Can Somebody explain one Punch Man to me?

[Anonymouswizard]

I personally love One Punch Man, but I understand that I'm literally the target demographic. The fact that the character is suffering from burnout, but it's still a hero anyway, and that he has both selfish and selfless motivations for what he does. But the important thing about Saitama is he's the straight man of the cast, your standard superhero for the more quirky ones to play off of.

I'll admit the satire of various types is not why I like it, I like it for the character's and world building. Genos's journey to becoming a real hero is what sold me on it.

Also I need to catch up with the manga and pick up volume 9, it's just so much more dynamic than the anime is.

Also I adore the theme song, even though it occasionally seems to clash with the series tone

However it is over hyped and not for everyone. I'd say it's like Lensman, it's awesome if you want exactly what it's providing, otherwise you likely shouldn't read it.

[Douglas]

Not necesserily the final answer, but the webcomic has an explanation:

Spoiler

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Every human has an inborn limit to their potential, some are massively powerful like Tatsumaki, some are not like Mumen Rider. Through extremes of effort and will someone could in principle break through that limit into a realm in which there are no limits. The villain of the next major arc who will probably be in season 2, Garou, very nearly reaches the point of doing this as he fights Saitama. (Saitama does not actually defeat him physically, but psychologically, robbing him of his will to fight by undermining his motivation to do so.)

Saitama's original inborn limits were so low that his completely normal training broke through his limits and now he has none.

Spoiler

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So the secret to ultimate strength is being born weak? That seems a bit backwards, but makes for a nice joke.

For anyone who cares about such things, DBZ Abridged recently had Saitama show up at Cell's tournament arena. I think they chose the only reasonable answer for which would win in a fight of Cell vs Saitama.

[Rynjin]

Not necesserily the final answer, but the webcomic has an explanation:

Spoiler

Show

Every human has an inborn limit to their potential, some are massively powerful like Tatsumaki, some are not like Mumen Rider. Through extremes of effort and will someone could in principle break through that limit into a realm in which there are no limits. The villain of the next major arc who will probably be in season 2, Garou, very nearly reaches the point of doing this as he fights Saitama. (Saitama does not actually defeat him physically, but psychologically, robbing him of his will to fight by undermining his motivation to do so.)

Saitama's original inborn limits were so low that his completely normal training broke through his limits and now he has none.

I've always liked (and still do) the theory that he IS one of the monsters himself. If a person is obsessed with cars, he becomes a car monster. Eating seafood, seafood monster. Shadow boxing, a boxing lamp monster.

Saitama is and was equally obsessed with being a hero. So he became a hero monster.

[Leewei]

There was one episode where he could not kill a mosquito, despite trying to for several minutes. When the mosquito-controlling villainess showed up, though, he annihilated her and her swarm without any real effort.

I think OPM's power is somewhat tied to how much his opponent has it coming. After all, a mosquito is just following her nature, until made into a man-eating swarm. Sea King and other very bad entities were killing people left and right before OPM killed him.

[Hopeless]

I actually thought he was an energy kinetic since he does get hit but that "damage" is converted into power that he uses so simply that it makes him appear unstoppable?!

Has he ever been simply restrained by something like glue or left floating in mid air rather than hit would he be actually helpless?

[Razade]

I actually thought he was an energy kinetic since he does get hit but that "damage" is converted into power that he uses so simply that it makes him appear unstoppable?!

Has he ever been simply restrained by something like glue or left floating in mid air rather than hit would he be actually helpless?

No, his power is to punch hard. It has nothing to do with kinetic energy or anything of the sort. He's hit by energy blasts and still shrugs them off.

[lord_khaine]

I've always liked (and still do) the theory that he IS one of the monsters himself. If a person is obsessed with cars, he becomes a car monster. Eating seafood, seafood monster. Shadow boxing, a boxing lamp monster.

Saitama is and was equally obsessed with being a hero. So he became a hero monster.

It is a interesting theory, but from the manga we know there is a little more to turning into a monster.

[Anonymouswizard]

I've always liked (and still do) the theory that he IS one of the monsters himself. If a person is obsessed with cars, he becomes a car monster. Eating seafood, seafood monster. Shadow boxing, a boxing lamp monster.

