Saitana Hero's Journey
100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, 10km run, and never using the air conditioner. Apparently these are all the requirements it takes to become one of the strongest heroes on earth. This is the workout of the most powerful hero alive Saitama aka the Caped Baldy. A hero and the main protagonist of the television series One Punch Man. Saitama is not the hero you usually think of. He lives in a small apartment and goes to the supermarket with his suit on. He also uses coupons. Even though he’s not your run of the mill hero he may be the “Strongest being in the Universe” according too many villains including a Lord Boros (“The Strongest Hero”). However, He claims he is, “just an average guy who serves as an average hero”. He appears bleakly average when compared to all the chiseled and flashy heroes that are his partners in the Heroes Association. Characters that shoot lasers, have telekinetic powers, or superhuman powers. The hero Saitama follows the monomyth laid out by Joseph Campbell as the Hero’s Journey. The hero’s journey being a series of stages almost all heroes follow. The powerless yet overpowered Saitama, in One Punch Man, goes on his own hero journey in an unusual method.
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Saitama again is just a regular guy.
No special powers or technological adaptations. Just a really strong guy who has the hobby of being a hero. Curiously strong and seemingly unintimidating Saitama vanquishes all his foes with one punch, hence the series title One Punch Man. However, he struggles with this self-imposed existential crisis. Being a hero is boring when no one puts up a fight. To add to that he never receives any recognition for his world saving accomplishments and is still living in a small rundown apartment. How can being so strong actually end up being uneventful? The search for his equal counterpart is where his hero journey
begins.
The series begins three years before the beginning on the Caped Baldy. In the past Saitama was just an unemployed man failing in life. This is his ordinary world, uneventful and boring. In episode one Saitama is lifelessly walking home one day after another terrible interview, Saitama meets Crablante. Crablante is a half man and half crab person going on a rampage through City Z. Crablante spares Saitama’s life after seeing the lifeless and depressed look on his face. He says he has bigger fish to fry particularly a big chinned boy. Saitama later finds this boy playing at the park with Crablante in tow. In the Hero’s Journey for a hero to begin his journey, “…they must be called away from the ordinary world” otherwise known as the ‘call to adventure’ (The Hero Journey).Crablante’s attack is Saitama’s ‘call to adventure’. It was the event that pulled him out of his ordinary world into one where he would become extraordinary. Everything in his body is telling him to run but he cannot. As Linda Seger says about most heroes in times of need, “He or she is a reluctant hero, afraid of the unknown, uncertain, perhaps, if he or she is up to the challenge” (Creating the Myth). After the same reluctance he realizes that he wants to act. He wants to be the hero. A hero that he only dreamed about when he was a kid. He’s weak and powerless but stands up to Crablante and after almost dying, he successfully defeats the crab man and saves the big chinned boy. Since then he trained to be a great hero. He did 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, 10km run, and never used the air conditioner even during the summer. He even trained so hard his hair fell off.
Ever since he finished his training Saitama is most likely the strongest man on earth unknown to himself. But ever since he had finished his training he had become too strong. Every foe he face was destroyed with one punch. He again finds himself in an ordinary world, where what he does is common. Most heroes often find themselves struggling to overcome many obstacles but not Saitama. In the second episode Saitama meets Genos. A mysterious cloud of mosquitos is going around sucking all creatures dry of blood. A cyborg named Genos tracks the leader of the mosquitos to City Z, Saitama’s home. Genos is nearly defeated by the Mosquito Queen until Saitama comes along and saves him unknowingly. In one fell slap he completely obliterates the Mosquito Queen that many other heroes including Genos failed to touch. Genos mesmerized by his strength then begs to become his apprentice which Saitama jokingly agrees to not understanding the situation. The hero often is faced with choices that makes them feel reluctant. They remain hesitant to change their paths and experience adversity. He turns down Genos multiple times. This is his ‘refusal of the quest’ as Joseph Campbell describes this certain stage in the hero’s journey.
