Why One Punch Man Season 3 Looks So Rough: The Studio Behind It And What Went Wrong
Six years of hype, one night of backlash: One Punch Man season 3’s J.C. Staff-animated premiere on October 12 has ignited a fan meltdown, with episode 1 leaving the community deflated and looking for someone to blame.
One Punch Man is finally back after six years, and the Season 3 premiere on October 12, 2025 did not land the way fans hoped. The episode hit, the internet groaned, and J.C. Staff immediately took the blame. But if you dig into what people involved are actually saying, the picture is messier than the dunk-fest on your feed.
So who is actually at fault here?
Animator Vincent Chansard (you might know his work from One Piece) jumped on a YouTube live stream with KOL: Requiem and basically said: slow down on the studio hate. His point was that the production committee, the group that finances and steers the project from above, can be the thing squeezing schedules and resources. In other words, J.C. Staff is the one executing, but they are not necessarily the ones calling the shots. He also made it clear the anime industry in Japan is a grind, and studios are often just doing what they have to do to keep the machine running.
Translation: fans are torching animators, illustrators, the director, and the studio when the pressure might be coming from higher up. That does not absolve anyone of creative choices or rough shots on screen, but it does add context for how we got here.
The director stepped in... and kept his name quiet
Season 3 director Shinpei Nagai posted an explanation on Reddit about why he initially kept his own role under wraps. He said he has been working with J.C. Staff for a while, getting hired for storyboards and directing gigs throughout the year. But because he was relatively unknown, he did not want his name out front if it risked coloring how people came in feeling about the show. Once he was officially consulted for One Punch Man Season 3, he pushed a new pipeline to try to save time.
'I focused on ... bridging 3D and 2D workflows ... to squeeze out even one more second of production time.'
That tells you a lot. Despite the jokes about 'they had six years to make this,' the schedule was not anything like that. Yes, Season 3 was confirmed right after Season 2, but the proper announcement did not hit until 2022. And there is chatter among fans (unverified, to be clear) that real production only kicked into gear in the last six months before release. Whether or not that exact timeline is true, Nagai’s own words confirm they were racing the clock.
What actually happened (and when)
- Oct 12, 2025: Season 3 Episode 1 drops, animated by J.C. Staff, and sparks immediate backlash.
- Animator Vincent Chansard says on a KOL: Requiem stream that the production committee likely drove many of the constraints, not just the studio.
- Director Shinpei Nagai explains on Reddit that he kept his name low-profile early on and tried a 3D/2D hybrid workflow to claw back time.
- Season 3 was officially announced in 2022, despite being 'confirmed' after Season 2; fans speculate core production was crammed into the final months.
Reception so far
Early numbers are rough: IMDb has Episode 1 at 6.0, and MyAnimeList sits at 6.54. That is not series-killer territory, but it is a far cry from the show’s glory days and pretty reflective of the mood right now.
Where to watch
One Punch Man Season 3 is streaming on Crunchyroll.
Bottom line: if you felt that premiere was undercooked, you are not alone. But the blame might be less 'this studio is terrible' and more 'this production was squeezed.' We will see if the season finds its footing once it is not sprinting to the first finish line.