One-Punch Man (manga)

For a chapter list by sagas and arcs, see Story Arcs. For a chapter list by volumes, see Chapters.

One-Punch Man (ワンパンマン, Wanpanman) is the manga adaptation of a webcomic by the same name. It is illustrated by Yusuke Murata and follows the adventures of Saitama. While being almost exactly the same series in terms of content there are slight variations and the artwork is of much more professional caliber. The manga is published by Shueisha's Young Jump Next and has several volumes to its name.

History
A stylized digital manga remake of One-Punch Man illustrated by Yūsuke Murata began publication on Shueisha's Young Jump Web Comics website on June 14, 2012. The idea for the remake began when Murata approached ONE on Twitter to discuss a possible collaboration. Viz Media has licensed the remake for English serialization in its Weekly Shonen Jump digital magazine. In March 2015, it is announced that an anime adaptation has been green-lit and aired on October 2015.

Plot
Nothing about Saitama passes the eyeball test when it comes to superheroes, from his lifeless expression to his bald head to his unimpressive physique. However, this average-looking guy has a not-so-average problem—he just can’t seem to find an opponent strong enough to take on!

Style
The original manga is drawn in ONE's now trademark scribbly, knowingly crude style, both poking fun at and drawing inspiration from traditional and contemporary Shonen manga visual conventions.

While Murata's version features highly detailed artwork created to professional mainstream manga standards by himself and his team of assistants, a simplified style reminiscent of ONE's is often used to portray Saitama and contrast his unconventional disposition with other characters' more serious and melodramatic characterization.

Murata and his team have undertaken animation training, and often execute action sequences in the manga as elaborate successions of double splash pages forming short flipbooks. These sequences are usually shortened and reworked as conventional pages or panels for the collected Tankōbon releases of the manga.

Reception
One-Punch Man had 2.2 million copies in print in November 2013, 3.2 million copies in April 2014, and 4.5 million copies in November 2014. By November 2016, this number had grown to 11.1 million copies in print. The series was one of ten nominated for the seventh annual Manga Taishō Awards in 2014. As of July 2017, the manga had 13 million copies in print. As of April 3rd 2018, the manga had exceeded 15 million copies in print.

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 a fourth week. The series was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2015.