From there as an apprentice, Genos leads Saitama into the world of the Heroes Association. He in an inversed role actually acts Saitama’s mentor or herald, “The one who brings the Call to Adventure” (The Hero Journey). Even though Saitama had saved the world a few times over already he hadn’t received any recognition. His small apartment and low funds were the indicators of that. Genos teaches Saitama of the Hero Registry. The Hero Registry states that “If you score better than the cut-off you will be registered as a hero. You are from then on deemed a pro and get paid by donations collected from the Association” (“The Ultimate Master”). Genos acts as another catalyst for the progression of Saitama’s hero journey. He like a mentor or guide, “Helps the hero understand the life situation” (The Monomyth Chart).
To accomplish his goals as a hero Saitama must enter the Heroes Association. Joseph Campbell would describe this part of Saitama’s journey as “Entering the unknown” (The Hero Journey). The world of the Heroes Association provides Saitama with a constant stream of villains and foes to test his strength. Here he has a hope of finding a foe of equivalent stature and paying rent at the same time. Saitama and Genos apply and both of them ace the physical tests. Saitama even setting new records in every category. However he was fairly unprepared for the written tests. Accordingly Genos was given the rating as an S-Class hero while Saitama was only given a C-class rating. C-class is a very disappointing rating for the strongest man. But this is just another trial for him to overcome. At the same time it adds to the underestimation that most associate with Saitama. Here he is also given the very unheroic name The Caped Baldy.
As a C-class hero Saitama is only asked to take up common evil occurrences such as purse snatchers and the like. Genos sees this as a misuse of his powers and always asks Saitama for advice with his S-class missions. Saitama usually ends up solving the missions in Geno’s stead. These missions act as threshold guardians or, “the forces that stand in the way at important turning points” (The Hero Journey). These guardians are all dragon to god threat levels. In the world of Saitama these are equivalent to dangers that can destroy a nation or one that can destroy the world. “Heroes use these threat levels to determine if they should respond or not” said Genos but Saitama’s response to that was, “If the heroes run away, who’s left to help?” Two of the dragon type level threats that Saitama encountered were the giant meteor and also the Sea Folk King. In the giant meteor arc the world was facing its doom against a giant meteor. Only two S-Class heroes arrived to face it the Silver Fang and Genos. Both of them failed at attempting to destroy the meteor. With Genos completely exhausted all seemed lost until Saitama arrives. With one jump and a simple punch he destroys the meteor. Which then shatters and rains down over City Z still causing some damage. For this he receives much criticism and is even called a fake. He also doesn’t receive the credit for destroying the meteor and he is only awarded a small ranking promotion. Rather Genos on the other hand is given the credit. Saitama was unaffected by this and even pointed out that the least amount of damage occurred and no one died. He is very humble like a hero should be. When overlooking the destruction of the city other C-class heroes form a mob from the affected citizens blaming him for the destruction. They also chanted for him to quit. He responded to them by telling them to shut up and saying, “I don’t do this hero thing for admiration, I do it because I want to. So if you want to blame me, blame me” (“The Ultimate Disciple”). Again this shows his humbleness and willingness to be a source of hate. He does this to calm the citizens and give them reason. In the same fashion, during the middle of the season, he defeats another threshold guardian, the Seafolk King. The Seafolk King was another dragon level threat. He had annihilated many A-class heroes and even some S-class heroes. In the few moments that Saitama had been on the scene, after laughing in Saitama’s face, the Seafolk King was completely destroyed. Again, Saitama’s accomplishment was seen as a fluke and he is deemed a fraud. In both situations he takes the criticism in full force and even encourages slander. He jokes that he was only able to defeat him because the others weakened him. He does this to not downplay the actions of the heroes that had fallen to the Seafolk King. He wants to respect their actions even at the expense of his own face value.
