Tale of ONE- from zero to hero (1 Viewer)

[blueberries]

I thought it'd be nice to make this kind of thread, kinda informational kinda appreciation. Thread about mangaka ONE and story how he went from random web comic artist who couldn't really drawn to creator of some of most popular and loved animes of our time: One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100.

ONE's twitter avatar

So story of ONE is nothing, but inspirational. He started as making web comic One Punch Man in 2009 for a hobby since he was unemployed and bored at the time. He had idea for the story and characters, but couldn't quite draw- well at least compared to your regular mangaka- but still gave it a shot and started releasing One Punch Man on his own on his own website. Despite being bit rough on the edges, his story gained quite following in the web site.

Now briefly to the story and premise of One Punch Man, in ONE's style despite One Punch Man first seeming of your regular shonen superhero manga/anime, especially in terms of later on released manga and anime I will get in a bit- it's more of comedic parody of these. While maintaining many of the themes you commonly see in shonen action mangas and in superhero genre, ONE makes fun of these and turns them around a bit. Saitama the main character of One Punch Man starts as overpowered hero who can't lose to anyone, so in ONE's words his hardships aren't actually trying to save people and defeating villains, but the mundane things of everyday life as well as boredom of feeling no exitement in facing opponents who all are defeated in one punch, thus the name. Similarly as ONE making the manga, Saitama starts being hero for a hobby.

ONE's One Punch Man

Continuing, in 2010 ONE choose to put One Punch man in hiatus in order to focus on his family as well as getting a "real" job. He however couldn't forget One Punch Man and wanted to return as manga artist. Luckily, ONE's One Punch Man had gained not only attention of readers of the web comic site, but also from mangaka Yusuke Murata who was already established manga artist with his series Eyeshield 21 (sport manga about american football, also has anime). Murata contacted ONE after seeing ONE's tweet about quitting One Punch Man and proposed collabing to him so that Murata could recreate One Punch man as a manga publication. ONE jumped at opportunity and having quited his earlier job, returned to continue his web comic of One Punch Man as well. Murata's version started publishing at 2012 quickly gaining readers and fans, also increasing interest towards ONE's web comic.

Yusuke Murata's One Punch Man

Compared to ONE's work, Murata's shows the touch of professional manga artist quite clearly. Murata still wanted to maintain feel of ONE's characters in the manga and especially with story's protagonist Saitama. He had first thought he would need to make Saitama look more "cool" in order for manga to grasp the audience better, but eventually decided better and just followed how ONE had drawn Saitama as, well Saitama, even paying homages to web comic. Yusuke Murata's manga follows somewhat faithfully ONE's story, but there is lot of differences too- the fights are longer to start with and there is few plot differences as well. Still, the manga is being overseen by ONE as well.

Yusuke Murata's One Punch Man

Due to One Punch Man manga's success, the anime of One Punch Man by studio Madhouse started airing in 2015 and quickly become one of most watched and loved animes. In terms of amount people watching One Punch Man, the first season currently is 5th most watched anime in MyAnimeList with over 1 million of viewers. The anime is based on Yusuke Murata's manga and follows it pretty closely in terms of art and story. The anime version was where most people got familiar with One Punch Man, which in turns increased both Murata's and ONE's readership even further. In the end all anime, manga and web manga became huge success and One Punch Man one of most beloved series in anime world. Now, One Punch Man is gearing towards second season that is going to start airing April 10 (by J.C.Staff this time) and is the most awaited anime of this year. Meanwhile, both Murata and ONE have continued to draw their respective series of One Punch Man developing the story further and keeping the audiences interested.

One Punch Man, S1 promo

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ONE's career as web mangaka has not been limited to only One Punch Man though. He has made several shorter comics, all of them being published either digitally or physically unlike the One Punch Man that he started self-publication. Regardless of his shorter comics, there is one other manga from him that was another huge success from him gaining not only fandom from One Punch Man, but also one of it's own and eventually being released as anime as well- Mob Psycho 100.

