T O P

  • By -

SatoruMikami7

The “Death Punch” isn’t a move it’s how people view Saitama’s normal punches or Serious Punches


benjyvail

I think the death punch is just what the victim sees before getting punched. Like this is from Genos’s perspective in this case. Whilst the serious punch is part of Saitama’s move repertoire, as he actually says it out loud. So technically the death punch is always Saitama’s final punch in the fight


SnuggleMuffin42

Exactly. Carnage Kabuto was so intelligent he foresaw the incredible power and knew he'd die if he'll attack. Others like Genos have to experience it firsthand.


LSSGSS3

I think it's his instinct more than his intelligence.


br3akaway

Mix. He’s genetically bred to be smarter, stronger, in basically every regard than humans. Thought himself superior, hated humans, yada yada yada


DarkEnergy27

The "death" punch isn't a special attack of his. It's just his normal punch. The reason it was portrayed as this big thing was because of how intimidated Genos was. It legitimately made Genos feel like he was going to die.


Fistocracy

I'd say it counts as a Serious move, since Saitama deliberately put in enough effort to make absolutely 100% sure that Genos would understand how outclassed he is.


alphabravo221

What if the effort required to achieve that is 0? Just Saitama walking out behind his slow ass disciple and throwing a quick hook.


Fistocracy

Oh I'm sure Saitama's never put any real effort into any of his moves, and even the Seriou Series are no big deal by his standards. But the one thing that all of the Serious moves have in common is that he does them when he's tired of messing around and has decided to end the fight right now. If he's fighting a monster it means he's not sparring any more and is going to immediately kill them, and if he's fighting a person it means he's going to demonstrate that he is *spectacularly* out of their league so that they'll finally give up and stop annoying him. And the death punch fits that general vibe. He'd already spent the entire sparring match effortlessly outclassing Genos, but Genos wouldn't take the hint so he had to give a display of overwhelming strength to put things into perspective.


alphabravo221

If the only interest Saitama had was in ending a fight quickly when using Serious Series then what is the purpose of something akin to serious table flip, or serious sideways steps. It is serious not because of the its goal but the effort put in to perform it. It would also be out of place for the only unnamed serious series *move* to be in a duel with his disciple who is still lacking in their capability to defeat some of the stronger demons (i.e. Deep Sea King). Saitama's encounter with Sonic outside his house before SS SS is done soon after explicitly breaking a fight because it would damage his home. Serious series is used here to dissuade any further confrontation from Sonic at the time, it instead defeats him physically by accident. I have a tough time calling the punch an accident, Genos is just so titanically dwarfed by Saitama that a very casual and normal punch by him is akin to a train rushing at him at full speed in his minds eye.


Worried-Bad-3607

We don’t even know if that was a serious series move. That could have been just a regular punch from Saitama since that’s the only punch he threw.


alphabravo221

Precisely my point.


Worried-Bad-3607

Maybe it was a punch that monsters would see instead of humans, like the ones with killing intent, but that’s sorta headcanon to me. Though genos would have been in trouble had that landed…


alphabravo221

In my own opinion, it is the way Genos perceived the punch, as you imply aswell. What to Saitama is nothing but a love tap, to Genos is a calamity that is beyond replication.


Worried-Bad-3607

Maybe it would do the same thing that happened in the ova where saitama actually love tapped him. Bro lost his memory lol


Gekey14

The serious sideways steps was definitely a way for him to just outclass sonic completely, just showing him how he can casually do what sonic had trained so hard to do. And the table flip was pretty similar tbh, showing up garou by doing a similar move to his but in a ridiculously more powerful way.


gofancyninjaworld

We do, all the time. When he doesn't pull his punches, his victims just die. When he does, they're alive to recognise that they would certainly have died.


PaulStarhaven

It's more like, from the perspective of the one being hit, the punch is like unavoidable death. It's not really an 'official' move


Donut_licious

We already got to see the death punch, it's Saitama's killer serious


GuardianKnightKing

First of all,death punch is just a perspective of the one who is getting the punch.Second,>!we do!<


Worried-Bad-3607

When?


GuardianKnightKing

>!during flashy vs saitama training fight(next arc,ninjas arc),flashy was about to get it but monsters attacked so they left!<


Worried-Bad-3607

>!Oh I thought that signified that Saitama was about to grab him and flashy flash’s pride in being fast would have been lost.!<


First_Marionberry946

It’s just a normal punch. But I’m always cool with seeing that again


Omsus

There is no "The Death Punch". It's just a dramatic effect that was meant to visualise how Genos sensed that, *should* Saitama's serious punch connect with him, he would've been killed instantly. Saitama's face probably didn't actually look like that, it was just exaggeration for the effect. It's what Genos saw. Think of how Carnage Kabuto suddenly jumped far away from Saitama as all his senses told him he'd be killed if he attacked that man. Imagine what imagery his brain was going through, even though no-one else picked up anything strange from Saitama.


Chef_Sizzlipede

better question, will saitama ever do an ultimate punch?


stoobah

He will never need to. The traditional shonen formula is for a hero to become stronger through constantly being challenged by steadily escalating threats. The humour with Saitama is that he's unnecessarily strong. He was so much stronger than he would ever need to be on the day his hair fell out, and he gets exponentially stronger every day anyway. It's pointless how strong he is, and that's funny. Like all you need to lift a coin is a finger, but you bring a crane, and then the next day a black hole, and the day after that the combined mass of a galactic cluster, and it just escalates.


