One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 9 Review: A Much Better Watch

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 9 Review: The 9th episode of the highly anticipated One Punch Man Season 3 is here, and I enjoyed it way more than all the other episodes that came out this season. Let’s see how it turned out.

One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 8 Recap

The heroes finally make their move into the Monster Association’s base, and Flashy Flash wastes no time proving why he’s one of the best. He clears out his initial opponents with effortless precision. But things take a sharp turn when he runs into Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame, two figures from his past at the ninja village who have willingly thrown their lot in with the monsters.

Unlike the earlier creatures he dispatched, these two push him to his limits. They drag him deep into an underground chamber, forcing the fight into a wide-open arena where they can battle on equal footing. It’s immediately obvious that their history with Flashy Flash is messy, personal, and anything but friendly.

We later learn that Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame have only recently transformed into monsters and are still adjusting to their new abilities, which explains why they needed the dungeon’s space to keep up. Their clash ends brutally one-sided, and by the end of it, Flashy Flash breaks away to continue his mission, unaware that the tracker Child Emperor placed on him is now malfunctioning.

Meanwhile, we switch over to the Child Emperor’s storyline. He finally pinpoints where the kidnapped child is being held. Up until now, it seemed like his genius lay mostly in inventing gadgets, but this episode shows he’s no slouch in combat either. He tears through a swarm of monsters with surprising ease, barely even exerting himself.

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One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 9 Review

Child Emperor has managed to save Waganma, and they try to go back to safety. However, on their way, Child Emperor gets to know that the bird he just killed is based on a TV character that can regenerate. As suspected, the bird also regenerates and comes back to life. Yet, this time it has evolved into a completely different creature called the Phoenix Man. Here, Child Emperor is out of most of his gadgets, which is why he decides to fight the new enemy himself.

While fighting him, Child Emperor begins to cry because Phoenix Man surpassed his expectations. This is why the fact that he will have to now use his ultimate weapon against someone who is not even a boss makes Child Emperor deeply saddened by his own abilities. That is when we see Child Emperor getting inside a transformer-like robot. Though it is a very powerful suit, it also has some limitations, which is why Child Emperor must end the battle soon.

This battle ends up becoming one of the best of this series, thanks to its pretty good animation. The way things escalated from one point to another was also exhilarating, and at the same time, it kept the audience on the edge of their seats in anticipation. It was nice to see the animation improving day by day, and maybe this watch experience will not be as bad as fans anticipated.

Verdict

In the next episode, Saitama will most likely get a bigger role, and we will get to see how he will handle the monsters. But other than that, for me personally, this episode works, and even though it is not absolutely perfect, I liked it.

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