One-Punch Man season 3 is Fall 2025’s most anticipated occasion, however maybe not for probably the most optimistic causes. With the unlucky precedent set by the inferior season 2 in comparison with Madhouse’s landmark season 1 run, it is exhausting to not see why followers could be fearful, particularly as among the most gorgeous manga moments are about to be tailored.
However One-Punch Man followers haven’t been impressed with the season 3 premiere, with an underwhelming 6.84 MyAnimeList score, not unsalvageable, however crucially a pointy decline from its huge heights. The rapid response, and maybe understandably so, is guilty the studio behind seasons 2 and three, J.C. Employees. Nevertheless, the true downside is extra advanced than studio troubles.
One-Punch Man’s Fall Is Not Merely J.C.Employees’s Fault
Trying again on One-Punch Man season 2, it is instantly obvious simply how disappointingly executed it was in comparison with season 1. Whereas the story remained compelling, and even arguably improved, its animation suffered, with poor CGI backgrounds in essential scenes, and hideous CGI integration equivalent to for Genos’ cyborg options.
Professionals within the area lament the distinction, however as said by acclaimed One Piece animator Vincent Chansard, blaming J.C.Employees’s selections equivalent to taking up the venture, is failing to see the forest for the bushes. J.C.Employees is an anime studio in an trade that is consistently overworked, and in attempting to outlive, they will chunk off greater than they will chew.
For One-Punch Man season 2, J.C.Employees collectively took on eight anime for that corresponding calendar yr, 2019, in comparison with season 3’s comparatively fewer 5 tasks in 2025. This doesn’t equate to higher time administration, nevertheless, with manufacturing initially confirmed in August 2022. The story is extra sophisticated, with manufacturing committees enjoying a component.
I feel lots of people blame J.C.Employees however I feel it’s kind of extra advanced. Generally it isn’t concerning the animation studio, generally it is concerning the manufacturing committees which can be on high of the whole lot and who select. J.C. Employees is only a studio that is attempting to outlive.
-Vincent Chansard on October 8, 2025 KOL: Requiem interview
Chansard provided his candid evaluation of One-Punch Man season 3, praising the primary season whereas giving a telling rendition of his disappointment in season 2 with out going into specifics. The ultimate hour of his interview with KOL: Requiem thus discourages dashing guilty when, in actuality, the Hero Affiliation Headquarters credited in season 3 is a minimum of partially guilty.
Manufacturing committees are successfully a coalition or voluntary partnership to determine elements like funding, scheduling, and basic decision-making. Because of this J.C.Employees is nearly not part of the foremost choices about One-Punch Man, with it as an alternative being determined by no matter the vast majority of its manufacturing committee determines.
Harassment of the Studio or Employees Is Not the Reply
Followers harassing artistic entities like anime studios is nothing new, and within the case of One-Punch Man, it is one thing they’re totally conversant in, together with a number of Change.org petitions to switch them with Madhouse. Understanding what is understood about manufacturing committees, petitioning for his or her removing when it was already not totally their choice is a specific gut-punch.
If I discuss something associated to One Punch Man, I’ll need to shut down my SNS… sorry. I’ll reply about different issues, although.
–Shinpei Nagai on X, October 17, 2025
Director Shinpei Nagai has even discouraged followers from asking him to debate One-Punch Man, with him probably having his account locked or shutting down his account ought to he interact. His place at this level is sympathetic, particularly because it was his aim to maximise manufacturing time on the anime. Sure by an NDA, he is unable to deal with fan considerations.
Chatting with Nagai or different members of the One-Punch Man staff is not going to doubtless yield outcomes. With precisely one new episode released as of October 12, there’s not even a lot to debate but. However that hasn’t stopped followers from fixating on different elements they deem to be problematic.
One-Punch Man Followers Are Fixating on Season 3 Director’s Earlier Work
As mentioned earlier than, Shinpei Nagai has had a footprint throughout a number of anime franchises. His work on JoJo’s Weird Journey, Psycho-Go, Meals Wars, Gangsta., and Dr. Stone are incessantly neglected these days due to his earlier work on a number of ecchi and hentai collection. Within the followers’ eyes, he’s now the “hentai director” employed to tackle One-Punch Man.
This has led to a fan appraisal of the collection which, whereas not essentially unhealthy, is undermining his dedication to the job at hand. The actual depictions of its feminine characters, particularly Mizuki, Do-S, Tatsumaki, and Fubuki, no matter how correct they’re to Yusuke Murata’s authentic work, are seen as “the place the funds went.”
Nevertheless, as followers like @ParasiticEager2 on X have shortly identified, Hironori Tanaka, an enormously prolific anime director and animator, has had work in hentai along with high-profile tasks. This consists of examples as current as 2023 along with One Piece, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Jujutsu Kaisen, Assault on Titan, and lots of different family names.
It is misguided and dangerous to counsel any particulars on the manufacturing primarily based on one’s resume, past even simply the risque content material. Nagai’s advocation for CGI set off alarm bells for followers, particularly with how poorly season 2 applied it. Nevertheless, beneath Nagai’s route, this downside has but to point out itself, with even Genos wanting again to regular.
One-Punch Man Season 3’s Hypothesis Doomed It From the Begin
Setting apart the potential funding points and scheduling points, one can assume from One-Punch Man season 3’s visible problems in its premiere, honestly, even a stellar premiere must reside as much as a monolithic success. Given the dialog-driven opening episode, even with neat linework and nice character designs, its stiff presentation is tough to miss within the last product.
As a consequence of elements like manufacturing employees, like Nagai, being unable to debate the anime with out dealing with penalties, that is all a matter of hypothesis which can improve with each new episode. There will probably be motion in One-Punch Man season 3, episode #2, however even the worrying visible constancy, and restricted backgrounds of episode #1 are considerably telling.
It is exhausting to inform really how properly or poorly season 3 will prove as a complete. In any case, The Elusive Samurai season 1 had an extremely well-animated premiere, however it made jarringly awful usage of CGI horses in episode #4, a flaw unattainable to miss. Generally manufacturing is uneven primarily based on what the committee allows, or the studio’s specialties.
One-Punch Man season 3 additionally has the unlucky place of going up in opposition to anime like Spy x Household, whose studio collaborations purpose to alleviate a lot of the issues at the moment being confronted by J.C.Employees. Whether or not the anime will present greater than only a return to Genos’s 2D arms and standout fights in time for Cosmic Fear Garou is tough to say.
The necessary factor to notice, nevertheless, is that directing rage in direction of these not accountable for the scenario is hasty. Harassing studios and their workers will get followers nowhere. One-Punch Man season 3 may not be what the followers wished, and hype for what the supply materials gives makes its success, and even naked minimums, a relentlessly troublesome goal.
