When online outrage torpedoed the latest episode of One‑Punch Man, few saw past the animation flaws. But what followed exposed a creative industry buckling under impossible expectations.
The sixth episode of the long-awaited third season of the Japanese superhero saga – once praised for its sharp humour and kinetic style – stumbled onto screens under the weight of its own hype in October.
Viewers flooded social media with complaints about its uneven pacing and “rushed” storytelling. On reviews database IMDb, the episode’s audience rating collapsed to 1.4, a brutal comedown for a franchise accustomed to critical acclaim that had usually scored between 7.3 and 9.5.
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Days later, the show’s director Shinpei Nagai deleted his social media accounts after posting a message that said the backlash had become too much to bear.
“Honestly, this is taking a toll on my mental health, and it only brings negatives to the work, the staff and the original creators,” he wrote in Japanese.
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The sudden implosion of goodwill for One-Punch Man rippled far beyond its immediate fandom. For many inside Japan and South Korea’s creative circles, the uproar captured how social media scrutiny, industrial workloads and fan expectations are converging into a near-unliveable pressure cooker.