Is Saitama the Strongest Anime Character?

One Punch Man is the strongest anime character

No, seriously. Don't even try to suggest another person that could beat him.

For decades, comic book fans and anime fans have been at odds in a seemingly never-ending argument that rarely seems to develop. The argument? Who would win, Goku or Superman?

These debates have been taking place over the internet practically since the birth of the forum, and the discussion never seems to go anywhere. Both sides are far too entrenched in their own views, which results in a self-perpetuating deadlock that will never move as long as people remain stubborn.

But ever since the debut of a Japanese webcomic known as "One Punch Man," a new argument has sparked debates across the internet. Can Saitama beat Goku in a fight?

As the title suggests, "One Punch Man" is about a wannabe superhero named Saitama. Saitama spent a year training relentlessly to become a hero, sticking to a relatively tame exercise regiment and diet. One his training was finished, he became One Punch Man.

To Saitama's detriment, his ability doesn't come with many caveats. He can quite literally punch something once and utterly obliterate it. Coupled with speed that rivals even Goku and indestructability, Saitama has few rivals in his universe. 

He struggles more with bureaucracy and gaining recognition for his abilities and achievements, which other superheroes in his city have taken credit for on more than one occasion.

With all of this in mind, what's the debate? Is a debate even necessary? No, and here's why.

First and foremost, "One Punch Man" is a gag comic. ONE, the creator of "One Punch Man" hasn't explicitly stated as such, but regards his works as gag comics by his own admission. In an interview with web magazine Tokyo Reimei Note, ONE states the following:

"I had decided I wanted to be a gag manga artist from the time I was in grade school.  I was a fan of 'Crayon Shin-chan,' and at the time I wanted to draw that sort of manga.  For me it wasn’t a case of simply trying to be a manga artist and testing the waters to see if it was worth a shot."

 So "One Punch Man" is a gag comic. What does that even mean in the context of the argument? For starters, there's a strong implication that the events and abilities of the characters in the manga are exaggerated to high degree in order to make them jokes essentially.

Saitama isn't an exception to these rules. As the titular One Punch Man, he does exactly what his name implies; he punches things, and they die. 

These are the rules of "One Punch Man." There isn't much room for interpretation because the rules are completely surface level, lacking both nuance and depth. But this is what makes Saitama such a compelling character for analysis. Anime is home of some of the strongest characters in fiction, and some of the most loyal fans as well.

So then, which characters could Saitama defeat?

I've scoured the internet for articles that seek to defame Saitama's reputation as the strongest hero, not like he has much of a reputation to begin with, and plan to break down the arguments utilized to justify any weakness they see in him.

First, here's a list by Blerds Online, where they list seven characters that can beat Saitama. For the sake of brevity, I'll be focusing primarily on the characters that Saitama would undeniably destroy.

Contender #1: Goku

Of course, we have to talk about Goku. Goku is the go-to strongest anime character, given DBZ's tendency to create characters with power surpassing anything even remotely rooted in reality.

The argument in favor of Goku goes like this:

"Man, I don't even like Goku like that. But c'mon. I'm not even sure Saitama can beat Frieza if we're being honest. He stands a chance against Gohan, but Goku. 

Have you seen the list of people Goku has beaten? The number of people who actually destroyed planets that Goku beat? Meanwhile Saitama is having problems punching the armor off people. Saitama can't even get to fights on time. Did he think the cape let Superman fly? He probably thinks wearing orange makes Goku go Super Saiyan."

Not much of an argument at all. Nowhere do they compare their abilities to try and reason who could win in a fight, just a lot of shade being thrown at Saitama.

Sure, Goku has beaten things that have destroyed planets. Good for him. But, Saitama has too. Literally in the first season of the "One Punch Man" anime, we meet Boros, an alien invader with goals paralleling Saitama's. He simply wants a fight that gets him excited.

It's not a surprise at all, but Saitama absolutely wipes the floor with Boros. He kills him so quickly that the other heroes called to the scene don't even get to see him do it. I couldn't find anything about Boros actually destroying a planet, but it's stated that Boros' ability, Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon, would have destroyed the surface of Earth, and potentially the entire planet, had it actually landed. 

I'm sure Goku could give Saitama an exciting battle, but I doubt that he could actually deal the final blow. For goodness' sake, Saitama was literally knocked into the moon at light speed from the surface of Earth and got up unscathed and unbothered. 

Contender #2: Luffy D. Monkey

C'mon, don't make me laugh. This is a serious debate that needs to be taken seriously!

Sarcasm aside, arguments in support of Luffy are as follows:

"According to Oda, punches and kicks don't actually hurt him. It's piercing and slashing attacks. The only reason he gets tired after fights with opponents who punch and kick is because it wears down his stamina. 

Gonna take a whole lot of punches to take him out. Might want to knock him through some buildings or something to wear him down a little quicker. Maybe get creative and stab or slice him...if he isn't too fast for Saitama."

Completely ignoring Saitama's gimmick, the author asserts that Luffy could simply absorb the punches.

A hilarious thought, but even if Luffy has never been damaged or injured from a punch in "One Piece," I find it tough to believe that there are any characters throwing punches at the speed of light, something Saitama is capable of.

When dueling Boros, Saitama is able to land his signature "Consecutive Normal Punches" on Boros, who was moving close to, or at the speed of light. Even ignoring the force that comes loaded in a normal Saitama punch, I refuse to believe that Luffy could withstand a barrage of punches traveling at the speed of light.