In the season’s finale. The world is threatened by an alien invasion and the evil Lord Boros. The invasion begins with the S-Class heroes gathered for a meeting at Heroes Headquarters. Outside City A completely destroyed by a bombardment from a giant alien warship. The heroes are attacked by a single combatant alien, Melzalgald. While Melzalgald keeps mostly all the heroes preoccupied Saitama sneakily boards the warship. Tearing apart the decks like they’re paper while aliens scream out, “what kind of creature is he?”(“The Dominator of the Universe”). He wrecks his way through the entire ships in hope of meeting someone strong enough to challenge him. Here Saitama searches for his Supreme ordeal which James Campbell describes as the obstacle he had journeyed so far to overcome (The Hero Journey). He has searched amongst the strongest villains and darkest evils to find someone as strong as him. Someone that would make him feel again. Lord Boros had been looking for the same thing. He traveled the galaxies to find someone on which he can release his full powers on. Like Saitama he was looking for someone to “give stimulation to [his] existence” (“The Dominator of the Universe”). Saitama hates speeches and in the middle of Lord Boros’ explanation he attacks. As a surprise to both of them Lord Boros survives a punch from Saitama. As they exchange blows they praise each other’s strength. They are both starting to feel the “thrill” of the fight again. This is it the foe that the Caped Baldy has been searching foe. A foe with the capability to entertain him. Saitama’s strength even forces Lord Boros to pull out all his trump cards. One being his Meteoric Burst mode. A moment in which he releases all of his energy to destroy Saitama and a card that should “only be used to settle fights quickly”. This shows that he qualifies Saitama as a threat and someone he is afraid of. This move is so strong it sends Saitama to the moon with a bang. Unharmed and unfazed he jumps down and lands on the warship actually surprised that he had hit the mark. Shocked at his return Lord Boros acknowledges him as the man that makes him want to go all out (“The Strongest Hero”).
The battle progresses on to a moment in which Lord Boros uses his final move and Saitama again remains unfazed after taking the entirety of it. He then uses his own final move from his “serious series” the killer move “Serious Punch”. For him to use such a move Lord Boros had been the one. The foe that made Saitama serious enough to go all out. That’s what you would believe but he wasn’t it. After admitting defeat and laying powerless on the ground Boros laughs at Saitama for not going all out and having more energy in reserves. Saitama is just that strong no one can face him. In the end after overcoming his “Supreme Ordeal”, Saitama remains unchallenged. However, after facing such a foe he has justified his existence as a hero. Without him the world would have been destroyed for sure and this he knows to be true.
Saitama embarked on a hero’s journey to find an enemy of equal strength. He did so in his own unorthodox fashion. One that most heroes would not have followed. He was slandered and called a fluke but he remained humble and ignored all the incoming flak. Unlike most heroes who struggle to transform and overcome obstacles Saitama was the opposite. He was too strong and couldn’t find the thrill in being a hero anymore. Still he trekked the same Hero’s Journey describe by Joseph Campbell that almost all tales of the heroic legends follow. In the end even though he still remains unchallenged, he is satisfied with what he does and his search for power amongst evil.
Saitama again is just a regular guy.
No special powers or technological adaptations. Just a really strong guy who has the hobby of being a hero. Curiously strong and seemingly unintimidating Saitama vanquishes all his foes with one punch, hence the series title One Punch Man. However, he struggles with this self-imposed existential crisis. Being a hero is boring when no one puts up a fight. To add to that he never receives any recognition for his world saving accomplishments and is still living in a small rundown apartment. How can being so strong actually end up being uneventful? The search for his equal counterpart is where his hero journey
begins.
The series begins three years before the beginning on the Caped Baldy. In the past Saitama was just an unemployed man failing in life. This is his ordinary world, uneventful and boring. In episode one Saitama is lifelessly walking home one day after another terrible interview, Saitama meets Crablante. Crablante is a half man and half crab person going on a rampage through City Z. Crablante spares Saitama’s life after seeing the lifeless and depressed look on his face. He says he has bigger fish to fry particularly a big chinned boy. Saitama later finds this boy playing at the park with Crablante in tow. In the Hero’s Journey for a hero to begin his journey, “…they must be called away from the ordinary world” otherwise known as the ‘call to adventure’ (The Hero Journey).Crablante’s attack is Saitama’s ‘call to adventure’. It was the event that pulled him out of his ordinary world into one where he would become extraordinary. Everything in his body is telling him to run but he cannot. As Linda Seger says about most heroes in times of need, “He or she is a reluctant hero, afraid of the unknown, uncertain, perhaps, if he or she is up to the challenge” (Creating the Myth). After the same reluctance he realizes that he wants to act. He wants to be the hero. A hero that he only dreamed about when he was a kid. He’s weak and powerless but stands up to Crablante and after almost dying, he successfully defeats the crab man and saves the big chinned boy. Since then he trained to be a great hero. He did 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, 10km run, and never used the air conditioner even during the summer. He even trained so hard his hair fell off.
