One Punch Man Chapter 172 review
So, coming off at the end of the previous chapter, we saw Saitama rummaging through the wreckage of Z City after the battle with the Monster Association and Garo, looking for stuff from his destroyed apartment. He randomly encounters Rover, who had survived the battle but has turned into a small version of himself. But we also see him encounter Black S, and we’re finding out what’s happening here inside Thomas. Like I told you, not to follow me, get off of me already, and Black S is wasting no time revealing that he can speak.
He’s like, “Don’t be like that, come on, let me come with you.” Saitama thinks he’s a weird monkey for some reason, and I honestly don’t know how perceptive Saitama is in this sequence, because Saitama’s intellect and perception kind of go in peaks and valleys in this series. Sometimes he’s a secret genius, and sometimes he’s just a complete buffoon, and this is kind of the latter here.
He’s pretty oblivious in this chapter, and it’s pretty funny, but also surprising that he almost genuinely doesn’t realize that Black S is a monster. Maybe he’s just choosing to be willfully ignorant because these monsters aren’t aggressive, and as we’ve seen in the series, Saitama isn’t the type to just destroy or kill without questions asked.
He’ll only attack if he has to save someone or if he’s being attacked himself. But eventually, Black S convinces him to begrudgingly let him come and live with him, and they start walking towards the Hero Association, which Black S says is his new home. We knew this because in the previous chapter, King was looking for Saitama at his apartment, and they were at the Hero Association.
But it turns out that there’s been a new development to it, something that we weren’t aware of before, but it’s always kind of been like an apartment complex as well. He’s like, “When this was originally made, after Boros destroyed a city, Metal Knight came and built it in like seven days. It apparently can accommodate several thousand households, and considering that the Hero Association doesn’t consist of that many people, they decided it was a good idea to rent it out to the wealthy.”
Which is actually a really good idea, because, as stated in this chapter, the appearance of monsters has become more and more common throughout the series. We see this talked about occasionally, but it wasn’t always as frequent as it has been in these last couple arcs. Even Crescent Eye Roll says that even Disaster Level Demons are popping up more than just once a month. And there’s a reason for this, of course, actually kind of multiple reasons, and as the series goes on, it’s going to be revealed why.
It’s kind of cool how One is building up this overarching story. But considering that, it makes sense that the wealthy would want to live in this stronghold to protect themselves from monsters instead of waiting for the heroes to come save them, because it’s revealed that the heroes are going to be living there as well, A-Class and higher.
And they also kind of force some of the A-Class Heroes to be their personal bodyguards, because as Green says here, it’s the catch to stay there rent-free. But then some of the wealthy potential tenants are like, “Yeah, but A-Class heroes are kind of strong, but they’re only just humans, so that doesn’t mean our safety is completely guaranteed.”
And then the Hero Association guy giving this presentation is like, “Yeah, you’re right, but there’s more, because Metal Knight, the guy who built this entire thing, also developed an AI automated defense system. But hey guys, real quick, the new gamer shop’s waifu cup goth has just dropped, and this design is super aesthetic.
I can’t wait to get my own. It’s currently on the way, and I’m not just saying this to be a salesman, but seriously guys, get this before it sells out, because all of these waifu cups sell out in like less than a week, like the last one. And then I got Samurai sold out in like four days, I think.
Like, look, you can’t even get the goth shirt, it’s already sold out. But also, while you’re picking up a waifu cup, make sure you grab some gamer Subs as well. I’m currently drinking peach tea, but they also have this Cherry Lime Sickle flavor that I’m really interested in. I’m probably gonna pick that up next time.
So yeah, guys, check out my link in the description, and also make sure you use code big Z to get 10% off your purchase. Thanks.” And it’s all of these powerful drones, and apparently the entire defense system here alone does a more effective job than all of the A-Class Heroes combined. And maybe that’s true, aside from like my mask, of course, because he is technically an A-Class hero, even though he’s pretty much.
But speaking of the security system, it starts going off, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s because Saitama is there along with Black S and Rover, and as we just established, it’s AI automated and it can detect monsters. And still in the sequence, Saitama is oblivious to the fact that they are monsters and that this system has detected them. He first thinks that it’s like a metal detector because he has pots and stuff from salvaging his apartment.
