OPM S3 E8 Review: The Case of the Missing Frames and the Absent Hero
What’s up, guys? Let’s talk about Episode 8. If you’re like me, you probably weren't counting down the seconds until this dropped. Honestly, I (and I know I’m not alone) had lost pretty much all hope for the animation this season. The episode came out, and I knew I had a review to write, so I painfully clicked 'start' just to get it over with. But here's the kicker, the shocking thing that makes this episode stand out: for a glorious, fleeting moment, we actually got a glimpse of the high-octane, next-level animation we originally expected from this series. That brief flicker of quality is what changes the story of this disappointment.
The Flashy Flash Bait-and-Switch
The episode kicks off with a snippet of the Flashy Flash fight, and you might genuinely not believe me when I say this, but it was animated. Yes! I was stunned, too! The speed, the impact it was the kind of fluid, crisp action that reminded you why we fell in love with this series in the first place.
But, as we all know, good things never last in this season. You could break that entire sequence into two distinct parts, split right down the middle by a brief talking break. The second that dialogue started, the quality immediately went back to that awkward, jumpy animation we’ve become tragically familiar with.
The Frame Rate Crisis: Filling in the Blanks
Look, I’m being generous when I say the animation is "awkward." It feels less like a professional anime production and more like a rushed group project. You keep feeling like if there were just a few more frames, the scene would at least make sense. Sometimes, the frames show something is about to happen, and then they jump straight to it being finished. How it happened? That’s left entirely to your imagination. Fill in the blank yourself!
I gotta use the analogy here: the animation feels like four friends got together and distributed the frames among themselves to work on, and then one of them left halfway through, saying, “I’m going to get milk,” and disappeared like your father…never came back. It’s painful to watch. Even the Child Emperor sequence, which followed, felt visually hard to track because of these jarring jumps.
Where in the World is Saitama?
Okay, put the frames issue aside for a second because we have a bigger elephant in the room: Where the heck is Saitama?!
I get it, he’s too OP, so you have to use him less to maintain tension. But at least show him every episode! You could dedicate just a minute to his perspective, or let us see him casually blowing up a few minor monsters and getting confused about whether to turn left or right.
In the manga, his minimal appearances made sense because each panel has dense information. But here, you’re an anime! You can change things! You could have easily showed Saitama at least a few times in each episode. Why are you being so faithful to the manga that you’re matching it panel by panel, but somehow using fewer frames than panels? Excluding the main character like this could have absolutely been avoided.
The Decent Trap
With all my complaints, you might think this episode is all bad. It’s not. This is what I call a decent episode. Which, by One Punch Man’s expected hype and standards, is still not good. But it’s decent.
And honestly? I think that’s the studio's scheme. They knew they couldn't deliver the level of animation we were expecting, so they dropped our expectations right to the ground. Now, we're forced to praise a decent episode, and they win. I get it, guys! Just keep giving us decent. We swear, we will not ask for much.
Let me know what you thought in the comments! Did the Flashy Flash moment give you false hope too? And are you also waiting for the milk guy to come back and finish his frames?
😂
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