The premiere of the third season of One Punch Man was a disaster. This was promoted by a season 2 recap which came out 7 days prior. The recap may have also been to commemorate that it had been a decade since the first season’s premiere (October 5th, 2015).

One Punch Man is an action comedy about a man who can’t find joy in fighting anymore.

Here’s a rundown of the plot & major events that take place within the first season:

Saitama was once an ordinary businessman until he saw that a boy was about to be killed by a half-man half-crab monster because the boy had toyed with it. Saitama takes action and fights this monster in order to save the boy by utilizing the monster’s blind spot, then aiming for its eye and finishing it off. Although Saitama is victorious in this encounter it makes him realize his weakness, because of this he starts doing physical conditioning (runs, push-ups, etc.). The training he does potentially combined with an unknown power gives him overwhelming strength and he continues to fight monsters/villains without ever registering into the Hero’s Association.

He meets Genos, a cyborg hero who uses fire abilities to fight against monsters and for a personal goal to defeat the mad cyborg who killed the people of his town and are the reason for his change into a cyborg. Saitama and Genos register into the Hero’s Association after hearing about it. Saitama is assigned C-Rank because his only qualifying marks for the assessment were speed and power and Genos is assigned S-Rank because he qualifies all around.

Throughout Season 1 he meets many members of the Hero’s Association, mostly those of the S-Rank (The highest rank). A noble character called Mumen Rider who fights with only natural human strength and a bike is introduced, he helps Saitama get to the fight against the Sea King and in turn defeat him whom no other hero available could defeat although he does not receive any credit because the people only believe that he as a C-Rank cheated or used the other hero’s weakening of the monster to claim all the credit. To finish off Season 1 an alien approaches and executives of the Hero’s Association and King (a fraudulent S-Rank who uses the loudness of his heartbeat to scare off monsters) call for Saitama’s help and he joins a board with the S-Ranks. Once the alien’s ship arrives on earth Saitama and some S-Ranks are sent inside and others watch from the outside for other threats. Saitama defeats one of the henchmen of the alien king and heads into the throne room. He meets The King, Boros and they have a fight where Saitama holds back in order to have fun, but eventually he’s unable to due to that and finishes off Boros.

Back to the subject of Season 3. Many believe that although there were good individual frames in the animation the motion felt choppy and there were many points where characters were static onscreen. This greatly affects the watching experience by making the viewers endure awkward moments where only the camera is moving. There were also moments where animated motion was replaced with dragging of the characters which doesn’t look pleasing. Despite these faults within the first episode, there are two recent shows that have done something similar which had a great payoff. Blue Lock Season 2 and Invincible Season 3 were and are still made fun of for the poor animation in earlier episodes and especially in extras at the end of episodes where the animation almost entirely consists of the movement of pngs. Nearing the end of both there is a climactic match/fight where it is clear that a lot of the effort was syphoned into it and the animation looks amazing and is fluid throughout the scene. I suspect that it will be a similar case with One Punch Man Season 3, and the effort is going mostly towards the final battle.

In conclusion, It is very likely that the studio behind One Punch Man Season 3 is using the effort saved by using these methods for the climax of the season. This could mean more episodes with poor animation ahead. There are many options available to react if this is the case, but I see three main ones. Reading the manga and returning to the anime for the climax, continuing on with the anime’s weekly release, and dropping the show entirely or until the climax. It’s up to the viewer what to do, so whether you’re a fan or not do what you will with this information.