Even Black S is like, “Boss, you’re not good with machines, are you?” And then this huge robot comes out that looks like it’s built for melee, and it goes to attack Black S because, you know, obviously that’s the monster threat. But Saitama just assumes it’s attacking him. He just takes it out with one smack, and then that activates the level four, and then these bigger robots come out that resemble the War of the Worlds alien robots.
While these are more powerful, there’s still, of course, no match for Saitama, and he smashes them just like All Might would with a smack. And this sets off the alarms big time. Like, the Hero Association workers in the control room are like, “What’s on the security camera? I can’t see anything with all the smoke.”
And this is a great deterrent because if they knew that it was Saitama destroying these robots, then they would realize, “Oh crap, he’s super powerful. He might even be the strongest hero we have.” Obviously, it’s too soon for that, so we’re gonna keep getting these moments where Saitama does something extraordinary, but then something else happens, and everyone else is none the wiser.
But we see Saitama walking to the Hero Association and just leaving this wreckage of robot pieces behind him, and this is very important because obviously Metal Knight is going to find out about this, and we’re going to get to see what his reaction is. But also, this stuff being left behind here is probably going to be salvaged by somebody else. And what I’m going to say here is not confirmed in the webcomic, it’s hardly even touched on at all to be honest, but in my opinion, I’m thinking the Organization is going to get their hands on some of this stuff.
But as Saitama’s walking into the Hero Association, workers are like running in the same direction and they catch up with him, and they’re like, “What happened? What was that noise?” And Saitama’s like, “Well, those machines at the entrance just suddenly-” and he’s about to tell them the truth, kind of, before he can get it out, one of the workers is like, “These things cost 9 billion each to develop!”
And then Saitama starts sweating and he stops himself from talking because obviously, he doesn’t want to pay the bill on this, because 9 billion, which I’m assuming they’re going off of yen, is like 60 billion dollars. And then he just switches up his tone and starts lying, and he’s like, “Uh, I’m not really sure, but they just exploded.”
And then conveniently at the same time, King is coming in and he’s like, “What he said is true, I saw it too. Those robots just kind of suddenly exploded.” And they’re like, “Oh, you’re Mr. King, whoa, I’ve never met him in person.” And of course, because King said it, they believe him. And this is just a great way to cap off this another godly written sequence from one.
He does such a good job with the Saitama and King dynamic, especially when civilians or other people are involved. Like I said before, King in the previous chapter was looking for Saitama at his apartment anyway, so it’s understandable that he’d be here, and then Saitama hands him back his broken old school Game Boy that he also found at the wreckage, and King’s like, “No big deal.”
But as they’re talking, we see in the distance the A-Class heroes from the previous chapter that said that they’re neighbors of Saitama, and I suppose that they’re going to try to haze them or something, seeing him talking to King so casually, and they’re like, “He’s having a serious man-to-man conversation with the King, and that guy’s a complete noob.
Who the heck is he?” So this is further developing their interest in him, and to be honest, it doesn’t really go that far for it to have this much emphasis on it, to be honest, but I guess it still doesn’t have its full payoff yet, even in the webcomic, the relationship between Saitama and these three A-Class heroes.
But then in the final panel, we see that Saitama has ranked up, and now he is A-Class Rank 39. Before this, he was B-Class Rank 7, and he got this promotion because of his involvement in the battle against the Monster Association and Garo. And as we saw, obviously not everybody knows that he is the one who defeated Garo.
Of course, when the true future version of Saitama merged with the past present version of this Saitama, he was like naked but also it was too bright, and everyone couldn’t really make out who took out Garo. The big popular opinion was just that it was Blast that did it essentially. I mean, Genos knows, of course, but Genos is tight-lipped about it.
But also, we kind of knew that Saitama was going to be A-Class anyway because we know that he’s living in the apartment complex, and it just said that only A-Class and higher can live there. But yeah, this is certainly going to bring a new fun element to the series because Saitama certainly isn’t done ranking up, or at least in my opinion that’s not a spoiler or anything.
I’m pretty sure this is as high as he is even currently in the webcomic. But I think he will eventually maybe get to S-Class, possibly, and that’s going to be interesting if that happens, but a lot more fun to be had in this arc. This is only kind of the beginning of this bridge arc taking us to the next big long arc of the series.
But let me know what you think about this one in the comments, and if you like the blog, guys, please give it a like and please subscribe if you haven’t already. Have a great day, and I’ll see you in the next.
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That’s me, Andreea Blaga, author of the blog anime-everything.com. I work as a content creator in the US. I am also passionate about Japanese Anime.
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