#flanderization

Saitama is a person who seems to take joy in the little things in life wherever he can, such as food, messing around with Genos, punching monsters, seeing Tatsumaki's tornado, chasing Flashy flash or impromptu rollercoaster rides and this does not go against the facts that he suffers from depression and apathy. (Chapter 125 - Sit!)

Depressed, indifferent people are not immune to happy thoughts and joy and Saitama during the course of the series has and will express himself and his emotions like a normal human, be it joy, anger or sadness. These expressions give him more depth and really showcase that with socializing and help from characters like Genos in his everyday life, he's slowly getting better and more expressive in the joy department and enjoying himself more and more. Even his walking gait has improved. He's no more making it is his life mission to seek an opponent that can face him on equal grounds and getting depressed after punching a monster to smithereens.

This does not mean he cannot express more negative emotions like irritability. Humans are capable of wide range of emotions obviously and as much as Saitama thinks he's become emotionally numb, he's not as dead emotionally as he thinks he is, something that gets proven time to time again when he for instance, gets angry at a mosquito or at King or Tatsumaki. Anger is still an emotion far from apathy. (Chapter 77 - Bored as usual)

It is my belief that because he's able to modulate his emotions better now and he's on the mend when it comes to his depression, it allows him to be more like his older self that cared about the community and helping said community made him feel good, instead of apathetic. (Chapter 15.5 extra - Brushing off)

Such as when he cares about Amai-masks situation in the more recent chapters where he immediately recognizes the danger of being ostracized and rushes to go and aid him. (Chapter 216 - Monster)

If he didn't have this character growth, he would still not care much about a person like Amai-mask just like he cared little about going to help before Vaccineman and Beefcake had leveled an entire city. Nor would he care to try and get Tatsumaki to more abandoned area to duke it out to avoid collateral damage in chapter 180 - In the middle of something.

Different emotional expressions give him more depth as a character and I personally love his seldom appearing, tiny expressions of joy, like when he jokes with Genos about sales and does not get frustrated at missing the AAA-battery sale, instead he roars with laughter. (Chapter 209 - Shopping)

Saitama is also a guy who still struggles with depression, one which he finally acknowledges in chapter 187 - The butterfly and the back, so small instances of joy in his life make a difference in his outlook. Making and eating food, socializing with Genos and King, playing games, reading manga, collecting cute little things like piggy bank and giraffe keychain, they're all nice things and hobbies that help him stave off depressive thoughts which he really needs so he does not descend into the pits of uncontrollable anger, which is a very real danger for depressed people and especially someone with his strenght would be a real danger to society and the Earth as a whole.

Life has not treated Saitama well, even from the tender age of 12 when he was bullied at school by upperclassmen and teacher, financial insecurity and when he lost his house, he would have much rather destroyed the planet instead of fishing for his house from the pools of water. (Chapter 161 - Sinking feeling)

We should much prefer the calmer, good guy Saitama than the irritable, easy to explode Saitama for the good of opm humanity because Saitama has a lot of pent-up anger to release, which he did to devastating results in ominous future.

It is lucky that he had Genos to help him search for his house and the items within because he otherwise would've been in a much worse mood than the Saitama who was happy to have found his house and excited to see a large dog that Genos just found. (Chapter 171 - The last guy I wanna run into)

Saitama seems to take great joy in Genos' presence in his life and I'm happy to see Saitama's smiling face, as infrequent as they are. Saitama also seems to be made from sterner stuff than most, because he bounces back up really quickly after losing his house that would leave me personally inconsolable.

Saitama is hardly flanderized as a happy-go-lucky character in this regard and if he used to be irritable, standoffish and indifferent, he has emotionally grown past those beginning, initial traits we saw in him and he has become a character who can empathize even with the likes of people he doesn't actually personally like, such as Sonic. (Chapter 197 - Karma)

I much rather like the more emotionally mature Saitama who does not explode at the smallest thing, like being beaten by King in games and instead offers advice for the weeping man. It takes a lot to bring his true rage to the surface level, like killing everyone he knows and holds dear.

I wonder what it'll take for him to finally shed some actual tears. Perhaps a resurfacing memory of Genos being dead will release pent-up emotions and further help him heal from his apathy and at the endgame, we can see more genuine happiness from Saitama.