One Punch Man Season 3 Drama Looks Tame Compared to What Pierrot Put Black Clover Fans Through

Two episodes into One Punch Man season 3 and, yeah, the vibes are not great. After a six-year wait, we got a season that looks and moves like a slideshow. That stings. But as rough as this rollout is, it still doesn’t touch what Studio Pierrot put Black Clover through.

One Punch Man S3: A tough start after a long wait

Fans jumped back in hoping for fireworks and got...firecrackers. The action has been thin, the animation feels downgraded, and pacing isn’t picking up the slack. It’s worth remembering the shadow this show lives in: Madhouse set an Everest-level standard with season 1. Realistically, seasons 2 and 3 were never going to match that same level of brilliance. Season 3, handled by J.C. Staff, just makes that gap extra obvious.

Black Clover had it worse — and from day one

Quick rewind to 2017. Black Clover finally gets an anime, fans are thrilled...and then the reality of Studio Pierrot’s adaptation hits. This is the same studio behind Naruto and Bleach, so expectations were high. The execution? Not so much.

• Author Yuki Tabata kept dropping weekly chapters, while Pierrot stretched episodes to the breaking point, slowing arcs to a crawl.
• Filler piled up and became its own kind of punishment for fans trying to stick it out.
• Animation quality dipped hard, with tight deadlines and an overworked team leading to some truly rough episodes.
• Tatsuya Yoshihara was brought on as director, but the series was basically put on his shoulders. He reportedly got only six months of pre-production.
• He had just two animation producers, both juggling other projects at the same time.
• The show was undermanned from the jump, with Yoshihara expected to wrangle production logistics, assemble a crew, and keep the whole machine moving. He pushed forward anyway and did what he could, but the strain shows on screen.

The story vs animation argument, again

"Good story precedes animation"

That sentiment has been floating around since OPM S3 dropped. And look, story is the foundation. But animation isn’t a bonus feature — not in anime. An adaptation should be a full reimagining: movement, soundtrack, visual design, voice work. If the show is just flipping manga panels with minimal motion, why not just read the manga? Especially when it’s One Punch Man, where the manga’s art is spectacular on its own.

Anime isn’t just colored drawings that move. It’s supposed to be manga plus a soul — something you build frame by frame. Season 1 had that in spades. Season 3, so far, doesn’t. And trying to defend that level of cut-corners doesn’t help the medium. Yes, the story starts the fire, but the animation is the oxygen. Without it, you’re watching embers.

Where I land — and where you can watch

Season 3 needs a visual glow-up, fast. Do you find what we’ve gotten so far even remotely satisfying, or is it just a bitter pill? Drop your take.

Both One Punch Man and Black Clover are streaming on Hulu.