One Punch Man: Metaphor for Marginalized America

[divider type=”space_thin”] When I first began writing this article, it was before the election, before Donald Trump was anything more than punch line to a bad joke—a political satire, a character in a dystopian  version of American society that was a thinly veiled critique of our nation’s prejudices and values. Just a few weeks before, I had finished watching One Punch Man, a comedic anime series about a bald-headed superhero named Saitama with seemingly unlimited power who nevertheless faces bureaucratic problems as he just tries to save the day. The series, which was one of last year’s breakout anime hits, plays with typical shonen and superhero story tropes and shifts the focus away from the fights and focuses instead on Saitama’s understanding of himself as a hero and how that conflicts with the views of the Hero Association and society at large. In thinking about what exactly made this manga — which went viral, by the way — and anime so popular, it occurred to me that beyond its humor and action, One Punch Man has become a fitting metaphor for what life in America has been lately — and will certainly continue to be — for marginalized groups in a post-Trump climate. Here are the reasons why, for those of us who are marginalized or victimized by the very country that is supposed to protect us, represent us, and recognize us as part of a national story, Saitama is the kind of hero we can understand.

Saitama is part of a system that refuses to acknowledge him Saitama is a …