Ever since he finished his training Saitama is most likely the strongest man on earth unknown to himself. But ever since he had finished his training he had become too strong. Every foe he face was destroyed with one punch. He again finds himself in an ordinary world, where what he does is common. Most heroes often find themselves struggling to overcome many obstacles but not Saitama. In the second episode Saitama meets Genos. A mysterious cloud of mosquitos is going around sucking all creatures dry of blood. A cyborg named Genos tracks the leader of the mosquitos to City Z, Saitama’s home. Genos is nearly defeated by the Mosquito Queen until Saitama comes along and saves him unknowingly. In one fell slap he completely obliterates the Mosquito Queen that many other heroes including Genos failed to touch. Genos mesmerized by his strength then begs to become his apprentice which Saitama jokingly agrees to not understanding the situation. The hero often is faced with choices that makes them feel reluctant. They remain hesitant to change their paths and experience adversity. He turns down Genos multiple times. This is his ‘refusal of the quest’ as Joseph Campbell describes this certain stage in the hero’s journey.
From there as an apprentice, Genos leads Saitama into the world of the Heroes Association. He in an inversed role actually acts Saitama’s mentor or herald, “The one who brings the Call to Adventure” (The Hero Journey). Even though Saitama had saved the world a few times over already he hadn’t received any recognition. His small apartment and low funds were the indicators of that. Genos teaches Saitama of the Hero Registry. The Hero Registry states that “If you score better than the cut-off you will be registered as a hero. You are from then on deemed a pro and get paid by donations collected from the Association” (“The Ultimate Master”). Genos acts as another catalyst for the progression of Saitama’s hero journey. He like a mentor or guide, “Helps the hero understand the life situation” (The Monomyth Chart).
To accomplish his goals as a hero Saitama must enter the Heroes Association. Joseph Campbell would describe this part of Saitama’s journey as “Entering the unknown” (The Hero Journey). The world of the Heroes Association provides Saitama with a constant stream of villains and foes to test his strength. Here he has a hope of finding a foe of equivalent stature and paying rent at the same time. Saitama and Genos apply and both of them ace the physical tests. Saitama even setting new records in every category. However he was fairly unprepared for the written tests. Accordingly Genos was given the rating as an S-Class hero while Saitama was only given a C-class rating. C-class is a very disappointing rating for the strongest man. But this is just another trial for him to overcome. At the same time it adds to the underestimation that most associate with Saitama. Here he is also given the very unheroic name The Caped Baldy.
As a C-class hero Saitama is only asked to take up common evil occurrences such as purse snatchers and the like. Genos sees this as a misuse of his powers and always asks Saitama for advice with his S-class missions. Saitama usually ends up solving the missions in Geno’s stead. These missions act as threshold guardians or, “the forces that stand in the way at important turning points” (The Hero Journey). These guardians are all dragon to god threat levels. In the world of Saitama these are equivalent to dangers that can destroy a nation or one that can destroy the world. “Heroes use these threat levels to determine if they should respond or not” said Genos but Saitama’s response to that was, “If the heroes run away, who’s left to help?” Two of the dragon type level threats that Saitama encountered were the giant meteor and also the Sea Folk King. In the giant meteor arc the world was facing its doom against a giant meteor. Only two S-Class heroes arrived to face it the Silver Fang and Genos. Both of them failed at attempting to destroy the meteor. With Genos completely exhausted all seemed lost until Saitama arrives. With one jump and a simple punch he destroys the meteor. Which then shatters and rains down over City Z still causing some damage. For this he receives much criticism and is even called a fake. He also doesn’t receive the credit for destroying the meteor and he is only awarded a small ranking promotion. Rather Genos on the other hand is given the credit. Saitama was unaffected by this and even pointed out that the least amount of damage occurred and no one died. He is very humble like a hero should be. When overlooking the destruction of the city other C-class heroes form a mob from the affected citizens blaming him for the destruction. They also chanted for him to quit. He responded to them by telling them to shut up and saying, “I don’t do this hero thing for admiration, I do it because I want to. So if you want to blame me, blame me” (“The Ultimate Disciple”). Again this shows his humbleness and willingness to be a source of hate. He does this to calm the citizens and give them reason. In the same fashion, during the middle of the season, he defeats another threshold guardian, the Seafolk King. The Seafolk King was another dragon level threat. He had annihilated many A-class heroes and even some S-class heroes. In the few moments that Saitama had been on the scene, after laughing in Saitama’s face, the Seafolk King was completely destroyed. Again, Saitama’s accomplishment was seen as a fluke and he is deemed a fraud. In both situations he takes the criticism in full force and even encourages slander. He jokes that he was only able to defeat him because the others weakened him. He does this to not downplay the actions of the heroes that had fallen to the Seafolk King. He wants to respect their actions even at the expense of his own face value.
