DB Parody in "One-Punch Man"

[Super Sonic]

Was watching the premiere of "One-Punch Man" on Toonami last weekend, and at the beginning they had a villain named "Vaccine Man" who looked like he was patterned after Piccolo. He was even voiced by Chris Sabat. Thought it was interesting and thought I'd ask if anyone else caught it.

[JulieYBM]

Was watching the premiere of "One-Punch Man" on Toonami last weekend, and at the beginning they had a villain named "Vaccine Man" who looked like he was patterned after Piccolo. He was even voiced by Chris Sabat. Thought it was interesting and thought I'd ask if anyone else caught it.

Vaccine Man is a parody of Baikinman from Anpanman. Saitama's hero outfit is a take on Anpanman's and One Punch Man is written as 'Wanpanman'. Nakao Ryuusei, who voices Baikinman and Freeza from Dragon Ball, is the voice f Vaccine Man.

[Pantalones]

I just looked both of them up, and... Vaccine Man really does look a lot like Piccolo. Like... "separated at birth" degrees of similarity. If they were both wearing long-sleeved shirts (to cover up Piccolo's pink things on his arms) they'd almost look like recolors of each other. Drop him into Dragonball with the explanation that Universe 6 Namekians are purple rather than green and don't have those pinkish things on their skin and nobody would bat an eye.



I can see how the name would be a parody of Baikinman, especially given the B/V thing Japanese has, but appearance-wise it's more along the lines of "Piccolo with Baikinman's color scheme." He does have the bigger/thicker antennae like Baikinman, but he doesn't have the pointy-devil-tail or fly-wings from Baikinman's design at all. Or clothes, for that matter (heck, there's another Piccolo resemblance right there -- no external genitalia to see when he's naked since Namekians just barf up eggs! XD)

[ryou766]

I found it hilarious how Sabat voiced Vaccine Man in the English dub of OPM.

[fadeddreams5]

I think Lord Boros was heavily influenced by so much shit from DBZ.

[KentalSSJ6]

Rumors are abound that Schemmel will be playing Boros. I can the dubbing company reaching out to him especially since he voiced in a tweet that he really wants to voice someone in the show.

[Super Sonic]

I found it hilarious how Sabat voiced Vaccine Man in the English dub of OPM.

It wasn't the only in-joke casting that episode did. The guy who roided and turned into a giant was voiced by Attack on Titan's Bryce Papenbrook.

[Herms]

As already noted, the core concept behind Vaccine Man is a parody of Baikinman, just as Saitama started off as a parody of Anpanman (the hero who fights Baikinman). Baikin="germs" in Japanese, and he's all about spreading germs, so the joke is that Vaccine Man is the mirror opposite...while still being destructive (viewing humanity as a disease that must be wiped out). And again, Saitama's entire design comes directly from Anpanman, as does the title One-Punch Man. That's essentially how the entire series started: a single chapter web comic pitting a parody of Anpanman against a parody of Baikinman. But positive feedback led to more web comic chapters, and the rest is history.

And notably, Vaccine Man doesn't look all that much like Piccolo in ONE's original web comic. He's got pointy ears (something Baikinman lacks), but they're not big or, well, Piccolo-y. Likewise, the antenna are way bigger than Piccolo's (matching Baikinman's antenna). It's his redesign for the Murata remake that really makes him look like Piccolo, and Murata's well-known as a DB fan, so it's likely he intentionally cranked up the Piccolo influence. In the same way, Carnage Kabuto's "Carnage Mode" transformation started off as a fairly generic beefing-up in the original web comic, but the anime turns it into a very clear Evangelion reference. And Marugori (the giant in the first episode) was simply a big naked man in the original version, and it was Murata who redesigned him to look all Attack on Titan-y.

[dbgtFO]

Herms, do you know when the Boros arc was begun and finished in the original Web comic by One?
Was it before or after BoG was announced?

[Adamant]

I found it hilarious how Sabat voiced Vaccine Man in the English dub of OPM.

