One Punch Man is one of the most popular anime in recent years, focusing on a protagonist who can’t find a real fight no matter how hard he tries. While Saitama defeats most foes with a single punch, he’s constantly looking for an enemy worth his time. The main character in the anime is a fighter at his core, which makes the live-action trailer for an upcoming mobile game all the more cringe-worthy.
An ad for an upcoming mobile game, One Punch Man: The Strongest, was released online recently, and fans have been ripping it to shreds since. User @Everything_OPM shared the trailer with their followers on Twitter. Many are commenting on the weird tone in the trailer, which looks like it was thrown together over a short weekend.
The trailer starts when a man with a goatee in Saitama’s costume shows up inside some kind of cafe, with the onlookers both bewildered and excited. Suddenly, a hip-hop beat starts to play in the background, with the costumed man saying “Let’s get started.” What follows is an assault on rap music, with “Saitama” asking in mind-blowing autotune “what’s my name?” before rapping.
The crowd of workers and customers gather behind him to chant “One Punch Man” over and over again with decreasing enthusiasm. It all culminates at the end with the faux One Punch Man asking “who wants to play?” thrusting his fist into the sky. Throughout the video, there are maybe 15 seconds of actual gameplay, with the rest being completely devoted to the autotuned song.
While some fans have come to the game’s defense, no one can deny that these trailers don’t do anything it promotes justice. Outside of a man in Saitama’s costume with an out-of-place goatee, the song and accompanying rap appear to be the most thrown-together trailer in a time when mobile marketing standards are at an all-time low.
Another trailer was posted for the game in the replies to the main tweet. This trailer goes in a different direction, showing a woman with multiple bruises on her face being pushed up against a wall by a man in a gray wig. When she realizes her character is stronger in One Punch Man: The Strongest, she pushes the man off of her and transforms into that character for some reason.
There’s not much more depth to this one over the first trailer, but it still doesn’t show much gameplay, instead relying on the live-action characters. It comes off really aggressive at the start in a way that’s kind of hard to watch, especially when you notice the myriad of bruises on the woman’s face. While she’s able to transform into Tatsumaki from the anime, it doesn’t come off great in the beginning.
These ads shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention to them on social media platforms like TikTok in recent years. New marketing seems to be more focused on creating shock value that will get the trailer shared, as opposed to actually giving details about the game. In the crowded market of mobile gaming, it seems like companies will try anything if it gets a game sold.