The premise of One Punch-Man is that its protagonist Saitama is stronger than anyone, and the mysterious source of his power may have been already explained: the limiter break. Because the manga started as a parody of the shonen genre, the reason why Saitama is so powerful has never been explained. However, one explanation proposed in the story makes perfect sense in the context of the most recent developments in the manga.
At the beginning of One Punch-Man, Saitama was an unemployed young man with a nihilistic attitude. He did not have a purpose in life and believed he would never find one. After a chance encounter with a monster, he remembers his childhood dream of being a hero and starts training every day. His “training” is actually nothing spectacular, just 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 squats, along with a 10 km run, but he did it every single day.
After three years, he is so powerful that he can defeat any monster with a single punch. He then starts his career as a pro hero, but due to his excessive strength, nothing is a challenge for him, meaning that he still struggles to find motivation or excitement.
The Limiter Break Is The Best Explanation For Saitama’s Strength
There is no way that Saitama’s simple workout explains his power: other pro heroes in the manga have trained in more gruesome ways and are nowhere close to his level. However, one theory proposed by Dr. Genus could explain it. After witnessing the hero’s power in chapter #89 of One-Punch Man, Genus theorizes that Saitama was able to remove his “limiter”. After being defeated, Genus reformed and accepted Saitama’s teaching that humans’ true power is the ability to change and grow. However, during a conversation with the S-Class hero Zombieman, Genus adds that there is a limit to a being’s growth, human or monster, put there by “God” to ensure that one does not obtain unlimited power, thus losing all sense of purpose and sanity.
One-Punch Man Confirms Saitama Is Actually Close To Fighting God
One-Punch Man is hinting that it could shock fans by having its most important showdown happen a lot sooner than expected.
The “limiter break” theory was put forth by Dr. Genus in chapter #89, a long time after his meeting with Saitama and the “training regime comedy bit” (in chapter #11), thus giving it a lot more credit. Also, the same theory came up later through the work of Psykos, the mastermind behind the Monster Association, who experimented to find ways to break the limit of growth. Her only success was the Monster King Orochi, who started as a normal human being and became the strongest monster through a repeated process of near-death experiences.
This was mentioned in chapter #94, proving that the “limiter break” is actually an important and recurring concept in the manga. It also proves that there is a connection between the “limiter break” process and “monsterification”, a fact confirmed by the evolution of Garou, a martial artist who turned into an incredibly powerful monster through the same process of repeatedly cheating death.
Saitama Broke The Limiter Imposed By “God”
However, Genus states that becoming a monster does not remove a creature’s “limiter”, it simply raises it to new levels, which would explain why Saitama is still stronger than Orochi, Garou, and all the other monsters he met. Finally, Genus’ mention of “God” could be a reference to the mysterious all-powerful being that is the main villain of the series. Saitama has been called by one of God’s monster servants “the fist that rebelled against God“, which could be interpreted as the confirmation that Saitama indeed broke the limits imposed by God, thus becoming his nemesis. Genus revisits his theory in chapter #190, when Zombieman, after learning about Saitama’s incredible power, asks the scientist to break his limiter, to become a better hero.
It is still unclear how Saitama managed to break his limiter, and why did he not lose his mind in the process. It is also interesting that Genus mentions “lose all purpose” as a risk in obtaining too much power: perhaps Saitama avoided losing his mind because he had little purpose to begin with, besides becoming a hero. Also, during the battle with Garou, it’s shown how Saitama’s greatest fear is losing his humanity due to the detachment his power creates, which could be another clue. While the source of Saitama’s strength in One-Punch Man is still a mystery, the recurrence of the “limiter break” theory in the story makes it the most reliable explanation, for now.
All chapters of One-Punch Man are available now on Viz!
Read On Viz
