Warning! Contains spoilers for One-Punch Man Chapter 163!
While the official English translation of One-Punch Man is excellent, its most recent chapter failed to preserve one of the most epic pages in the original Japanese version. The art in the chapter is of course still incredibly epic and the translated chapter is still very enjoyable to read. But readers may not even be aware of the shocking moment that it omits.
One-Punch Man is a manga written by ONE with art by Yusuke Murata that is constantly pushing the boundaries of comic storytelling. From the beginning its art style has been very unique, attempting to marry the simplistic art of the webcomic it is based on with Murata’s detailed style. However as the series continued, it experimented with ground-breaking and exciting techniques, such as using a full-color spread to introduce One-Punch Man’s God, the incredibly powerful main antagonist of the manga, implying that his presence can warp the very way the story is told. These experiments also fit well with the subversive nature of the manga’s plot, appealing to readers who tire of typical shonen and superhero stories. While the official translation of the manga by Viz Media has adequately captured some of these innovations, like the color spread of God, it failed to do so in the manga’s latest chapter.
Chapter 163 features a climactic fight between the newly powered-up Garou and the overpowered protagonist of the series Saitama. Overflowing with the power of God, Garou represents the first antagonist in One-Punch Man history to give Saitama a serious fight. To show the titanic power of these two combatants, the original version of the chapter used a breathtaking gif, which can be found on Tonari no Young Jump‘s website. However, the translated version of the page instead resorted to using just a fully colored still version of the fight.
The colored version of this page is still an incredibly powerful illustration of how insanely strong both Garou and Saitama are. However, it can’t compare to the shocking and groundbreaking use of a gif in the Japanese chapter. No other manga has used animation in its story, given the limitations of a print medium. One-Punch Man is thus showing how online manga can incorporate elements into its story that traditional comics can’t. And as such the official English version of this One-Punch Man chapter isn’t as exciting and innovative as the original, which set a new standard for all digital Jump manga to follow.
It is unclear why the translation on Viz Media doesn’t include the gif. It may be that the website’s manga reader can’t support putting a gif in the middle of a chapter. But whatever the case, readers of the official English translation of One-Punch Man owe it to themselves to check out the incredible gif in the original version of the chapter.
One-Punch Man Chapter 163 can be read in English on Viz Media’s website. The original version of the chapter can be found on Tonari no Young Jump‘s website.
