Villains are all part of the superhero experience, no matter how powerful one is. As Season 3 of One-Punch Man gears up for its highly-anticipated return with the ever-dominating Saitama, new visuals of its next big bad have been unveiled: Monster King and Gyoro-Gyoro.
The update comes by way of the official anime account on X/Twitter (Monster King Orochi, Gyoro-Gyoro), drawn by Ryosuke Shirakawa and Shinjiro Kuroda, respectively. Both posts also notably disabled comments, highlighting troubled times for the project — a previously released debut trailer drew criticism for its disappointing visuals, which apparently come from pre-animated footage. The lack of new footage since continues to be a point of concern, suggesting a rushed timeline as the anime is due to bow this October.
Animation studio J.C. Staff, which produced the second season that adapts ONE’s (Mob Psycho 100) webcomic and Yusuke Murata’s (Eyeshield 21) manga of the same name, is back at the helm. News of Season 3 was announced last March, six years after the sophomore outing that saw a change in hands from Madhouse (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Orb: On the Movements of the Earth) to J.C. Staff. However, it failed to meet the expectations of fans.
Joining Shirakawa and Kuroda as character designers is Chikashi Kubota, with Makoto Miyazaki handling music composition and no director listed. The synopsis for Season 3 is as follows:
“Saitama is a hero who only became a hero for fun. After three years of “special training,” he’s become so strong that he’s practically invincible. In fact, he’s too strong — even his mightiest opponents are taken out with a single punch. Alongside Genos, his faithful disciple, Saitama performs his official hero duties as a member of the Hero Association.
One day, monsters claiming to be from the Monster Association suddenly appeared, taking a child of Hero Association executive as a hostage. The S-class heroes gather and plan a raid on the Monster Association hideout to rescue the hostage. Meanwhile, Garou, a ‘human monster’ who was taken by the Monster Association during a battle with the heroes, awakens in the Monster Association hideout.”
One-Punch Man Season 3 is set to air sometime in October 2025.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