Saitama is and was equally obsessed with being a hero. So he became a hero monster.

Not got to the point in the manga/webcomic where monsters are explained, but I agree with this (and the idea that Mumen Rider is a saving people monster, he doesn't want to defeat monsters so he's not any stronger than a normal human, but he wants to save people so much that he's become someone who can always be there to save people).

I actually thought he was an energy kinetic since he does get hit but that "damage" is converted into power that he uses so simply that it makes him appear unstoppable?!

Has he ever been simply restrained by something like glue or left floating in mid air rather than hit would he be actually helpless?

He's pretty explicitly just stronger, faster, and tougher than a normal person.

Also, I did once see an interesting idea, that his invulnerability only extends to blunt force because he always seems to dodge sharp objects. Is this ever confirmed/denied?

[Velaryon]

I also don't understand the appeal of One Punch Man. I watched three or four episodes, and it felt like I just watched the same episode three or four times. "Here's a monster, see how big and scary it is? Saitama arrives, does his one punch, game over. Next episode." Based on what people are saying in this thread, there are more plots with side characters and stuff that I don't really remember, but maybe they took awhile to get going or maybe I just didn't find them interesting either.

My personal nickname for the show is One Joke Man. And that one joke got old by the second episode for me.

I've certainly seen worse anime, but I can't understand what about this show captures people's interest. Also, for all that people talk about how good the art and animation is, I really don't like the design of Saitama's character. He looks like someone got distracted after drawing a basic outline and couldn't be bothered to come back and finish him. He's as uninteresting visually as he is in personality.

So, different strokes for different folks, that's fine with me. I just wanted to chime in to the OP that he's not the only one who finds that the show is not for them.

Now, onto some replies to other posts...

Well, first of all, just a general rule about life. Ignore fan hype. Fan hype ruins everything. A generally pretty good show, when you're first experience with it is colored by a bunch of overzealous people exclaiming how everything it does is perfect, then anything less than perfect (i.e. everything) will probably be disappointing.

Wise words. I could make an entire topic out of all the various books, movies, shows, games, etc. that have been somewhat ruined for me either because the hype set my expectations too high (Mad Max: Fury Road, for example), or because I just got so sick of hearing about it that I lost all interest in trying it out myself (Battlestar Galactica). If you can just ignore the fanbase entirely and approach things with no preconceptions, that's probably the best way to do it IMO.

In nearly all modern fiction, in any media, that I have encountered, the protagonist wins in the end. He or she (or in some cases it) may suffer setbacks and losses along the way, but the ultimate outcome is positive.

There are certain genres where this is not the case, but readers typically know a story's genre before starting it and shonen most definitely is not one of those genres.

I agree that shonen is definitely set up with the expectation that the protagonist will always win, but I wouldn't go as far as to say "nearly all modern fiction, in any media" is this way. There are lots of books, films, etc. where everybody dies and there is no winner. There aren't too many that I can think of where the antagonist wins outright (unless it's part of an ongoing series in which the protagonist eventually wins in the long run), but it does happen.

[Lord Raziere]

He's pretty explicitly just stronger, faster, and tougher than a normal person.

Also, I did once see an interesting idea, that his invulnerability only extends to blunt force because he always seems to dodge sharp objects. Is this ever confirmed/denied?

Mm.

the only image I see him against a blade is him biting and shattering it.

So maybe?? But I don't think its necessarily effective on him regardless.

Nor does he seem to be particularly threatened by the ninja who keeps coming after him, who uses this stuff the most often.

So I wouldn't count on it.

[tensai_oni]

I'm not surprised he doesn't like it. It's very hard to like a piece of media when you've already convinced yourself that you hate it. Honestly, that's a more cliche trope than the hero winning in the end. :P

Yeah, I'm going to second this. Especially when half a dozen other posters already provided good arguments/explanations but OP decided to just ignore them.

So instead I'll say this: don't look at works from the perspective of looking for deconstructions/playing things straight. This isn't just for OPM, this is my advice for media in general. This is ruining many peoples' appreciation for shows, this belief that everything has to be a "deconstruction" (whatever that means, I've yet to see people agree on a definition) to be smart, and that if something isn't, or that if you "saw that deconstruction before", then it's cliche and boring.

