One Punch Man Season 3 Episode 3 Turns Epic Battles Into Slideshows

One Punch Man season 3, episode 3 has a couple bright spots, but the episode mostly crawls and talks itself in circles. If you were hoping for momentum, this one slams the brakes.

The good (briefly)

Garou throwing down with Royal Ripper and Insect God is the one sequence with a pulse. That scrap actually moves, actually has some teeth. Then we cut to Hellfire Flame vs Gale Wind round two, which plays like action on ice. It is a side fight, sure, but stiff is stiff.

And then the episode sits down and starts explaining

Talking eats most of the runtime again — it feels like 80% conversation, 20% everything else — and the way it is delivered does the material no favors. Dr. Genus and Zombieman spend their big lab scene spelling out experiments over what are essentially collage boards of monsters and heroes. Not stylized. Not dynamic. Just pans and zooms across a static image while dialogue runs. That minimalist approach pops up elsewhere too.

Hedro Jellyfish lecturing the kidnapped boys that no one is coming to help? Same problem: villain shots, almost no actual animation. Even the hangout meant to break the tension — Saitama, King, Bang, Hellish Blizzard, and Genos — lands with a thud. When every other scene is flat, the comedy has nowhere to bounce.

Two fights, zero traction

Despite the scuffles, the story is barely inching forward. The Monster Association still has not launched an attack. The Heroes are still parked, still clueless about the Association's HQ. And the one big swing last week — Saitama walking out, finding Garou, and casually one-punching him — has no aftershock. Garou does not remember getting folded. Saitama treats it like taking out the trash.

When King, Genos, and Bang try to bring it up, Saitama dodges into chatter about a lost wallet and napa cabbage. That dodge might be the joke, but it undercuts the one thing people actually want to hear: Saitama acknowledging who he wrecked. The gag steps on the payoff.

Where this leaves season 3

If episode 3 is the blueprint, we are in for more static frames and winded exposition with the occasional fight sprinkled in. And when the action does arrive, it risks being merely okay — paid for by long stretches of slideshow-level staging.

• Talking dominates the episode — roughly 80% by feel.
• Highlight: Garou vs Royal Ripper and Insect God delivers.
• Lowlight: Hellfire Flame vs Gale Wind is rigid and forgettable.
• Multiple scenes lean on pans/zooms over still images: Genus/Zombieman's lab talk, Hedro Jellyfish with the captive boys, and the Saitama/King/Bang/Hellish Blizzard/Genos comic beat.
• Plot is stalled: no Monster Association attack, Heroes still do not know the HQ location.
• Saitama one-shotted Garou in episode 2, but it leaves no dent — Garou has no memory, and Saitama shrugs it off, changing the subject to his missing wallet and napa cabbage.
• One Punch Man is streaming on Crunchyroll.