This review is spoilerfree. 120290120315120306 120291120322120315120304120309 120288120302120315? 120288120316120319120306 120313120310120312120306... Well this is kinda awkward. Back in June while writing my The Beginning after the End reviewhttps://anilist.co/review/28237 I confidently stated the following: Unless the universe conspires to conceive an even more offensively incompetent cynically produced artistically hollow abomination in the near future this will remain without question the worst anime Ive ever had the misfortune of watching and while it was only meant to be an exaggerated tongueincheek hyperbole it turns out the forces beyond took that statement as a personal challenge of sorts and tried their darndest to conceive a show thatd have a fighting chance against TBATEs awfulness and well theyve effectively succeeded at that. The third season of One Punch Man is a thoroughly monumental catastrophic and embarrassing piece of shit thats basically doomed the entire series beyond repair or hope of recovery on the adaptation front. Truthfully its such a ghoulish joke that I wouldnt be surprised if any future continuation of this mess were either rushed out in the same broken and battered state or silently shelved and buried before ever seeing the light of day. Whatever the future may hold One Punch Man has essentially cemented itself as a watchthefirstseasonandthenrunawayasap type of series and theres nothing we can really do about this disheartening fact. That said Im honestly tired of having to repeat the same thing every time a dogshit product like this makes headlines but not even an ounce of anger dissatisfaction or disdain should be directed at the animators themselves. I get it seeing a beloved iconic IP be turned into something indefensibly awful hurts like a motherfucker especially when you know how goddamn cool it once was. Still this doesnt grant anyone the right and privilege to harass belittle or scapegoat the animators the director or any other person involved in the production because fingerpointing wont magically improve the finished product or make the situation any better. Dont blame the animators for the pisspoor visuals aim your criticism at the industry built on brutal scheduling miserable funding inhumane deadlines chronically overworking employees and caring more about profit rather than passion or viewer satisfaction. Dunk on the series itself not the overworked staff who were clearly doing the best they could within the time frame they were handed on a rusty mouldcovered platter. 500https://i.ur.com/Ei10IIg.gif With all of that mumbojumbo out of the way theres really no defending this show in any meaningful way and I cant believe my fingers are somehow writing these words but the visuals here are so aggressively putrid furyinducing and downright depressing that they make the godawful seasonhttps://anilist.co/anime/97668/OnePunchManSeason2/ two look like a misunderstood underrated Renaissance masterpiece in comparison. Yes that very season where J.C.STAFFhttps://anilist.co/studio/7/JCSTAFF got their slimy sticky and sausagefingered hands on the franchise and completely fumbled it on all fronts still comes across as far more competent and concrete than whatever the hell this waste is supposed to be. While Id love to provide you with all the hilarious gifs screencaps and montages of horrid scenes pulled from these twelve godforsaken episodes Id rather not stuff the review with these so just like I did in my Uzumakihttps://anilist.co/review/25846 and TBATE rants Ill let your imagination run wild do the heavy lifting or gently remind you of the travesty youve recently experienced until you can firmly grasp and visualise the kind of zombified lifeless mess were dealing with. For starters lets address the most obvious most criticised and most indefensible aspect of the visuals: the animation... or rather the total absence of it. While I dont subscribe to the extremely simpleminded notion that the animation is the sole reason why this season blows since the foul rot runs far deeper than just that its also pretty much impossible to ignore or downplay how bereft of quality it is. Any sort of movement whether it be during dialogueheavy moments or supposedly highoctane explosive action scenes is straightup nonexistent with characters traversing their landscapes with about as much grace as a bent nail scraping a blackboard. Theres no weight intent or physical logic anywhere to be found. Theres barely any clear cohesion between their actions and no believable organic interactions with the space and entities around them its almost as if these individuals exist in a separate plane of existence which renders both selfcontained scenes and multipart sequences stiff detached from reality and fundamentally disorienting. Naturally the most infamous example of this is the memedtohell Garouhttps://anilist.co/character/89277/Garou slide as it neatly condenses everything thats wrong with the production values into a single skitlike event its essentially a Garoushaped PNG gliding across the screen without disturbing so much as a blade of grass underneath his feet which funnily enough makes the corresponding manga panels feel more animated and alive than the adaptations rendition of that moment. However despite the notoriety of this sorry excuse of a clip its not an exception but the norm. Most action and nonaction segments alike are just as if not even more fucking atrocious. Their quality ranges from laughably inconsistent and wishywashy at best think episode 8 and 9 that may have managed to receive warmer reactions but are still fundamentally asinine to outright bottomtier borderline unwatchable garbage at worst 90 or so per cent of what youll see on the screen. For heavens sake theres even a scene where a male monster inexplicably gains a pair of breasts in between shots thats the level of polish quality control and attention to detail on display here. Instead of kinetic motion dynamic choreography and bombastic physicality of the characters were constantly supplied with blurry speedlines endless panning shots limbs morphing into alien forms to simulate momentum faces melting to fake expressiveness you name it as a result every punch kick special move or deadly staredown is about as impactful and powerful as a wet paper towel. 