Overview

One-Punch Man Season 3 Animation Quality Discourse refers to discourse surrounding the quality of the animation in the third season of the anime series One-Punch Man, with some fans claiming that the animation looks cheap and lazy, consisting largely of "talking scenes" and still frames, similar to the Uzumaki anime animation backlash from the year prior. The controversy began on October 12th, 2025, after the release of the first episode of the season, as critical viewers shared examples of what they saw as bad animation in the episode online. Fans of the show remained hopeful that the fight and action scenes would be of higher quality. Three days after its premiere, it was reported that the show's recap, which consists of old footage, gained more positive reviews overall than the first episode. A clip of Garou walking was used as a prime example of the poor animation quality online.

Background

On October 12th, 2025, the third season of One-Punch Man premiered in Japan. The quality of the animation in that episode was met with criticism that day.

One of the earliest examples of this is a discussion thread about the episode started on the /r/anime^[1] subreddit that day with over 1,900 upvotes and 900 comments in three days. A top-voted comment, left by Redditor^[2] u/Sweet-message1153, reads, "for an episode that had almost 0 breathing space…it was mostly still frames. I'm scared how they'll handle the fights," garnering over 1,200 upvotes in three days.

Also on October 12th, X^[3] user @Pekuga_Pr posted a clip from the episode of Garou walking forward, garnering over 330,000 views and 1,500 likes in three days.

The post was quote-reposted by X^[4] user @ChibiReviews shortly after, writing, "If the walking animation looks this awkward, imagine the action scenes. Look I want nothing but success for One Punch Man, but this animation ain't it," garnering over 2,200 likes in three days.

Developments

IMDB Recap Rating

On October 15th, 2025, Dexerto^[5] published an article comparing the IMDB^[6] ratings for the first episode of season three to the recap episode.

At the time, the recap had a 7.3/10 stars review, while the episode had a 6.3/10 stars review. The article discusses the backlash from fans over the quality of the animation.

Online Reactions

On October 12th, 2025, X^[7] user @LegionzGaming posted a scene from My Dress-Up Darling under a post challenging the statement, “The first episode of One Punch Man new season is just a talking episode man, it’s not supposed to have good animation," writing, "Meanwhile a slice of life romance anime having this level of animation for a 'talking episode'. Yall get Saitama’s duck out ya mouth," garnering over 18,000 likes in three days.

Later that day, TikToker^[8] @hokageswish posted a video about the show's animation, claiming that the intro was the highlight of the episode and that the show not only had too much "yapping," but that the animation was bad and that there was too much fan service, garnering over 730,000 views in three days.

Some fans blamed Bandai Namco for the lower production quality of the season, particularly on Reddit. The anime rights to One-Punch Man are owned by VIZ Media, which is partnered with Bandai Namco, who hired the company J.C.Staff to animate the third season.

On October 14th, 2025, Redditor u/OkClient4385 posted a meme to the /r/OnePunchMan^[9] subreddit about Bandai Namco being the main enemy in One-Punch Man, garnering over 7,200 upvotes in a day.

Search Interest

External References