At its heart, One Punch Man is not a deconstruction. It's a hero story. It's a story about heroes, their struggles, growth and relationships with one another. One of them just happens to be so overpowered that he can kill (almost) everything in one punch. Everything else that happens is just a logical result of that.

[Dienekes]

I agree that shonen is definitely set up with the expectation that the protagonist will always win, but I wouldn't go as far as to say "nearly all modern fiction, in any media" is this way. There are lots of books, films, etc. where everybody dies and there is no winner. There aren't too many that I can think of where the antagonist wins outright (unless it's part of an ongoing series in which the protagonist eventually wins in the long run), but it does happen.

I agree, but if I can refine an argument I (and I think Douglas) was making. It's not that the protagonist always wins, it's that 99% of the time the story follows through with the promises made in the introduction.

Most shonen anime have the inherent promise "we're going to watch this badass do badass things and kick evil badasses in their ass. Sure there will be some struggles, but in the end. Yeah, our hero will triumph." I assume, I don't actually know what shonen means and am far too lazy to look it up. I assume it's just another name for the super hero style writing. Be those actual super heroes or not, like Goku.

While most tragedies make it very clear from the beginning that the story you are about to read is a tragedy from the get go. And when the story does not end on the note that was subtly promised throughout the story, then it comes across as weird and forced, and generally no one really likes those stories, except for some, usually very small group people, who try to spread how it's a deconstruction, or how it breaks conventional writing rules as though those are good things in and of themselves.

[Rynjin]

Most shonen anime have the inherent promise "we're going to watch this badass do badass things and kick evil badasses in their ass. Sure there will be some struggles, but in the end. Yeah, our hero will triumph." I assume, I don't actually know what shonen means and am far too lazy to look it up. I assume it's just another name for the super hero style writing. Be those actual super heroes or not, like Goku.

Shonen isn't actually a genre, but an age group. "Young boys". Shonen is really just a catchall term for any media aimed at the 10-17 demographic or thereabouts. There are some writing conventions associated with that, but it's not all superheroes. Hikaru no Go, for example, is a shonen manga. It's about Go (the board game). So is Death Note.

One Punch Man, by the by, is actually a seinen series, aimed at the 18+ demographic.

[Anonymouswizard]

I also don't understand the appeal of One Punch Man. I watched three or four episodes, and it felt like I just watched the same episode three or four times. "Here's a monster, see how big and scary it is? Saitama arrives, does his one punch, game over. Next episode." Based on what people are saying in this thread, there are more plots with side characters and stuff that I don't really remember, but maybe they took awhile to get going or maybe I just didn't find them interesting either.

My personal nickname for the show is One Joke Man. And that one joke got old by the second episode for me.

There is more than one joke, although it takes a while to get to them (I think about episode 5/6? The series definitely gets much better in the Sea King arc). After a while the series gets past the 'Saitama defeats the big bad monster' joke, there's one part in the manga where the big monster is, Genos asks if he can handle it, and Saitama goes off and interacts with another character instead. The series does not start out particularly well.

I've certainly seen worse anime, but I can't understand what about this show captures people's interest. Also, for all that people talk about how good the art and animation is, I really don't like the design of Saitama's character. He looks like someone got distracted after drawing a basic outline and couldn't be bothered to come back and finish him. He's as uninteresting visually as he is in personality.

That's the joke. Most of the time Saitama is so bored the artist couldn't be bothered to finish him. If you look you'll notice that he becomes more detailed the more excited he becomes (look at his eyes and his amount of muscles).

Shonen isn't actually a genre, but an age group. "Young boys". Shonen is really just a catchall term for any media aimed at the 10-17 demographic or thereabouts. There are some writing conventions associated with that, but it's not all superheroes. Hikaru no Go, for example, is a shonen manga. It's about Go (the board game). So is Death Note.

One Punch Man, by the by, is actually a seinen series, aimed at the 18+ demographic.

This so much, I suspect that One Punch Man is even more specifically aimed at people in their 20s. But Shonen is definitely not all superheroes, I tend to not watch much shonen these days because I dislike the standard tropes of it, although there's a few series that I might watch when I have the time (I made the mistake of starting Legend of the Galactic Heroes and now I have no time for anything except new releases).