ONE started drawing Mob Psycho 100 in 2012, rather quickly after when Murata's version of One Punch Man started publishing. Unlike with One Punch Man, ONE is only one who draws Mob Psycho. Compared to earlier One Punch Man, he's art has definitely developed, but still maintains it's wacky feeling and it's unique for sure whether you liked it or not ^^

ONE's Mob Psycho 100

In terms of story and characters, ONE himself has said Mob Psycho and One Punch Man are kinda opposite extreme's, but despite this there is actually lot of similarities too and you can see similar mindsets behind the two. Mob Psycho also while being shonen school series about supernatural powers and some heroism, is also parody of these genres and themes, making fun of them as well as subverting them. This makes the story unpredictable at times, but also hilarious and fresh. Similarly as Saitama, story's protagonist Mob is also highly overpowered character, which leads that his struggles are not centered about beating his opponents, but rather growing up and finding yourself and your way in life.

Now to the anime of Mob Psycho 100. The anime started airing 2016 and second season of the anime is currently ongoing. Compared to One Punch Man, Mob Psycho's anime is directly based on ONE's manga from it's characters to story and art style. For the staff of animation studio Bones it was important to capture mood of ONE's manga and stay true to it. The art style of Mob Psycho's anime has divided viewers a bit, some think the animation is gorgerous and homage to ONE's art just creates uniqueness and enchances humor of the anime (I'm included in this group) and some think it's not pretty or anime-like enough. Regardless, Mob Psycho 100 while not gaining the same scale of following as it's big brother One Punch Man, is highly rated, has touched heart of many (it does have one of best stories and characters I have seen, shameless promo) and has gained quite sizeable fandom of it's own.

Mob Psycho 100, studio Bones

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And that concludes this essay and appreciation thread of ONE, the web mangaka who couldn't draw, but had ideas and wanted to challenge himself and created sth awesome that moved the whole anime scene and fandom. So if you have an idea, even if you currently lack a skill, don't let that that stop you and give it a try. In ONE's words, if it doesn't work out you don't lose anything, but if it does, well.. rest can be history.

Thanks for everyone who even skimmed through the thread! xd

 

[blueberries]

Tags and stuff; @Lilac @ilovebread @Cosmo @Reo @emanresu @Lovely_Cornchips @SuddenlyKfan @Mangoey @la_mort_pour_vous @Tpse @Soulless_Senpai @Blacklily96 @4Ren @Soogi @lexusuwu @Kazumi @notthatmarko @baekk @colorfulteardrop @JungYoda @NogaNono @SaviorTwice @Soleski also please tell if you want into or out of the anime tag list.. or if you have changed your name)

 

[Pigeon]

Mob Psycho 100 is my favorite anime :pepecheer:

 

[Darkyoda47]

Tags and stuff; @Lilac @ilovebread @Cosmo @Reo @emanresu @Lovely_Cornchips @SuddenlyKfan @Mangoey @la_mort_pour_vous @Tpse @Soulless_Senpai @Blacklily96 @4Ren @Soogi @lexusuwu @Kazumi @notthatmarko @baekk @colorfulteardrop @JungYoda @NogaNono @SaviorTwice @Soleski also please tell if you want into or out of the anime tag list.. or if you have changed your name)

Sorry I changed my name from @Darkyoda to @JungYoda xD

 

[blueberries]

Mob Psycho 100 is my favorite anime :pepecheer:

I'm currently in: got into mob psycho recently so now i'm diving into all kinds of stuff about it while impatiently waiting new episodes cause i have no chill about it - phase. I'd say it goes within my top 5, but where exactly, I cannot say until I can calm down about it a bit and stop being hyped up xd

 

[Darkyoda47]

Okay wow firstly, I didn't know Mob Psycho and OPM were made by the same person. Well, now that I look at the similar style, it does kinda make sense lol. Secondly, ONE's story really is truly inspirational. I never get tired of hearing about it.

Gonna be honest, never watched both anime because the story seemed meh and the animation was well not for me. Although, I was planning on giving Mob Psycho a chance since one of my friends highly recommended it. But I'll take a while to get to it since I have to catch up with this season's anime first.