500https://i.ur.com/VxvkFnG.gif But as Ive already said this hack job cant be purely pinned on the animation every single element of the production merely sucks balls and the art style in particular is genuinely offputting. While the second season already deprived the series of its style personality and crispiness by obliterating the background art colour palette linework and lighting here that already rotten maggotfilled carcass is maniacally and crudely stitched together in a pitiful desperate attempt to look cool and intense only to shit the bed at every conceivable turn. Regardless of whats happening on the screen or whos supposed to be hitting whom the characters constantly go offmodel unless they happen to be one of the blatant gooner bait babes wearing skintight skimpy outfits wink wink as their proportions stretch shrink and twist in various manners. Well its not like anything of value was lost since the character designs themselves are either weirdly altered for no apparent reason or reduced to shameful shadows of their former selves. In fact Genoshttps://anilist.co/character/73979/Genos gets done so dirty that he spends most of the animes runtime looking less like a sleek cyborg and more like a walkingtalking metal tumour. If it werent bad enough already the environments they inhabit manage to look even worse with slabs of concrete patches of grass stone walls and whathaveyou resembling amateurish lowpoly assets taken straight out of some obscure PS1 hidden gem game that nobody has enjoyed playing. Slap gnarly vomitlike colours on top of all of that and youve got yourself a visual mix so vile it could knock out a herd of elephants and still be kicking. Everything is either undersaturated and drenched in dull tones that make every scene bear a resemblance to a mudfilled puddle or filled with overly saturated lighting so harsh and blinding you might end up with burnedout retinas. Shading and layering also appear to be utterly foreign concepts here as theres virtually no depth in any of the shots and the foreground and background never feel like they belong together or blend in a tangible way. Youve also got poorly cropped out models revolting camera movements and blocking props changing shape midscene small details like bandaids and other tiny ornaments vanishing between cuts entire scenes being skipped for shit and giggles and mangas content getting sellotaped so haphazardly that the adaptation might as well be noncanon at this point. I could go on and on but this apostle of greed profitchasing and employeeoverwork doesnt deserve any more energy or attention. This shouldve never been released in such a pathetic state. The staff deserves better. The fans deserve better. The source material deserves better. ONE and Murata deserve better. And lets not pretend that visuals are something you can simply ignore when it comes to OPM for the entire IP is practically built on loud and flashy fight scenes awesome sequences punchy tunes and entertaining though simplistic humour. When the very foundation of a product is an unforgivable baffling repugnant Ftier mush how can I or anyone else find any enjoyment in whats happening within the story? Im not the biggest fan of One Punch Man Ill admit but even a grumpy crusty and joyless geezer like me can appreciate the joy of watching a monster get its teeth knocked out by a pyjamawearing baldheaded guy. Sadly what we get here is an abominable soundtrack atrocious visuals pisspoor directing and nonexistent characterisation. Tell me whats there to enjoy? Sure its nice and all to laugh at an awful still wonkylooking model or a silly inbetween from time to time weve all done that. However 12 episodes of frantic fuckups and hilarious hiccups grow stale very very quickly and thats just how it is. 500https://i.ur.com/nAn7ooa.gif I could in theory sit here and do a much more indepth breakdown of everything thats wrong with One Punch Man Season 3 in practice I genuinely cant find a single reason to spend another second of my already limited precious free time bashing a show thats so fucking asinine that it briefly cured my anime burnout out of nowhere. I sincerely love writing and I absolutely adore anime as a medium yet this is the second time Ive stumbled across a series so traumatically tragic that it drains all of my desire to pour my love for languages into composing a proper polished writeup. In a weirdly roundabout sense Im merely mirroring the level of passion and commitment this piece of shit oozes with doing the bare minimum and waiting for my opportunity to mentally check out and fuck off to do something else. And with that Im pretty much done. One Punch Mans anime adaptation journey has officially headbutted a brick wall with full force and no amount of sequels reboots patches prayers or corporate apologies will ever repair the insurmountable damage done to this oncemonumental franchise. If you love and care about Saitamahttps://anilist.co/character/73935/Saitama and the rest of the cast and if the first season still holds a special place in your heart then by all means do yourself a favour and stick to/start the manga Muratas stellar drawings at the very least wont betray disappoint and spit on you with 12 episodes of underanimated unwatchable soulless hogwash. Theres no OPM S3 in Ba Sing Se. ...120290120315120306 120291120302120321120309120306120321120310120304 120288120306120320120320.