In the season’s finale. The world is threatened by an alien invasion and the evil Lord Boros. The invasion begins with the S-Class heroes gathered for a meeting at Heroes Headquarters. Outside City A completely destroyed by a bombardment from a giant alien warship. The heroes are attacked by a single combatant alien, Melzalgald. While Melzalgald keeps mostly all the heroes preoccupied Saitama sneakily boards the warship. Tearing apart the decks like they’re paper while aliens scream out, “what kind of creature is he?”(“The Dominator of the Universe”). He wrecks his way through the entire ships in hope of meeting someone strong enough to challenge him. Here Saitama searches for his Supreme ordeal which James Campbell describes as the obstacle he had journeyed so far to overcome (The Hero Journey). He has searched amongst the strongest villains and darkest evils to find someone as strong as him. Someone that would make him feel again. Lord Boros had been looking for the same thing. He traveled the galaxies to find someone on which he can release his full powers on. Like Saitama he was looking for someone to “give stimulation to [his] existence” (“The Dominator of the Universe”). Saitama hates speeches and in the middle of Lord Boros’ explanation he attacks. As a surprise to both of them Lord Boros survives a punch from Saitama. As they exchange blows they praise each other’s strength. They are both starting to feel the “thrill” of the fight again. This is it the foe that the Caped Baldy has been searching foe. A foe with the capability to entertain him. Saitama’s strength even forces Lord Boros to pull out all his trump cards. One being his Meteoric Burst mode. A moment in which he releases all of his energy to destroy Saitama and a card that should “only be used to settle fights quickly”. This shows that he qualifies Saitama as a threat and someone he is afraid of. This move is so strong it sends Saitama to the moon with a bang. Unharmed and unfazed he jumps down and lands on the warship actually surprised that he had hit the mark. Shocked at his return Lord Boros acknowledges him as the man that makes him want to go all out (“The Strongest Hero”).
The battle progresses on to a moment in which Lord Boros uses his final move and Saitama again remains unfazed after taking the entirety of it. He then uses his own final move from his “serious series” the killer move “Serious Punch”. For him to use such a move Lord Boros had been the one. The foe that made Saitama serious enough to go all out. That’s what you would believe but he wasn’t it. After admitting defeat and laying powerless on the ground Boros laughs at Saitama for not going all out and having more energy in reserves. Saitama is just that strong no one can face him. In the end after overcoming his “Supreme Ordeal”, Saitama remains unchallenged. However, after facing such a foe he has justified his existence as a hero. Without him the world would have been destroyed for sure and this he knows to be true.
Saitama embarked on a hero’s journey to find an enemy of equal strength. He did so in his own unorthodox fashion. One that most heroes would not have followed. He was slandered and called a fluke but he remained humble and ignored all the incoming flak. Unlike most heroes who struggle to transform and overcome obstacles Saitama was the opposite. He was too strong and couldn’t find the thrill in being a hero anymore. Still he trekked the same Hero’s Journey describe by Joseph Campbell that almost all tales of the heroic legends follow. In the end even though he still remains unchallenged, he is satisfied with what he does and his search for power amongst evil.