'One Punch Man' Season 3 Part 1 Ending Explained: What Happened In The Post-Credits Scene?

The ending of One Punch Man Season 3 Part 1 was about Saitama’s altercation with Orochi. But before getting to that highly anticipated fight, we saw Bang, King, Hellish Blizzard, and Bomb dividing themselves into separate teams to cover more ground in the Monster Association Headquarters. Pig God almost got consumed by Dragon Gums, but then he retaliated pretty viciously. Superalloy Blackluster took on Insect God and killed the latter after giving a detailed explanation of how his muscles worked. Tatsumaki faced off with Gyoro-Gyoro, which, for a second, seemed like it’d be a match between equals. However, Tatsumaki absolutely obliterated Gyoro-Gyoro, thereby destroying all the hype that the monster had built for himself. In the meantime, while wandering through the building, Saitama encountered several small monsters, whom he killed with his famous punch. Then he came across Pochi, who tried to kill the baldy with one of its powerful blasts of energy and was then promptly knocked out by Saitama. Nyan, for some reason, felt that it could take on Saitama and struck him. As soon as Nyan saw that Saitama was not hurt even in the slightest, it chose to run away with its tail between its legs. Last but not least, Saitama found himself in front of Orochi, the leader of the monsters. What happened next? Let’s find out.

Spoiler alert

Saitama Killed Orochi

Saitama tried to strike a conversation with Orochi about all the commotion that was being caused by the monsters, which was forcing the heroes to engage with them, thereby leading to even more disturbance in his relatively peaceful life in the Ghost Town. But Orochi hit him with one of his energy blasts, which offended Saitama, but not enough to retaliate immediately. Pochi arrived at the scene, but as soon as it saw Saitama, it ran off like any stray mutt. To be honest, I thought that Saitama had killed Pochi with that punch. But, as explained by Saitama, he held back while hitting the monstrous dog because, well, at the end of the day it was a dog. Maybe Saitama saw that, just like regular dogs, Pochi behaved so aggressively because of the environment it had grown up in. Maybe if it was given the chance to live with nice people, it’d stop being a canine of mass destruction. The bottom line is that Saitama couldn’t bring himself to kill a dog because, unlike monsters, they can change for the better. In the case of Orochi though, Saitama promised that he’d punch him “normally” because he had burnt his cape and also because he was the orchestrator of some of the most disastrous monster attacks on Z-City. Orochi appreciated Saitama’s confidence, as it gave him the impression that he had finally met his match. In fact, he began monologuing because he wanted Saitama to know a little about the monster who was about to kill him. 

Saitama paused him mid-monologue to tell him that all that blabbering was completely unnecessary because he was about to die with one punch. Orochi obviously underestimated Saitama’s warning and ended up getting killed. Apart from the animation, I liked two moments from this exchange. Firstly, when Saitama talked about how Orochi equated “power” with being a monster, and secondly, during his dying moments, when Orochi admitted that he was experiencing fear for the first time. Despite depriving us of Saitama throughout the season, I’m glad that the show used his brief screentime to give us a reminder about what it means to be powerful. Every single person in this world, regardless of whether they are able-bodied or handicapped in some way, has the ability to exceed their potential. However, during that process, we should remember what we are doing all that for, or else we will stray so far away from the light that when we inevitably reach the end of the line, the only feeling that we’ll experience will be something as negative as fear. Someone who has used their power for the betterment of mankind, or just to help their close circle of friends and family, will only be afraid of the fact that they haven’t done enough in this one lifetime. That said, they won’t die thinking that their legacy would be listed as one of the greatest failures of all time—which was exactly what Orochi was feeling when he was drawing his last breaths.

The Mural Under the Monster Association Headquarters Was of God

When Orochi died, a sort of shrine was revealed in the basement of the Monster Association Headquarters, which had a giant humanoid with weird patterns on its body and a centipede-like creature at its feet. I guess if Saitama had let Orochi yap for a little while longer, we would have learned something about that shrine. But since Saitama finished Orochi off with a “normal punch,” I guess I have to make sense of that puzzle with the pieces that are available so far. First of all, that figure in the shrine looked awfully similar to the god that we saw in the flashbacks of Homeless Emperor’s origin story. If this God gave Homeless Emperor powers, then does that mean he’s involved in the creation of all these monsters? Is he conducting some kind of cleansing process because humanity has become too broken? And have these monsters bastardized this cleansing process by making it all about themselves? If this God has created humans, then it’s possible that he’s the one who is using all these monsters as some kind of a reset button. In that case, was there no ethical way of doing it? I mean, innocent people are dying. Well, gods have been known to be very problematic when it comes to cleaning up their own mess. So, it won’t be a big surprise if it’s revealed that God has used literal monsters to teach humans a lesson. 

