One Punch Man: What would happen if Saitama punched himself?

Given the very nature of One Punch Man, one can come across plenty of hilarious discussions that go on at forums such as Reddit and Quora. Saitama, the protagonist of the series, is one of those characters who is so overpowered that no villain has managed to pique his interest so far.

His strength in One Punch Man is unmatched, and as the name suggests, he is capable of taking anyone out with a single punch. As such, it is hardly surprising that fans have often wondered what would happen were Saitama to ever punch himself.

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One Punch Man: Can the Caped Baldy survive his own punch in the series?

The community has some interesting takes on this topic, all of them substantiated with sound reasoning as well. While some have attempted to explain how the scenario would play out based on the events that have already taken place in One Punch Man, others have taken a more rational and scientific route in their explanations.

One fan brought up the instance where Saitama was struggling against one of his toughest opponents in the series so far - a mosquito. Despite Saitama’s many impressive feats, the Caped Baldy was eventually humbled by the bug.

Given how frustrated he was, it is safe to say that he was quite serious about killing the mosquito. At one point, the protagonist of One Punch Man even slapped himself. While he gave himself a huge red mark, he seemed mostly unaffected by it, which suggests that he could likely withstand his own punch as well.

Fan's explanation for Saitama being able to withstand his punch (image via Quora/ Abhimanyu Susobhanan)

Then there was a more scientific take: Given our anatomy, our arms are capable of producing more force when they punch someone in front of us. If we move our arms inwards in an attempt to punch ourselves, it produces less force. Also, our brains would reactively reduce the force if it realizes that we’re punching ourselves - which means that Saitama can likely never punch himself with his full power, and thus be able to survive his own punch.

However, one must take all of this with a grain of salt since the article was merely exploring some of the theories put forth by fans of One Punch Man.