata tweeted that One Punch Man has surpassed over 20 million total copies sold.

Once released in the United States, both the first and second volumes debuted on the New York Times Manga Best Sellers list, at first and second place, respectively, and stayed there for two weeks. Volume one dropped to second place for the third week, while volume two fell off the list altogether. Volume one was still on the list for the fourth week. The series was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2015.

Trivia

 * The title of the series is based on Anpanman, a popular children's superhero in Japan.
 * One-Punch Man is a parody of Western superhero comics and shonen manga.
 * The manga was nominated for Manga Taishō in 2014.
 * The super-continent of the One-Punch Man world is the same shape as Japan's Saitama Prefecture.
 * One-Punch man was originally written as a hobby to test a new manga software by ONE. Due to its surprising popularity, ONE carried on publishing new chapters.

References to ONE's other works

 * There have been multiple Taiyo Man references in One-Punch Man:
 * Saitama is seen reading the "Taiyo Man" manga in Chapters 23 and 44.
 * There have been many Mob Psycho 100 references in One-Punch Man (and vice versa).
 * Saitama is seen reading Tennis Player Ryu in Chapter 52 while waiting in the Super Fight waiting room.