Hair Loss: One Punch Man

[Agustin Araujo]

Every once in a while, I see discussions here and there about how there's no bald superheroes. I recently found out that there is a bald superhero, so I'll be telling a little bit of info on who it is from what I found.

The hero's name is Saitama, he is the protagonist of the One Punch Man anime series. He is beyond a powerful superhero who can effortlessly defeat the strongest villains with a single punch since there is no limit to his strength. His punches are so powerful, the opponents he fights explode from his strength. However, due to his limitless amount of strength, he's always bored of his superhero work and is constantly searching for an opponent who'll actually challenge him in a fight. Despite defeating the strongest villains, he struggles to gain respect. He decides to join the Heroes Association to gain official recognition as a hero, and even though he continues to defeat villains which even the strongest heroes of the association are no match for, Saitama still struggles to gain respect since most people look down on him due to his plain physical appearance, which includes his baldness.

Saitama below:

Saitama is aged 25 and first started his training at 22 years old. It took him three years to get to the level of strength where he's at. His training consisted of 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10 kilometer run every day without missing a single one for three straight years. Saitama says the training was so intense it caused all of his hair to fall out. When he reveals this training regimen, he is quickly accused of lying and told that there's no way he obtained the strength he has with such basic training which anyone can do.

Saitama himself is a humble man. He doesn't care at all when he is insulted and simply ignores. However, the only insult where Saitama could react out of is when his baldness is pointed out.

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Saitama saves a city from being obliterated by a meteor:

[video=youtube;Py3qA3EkfwA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py3qA3EkfwA[/video]

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So yeah, there's your bald superhero, Saitama! Easily one of the most powerful superheroes in the entire fictional superhero universe! :mrgreen:

 

[Saurabhaj]

On 9gag page,all young people on facebook had very good view about this,no comment was made to ridicule his baldness
also i didnot know about this,so i only read comments on 9gag.

 

[Eren]

It is a good show to watch, humor, action and a cool storyline. Indeed, the only main character in anime I know of who has a bald head.

 

[JTS]

Probably just to appeal to older male readers.

No, the point was to make him as featureless and boring as possible- that's also why his workout routine is so standard. Thats the point of the show, Saitama is sort of a subversion of Japanese superhero tropes.

 

[Digidako]

It is a good show to watch, humor, action and a cool storyline. Indeed, the only main character in anime I know of who has a bald head.

What about Krillin from DBZ ?

 

[Eren]

What about Krillin from DBZ ?

I don't consider Krillin to be THE main character of DBZ. Imo, that is none other than Goku himself. Also, Krillin was BBC, not a real baldy!

 

[Koseu]

Also the last airbender.

 

[Eren]

Also the last airbender.

Aang was bald by choice and did grow his hair for a while, buy yeah, in that regard he is closest to Saitama.

 

[Hairloss23]

You can hardly say that's relevant, he was bald for 90% of the show. And ATLA had a much bigger audience than this anime.

 

[Thespain]

At least the bald villains are cooler then this guy. I'd rather be kingpin.

 

[Eren]

You can hardly say that's relevant, he was bald for 90% of the show. And ATLA had a much bigger audience than this anime.

True, just pointed out that he does have hair. In cartoons it is hardly ever relevant which character is bald.

Silver Surfer, Deadpool, Charles Xavier, En Sabah Nur, Uata etc. For cartoons we can find a handful of them. For anime, on the other hand, it is much rarer.

 

[SaitamaSensei]

OK.

 

[Dante92]

One of my favourite mangas and animes. Needless to say, most people laugh at him for his baldness and can't take him seriously because of it.

 

[swingline747]

True, just pointed out that he does have hair. In cartoons it is hardly ever relevant which character is bald.

Silver Surfer, Deadpool, Charles Xavier, En Sabah Nur, Uata etc. For cartoons we can find a handful of them. For anime, on the other hand, it is much rarer.

Silver Surfer - alien made of chrome
Deadpool - bald because he is 99% burnt and melted all over his body
Charles Xavier - crippled and poops in a bag, hardly a physical role model
En Sabah Nur - villian, and basically an android alien hybrid. Look at him when he was "human" and he had long flowing hair.
Uata - not a hero, the watchers literally do nothing but "watch" and have massive melon heads. Again though aliens.

There arent really a lot of bald, human heroes. Mainly just black guys (edit: which isnt bad.... but it didnt help someone like me). Theres a LOT of bald villains though. I made an write up about this a long time ago. Even when Hulk went insane and evil in the future he all of a sudden lost his hair and looks like Hulk Hogan.

 

[CharAblaze]

Lol. The entire joke of the anime is based on that he is a bald besides 1 hit kills.
Nobody looks seriously at him because he is bald even though he is the strongest man on earth.
People are shocked that he is totally bald at 25 in that anime. When I tell people my age they also get f*****g shocked, lmao.
And he is portrayed as a dork who only cares about buying food at the supermarket sales because he is so poor and has no real job.
And Mob Psycho by the same author IMHO is better, that show cured my balding depression for 6 days. This made it worse.

 

[Dsport]

The test is whether he has a gf

No, the point was to make him as featureless and boring as possible- that's also why his workout routine is so standard. Thats the point of the show, Saitama is sort of a subversion of Japanese superhero tropes.

 

[kj6723]

Man I have tried to get into anime a couple times without success. Something about it makes me curious and makes me really want to enjoy it, but so far I've been unsuccessful

Can anyone give me a pep talk or an explanation of the appeal of anime, maybe suggest some shows for an outsider to get started with?

 

[Aldrich]

The whole show is a satire on anime. The baldness is a part of that, so it's still ridiculed. The only place in the world where baldness is a positive thing is where certain religions see it as being enlightened, but that's it.