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One Punch Manis a comedy series where Saitama, the main character, has the ability to defeat any foe with a single punch (hence the name of the show). The jokes mostly revolve around the shock of everyone when Saitama defeats his enemies, and the boredom this generates for him, since he never faces any challenges.
But with a series running for so long, the question remains as to how Saitama has gotten so strong. He not only defeats enemies with one punch, he’s also seemingly invulnerable, so what made Saitama such an overwhelming force?
Beware of spoilers from the series below!
Understanding The World Of One Punch Man
Eachfictional setting has its own rules, and in One Punch Man,emotions can alter peopleto a great extent. While there are characters with mechanical and biological enhancements,the most powerful people in One Punch Man get their powers from their will alone.
When influenced by negative emotions, people can end up transforming into monstersthat are related to how they feel. Crablante, Saitama’s first opponent, became a monster after eating too many crabs, becoming a monster resembling one.
Positive emotions can give someone powers too, as is the case of Metal Bat.This S-Class Hero gets stronger the angrier he gets, and there isn’t a reasonable explanation for this;he simply refuses to give up, ignoring most damage he’s taken during the fight.
The Limiter
Every living being in One Punch Man has a limiterthat designates how strong they can ever get.This limiter is composed of their own biology, their force of will, and the laws of physics, affecting each creature differently.
The idea of a limiter was first coined by Dr. Genus, but since it is later used by the narrator, we can consider the concept to be accurate.
There are ways to surpass certain aspects of the limiterwith biological or mechanical enhancements, but that would only set the limiter slightly higher, not remove it. A monsterized human is often stronger than it could ever be, but that monster form has a limit to how much it can grow.
Why Is Saitama So Strong?
Before Saitama became the Caped Baldy,he was your average salary manwith a mostly uneventful life.He stood up against a monster(the previously mentioned Crablante), and with some clever thinking,managed to defeat the creatureeven though he was severely outmatched.
That event made him want to become a hero, sohe trained for three years, doing 100 repetitions of sit-ups, pushups, and squats, followed by a 10k run every day.From Saitama’s perspective, this is all it tookfor him to become a one-punching machine, a process that also had him lose all his hair.
Clearly,that alone wouldn’t turn anyone into a superhero, but the important part is that Saitama had the will to change. It is theorized by Dr. Genus that, during his training,Saitama broke his limiter, meaning that he is no longer affected by biological limitations or the laws of physics.
The manga is yet to give a definitive answer as to how Saitama broke his limiter.
Since Saitama is no longer bound by any rules,he can simply end the life of anything he touches. His strengthisn’t something you can measure, he is simplystronger than anything that is currently standing in front of him.
During his fight against Cosmic Garou (currentlyonly shown in the manga), Saitama finally met his match, unable to defeat this foe with a single punch. Yet, without a limiter,Saitama continues to grow to unreachable heights, eventually trivializing the fight and nearly winning with only a sneeze.
Garou And The Limiter
The only other character we know of that came close tobreaking their limiter is Garou. The Hero Hunter was already going through the process of monsterization when,as stated by the narrator, he begins to break his limiter.
Turning into a monster is not a requirement to break the limiter, although both processes seem to rely heavily on the emotions of the individual.
This allows Garou to come back stronger each time he is defeated,ignoring fatal damage and transforming into a larger creaturewith each passing moment. It is likely that he never truly broke the limiter, sinceGarou never achieved the strength of Saitamaduring that time.
God gave Garou access to its powers, letting the Hero Hunter copy the ability of Saitama, hence whyhe was able to stand toe to toeagainst the Caped Baldy. But even this ability had a limit, since it wasunable to keep up with Saitama’s limitless growth.
This led tothe greatest feats of strengthwe have ever seen from Saitama, a power so great that it had to be retconned with time travel. These feats includea sneeze that nearly destroys the planet Jupiter, anda fart that lets him travel through space.
The final move was something taught by Garou, a special technique that allows the userto manipulate atoms to travel through time.This allowed Saitamato punch backwards in time, defeating Garou before being assimilated by God, andwinning the fight in Zero Punches.
Saitama And God
The only character we know that has everdestroyed their limiter is Saitama, something that has put him in the crosshairs ofthe series’ main antagonist, God.WhileGod is an enigmatic figure that affects multiple dimensions, it is suggested during a conversation with Blast that God has recently beenmore and more interested in Earth(likely due to Saitama).
God seems to refer to Saitama as “the fist that has turned against god”when both Saitama and Garou are fighting. It is implied thatGod gave the cosmic powers to Garou to specifically kill Saitama, meaning that God, for some reason, wants Saitama dead.
This all likely ties back to the limiter, andthe act of defiance done by Saitama by breaking it.If the limiter wasput in place by God itself, Saitama’s mere existence could be felt as an insult to the creature, wanting to take any opportunity to rid itself of its only real threat.
