Saitama,(a.k.a. OnePunch-Man), is the main protagonist of One Punch-Man, and the most powerful hero alive. Having apparently trained himself to superhuman condition, Saitama faces an existential crisis as he is now too powerful to gain any thrill from his heroic deeds.
He is registered with the Heroes Association as a B-Class Megahero and is tasked to defend Z-City against Mysterious Beings.
Appearance and Personality
Saitama is a bald man with a thin, but well-built physique and of average height and weight. He claims to have lost all of his hair suddenly and prematurely as a result of the toll taken on his body by intense hero training. Three years before the storyline, Saitama had spiky, black hair. Saitama's eye color appears to be black in the colored pages, or a dark brown when he isn't drawn in a simpler style.
Saitama is usually deliberately drawn in a simpler style than other characters, with a very rounded head and only a simple mouth and eyes. When drawn in a more 'action-oriented' style with more detail, Saitama is revealed to have sharp features, dangerous looking eyes, and a chiseled musculature. His costume is a plain yellow jumpsuit with a short zipper at the collar and a belt. The costume is finished out by a red ensemble of boots, gloves and a cape.
For a megahero, Saitama is rather laid back. Because even the mightiest foes pose no challenge to him, he doesn't take his hero work very seriously. In spite of this, he is constantly searching for an opponent that can challenge him, since his megahero work is beginning to bore him because it's too easy. However, Saitama does not ignore crime despite his boredom, as in his own words (having displayed a lack of understanding at the disaster level system), "If the heroes run and hide, who will stay and fight?".
The combination of his attitude, unstoppable strength, and distinctively simple and 'unimpressive' appearance often causes his battles to become anticlimactic. Saitama will usually allow his opponents to rant about their motives and power up into their strongest forms before suddenly and nonchalantly obliterating them with one punch.
A running gag about Saitama is his inability to remember people's faces and names, seen when he forgot Sonic's name and could not remember who Tanktop Tiger was.
Abilities
Saitama is the titular One Punch Man - by far the strongest character in the series. No enemy has so far been able to injure him in any way, or to survive even one of his punches (Lord Boros being the only exception so far). Saitama's 'power' is that his body is far beyond human limits, allowing him to achieve astounding physical feats. His strength is so great that it vastly eclipses even artificial beings designed or bred specifically for superhuman combat, such as the cyborg Genos or the warriors of the House of Evolution. Notably, since no enemies have yet posed any challenge to Saitama, the upper bound of his strength is likely even higher than it appears. However, his power is notably limited to heightened human traits; Saitama cannot fly or fire energy blasts, for example.
The origin of Saitama's unbelievable strength is mysterious and unclear. Although he tells everyone he got his incredible power through mere strength training, no one believes him. According to Saitama, after a year and half of 100 daily push-ups, sit-ups, and squats, plus ten kilometers daily running, he had achieved some level of superhuman strength. This training was apparently so intense for Saitama that he at times felt as if he might die, and claims it is what caused all of his hair to suddenly and prematurely fall out. He apparently continued training for another year and half before beginning his hero career. Genos believes that Saitama doesn't actually know or understand how he gained his power, and hopes to learn the secret to it by sparring with and observing him.
Superhuman Strength: Saitama possesses immense physical strength and, therefore, is capable of effortlessly defeating any enemy, even ones several times larger, with a single, nonchalant punch (although this strength is not limited to punches). Saitama's punch is so powerful that many enemies simply explode when struck by it. He has also been known to effortlessly destroy walls and buildings with his attacks. An example of this casual, yet overwhelming offensive power occurs when Saitama launches himself from the top of a building, and blasts right through an extremely large meteor. He has also been shown to, while in midair, kick a large projectile from a spaceship back to the ship. When launched from the earth to the moon by a strike from Lord Boros, he used his jumping power to return to the earth, causing a huge shock wave and immense tremors on it by doing so. A "normal" punch from him caused someone as durable as Boros to receive a hole in his chest by the force, and several of these caused immense damage to him as a result of his strength.
- Enhanced Leap: His inability to fly is somewhat compensated for by his ability to use his strength to leap tremendous heights and distances. This can be shown by him smashing his head through the ceiling of a gymnasium during the hero tryouts. He was also able to crush a building that he was on top of just by leaping off from it. His greatest feat in this regard, however, was when he leapt from the surface of the moon and ended up back on Earth at a specified point.
Superhuman Speed: Saitama was able to complete a 1500 meter dash in an instant during his hero tryouts. He has proven able to effortlessly keep up with Sonic, who is able to move at above hypersonic speeds. Even Genos' computerized targeting systems have difficulty tracking him. Saitama has also shown the ability to run-down a building to save a piece of salmon he was having for lunch and leap back up said building without on-lookers noticing he had even done so.
- Afterimages: He is so fast that he leaves afterimages when moving at high speeds, and is agile enough to dodge Beast King's rapid-fire Limb cutter attacks while moving in for the kill.
Superhuman Senses: Saitama's senses are far beyond the human norm, being able to keep track of extremely fast opponents (such as Sonic) easily. He also seems to have developed a sixth sense; being able to dodge danger even though he hasn't seen it. Nevertheless, Saitama's senses do not have the same degree of 'resolution' as some of Genos's sensors, which can detect and distinguish foes at a greater distance.
Invulnerability: Saitama can withstand blows from extremely powerful beings such as Asura Rhino without taking a scratch or apparently feeling any pain. In fact, Saitama has only ever been seen bleeding from a blow during a dream in which he imagined facing opponents close to his level. When Genos created a huge, spherical blast of flame to kill Mosquito Girl's mosquitoes with Saitama standing right next to him, Saitama was totally unharmed and unperturbed, although his civilian clothes were incinerated. He also survived being kicked to the moon by Boros in his fully powered state, and going from the Earth to the moon and back with little to no damage from leaving and entering the Earth's atmosphere (only his clothes were burnt). It has been shown that, despite the dangers of holding ones breath in space, Saitama is able to do so with no negative effects on his body. Despite a violent reaction, it is worth noting that mosquitoes don't seem to be able to penetrate his skin, and Saitama seems to prefer to dodge or block attacks using edged weapons rather than take them head on, as he sometimes does with strikes from fists or blunt objects.
Gallery
