One Punch Man Chapter 171 introduces a person of color against Evil Natural Water

The latest chapter of One Punch Man is an important one as it marks the beginning of a new saga and story arc. With this, we have finally entered the Neo Heroes saga, and this chapter marks the beginning of the Psychic Sisters arc. This chapter didn’t pack much action, but the occurrence of a few interesting things seemed to please fans.

The main focus of this chapter was the survivors from the Monsters Association - Overgrown Rover and Black Sperm. However, another interesting part of the chapter was the introduction of a new A-class hero. Let’s take a look at who this new character is and what he did in chapter 171 of One Punch Man.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers from the manga and could contain spoilers from the webcomic as well.

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Air: One Punch Man’s newest person of color character

It isn’t uncommon to see anime introduce characters from various ethnicities, but One Punch Man introduced a new character who happens to be a person of color. This character is called Air and happens to be an A-class hero, ranked 35th in the A category of heroes in the organization. Air, along with another staff member from the Heroes Association, were dispatched to find Pig God, an S-class hero.

Introduction of Air to the series (Image via Yusuke Murata/Shueisha)

One of the issues that the One Punch Man readers had was that Air barely had any interaction with other characters. He attempted to provoke the S-class hero, Pig God, into a physical fight since he was refusing to head back to the Heroes Association HQ with them.

However, just as things were starting to get out of control, Air could sense a monster near him. He attempted to neutralize the threat, but Evil Natural Water managed to injure Air quite severely. Thankfully, Pig God intervened at the right time and consumed Evil Natural Water and digested it.

Air attempts to provoke Pig God (Image via Yusuke Murata/Shueisha)

As seen in the manga, Air was in a terrible state, and the readers were worried that Evil Natural Water’s attack might have killed him. However, he managed to survive, and Pig God instructed the other staff member to rush Air to the hospital as soon as possible.

This was the only interaction that the new A-class character of One Punch Man had in chapter 171, which is why fans are now excited to know more about his abilities.

Air attempts to kill Evil Natural Water (Image via Yusuke Murata/Shueisha)

That being said, we were given a glimpse of his abilities, and it seems like Air uses a boomerang to fight against his opponents. Despite his failed attempt to utilize his weapon against Evil Natural Water, this hero looks quite agile and strong from his appearance. He is an A-class hero at the end of the day, which means that Air is quite capable on the battlefield.

Evil Natural Water injures Air (Image via Yusuke Murata/Shueisha)

According to the One Punch Man fandom, which also accounts for the webcomic content, Air is capable of defeating any Tiger threat-level monsters using his boomerang in just one hit.

Another interesting thing about this character is that he could be based on the indigenous people of Australia. His name, Air, sounds similar to the popular sandstone formation in Australia known as Ayers Rock (Uluru.) His name is spelled as エアーin Japanese and the Ayers Rock is spelled as エアーズロッ. No wonder fans are excited to see this character in action in the upcoming chapters of One Punch Man.

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