In dealing a Saitama-level blow to the hopes of fans, following nearly two years of silence as to which studio will be animating the anime’s third season, a new teaser for the upcoming return of One-Punch Man has unfortunately confirmed that rather than the previously rumored MAPPA – or even OPM manga artist Yusuke Murata’s own Village Studio – these duties will once again be handled by the returning J.C. Staff.
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Speculation regarding the OPM anime’s next animation house first began in December 2022 when, shortly following the confirmation that the series would be receiving another season, noted Japanese media leak Twitter account @shonenleaks explicitly alleged that “Season 3 to be animated by MAPPA!!”
Further fuel was added to this rumor when, after making their claim, @ShonenLeaks had their entire account suspended, as many fans believed this was done at the official behest of someone related to the series’ production due to the leaker having accurately reported on as-of-yet-undisclosed information.
Unfortunately, rather than animation provided by the team behind such series as Yuri!!! on Ice, God of High School, or Jujutsu Kaisen, it seems fans will instead have to endure yet another season of J.C. Staff’s lackluster – and that’s being generous – work.
This news was first confirmed on February 29th by way of both an official update to the OPM anime’s website and the release of the first trailer for OPM’s third season.
![アニメ『ワンパンマン』第3期特報 / One-Punch Man Season 3 Special Announcement [ENG SUB]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/h71d0QyZqRE/hqdefault.jpg)
The trailer begins with the former leader of the House of Evolution, Dr. Genus (CV: Daisuke Namikawa – Damrada in That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime) explaining his ‘Limiter Theory’, which asserts that not only are there limits to how much strength an organism can achieve, but that humans in particular can only push past them if they abandon their humanity and remove their ‘limiter’, a biological survival mechanism designed to prevent a living creature from pushing past its breaking point and hurting itself.
From there, the trailer moves to reveal that one such individual who will find themselves fighting with this process – otherwise known as ‘Monsterification’ – will be none other than Garou (CV: Hikaru Midorikawa – Android 15 in the Dragon Ball franchise), who is seen being twisted into a monstrous mass of black muscle.
And it is after this look at the Hero Hunter that the trailer rolls its credits, which in its final frame lists J.C. Staff as the season’s animation studio.
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In addition to the trailer, the anime’s official website also launched a new Hero Visual campaign, wherein each month, new OPM anime production team character designer Shinjiro Kuroda will release a new illustration of one of the series’ main characters to the official website’s gallery.
As of writing, in addition to J.C. Staff, the only other members of the OPM Season 2 production team currently set to return for Season 3 are script writer Tomohiro Suzuki (Sousou no Frieren) and character designer Chikashi Kubota (Dragon Ball Super Super Hero), with the latter being joined by the newly hired Ryosuke Shirakawa and the aforementioned Kuroda.
An official release date yet to be set for One-Punch Man Season 3.