The Subterranean People (地底人, Chitējin) are the self-proclaimed True People of the Earth (真の地球人, Shin no Chikyūjin). They are ruled by the Subterranean King and live under the earth's crust, but grew too numerous in numbers and planned to take over the surface. They were stopped and chased back into the ground by Saitama. Some time after that, they were driven to extinction.
Overview[]
The Subterranean People have a relatively humanoid appearance. They only have two toes on each foot, and three fingers on their hands. They wear golden or metallic ornaments, wristbands, round bead-dangling necklaces, and armor covering their right shoulder. They all wear different helmets like Jomon pottery, with only their round eyes showing. They can range greatly in size, from short, tubby little ones to towering, muscular giants.
Confident in their ability to claim the Earth, the Subterranean People initially displayed great ambition. However, after the defeat of the Subterranean King, they retreated in fear, exposing their cowardice. Despite this, they are skilled builders, having constructed the entire base that the Monster Association later occupied before their extermination.[2]
In Saitama's dream sequence, they appeared far larger and more formidable than they truly are, capable of challenging him with their sheer strength and overwhelming numbers. Their sizes ranged from twice that of an average human to skyscraper-like proportions. While this depiction was exaggerated by Saitama’s imagination, larger variants of the Subterranean People do exist, as evidenced when Phoenix Man resurrected several of their massive corpses during his battle with Child Emperor.
Plot[]
Introduction Saga[]
Saitama Introduction Arc[]
Saitama fights the Subterranean People in his dream.
Saitama wakes up in his apartment when a hand comes through his wall and grabs him, throwing him into the street. Saitama then meets the Subterranean People, who brutally attack him and challenge his strength. They claim that they've already killed many of the humans and proclaim ownership of the Earth. A massive fight ensues, with Saitama eventually being the victor. At that point, the Subterranean King shows up, but before anything could come out of that, Saitama wakes up, realizing that it was only a dream.
Shortly after Saitama wakes up, the real Subterranean King shows up, exciting Saitama. He rushes outside to fight, but the Subterranean King goes down after one kick. Subterranean People are revealed to be much smaller and much, much weaker than in Saitama's dream, and they quickly retreat back underground.[3]
Human Monster Saga[]
Monster Association Arc[]
The grave of the Subterranean People
During Child Emperor's fight with Phoenix Man, the two end up in a large pit full of corpses of the Subterranean People. Phoenix Man explains that they were not unified in their ideals, and ended up in-fighting and killing each other.
The corpses of the Subterranean People are reanimated by Phoenix Man to fight for him, but are eventually all defeated by Child Emperor and Saitama.
Known Subterranean People[]
Powers and Abilities[]
The zombies of the Subterranean People
In Saitama's dream, the Subterranean People were responsible for the greatest fight of his life, possessing the strength, endurance, and numbers to keep up with Saitama's own incredible power. However, in reality, they are not nearly this powerful. Despite this, they do still have disaster levels ranging from Tiger to Demon, showing that they truly can be quite dangerous. They are stronger than regular human beings, and their most dangerous body parts are their feet because they adapted to moving through the hostile conditions of the underground.[1]
Immense Strength and Durability: In Saitama's dream, they were strong enough to make Saitama bleed with a single punch. They were also so tough that Saitama required serious punches and kicks to damage them. They stated no human before Saitama could take one single punch from them and live. However, in the real world, they are neither as strong nor as big as they are in Saitama's dream. Instead, the majority of them are quite small, so much that they didn't even try to fight Saitama and quickly surrendered. Even then, a hoard of them were enough to restrain Brave Giant.
Immense Reflexes, Senses and Endurance: In Saitama's dream, each one of them was able to stand up to the Caped Baldy and keep a fight for a long time. Saitama had a hard time bringing down each one of them and almost died because of his injuries during the fight. They aren't nearly as capable in the real world.
Fighting Style[]
Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Each Subterranean in Saitama's dream is well versed in hand to hand combat. They are skilled enough to fight Saitama on equal terms and give him trouble, they are also incredibly coordinated and make use of their brute force to dominate Saitama on combat. It is not clear how skilled they are in reality.
- Subterranean Kick (地底蹴り, Chitei keri): A Subterranean kicks with great force. Sometimes multiple Subterraneans will kick together to combine the power of their kicks.[1]
- Cooperative Attack (連携攻撃, Renkei kōgeki): Multiple Subterraneans surround their target and attack at the same time.[1]
Swordsmanship: Some of the Subterranean People were equipped with swords, which could be seen all over their corpses in the graveyard.
Trivia[]
The Subterranean zombies in the original Chapter 103
- In the original version of Chapter 103, some of the Subterranean zombies were much larger in size and wielded gigantic blades against Brave Giant.
- The Subterranean People originally lived in what is now known as the Monster Association Headquarters under the Z-City Ghost Town. At some point, their unity became fragile and eventually broke, resulting in their extinction via civil war. Sometime after or during this event, the Monster Association took the lair for themselves.[4]
- It is likely that the Subterraneans were attacked and wiped out by the Monster Association before or during their infighting.
- The Subterranean People may have been influenced by the buried (subterranean) clay figurines of the Jōmon people, "the original inhabitants of the land."
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 One-Punch Man Encyclopedia; One-Punch Man: Hero Encyclopedia, page 112
- ↑ One-Punch Man Stream; 2/6/2018
- ↑ One-Punch Man Manga; Chapter 4, page 2-23
- ↑ One-Punch Man Manga; Chapter 103
- ↑ One-Punch Man Manga; Chapter 109 (Online), page 10
[]
| Forest Tribe | Forest King † |
|---|---|
| Seafolk | Deep Sea King † • Lord Great White † • Messenger of the Seafolk † • Urn Eel † |
| Shellfolk | |
| Skyfolk | Sky King † • Eagle † • Hawk † • Falcon † • Kite † |
| Subterranean People | Subterranean King † |
| Terror Lizard Clan | Ancient King † |
| Vampires | Vampire (Pureblood) † |