[Scowling Dragon]

I guess this plays into my hatred of a standard trope in anime:

Faux Subversion (Flubversion? Flauxversion?)

Do the exact same thing as would happen in a regular story, but just wink at the camera once.

Its like lampshading a topic, but using it as a cover for lack of substance beyond that.

To me One Punch man is a faux subversion. It "Satarizes" bad writing in Shonen (Or Seinen, whatever)....By doing the exact same thing as those stories just has a character wink at the camera.

So like "Guy accidentally gropes a girl".
"We know that is lazy and played out...So we will have our character acknowledge that and accidentally grope her ass instead!"

[Razade]

Shonen isn't actually a genre, but an age group. "Young boys". Shonen is really just a catchall term for any media aimed at the 10-17 demographic or thereabouts. There are some writing conventions associated with that, but it's not all superheroes. Hikaru no Go, for example, is a shonen manga. It's about Go (the board game). So is Death Note.

One Punch Man, by the by, is actually a seinen series, aimed at the 18+ demographic.

It may be aimed at the seinen demo but it's published by Weekly Shonen Jump (the manga is. Webcomic is self published obviously) and has a lot of tropes that are considered classsic for series that run in shonen manga.

[Rynjin]

It may be aimed at the seinen demo but it's published by Weekly Shonen Jump (the manga is. Webcomic is self published obviously) and has a lot of tropes that are considered classsic for series that run in shonen manga.

It's published in English in WSJ because I don't think any of the other Jump magazines are published here. It's published by Weekly Young Jump in Japan, their Seinen magazine.

[Chromascope3D]

Yeah, I'm going to second this. Especially when half a dozen other posters already provided good arguments/explanations but OP decided to just ignore them.

So instead I'll say this: don't look at works from the perspective of looking for deconstructions/playing things straight. This isn't just for OPM, this is my advice for media in general. This is ruining many peoples' appreciation for shows, this belief that everything has to be a "deconstruction" (whatever that means, I've yet to see people agree on a definition) to be smart, and that if something isn't, or that if you "saw that deconstruction before", then it's cliche and boring.

At its heart, One Punch Man is not a deconstruction. It's a hero story. It's a story about heroes, their struggles, growth and relationships with one another. One of them just happens to be so overpowered that he can kill (almost) everything in one punch. Everything else that happens is just a logical result of that.

I'd also suggest that another good rule of thumb to keep would be to not try to offer 'deep insights' into a work if you (the metaphorical you, of course) haven't actually seen the work in question. Especially if the work in question is only 12 22-minute episodes, and can literally be knocked out in the course of a lazy afternoon. Because if you haven't actually experienced something yourself, then any opinion you can give on the experience can only be, by definition, uninformed, which is not something you want to reveal to any debate opponent you may have, be it online or in person.

Essentially, the aphorism: "Stick to what you know."

But yeah, I really like OPM overall. I don't know why, it just felt good to watch. All the characters are immensely likable (even boring Genos), and the humor was top notch, from my subjective point of view. Not to mention that it has one of the best anime OPs that I've personally ever seen, which had me hooked (and was probably a large factor in getting everyone else hooked) from the start, and has only been outdone by Mob Psycho's since (and not much else, again, imo).

[Callos_DeTerran]

I honestly can't explain it either.

I watched it on the recommendations of some friends who really dig it and are big fans of it and considering that we normally have similar interests I gave the series a watch.

Its alright. Its not bad or good to me (though the animation can be pretty good sometimes), but that is honestly the most damning thing I can say about a form of entertainment is that...its just alright. I probably won't remember anything about it soon and I'll forget it until my friends gush about it once more and I'll ignore the conversation cause I can't really contribute to it.

[golentan]

I guess this plays into my hatred of a standard trope in anime:

Faux Subversion (Flubversion? Flauxversion?)

Do the exact same thing as would happen in a regular story, but just wink at the camera once.

Its like lampshading a topic, but using it as a cover for lack of substance beyond that.

To me One Punch man is a faux subversion. It "Satarizes" bad writing in Shonen (Or Seinen, whatever)....By doing the exact same thing as those stories just has a character wink at the camera.