Yeah, they really should've done their job better there.
unfortunately this is probably just going to make lots and lots more people mistake what the actual parody is.

[MetaMoss]

I found it hilarious how Sabat voiced Vaccine Man in the English dub of OPM.

Yeah, they really should've done their job better there.
unfortunately this is probably just going to make lots and lots more people mistake what the actual parody is.

I seriously doubt people would've gotten the reference even if Viz attempted to recreate it. Anpanman isn't something that the English-speaking world has ever been exposed to. Heck, the only reason I know that it exists is because I read up on OPM and learned how many references to Anpan it makes. Making Vaccine Man a full-on Piccolo reference? It makes sense, it's now something the American audience will actually understand and enjoy.

[Ajay]

I'm with MetaMoss on this.

For Japanese fans, getting Ryusei Nakao -- the voice of Baikinman -- to also voice Vacine Man is an awesome throwback to the ONE's original intentions, and it's something a large majority of people are going to get over there.

When you bring that over to the US, you're never going to be able to carry that reference across. That's never going to happen. Anyone who does know Anpanman and Nakao are probably the types to be watching in Japanese in the first place.

When Murata is clearly channeling Piccolo in his version -- which is also the version the anime is following -- I see no reason why using Sabat to create a localised reference is a big deal. In fact, I thought it was a pretty nice touch, honestly.

Give the viewers half the reference if you can't give them the whole one. That's absolutely better than doing nothing at all. Yeah okay, it's clouding the original intentions, but they were never going to be conveyed in the first place.

[Polyphase Avatron]

I think Lord Boros was heavily influenced by so much shit from DBZ.

That's true.

Alien conqueror who comes to Earth: Raditz/Vegeta/Nappa
Alien overlord who rules the known universe: Freeza
Regenerates from being blown into pieces: Cell/Buu
Spiky hair design: Saiyans/Super Saiyans
Powering up and transforming: Tons of characters
Threatening to destroy/wreck the planet when he realized he was losing: Freeza
Coming to Earth in search of a legendary opponent from a prophecy to give him a good fight: Beerus
The speech about his Meteoric Burst taxing his stamina was basically word-for-word from Goku's explanation of SSJ3

[Doctor.]

The speech about his Meteoric Burst taxing his stamina was basically word-for-word from Goku's explanation of SSJ3

I thought that was more of a parody on Kaioken.

[dbgtFO]

Coming to Earth in search of a legendary opponent from a prophecy to give him a good fight: Beerus

I'm iffy on this one, hence why I asked Herms above, if he knew, if the original web-comic had this arc play out before or after the release of BoG.

[Polyphase Avatron]

The speech about his Meteoric Burst taxing his stamina was basically word-for-word from Goku's explanation of SSJ3

I thought that was more of a parody on Kaioken.

Well I can't confirm but I heard somewhere that the Japanese lines used in both the Meteoric Burst and SSJ3 explanation were pretty much identical.

[Xeztin]

Off topic from the op but I suppose this is the only chance I'll get to ask. Why hasn't Mob 100 been redrawn like OPM? I haven't read it, is it not popular enough?

[Nejishiki]

Off topic from the op but I suppose this is the only chance I'll get to ask. Why hasn't Mob 100 been redrawn like OPM? I haven't read it, is it not popular enough?

It makes a difference that the One Punch Man anime was being adapted from Murata's work instead of ONE's web-comic. I'm not sure if Mob Psycho 100 ever had a manga adaption, but I'll assume not with the anime being more in tune with ONE's drawing style. To answer your question, the web-comic of One Punch Man indeed took off better than Mob Psycho 100, but the latter was always his main product. Murata, in particular, really enjoyed One Punch Man and wanted to collaborate with ONE. Actually, I prefer ONE's art for his projects, despite the obvious lack of talent. It makes his dynamic moments stand out significantly and it's always obvious that some characters are handled with less care than others for story-specific reasons.