One Punch Man: ONE's take on Saitama puts the Cape Baldy vs. Goku comparisons to rest

While Dragon Ball's Son Goku is a household name for strong anime characters, one character who has rattled his place at the top for years is One Punch Man's Saitama. As any anime fan would know, Goku is a name everyone recognizes, given how strong and iconic the character is, however, all this changed when the One Punch Man series began.

Given Saitama's accomplishments, fans began power-scaling him with Son Goku, stating that the Caped Baldy was far stronger than the Saiyan. Despite that, several fans stayed adamant that Goku was more powerful than Saitama, no matter what feat the Caped Baldy was able to pull off.

Fortunately, those fans have finally been rewarded as One Punch Man's original creator, ONE, finally put the power-scaling comparisons to rest.

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ONE's label for One Punch Man's Saitama ends Caped Baldy vs. Son Goku comparisons

The author has stated that Saitama is a gag character. byu/HeadAtmosphere8288 inOnePunchMan

One Punch Man original webcomic creator ONE was recently part of an interview in which he labeled Saitama as a "gag" character.

As explained by ONE, One Punch Man is a unique series based on a serious world that observes what would happen to society if monsters attacked it and a character of gag-existence and strength, i.e., Saitama, were to be thrown into the same.

With his explanation for the series, One Punch Man creator ONE confirmed that both Saitama and his strength were of gag-existence.

Saitama as seen in the manga (Image via Shueisha)

A gag character generally has no personality and serves no purpose except for comic relief. In the animanga industry, such characters are often observed to bend the laws of physics to their will for the sake of a joke. Hence, it can be said that their overpowering strength existed to serve as comic relief.

As any animanga fan would agree, such characters cannot be included in power-scaling arguments, given their strength only exists to serve gag comedy. While other anime characters progress through serious plot points and training to attain their strength, gag characters are rarely shown training.

Saitama and Garou as seen in the manga (Image via Shueisha)

Even in Saitama's case, he attained his strength through very normal physical training, which was merely impossible for the strength he showcased in the series. These feats of strength included destroying parts of Jupiter with a sneeze, traveling at high speed due to a fart, and others.

This was a clear sign that Saitama was a gag character, and his strength shouldn't be compared with that of Son Goku and other Shonen protagonists.

Comment byu/HeadAtmosphere8288 from discussion inOnePunchMan

Surprisingly, the majority of One Punch Man fans loved that the series creator ONE finally put Saitama's power-scaling to the rest.

While the fans knew that the character was a gag for a long time, not all fans agreed with it and would try to power-scale him against other Shonen protagonists, especially Dragon Ball's Son Goku. With ONE's statement, fans wished that the power-scalers would finally calm down.

Some fans even stated that they loved Saitama as a gag character, as they wished for him not to change and provide more gag moments' in the series' foreseeable future.

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