So like "Guy accidentally gropes a girl".
"We know that is lazy and played out...So we will have our character acknowledge that and accidentally grope her ass instead!"

I think you may be reading some stuff wrong. Like, you described Saitama as a bored main character who is too powerful for the other characters to like him, when... that's not his character. People don't like him because he's not especially likeable: He doesn't like talking to people, he doesn't like listening to them, he doesn't have any real interests or hobbies, about the only things which can motivate him are 1) Monster Attack, 2) Money, 3) Shopping. The only character who seems to like him is Genos, who has to bribe him by promising to help pay rent until Saitama gets a little attached.

It's not a wink to camera, it's a sigh to camera. Saitama WANTS to live in a shonen show, but he doesn't. He surrounds himself with people who live in their own shonen shows, he gets excited any time a plot looks like it's going to make the show shonen, and always gets disappointed when his presence resolves the plot before it can go anywhere. At the same time, the show lingers on the people whose lives are affected for good and bad: It doesn't shy away from the destruction that is the logical side effect of the world in the show, and it shows the people who survive it because Saitama ends plots and the stuff they have to deal with.

It's... schadenfreude from every side. Genos started out as a typical shonen antihero: hunting monsters for revenge and to become stronger, only looking to improve his own abilities, a loner pretty-boy... But in trying to get Saitama to teach him to be more powerful... he gradually comes to understand he'll never be able to catch up, and learns to do the right thing regardless. Even though Saitama has no idea what he's doing, by example he imparts some valuable and painful lessons. Saitama, conversely, wishes he had Genos's life in a lot of ways: Genos faces challenges, gets the fans, gets the cash... but when the chips are down, Saitama does the right thing as he understands it, and remains his fundamentally hard-to-like self, and so toils on saving the world in obscurity. Genos gets the fancy moves and power ups and the mid-battle-speeches and all that stuff Saitama wants in his life, Saitama punches things into showers of gore without any romance or glamor. And between them, Mumen Rider splits the difference, getting neither the glamor or powers but doing the right thing anyway.

It's kinda like the Venture Brothers, or Archer. It's set in a universe that looks very like a different genre, but it's a show about... not exactly failure, but suffering maybe? Nobody gets what they really want out of life, but they go on living anyway. Except unlike those two, One Punch Man is kinda optimistic. Human beings will do the right thing when the chips are down, not the cruel thing, more often than not, and even the bad people will band together to save innocent lives when a real monster shows up. In spite of their failed expectations from yesterday, they will show up tomorrow, maybe with a long suffering sigh and a "why me," but they will.

That's why I like it, anyway... It's superman, but not the holier than thou untouchable paragon of justice, or some of the weird "alternate takes," and he's not an alien being without any sort of relatable struggle. It's superman as a human being with a mortgage, and trouble making friends, and he doesn't like his job, and he's often petty and fallible and sarcastic. And yet... he shows up when he's needed. And along the way, there are laughs when he (or another character's) expectations are subverted, hopes are dashed, or Genos and Saitama are living in this weird shonen world odd couple style despite not really getting each other. And inspirational moments when a character stares death in the face and says "You have to go through me first" knowing that it IS a matter of first, that there's nothing they can realistically do to stop the threat du jour.

[Scowling Dragon]

It's not a wink to camera, it's a sigh to camera. Saitama WANTS to live in a shonen show, but he doesn't.

Yes He Does. Thats my point. Even in Dragonball, the defining Shonen show, the exact same thing would happen to goku:

"Mwahahaha, Im big giant monster with superpowers talkin **** about you small boy"
"ONE PUNCH VICTORY!"

You don't GET to do a sigh at the camera if your doing what every other shonnen does anyway.

[Razade]

Yes He Does. Thats my point. Even in Dragonball, the defining Shonen show, the exact same thing would happen to goku:

"Mwahahaha, Im big giant monster with superpowers talkin **** about you small boy"
"ONE PUNCH VICTORY!"

You don't GET to do a sigh at the camera if your doing what every other shonnen does anyway.

I think you need to watch more shonen. Especially if you're using Dragon Ball Z where they spent almost 20 episodes at a half hour each detailing the events of three minutes. Goku never "one punches" a legitimate villain.

