One Punch Man Episode 9: Unyielding Justice

Licenseless Rider is too good for this shitty Earth. ;_;

No offense to Saitama but Licenseless Rider was the hero of this episode. Yes he didn’t defeat the Sea King but he showed us what a true hero is. He doesn’t have the power but he sure does have the spirit. Even when he knew he couldn’t stand his own against Sea King, knowing that heroes stronger than him were easily taken down, knowing that people don’t expect much out of him, he still fights because that’s what a hero does. Simple as that. That’s why the people love him so much and cheered for him, and I did too even though, manga-reader or not, we all knew what was going to happen. Defeated, but making an impression. And I just love that about Rider. He knows he’s not strong but that isn’t going to stop him to try to help people. You can call him stubborn and foolish, but did you see any other hero coming to help other than the ones we saw? Rider is just a good guy with a big heart.

Rider came to the scene after Genos’ short fight with the Sea King. Genos wasn’t doing too great and he was reduced to his robotic skeleton after protecting a little girl yelling words of support to him from a strong acid Sea King spit out. With his limbs melting off, Genos could do nothing else. Licenseless Rider tried but failed. It’s then that Saitama finally comes onto the scene to finish him off. At first people don’t recognize him but he gets cheers when he deals the finishing punch, though at first they were really shocked. Everything was going well until some ugly asshole starts talking shit about the heroes, saying that the monster wasn’t so strong because it was beaten easily so that means all the other heroes suck and this hero business is bull and all of these horrible things.

And let me tell you, Saitama is a great guy too. Again, he’s selfless. He can hear what everyone is saying, and so he says this out loud for everyone to hear: that he came to beat the monster when it was weakened by the other heroes. And that he admits to have been doing that to rise up in the ranks, which of course we know is a lie. Genos was still concious when this was going on, and the poor guy is frustrated that Saitama gets treated like crap, but he always admires Saitama for what he did and for the path he chose to take. Saitama is the type of guy to not care what people say about him, so ruining his own reputation to help the other heroes’ is something he would do. At first he looked heroic in the peoples’ eyes at the cost of the others badmouthing the other heroes. So he changed things around and made himself look more like a jerk, which in turn boosted the other heroes’ actions. Even when getting a hate letter, he just didn’t care. I think we could all learn from Saitama about not caring what other people think of us. Would make life a lot easier.

So after Genos going through his pile of fan letters, Saitama gets one hate letter, one “thank you” letter, and another letter from the Hero Association telling him that he was raised to Rank 1 of the C-class. Saitama goes to HQ where he is asked if he wants to be stay as Rank 1 in the C class, or rise up into B class but at the bottom. Saitama agrees to joining B class as he won’t have to satisfy weekly quotas anymore, also because he doesn’t want to stay in C-class while Genos is so far ahead of him. So he then goes through interviews. He’s certainly getting a lot more attention from people in HQ, negative attention really in general. One day, you’ll get the recognition you deserve. Maybe…

By the way, Licenseless Rider was the one that wrote the Thank You letter to Saitama. AS IF YOU COULDN’T LOVE HIM ENOUGH. He’s just a big sweetie. I just loved the scene from the end. I also loved that they included anime-only scenes in the previous episode to really give substance to Saitama’s and Rider’s friendship because they have a lot in common.

A very nice episode, and I know I keep saying this, but great things are coming! Huh, a catastrophe? The end is coming? Gee, I wonder what’s going to happen? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