The latter half of the Monster Association raid in the One-Punch Man Manga sucked so much ass, it's actually fucking insane how bad it is.
Let's start with the main character himself. I couldn't fucking stand Saitama in this arc, he just kept getting worse and worse. By the time the arc ended he was somehow a flanderized version of himself from the last arc.
He already knew that Garou was the type of person to rip off arms and put Mumen Rider in the hospital. Regardless of what he saw on the field, that alone should've made him see Garou as a criminal and not a toy to play with. Saitama putting his own entertainment above the safety of others is egregiously out of character. There were several civilians, injured heroes and literal children on the battlefield. Clearing them should've come first and foremost before Saitama decided to play "toss the mountain". There was absolutely nothing stopping him from knocking out Garou and dealing with his BS in a safer environment.
The way he trolls Garou ain't even in character. He isn't the Gojo-type person that toys with his food. If Saitama disrespects someone, it's almost always unintentional, that's what makes it even more entertaining.
Look at Boros for example. He didn't troll him, he took him rather seriously. He opened by trying to kill him, Boros survived, then he sympathized and gave him a fight. And even then he didn't just let Boros do whatever he wanted for several minutes like Comic Garou for some reason, even when kicked off the earth he was back to the same spot in an instant.
- The serious punch squared is easily the most damaging thing to Saitama's character. It proved he was mentally weaker than every other hero on that battlefield. Even Snek didn't endanger civilians with his bullshit. It gets even worse because Saitama actually glared at Garou for a moment, and considered it, and decided he didn't care about anyone or anything else.
Even if Garou didn't counter the impact would've killed Blast. What a hero that Saitama was this fight.
Tldr: Saitama just looked like a jackass. He wants to come in and be a smug little dipshit and troll Garou, and when it blows up in his face he immediately throws a shit-fit and goes "fuck everyone."
He was like a fucking manchild. Then to drive all that shit home, he's just beating up God's biggest victim, who didn't actually want to do any of this, so he ain't even avenging anyone, the true culprit gets off scot-free. And then Garou fixes Saitama's mess and dies for it while Saitama gets absorbed into past Saitama and is essentially erased. Good fucking riddance.
To quote u/DrearySalieri; "Because what makes the conclusion of the arc so powerful is the fundamental reveal that Garou, for all his power, isn’t that serious a villain. He’s (explicitly) a teenager mimicking Saturday cartoon villains who intentionally goes non lethal against every hero he faces. He saves kids from bullies and monsters in his free time. It takes an adult who sees past the power to the child to change him, not necessarily the defeat itself.
That resolution just feels so at odds with him slaughtering the fucking earth. Webcomic Garou can’t stomach a single child dying for all his pretend villainy. The decision to just leave him feels right because he’s such a poser in terms of actual malice. Manga Garou actually accidentally murders literally everyone, making all the people saying “kill the chunni teenager” justified ruining the taste of the whole goddamn conclusion"
I hate Hate HATE that they decided to make Amai Mask CORRECT about Garou. He genuinely is a threat to the Earth. Saitama was wrong about Garou, he was wrong to treat him lightly and that got everyone killed in the prior timeline.
And those two are the main plot-drivers for the entire Hero-Hunter Saga.
There are so many more little things that fucking ruin it at the end.
>Saitama acts like he knows he's a gag character for some reason which lead to the most fucking obnoxious moments from him to date.
> From u/Dr-Leviathan; "King willingly deciding to go back to the surface fight makes absolutely no sense for his character. The story justifies with with a flashback to the Elder Centipede fight, with King reflecting that he could be theoretically be useful in other ways even if he's not strong. lgnoring the fact that that was an insane situation which was mainly Saitama and had almost nothing to do with King. Realistically, the only way King could believe he could be of any use in a fight is if he was suddenly aware of his own meta-luck, and expected Saitama to save him every time. That is something we as the reader understands, but now King seems to be making decisions based off that logic."
>The S-Class immediately getting MCU-fied and becoming chummy after one goddamn fight.
> Saitama suddenly acting like Luffy for some reason like when he decided to play in fucking lava in the middle of a fight like a 5 year old.
>Genos literally fucking seeing the past timeline, seeing how badly Saitama fucked things up and immediately deciding to glaze him, which also clashes HARD with his upcoming character direction.
>The story out of nowhere trying to sell Child Emperor as this trouble lonely child with not only clashes with the webcomic characterization where he has plenty of friends and allies his own age, but also clashes with the manga's earlier moments with Isami being hella popular at school, for him suddenly being bullied, like that somehow makes sense.
>Saitama being there for Child Emperor's fight with Phoenix Man, which not only kills every single bit of tension in the fact, but tarnishes Saitama's character even further because that means he knows knew there was a raid from the start, but the fact that we got 5 goddamn redraws of this fight AND THEY DIDN'T EVEN USE THE FINAL VERSION FOR THE ANIME.
>Sage Fucking Centipede and Metal Bat somehow not getting oneshot by him.
> No Garou vs S-Class. This one hurt.
>No Psykos leading the Cases against the S-Class.
>No Cadres ironically having better teamwork than the S-Class showing a fundamental flaw in their mindset as people and heroes.
>The Swordsmen council are used to upscale Vomited Fuhrer Ugly, who also utterly shits on Darkshine's character development, not to mention having actual human causalities makes Saitama's lackadaisical nature significantly less charming since he's bum fucking around while people are dying.
> Tatsumaki and Fubuki literally coming to terms this arc, so their characters have to actually regress so that the next arc (which was also utterly butchered from the webcomic) makes sense.
> Blast. If he just took the fucking cube and left, that'd be enough, but nope, we're already over-exposed to the guy and we don't even know what his WC counterpart's story is gonna be yet. And judging by the redraws with Blast in the manga future arcs, they don't know either.
Ass, ass and more ass on top of shit.
At this point, I don't even care that the anime sucks dick, it's not like the upcoming story would be worth good animation.