[golentan]

Yes He Does. Thats my point. Even in Dragonball, the defining Shonen show, the exact same thing would happen to goku:

"Mwahahaha, Im big giant monster with superpowers talkin **** about you small boy"
"ONE PUNCH VICTORY!"

You don't GET to do a sigh at the camera if your doing what every other shonnen does anyway.

First: As a frequent viewer of shonen in the past, NO THEY DON'T. As a rule, if that DOES happen it happens to maybe one antagonist per arc to demonstrate growth by the protagonist relative to the antagonists, and NEVER to the primary arc antagonist. Saitama does not grow, he just is. Enemy Arcs only last until Saitama finds the primary arc antagonist, at which point they end abruptly and gruesomely, with little to none of the tropes of standard shonen fights which would pad most primary arc antagonist fights (powerups, transformations, elaborate moves, battlefield speeches, flashbacks, and glamorization of the violence in general). Saitama punches. Badguy goes down in a shower of gore. Saitama sighs.

Second: The whole point of my post was explaining the surrounding plot, world, and character building which makes OPM earn that nod to the audience, explaining what makes the show interesting apart from the shonen trappings, explaining that it ain't properly a shonen show nor really a shonen send up, and why someone like me might enjoy it for what it is. Which is just my opinion, you don't have to like the show, but you keep arguing like it's an inherently bad show for being something that I don't think it is, and that bugs me.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Yes He Does. Thats my point. Even in Dragonball, the defining Shonen show, the exact same thing would happen to goku:

"Mwahahaha, Im big giant monster with superpowers talkin **** about you small boy"
"ONE PUNCH VICTORY!"

You don't GET to do a sigh at the camera if your doing what every other shonnen does anyway.

...That doesn't happen to Goku, ever. Except maybe in a movie or two.

[Chromascope3D]

I think you need to watch more shonen. Especially if you're using Dragon Ball Z where they spent almost 20 episodes at a half hour each detailing the events of three minutes. Goku never "one punches" a legitimate villain.

Are you implying that this somehow isn't canon?

[Rynjin]

Yes He Does. Thats my point. Even in Dragonball, the defining Shonen show, the exact same thing would happen to goku:

"Mwahahaha, Im big giant monster with superpowers talkin **** about you small boy"
"ONE PUNCH VICTORY!"

You don't GET to do a sigh at the camera if your doing what every other shonnen does anyway.

Literally the only times this happened in Dragonball were the really early days when it was a gag manga instead of an action show.

For 90% of Dragonball's run this never happened, since near the end of the first Tenkaichi Budokai. The only even arguable example of this in the Z portions is when Trunks obliterates Frieza so everyone can go WTF and wonder who he is.

I'm beginning to think you're talking out of your ass here.

[Lethologica]

I got into OPM because I watched some highlight videos of fights, found the animation interesting enough to continue, and eventually decided to go ahead and watch the whole thing. And yeah, I enjoyed it, but I totally get where One Joke Man and Shounen But Winking complaints come from. A lot of OPM is a self-conscious tour of shounen tropes, even if there's more going on. And every time Saitama meets a villain is the same scene, even if it's not the only scene in the show.

[Starwulf]

Literally the only times this happened in Dragonball were the really early days when it was a gag manga instead of an action show.

For 90% of Dragonball's run this never happened, since near the end of the first Tenkaichi Budokai. The only even arguable example of this in the Z portions is when Trunks obliterates Frieza so everyone can go WTF and wonder who he is.

I'm beginning to think you're talking out of your ass here.

Fully agree on the Trunks thing. The only other time I can think of something similar happening, is after Goku goes down against Android 19/20 because of his heart virus, and Vegeta comes in and enacts a beat down of 19, and even then, it was shown afterwards that it wasn't without a significant power drain on his part, if Gero had attacked and called Vegeta's bluff, all the Z fighters may have very well died right then and there.

Spoiler: Just in case no-ones seen these

Show

Before that we have the Saiyan arc at the start of DBZ. Raditz kicks the living hell out of everyone until Gohan goes nuts, so no one-shots there. Up next are the Saibamen that Nappa and Vegeta summon, and while they are defeated, it's not without some difficulty(even takes out Yamcha and Chiatzou iirc). Nappa/Vegeta themselves beat the crap out of them until Goku arrives, so that's a negative.