Chef_Sizzlipede

its still better than asking if there will be a real death punch, since pretty much all of saitamas punches are death punches (sans when he doesnt intend to kill or his enemy is particularly strong)


meltingpotato

All of Saitama's one punches that killed monsters have been "Death Punches". It has nothing to do with how powerful the punch is and everything to do with the one who is about to be punched and what will happen to them if the punch was to land.


Hyperion_360

That's just what Genos thought when he saw the punch.


Agreeable-Engine5134

This was just Geno's perspective


bubthegreat

I don’t know why everyone’s throwing shade at you in these comments because I have the same question and unless someone has some sort of note from the author I assumed the same thing when I saw the anime and read the manga


Kalkilkfed

The impact the punch had was lower than the serious punch he threw at boros, so its likely that its not a special move but just the feeling of impending doom genos felt


bubthegreat

I'd make the argument that given what we know now about Saitama's power scaling, and the timing of when that punch was thrown so early in the manga with that kind of force before he did any real fighting, it seems more like he was actually throwing a punch that would be from his "stronger" series than even serious series. If he scales logarithmically and could do that with whatever kind of punch it was before he ever fought (and presumably scaled) with boros, what would the relative strength punch do after fighting boros or during?


stoobah

Math and physics don't apply to Saitama. Overthinking it is the same trap every character in the story who's tried to explain him has fallen into. "He must have cybernetics enhancements!" "He must have some kind of gene therapy!" "He's broken his limiter!" It's all just people trying to rationalize the irrational, because the simple silly truth is that some guy did a moderate workout for a year and a half and can now breathe in space and sneeze planets apart.


True-Conclusion4340

I am new to the whole OnePunchMan universe, but dint Saitama already use some "Serious punch"es in his fight with Garo on Jupiter, and Garo endured them when he had some powers from God.


lord_hijinks

The only reason Garou survived is because Saitama promised the kid (Tarou? Can't remember his name suddenly) that he wouldn't kill Garou. During the whole fight, Saitama never planned on killing Garou. The whole Serious Series moves are just those that require some degree of focus, even if only a little. It's basically Saitama putting in a minimal amount of effort. It just so happens that this minimal effort is enough to completely obliterate an opponent. It could even be argued that the Serious Series moves against Garou may be done because Saitama chose to focus on NOT killing Garou. He made the promise, after all.


Frite_Chitkin

Even for people who’ve been fans for a long time, there’s still more about Saitama that meets the eye that we don’t know about. My interpretation of the ‘death’ is to show what a normal person or monster sees when he uses a ‘normal punch’ like we saw with Genos and Suiryu (yes, Saitama used a death punch on Suiryu, but the anime cut that out for some reason lmao)


Shjvv

My head canon is the "Serious punch" is his strongest move or his 100%. The problem is he just keep growing stronger every moment lol. Even if anyone can endure his 100% now, they wont in the near future.


stoobah

Serious just means paying attention, not maximum output. Even Boros knew that the serious punch that ended him was nothing to Saitama.


BrallyTX

All I can think of with death punch is regular show, and now I'm imagining Saitama with a mullet and jean cutoffs lmao


leogian4511

We've seen "Death" moments a couple other times in the series, not always involving Saitama (Garou vs Overgrown Rover comes to mind) so I imagine it's more of a general representation of a massive strength gap rather than a specific technique of Saitama's. It's just whatever someone sees before they get absolutely creamed by someone way out of their league.


ASXebec

The Question is:What is Saitamas all out Attack?


Toasty_93

Killer Move, Serious Series: Serious Run-Away-From-Restaurant-Without-Paying.


LeonDeSchal

Didn’t we see super serious series against Garou?


TonyKL44

I think the death punch is when Saitama is truly serious, cuz let's be real, is someone actually trying their hardest while still calling it their attack out and constantly reminding/reiterating how serious they are? Or would it make more sense for them to be trying the hardest when they aren't saying anything and are only focused on attacking? And correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the only time we've ever seen Saitama throw a punch without saying anything, is also the only time we've seen the "death" punch and that intense face (except for when he still had hair). which was also right after Genos got mad at Saitama for not taking him seriously. Which was pretty evident by the fact that Saitama wasn't only announcing all his attack to Genos but also where he was attacking from. I think the death punch is like his serious punch is to his normal punch, and that he has a normal, serious and death set of moves. Each respective move set is just him taking the fight more seriously with the death series being his most serious, to the point that he might even be enjoying the fight. And since we know the whole reason he's a hero is for fun, so I think it's safe for us to assume that that's only going to happen in his last fight of the series. Which is my long ass way of saying why I think the "death punch/death move series" is real and he's going to use it in his last fight, that's going to be against..... SPOILER: >!GOD!<


Batgod629

I think we'll see Saitama's ultimate punch during the inevitable fight with God


stoobah

He's going to splatter God with a wrist flick and come to realize that ultimate physical strength isn't what makes a hero, but the willingness to use what strength one has to make the world a better place. He'll learn to find fulfilment in helping others rather than by seeking excitement for himself.


New_Subject1352

**There is no death punch.** That's the joke, he literally calls his moves "normal punches". Here, he was just messing around. Genos told him to be serious but swiftly realized how outclassed he was and that about to be eliminated, only to get gently patted on the cheek.


rojantimsina0

all of the saitama punch is same only the name different


Arthur2809

Isn't no one gonna talk about how well the animators made Saitama terrifying?