In One Punch Man season 1 episode 9, after Saitama defeated the Deep Sea King, there is a civilian badmouthing Saitama. At first, the other civilians didn't agree with the badmouthing civilian but then Saitama chose to claim that the monster is weak and he just took the bounty... But the monster is not even WEAK!

Why would Saitama choose this path? He can just ignore the words of that civilian and go do other things but why did he choose to get humiliated? What's the reasoning behind him doing that?

  • 1
    It looks more like he was just irritated and gave up on trying to reason out with the civilians. – W. Are May 18 at 2:08

Saitama clearly likes getting credit and being appreciated. However, I believe the reason he did that in this particular situation, is because he cared more about how the civilians were viewing the other heroes and didn't like the way they were belittled despite them putting their lives on the line. We sort of see this from Saitama, especially after Mumen Rider gets beaten up by Deep Sea King. Saitama clearly knew the former at least in terms of power, was practically useless. However, he is still appreciative and acknowledges the effort put in by Mumen Rider as you can see here.

Another important factor to note is that, unlike other professional heroes, Saitama doesn't walk into a fight with anything at stake or anything to lose. He isn't in a situation where his life is at risk or he's doing something extremely difficult compared to the rest of the Heroes where they are literally putting their lives on the line. We can see this side of him when he's surprised that his ranking went up significantly after smashing the meteor which he didn't consider as big of a deal.

Saitama deep inside, strongly believes in the role of a professional Hero and what it represents. Another similar incident is when he fights Suiryu and the latter undermines being a hero (which you can see here at 15:24, when they talk about the hero job.), Saitama gets serious and is very offended and reacts in a particular manner. Hence, in conclusion, Saitama strongly stands for the Hero association and the role that it entails and acknowledges the level of effort put in by heroes and was clearly upset with the way the public were treating them. Also, while to an ordinary person, Saitama's feats might seem unbelievable and monumental, to Saitama they aren't. In other words, one could say Mumen Rider for instance has much more at stake and put in more effort in comparison to Saitama(Who Despite being a million times more efficient), barely put in any effort.


I think it is because He is a hero for just a hobby. He is not much bothered by what people think of him.

But he also know that other heroes are serious about it and put there life on line for saving the civilians especially heroes like licenseless Rider.

But seeing that him beating the monster in a single punch is making those hard working heroes look bad. He created such a situation in which he is condemned for taking credit for beating the monster after it has been substantially weakened by fighting other heroes, making it appear so the effort of other heroes was not for nothing. Hence restoring faith of people in the heroes at his expense.

Your Answer