Krillin and Gohan do one-shot some nameless mooks shortly after they first land on Namek, but yeah, they're mooks, so doesn't count. Dodoria/Zarbon definitely aren't one-shotted, though Dodoria is fairly man-handled by Vegeta, he does get a few minor licks in, and Zarbon kicks the crap outta him. The Ginyu force...I don't think any of them were one-shotted, not even the small time-stopping dude(name escapes me). Even when Goku shows up it takes him at least a mild to medium amount of effort to take our Jeice, Burter(Burner?) and Recoome, and Ginyu is a very hard fought fight. Then Frieza himself is a major, many episode fight, and even then still didn't die, coming back to Earth, only to be(as mentioned before) one-shotted by Trunks, solely to establish "Who in the hell is this dude, and how the heck did he do that".

Let's see...after that we have 16-18, and there were definitely no one-hit kills on the part of the protagonists there. Then Cell, followed by start of the Majin Buu arc. The little dude on the first level of the ship goes down pretty quick against Vegeta, but even then it's not an immediate one-hit kill, though that may be due to Vegeta just toying with him(but that's not even something Saitama can really do, as literally even a lazy punch kills things). The Mantis creature actually lands several decent blows before Goku causes it to burst due to too much power consumption. Dabura definitely not a one-hit kill, doesn't someone have to step in take him down when Gohan proves ineffective?

Buu himself is a major threat for quite a while, the only point in time where he could have been one-shotted was when Goku and Vegeta used the Potara earrings to fuse together, but their combined cocky nature caused them to take the fight less seriously since they knew they vastly overwhelmed him. Still, by that point Buu had been around long enough that even if they had one-shotted him, you couldn't call it a true one-hit kill.

DBGT I don't remember much about, so onto Super: Beerus, definitely not, lol. Golden Frieza either. Vegeta probably could have taken down the little saiyan kid during the Universal Dragonball tournament thingie, but after that Frost and Hit were nowhere near being able to be one-shotted. Goku Black hell no, though technically Beerus did basically incinerate Zamasu in the present timeline when they discovered he was the Goku Black in the future, but he's a god of destruction and definitely not the protagonist, so again doesn't count.

Unfortunately my knowledge ends there, but yeah, definitely not a trope

Sooo, no, definitely not a common thing in DBZ. If it was in DB(It's been so long, I can't recall much, though the parts I do, it's still not, Tao, General Red, the witches body guards, Tien, Jackie Chun(aka Roshi) all of those are significant fights throughout the series), it's because, as mentioned previously, it's because it wasn't a serious manga at first,

[Rynjin]

Goku technically "one-shotted" both Nappa and Recoome, but both (particularly Recoome) were already weakened fighting a gauntlet before then, so it doesn't fit with what Scowling Dragon was trying to say. They were both also minions rather than the main enemy, and neither were played for laughs so it's all around moot.

Chiaotzu died fighting Nappa BTW, the main reason Nappa was so damaged by the time Goku showed up was because Chiaotzu used Self-Destruct (it wasn't very effective).

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah if Scowling thinks that fights in DB, DBZ or DB Super end in a single blow....then I don't know what he has been watching,:

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because Freeza was basically Alien One Punch Man Vs. Every Fighter Still Alive In The Series At That Point. but even then, Freeza has more control over his strength than Saitama because he was apparently toying with them all to show them true despair, and transforming every time to make them see how truly screwed they all are, until Goku finally comes in and beats him, even then thats like a multi-episode fight with Goku doing his best against Freeza and still losing until Super-Saiyan kicks in., which is a whole event unto itself, almost two different fights, one with Goku non-SS and with Goku being SS.

Like you had Goku doing things like surprise attacking Freeza from under water, biting his tail to stop him from choking him, Freeza throwing a mountain at Goku, bouncing Goku around like a pin-ball, Freeza not using either of his hands while attacking Goku, Goku using the Spirit Bomb, all before super Saiyan was a thing and was all a good fight unto itself.