Secondly, Orochi apparently thought that that figure was him and he was the god that’d rule over Earth by sacrificing the most powerful beings at his disposal. Hence, Orochi was talking about Saitama being the ultimate sacrifice, as it’d make him the most powerful creature in existence. So, yeah, in addition to Saitama’s punch, it was Orochi’s ego that led to his downfall. Maybe if he worshiped that God, he would have been granted some favors that would have allowed him to withstand Saitama’s fist; we’ll never know. Thirdly, in the ending of Season 3 Part 1, there’s the picture of that centipede at the God’s feet, followed by a shot of Garou. All this is some subtle foreshadowing for the arrival of Sage Centipede in Part 2 of Season 3, whose sole purpose would be to kill Saitama because of his ungodly powers, only to meet its match in Garou. For all the hype that Garou got in Season 2, he was poorly utilized throughout the course of Part 1 of Season 3. Let’s pray that Part 2 of Season 3 will do him justice and chart his supposed monsterization process in an interesting way. In addition to that, I hope the animators and writers are given the time and money to make Sage Centipede somewhat intriguing, or else people will think it’s a rehash of the Elder Centipede saga. The showrunners and Bandai Namco are already on thin ice. If they get these two aspects wrong, I have a feeling that they’ll need to shut shop after Season 3. If they get it right, then and only then this franchise has some hope.

King’s Secret Remained Intact

The post-credits scene took us back to the moment where King, Bang, Bomb, and Hellish Blizzard decided to go in separate directions inside the Monster Association Headquarters. Initially, King was sad that he had been forced to go through that hellscape all on his own, but then he made peace with his situation by telling himself that he’d just float around the place until all the monsters had been killed, thereby allowing him to maintain the ruse that he was one of the most powerful superheroes in existence. However, he was shocked when he was discovered in the corridors by Waganma. That seemed odd because Waganma was left in the custody of the support team by Child Emperor. So, why’d he be inside that hellhole again? Why would anyone let him loiter around in the prison that he was in after Child Emperor had gone to such great lengths to save him from the clutches of his captors? Of course, King was unaware of all this and assumed that he’d have to save this kid from the monsters that were lurking in the shadows. He grew so anxious that his secret would be revealed that his heart started to beat extremely loudly. He thought that his time had come and he’d have to come clean to this child that his “aura” was just a heap of lies. Hence, he began vaguely insinuating that he wasn’t the hero that Waganma thought he was. Since King’s tone was ominous, the shape-shifting monster who was pretending to be Waganma got scared and disintegrated right there and then. King didn’t know what to do in that situation and started calling for Saitama to help him out. 

What was Saitama up to? Well, he was making his way out of the Monster Association Headquarters after telling the corpse of Orochi that he did warn him that he’ll die with just one punch. Maybe in Part 2 of One Punch Man Season 3, Saitama will come across King and help him maintain his image. Because if King emerges out of the wreckage of that hellish building without any deaths to his name, that’ll dent his reputation. If Saitama vouches for him, it’ll allow him to be perceived as a hero. However, it’s possible that King will come clean and begin working on himself so that he can be a superhero for real. I mean, this cycle of acting superheroic and then feeling scared that you’ll be outed as a fraud must be tiring for King. If he rectifies the narrative and proves that he truly wants to be a hero, then it will be more respectful than somebody randomly discovering that King is powerless. Apart from this subplot, I just want some decent storytelling and animation in One Punch Man Season 3 Part 2. Saying that this season has been a disappointment so far will be an understatement. But, as they say, you can only go up once you have hit rock bottom. Will Bandai Namco allow the writers and animators to make amends, though, or will they keep forcing them to reach new lows? Well, according to recent reports, we have to wait till 2027 to get the answer to that question.

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