One Punch Man, originally a manga series and more recently an anime and video game (oh and a very clean pair of shoes), is about to make the jump to another media with the announcement that a live-action movie adaptation is in development at Sony.
As Deadline report, long-time Fast & Furious man Justin Lin has been named as director. The writers will be Scott Rosenberg & Jeff Pinkner (Venom, Jumanji: The Next Level), while Avi and his son Ari Arad will be producing alongside Lin. As things stand at time of posting “the intention [is there] to begin production by the year’s end”, meaning this won’t be hitting screens for a little while yet.
Deadline also say “the studio is bullish on the concept as a franchise starter”, which is interesting given Hollywood’s…rocky history with manga and anime adaptations (something Arad will be only too familiar with, given his role on 2017’s Ghost in the Shell movie).
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What’s it like to be the strongest person on the planet? If you answered that it’d be a boring depressing state of existential dread, then you’d empathize with the hero of One Punch Man.
One Punch Man is a superhero anime based on the Manga of the same name that combines action, comedy, and satire while spoofing many of the tropes endemic in the genre. The concept seems ingeniously simple. The hero, Saitama, is so strong he can defeat any opponent with one punch. Unfortunately, he’s become dissatisfied, as there’s nobody left to challenge him.
One Punch Man’s existential crisis is easily our own. The anime excels because it embraces the absurdity of the genre and revels in destroying tropes with every fist. Reversing the expectations of the genre, we pray Saitama can finally find someone to defeat him, and in that act, find salvation from the tedium that threatens to crush his, and our, existence.
