Saitama's narrative is not an ''Endgame, not invincible, final chapter protagonist that is put into the beginning like Goku and other shonen characters' endgame narrative, but put into the beginning,'' as alleged by disinformation spreaders, Saitama is stated to be infinitely stronger than that.
Saitama is a gag character with gag strength, but People have taken many One-Punch Man interviews out of context, such as those two specific interviews mentioning ''Maximum Power level in the beginning of series'' on Saitama. Then People argue that Saitama's gag is not being invincible in his verse; he’s just a character in the final chapter of Shonen's story who gets put to the beginning. Thus, they prove that they took those interviews out of context due to the lack of effort by the Wiki Translators to include all information from the original source.
They got this interview.
From this book, which is a Canon Manga Guidebook approved by ONE and Murata.
They translated this part: (In blue marked)
But they leave out this part.
Specifically this part.
This is a disappointment because that part is actually an analogy of ONE statement that destroys their agenda, taking ONE ‘’final chapter and Peak Condition at the start’’ statement out of context to supposedly prove that Saitama’s narrative is similar to Goku, Naruto’s end-of-story narrative, but put into the beginning. This is not true, and half of this is the fault of the Wiki translators, for again, not including the complete info from the original source/the book.
Contextually, someone asked for accurate translations of the analogy, and two native Japanese people on Reddit, in the r/translate community, explained it.
This analogy summarizes:
Weak Protagonist: when Shonen’s protagonist is in a weak and fragile state.
Fight and Growth: When the Shonen Character fights and grows in power but is at mid-tier - high tier, he is not the strongest in his verse. Like DBS Goku even at DBS Current Manga, Naruto, Ichigo etc. They are at this level, growing in power but not the strongest.
Strongest Protagonist, Finally, the ‘’strongest protagonist in the verse’’ narrative here. This is like, for example, Featherine, Nigh Omnipotent Beings, Akuto Sai (correct me if I’m wrong), and basically any Shonen protagonist that already surpasses all characters and becomes the strongest, but… big but here…. they become the strongest because they surpassed the characters, not because they are made to surpass anyone and be completely invincible. For Example, Number 1000 is the strongest in the verse because it is much, much more significant compared to 19 and below. But the Number 1000 is not made to be this unbeatable, this Infinite Number. Hypothetically, Number 1000 has many weaknesses; if Number 1010 comes, Number 1000 will be dethroned. This is the context of the ‘’Strongest Protagonist’’ level of the analogy.
However, the Guidebook takes Saitama beyond that level; Saitama is beyond the 'Strongest' category explained in the previous section. Don’t be silly if you say that refers to the series because it states ‘’One Punch Man begins here’’ not ‘’Saitama''. Saitama is interchangeably referred to as One Punch Man. The previous explanations are about the characters' level, not the series level. Series can’t be weak; Series can’t fight and grow. Only Characters can do that. What ONE meant by ‘’Peak Condition’’ and ‘’Final Chapter’’ is that Saitama is the strongest and at maximum level without weakness, leaving no room for other characters to surpass because he is made unsurpassable narratively.
And ONE stated that in a later interview.
Now, before the existence of the analogy, people thought ‘’maximum power level’’ did not mean anything; it’s just proved that Saitama’s maximum power level in the final chapter is not invincible, not a maximum power that can never be surpassed by anything, just like they said:
‘’Goku at the end of the story can be called maximum, but transferred to the beginning of DB, and Goku's narrative would never be the strongest and always surpassable, but he’s at the end of the chapter now, transfer him back to the beginning, so this is Saitama’s narrative.’’
No! ONE meant it differently; ''the final chapter'' and ''maximum power level'' are not interchangeable; ‘’maximum power level’’ is described to make Saitama’s power narrative truly superlative and prove Saitama’s genuinely invincible. Not even exaggerating; ONE said it later in the same interview.
Saitama’s level is 9999. Level 9999 is not a literal number; it’s a symbolic number representing the highest level possible. People use level 9999 to describe the things they perceive as the best, highest, and anything positively "est, " which is attributed to an unsurpassable level, literally, not hyperbolically.
Why is the ONE context of ‘’level 9999′’ symbolically, not literally? Because he said Saitama’s level is Infinite afterward on the official website for One Punch Man. How can ‘’literal’’ level 9999 be infinite? ''Level 10000 is stronger....''. Well, my friend, as I explained, level 9999 is a symbolic number representing the highest of the highest in an infinitely unsurpassable context.
Official confirmation of ONE and Murata, Shueisha.
Conclusion: Webcomic Saitama and Manga Saitama are infinite, invincible gag characters, as said by the Author, not this downplaying ''endgame protagonist, similar to Endgame Goku, Superman, Naruto, etc, but put to the beginning'' allegation!
