One-Punch Man Season 2 Trailer, Release Date Revealed

The strongest punch is back. 

Over three years after its premiere on the small screen, the acclaimed anime series One-Punch Man will take its second swing for season 2. A new trailer for the upcoming second season, recently posted to AnimeTV, confirms that the story will continue sometime in April 2019. 

Featuring intense music and very little dialogue (the talking is saved for the very end), the One-Punch Man season 2 trailer reveals that Saitama, the once-normal boy who trained long and hard to become the most powerful superhero mankind has ever known, and the rest of the gang will battle Garou in the new episodes. 

"Time to carry out evil," Garou, the silver-haired villain with beaming yellow eyes described as a "shadowy man," says in the trailer. "This'll be a slaughter party."

The clip also teases a clash between "Supreme Power" and "Ultimate Fear," and notes that the brave individuals who stand up to the "super-strong bad guys in the world" are known as "heroes." A guy like Saitama, who can take down opponents with just a single hit, would be able to defeat Garou with very little effort — but it seems that their encounter won't be as simple as Saitama's past one-on-one tussles have been. He clearly represents the "Supreme Power," leaving Garou to embody "Ultimate Fear," and this all suggests that when the two go head to head, Garou might use deception and emotional tricks more so than physical prowess in attempts to best Saitama. 

A new baddie at the center of the story is but one change-up from One-Punch Man season 1 to season 2. The series has swapped animation studios, moving from Madhouse to J.C. Staff, the same studio that has worked on Children of the Whales, Food Wars!, Death Note, and the bizarre anime films Paprika and Perfect Blue. Fans will immediately spot a difference between the visual style of the first season and this initial look at the second; where Madhouse electro-charged the series with a uniquely messy, energetic vibe, it appears that J.C. Staff has reined things in just a tad. In addition to shifting to a new studio, One-Punch Man also landed a new director. Shingo Natsume is stepping out from behind the helm and passing the torch to relatively fresh-faced director Chikara Sakurai. 

It will be interesting to see how these alterations affect One-Punch Man, particularly in terms of how the season season will compare to the first. The sophomore slump is real, but hopefully One-Punch Man can hit just as hard the second time around. 

One-Punch Man season 2 is set for release in April 2019. We don't yet know which platforms the new episodes will air on.