Or the Saiyan Saga Vegeta Fight. That was long and full of twists and turns: Goku and Vegeta Fight! But Vegeta finds that Goku is somehow powerful enough with the Kaioken to defeat him, so he gets enraged and uses all his power in a Galick Gun to fire at the Earth, Goku fires back a Kamehameha and beats by going even farther with Kaioken. Vegeta comes back, goes Great Ape, proceeds to utterly trash Goku while he only gathers a bit of spirit bomb energy. Krillin and Gohan return to distract Vegeta long enough for Yajirobe to cut Vegeta's tail off, Vegeta goes back to normal, still a threat and beating down everyone, Goku gives Krillin the spirit bomb, Krillin throws it, it misses, Gohan bounces it back and hits him with it. But thats not the end! Vegeta comes back, still alive, beats both Krillin and Gohan down again, but Gohan sees the fake moon from earlier and goes Great Ape, proceeds to attack everything around it. Vegeta steals Krillin's Destructo-Disc and cuts off Gohan's tail....just in time for Gohan's rapidly reverting great ape form to crush Vegeta under him. Vegeta then retreats. That is ANYTHING but a single punch, and its won pretty much because the heroes got lucky.

While the Buu Saga was pretty much one long fight against a demon so great that he posed a threat to the universe and had the regeneration and strange magical powers to prove it. I'm not going into that, because thats basically a long and complicated tale all to itself.

Saitama? He just walks up to a guy, punches them and They. Are. Dead. Or are Boros, in which case they require three punches then they are dead, because regeneration. If Saitama were in DBZ, here is how things would go:
Vs. Raditz: *Punch* *Dead*
Vs. Nappa: *Punch* *Dead*
Vs. Vegeta: *Punch* *Dead*
Vs. Cui: *Punch* *Dead*
Vs. Zarbon: *Punch* *Dead*
Vs. Dodoria: *Punch* *Dead*
Vs. Ginyu Force: *Punch* *Dead* OR Captain Ginyu stealing Saitama's body and becoming unstoppable, because Saitama stood around looking blankly thinking ginyu was doing a power up.
Vs. Freeza: *Punch* *Dead*
Vs. Any Of The Androids: *Punch* *Dead*
Vs. Perfect Cell: *Punch* *Regenerates* Saitama blinks *Punch* *Regenerates* *Repeats* Cell might actually win this one, Saitama is actually starting to hit the upper limits of his shown feats and strength, he isn't actually unlimited, just that he has unlimited potential, which is different, and Cell can pretty much keep coming back up as he regenerates from a single cell, unlike Boros who seems to require actual effort to regenerate and doesn't have Cell's hax infinite energy regeneration zenkai combo, so Cell would just keep getting near-killed and coming back stronger and stronger until he finally beats Saitama. So Unless Saitama knows a move to BURN Cell like the Z-Fighters do with their ki blasts, Cell will win.

Vs. Majin Buu: Another regenerator, but this time made of putty. Saitama punches him....and no blunt force in the world will kill him for good, as its like punching jelly. The jelly then puts itself back together, decides that Saitama is really strong and proceeds to absorb him, becoming One Punch Buu. Congratz, the universe is screwed.

Beerus: now Beerus doesn't have regeneration, but he is pretty strong and basically One Punch Destruction Cat. The only fighter who comes close to challenging him is Goku, so Saitama being a guy who hasn't done anything so far that can exceed Goku's feats and Beerus being able to destroy the Universe....Beerus will very likely win, even if you believe Saitama could destroy the Universe as per the author's Word Of God. Mostly because Beerus can fly, Saitama can't, and can breathe in space as well: Beerus grabs Saitama and throws him into space, watches him suffocate without any way to get back to Earth.

Vs. Hit: stopping time is pretty hax, and the Hit is pretty much One Punch Alien Assassin. It might be a question of who attacks first. But if Hit fights long enough for his Improvement to activate, then suddenly he will start rapidly gaining in power and skill to match Saitama's.

Vs. Future Zamasu: This guy is literally immortal. no matter how much Saitama punches him, it does nothing. Zamasu then proceeds to kill the annnoying mortal.

So yeah, Saitama is this all winning guy who effortlessly defeats everything....in his own series but even in Dragon Ball there are things you can't just punch away, and Saitama's upper feats don't put him near the levels of Super or even later levels of Z.