#ma arc

Web. 92 and 93 are the best chapters in the entire series, webcomic or manga (even the manga Drive Knight conspiracy in Chapter #119 isn't quite on that level). Nothing, not the Boros fight, not the Limiter, not God and Homeless... not even Webcomic Saitama vs Garou, as awe inspiring as it was... reaches the philosophical, ideological, moral, and thematic pinnacle of Garou and Saitama's debate.

Garou lays out his entire ideology, how heroes cannot save humanity from themselves, that evil and corruption will continue no matter how strong, heroic, or brave the heroes are, legitimately breaking down and deconstructing the entire idea of "heroes saving the world" and asks Saitama how can he possibly carry the heavy moral burden that Garou alone sees and carries.

And how does Saitama answer? He refuses to. He cannot, will not, take responsibility for all of humanity, he'll be a hero whenever he feels like it. Any other hero would have fallen for the bait and tried to argue that "No, we really are saving the world" and ultimately failed to adequately prove Garou wrong. But not Saitama.

Garou, perhaps rightly, is horrified by Saitama's simple and utter rejection of "trying to save the world" when he has the all the physical power in the world. He berates Saitama for daring to call himself a hero with such a nonsense and selfish philosophy... and outs himself to Saitama, who sees instantly that Garou, deep down, believed in the very heroic ideal he castigated every other hero in the world for their hypocrisy towards.

To which Saitama flips it on Garou, outing Garou as a half assed hero wannabe and hypocrite who lacked the conviction to save the world as hero. Garou was doomed to fail from the start, first because Saitama, a random nobody hero as a hobby, and second because Garou was too weak, both mind and body. Garou already knew that even a true hero, whether Saitama or himself, could never fully save the world...so never dared try.

He had just barely been there in the manga throughout the MA arc. It had him so sidetracked for the other heroes that needed their own time to shine. Sai is heroic too… there’s so many side chapters, the DSK aftermath and audios, that established that his heart was still in the right place, (still is but now it’s not enough? so how long before this issue was to be brought up?) and though, with time, getting too strong made him react even more slowly to people’s problems than he would have before I think and recently, this exact thing has been questioned quite a bit and his aloofness has also been stressed on a lot more throughout this arc. That’s one thing the arc was consistently bringing up.

Then they finally register that point and you hold your breathe, thinking things will be changing, albeit painfully, and then they take it away too. The characters are just back to the usual. I’m the one left feeling dumb and numb after everything. Him not forgetting everything was the one last thing I really hoped for. And I don’t know if this is the right word to express it but this is indirectly downgrading his most charismatic aspect: his personality. And I’m still astonished that they are actually doing this. Brutal much, ONE? We’re really going below the respectful bar. And I’m really scared about this new way they’re seemingly viewing him and his role and so how they’re gonna portray him in the upcoming events.

And now…. Sai neither gets to keep his character development even after the plot shoved it in our faces again and again about him being listless through all this mess, but we ALSO don’t get those parts where anyone witnesses him fight. We don’t know if mini BS and Rover will even be there. Instead Blast gets the credit. Like… I don’t know anymore! What am I supposed to do? I even have doubts if I can keep looking forward to what little I’ve waited for so long even in the upcoming arcs! And I have a fear that they yet haven’t had enough of making Sai act like a clown as they did him so much for a war that lasted one day? So there’s high chance they’re gonna keep making him act like that on top of shoving the “recently growing just-rolling-with-what-happened aspect” of his. Comedy is fine but having these two things go on hand in hand WHILE actually wiping away all the self realisation makes me wonder if they’re using Sai for jokes as well as serious moments where his ways can be trusted that carry actual value or they want to turn him (even his character) into JUST A JOKE the more we go on. Such a massive downplay. How did his tendencies change like that in a day, ONE? What about the Saitama I knew for all the weeks in the world before this?? Why mock Sai like that, ONE, why?? I feel so fuckin cold inside after seeing this chapter.

I truly TRULY feel restless about what they plan to do with him. These aren’t good signs. Istg ONE. I’m literally gritting my teeth in fury.

They better register this in the upcoming arcs even tho they tried to sweep it all under a rug this time.

So, I’ve talked a bit in some of my recent posts about how significantly Genos seems to have been impacted by the results of the MA arc and since I’m a bit visual I made this to illustrate what I mean. 

The left side is Genos pre-MA arc and the right side is post MA arc. I’ve made an attempt to gather a relatively representative collection and not just cherry picking. 

So, while a few of these differences could be attributed to ONE’s evolution as an artist over time if you look closely I think there is more going on here. It’s not just the detail in his face, the prominent lines under his eyes, the drooping eyebrows. It’s his posture, body language, the way he holds his head. 

this it!!!! this is really is it?!!! spoilers. 😅🤗😨 the manga is out…. @anojima lets do the work…hehe.