 

[blueberries]

Okay wow firstly, I didn't know Mob Psycho and OPM were made by the same person. Well, now that I look at the similar style, it does kinda make sense lol. Secondly, ONE's story really is truly inspirational. I never get tired of hearing about it.

Gonna be honest, never watched both anime because the story seemed meh and the animation was well not for me. Although, I was planning on giving Mob Psycho a chance since one of my friends highly recommended it. But I'll take a while to get to it since I have to catch up with this season's anime first.

Yes, well Mob is basically younger Saitama with wig, what comes to outer appearances as well (though people have said that everyone looks like Saitama in Mob Psycho cause that's how ONE draws)

The stories and focuses are bit different, but overall you can see both are ONE's stories there is lot of similarities like overpowered protagonist and ONE kinda has lot of messages in his stories as well that come through with both stories and both make fun of shonen tropes and characters. There is also lot of references about One Punch Man in Mob Psycho.

Also, I forgot to add this random drawing from ONE on the OP xd

I do have to say that at least currently I prefer Mob Psycho, focuses more in characters and their relations in my opinion, though I love both a lot ^^

 

[Darkyoda47]

Yes, well Mob is basically younger Saitama with wig, what comes to outer appearances as well (though people have said that everyone looks like Saitama in Mob Psycho cause that's how ONE draws)

The stories and focuses are bit different, but overall you can see both are ONE's stories there is lot of similarities like overpowered protagonist and ONE kinda has lot of messages in his stories as well that come through with both stories and both make fun of shonen tropes and characters. There is also lot of references about One Punch Man in Mob Psycho.

Also, I forgot to add this random drawing from ONE on the OP xd

I do have to say that at least currently I prefer Mob Psycho, focuses more in characters and their relations in my opinion, though I love both a lot ^^

I saw that Mob Psycho 100 II got even better reviews than the first season, so far, which is why I considered giving it a watch. I feel like I'm missing out and tbh I think I need to step out of my comfort zone when it comes to art because I think I'm getting way to picky with it ^^'

 

[blueberries]

I saw that Mob Psycho 100 II got even better reviews than the first season, so far, which is why I considered giving it a watch. I feel like I'm missing out and tbh I think I need to step out of my comfort zone when it comes to art because I think I'm getting way to picky with it ^^'

Yep, second season has been rollercoaster so far, there isn't lot of "breather" eps either it's been pretty intense with stuff ^^

In terms of art, well I can say that the animation quality is very high if that helps, people were very mad it didn't win best animation in 2016 over Yuri On Ice. Art style is very colorful and wacky, definitely on unique side so it can take sth to get used to, it's quite different from your regular anime. I think they have taken best of ONE's style and making it more refined and high quality for the anime and well that is bit polarizing. But yep give it a chance when you have time, it is worth the praise it has gotten ^^

 

[baekk]

I've been waiting for this all week~

 

[blueberries]

I've been waiting for this all week~

Me making another random anime thread or talking how much i love mob psycho or mob psycho's next ep? :llama_eyes:

 

[Blacklily96]

It's quite the story, and how important good story, characters are, seeing as it garnered popularity prior to getting proper art.

 

[Soleski]

how did I never notice the same style

 

[blueberries]

It's quite the story, and how important good story, characters are, seeing as it garnered popularity prior to getting proper art.

Yup, and kinda shows how things can start small and gain lot of popularity as long as someone has the resolve and creativity to start them ^^ I really like this kind of story from drags to riches. And what makes both One Punch Man and Mob Psycho cool to me is that they don't really try to cater to certain audience with using same old tropes, they rather make fun of them and are apologetically themselves. This is even more seen in Mob psycho than One Punch Man I think, it comes from place of originality and creativity.

how did I never notice the same style

It's only obvious if you are comparing Saitama with Mob and other characters in Mob Psycho, there is many nods to ONE's art in One Punch Man manga and anime to add some comedic effect, but overall most of the characters look really different from ONE's manga when Mob Psycho's anime follows ONE's art lot closer. But the similarities aren't only in art style, Mob and Saitama are were close to each other as protagonists and there is lot of similar themes and storytelling in both, both are quite distinctly ONE's in those aspect : )