Not to mention that Saitama's stamina is unparalleled, and Luffy simply would never be able to keep up reasonably. Saitama could basically just stand still for the entire fight and let Luffy wear himself out before taking any real damage.

Moving on, here's a list from CBR. Some contenders are repeated, so let's just tackle the newcomers.

Contender #3: Light Yagami

Another entry that people seem to actually believe would stand a chance. Here's what CBR has to say about Light's odds in a fight against Saitama:

"Sometimes the best battle fought is one that isn’t fought at all. Light Yagami’s Death Note is the ultimate weapon he has with him. Basically, all he has to do is lift his fingers, jot down Saitama’s name, and Saitama would be dead. 

Sure, Saitama can chase Light down the streets in typical shounen style, but Light is way too smart and cunning to let a simpleton like Saitama catch him so easily."

Yes, the infamous Death Note could kill Saitama. But that's a huge could. Would it kill Saitama? Not a chance, here's why.

For starters, Saitama's full name hasn't even been revealed, which is a requirement for activating the Death Note in the first place. Saitama could be his real and full name, but I find this to be incredibly unlikely. 

Furthermore, Saitama is barely taken seriously in his universe, to a point where most people simply refer to him as "Caped Baldy," meaning most people who have seen him don't even know the name "Saitama."

Light's victory would be contingent on actually procuring the name Saitama from somewhere, as well as hoping that Saitama is his only name. 

As for the second argument, a chase between Light and Saitama wouldn't be a chase at all. Saitama can literally propel himself at the speed of light, the measurement of distance, not the speed at which Light Yagami would be running at. So in that regard, Saitama would catch and dispose of Light Yagami before he could even consider the idea of running away.

Contender #4: Katara

I'd never even heard of a Katara vs. Saitama debate prior to writing this, so I'm fascinated that someone even thought about this at all. Upon further research, and out of all the people in this list, Katara stands the best chance so far. But it's not enough sadly. CBR writes:

"Most fans would be on the fence about Katara defeating Saitama. She’s the best waterbender on earth, but what would happen if Saitama got too close to her? 

The answer is simple – she can use her bloodbending ability.

Bloodbending is a forbidden technique that should never be used since it is considered to be a sin. But in a battle where Katara is fighting for her life, everything is fair game. She would kill Saitama in an instant without getting anywhere near him."

An interesting gambit. Bloodbending has the power to halt an opponent by taking control of the water in their blood. This carries a plethora of horrifying implications, since controlling someone's blood remotely is just a spine-tingling hypothetical.

But is it enough to take down Saitama? I seriously doubt it. Bloodbending, like other forms of bending, requires the bender to perform a series of movements in exchange for the ability to control another person's blood. 

As mentioned earlier, Saitama is ludicrously swift. Since Katara is basically human, the actual fight would be over before it began, like most of the fights in this list. 

However, I like the implication of using bloodbending on Saitama. Something the article fails to even mention is that Katara could take control of Saitama's muscles, in order to make him punch himself, which should, destroy him instantly. Whether or not this would actually happen is up for debate, but it's interesting food for thought.

There are countless other contenders for Saitama to theoretically spar with, but he would simply pummel most of them into submission. But what about characters that actually pose a threat to Saitama? Do any exist? If so, who are they?

Serious Contender #1: Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Definitely an interesting challenger. See, Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, or STTGL for short, is currently believed to be the largest object created in any work of fiction to date. 

Constructed of Spiral Energy, a fictional resource that essentially just boils down to the power of believing, with an entire mech sitting at the top of the head, STTGL is absolutely massive. According to estimates in the guidebook and data from the show, STTGL's size is debatable, with ranges listed from 350 billion light years tall, all the way to 10.5 trillion light years tall.

Most of STTGL's body is Spiral Energy, making it essentially untouchable, since it is an energy form, and not a tangible object. Though Spiral Energy can materialize, the energy forming the body of STTGL is just energy, being held together presumably by gravity.

So, could Saitama ever even land a punch on STTGL? He's about as fast as the speed of light, and by all calculations, he simply would never make it to the top of STTGL unless he was immortal, immune to the long term effects of space, didn't need to eat, didn't need to sleep and didn't need to breathe.

Traveling at the speed of light, you would be able to cover one light year in the time span of one real year. Assuming even STTGL's shortest height measurement, it would take Saitama 25 times the amount of time that has passed since the beginning of the observable universe to reach the head, a whopping 350 billion years.

Granted, there is one other way Saitama could destroy STTGL. Simply by using the power of gag rules. If you write that your character can do something, then they can do it. All it would take to destroy STTGL would be a rule that allows Saitama to punch energy forms as if they were physical. 

But then we could get into a whole argument about how STTGL is on-par with and essentially the god of the universe it resides in, and well, that just isn't fun.

Serious Contender #2: Saiki Kusuo

It's not really fair to discuss the possibilities of a gag character vs. gag character fight. Their similarities in regards to the scale of their power would force just about every fight to result in a deadlock.

But Saiki K. stands a chance.

Despite being a gag character, Saitama's abilities are limited to what exists in the manga. While this gives Saitama a ton of leeway to completely crush most who would oppose him, Saiki isn't held back by such restrictions. 

Both Saitama and Saiki have an extensive list of abilities, but Saiki's are a bit more broad and can influence the state of the universe. Put simply, Saiki's abilities aren't limited to physical enhancement, which the bulk of Saitama's power seems to be.

Just by taking a glance at Saiki's extensive list of abilities, it's pretty easy to tell how many advantages he has over Saitama. Telepathy would give Saiki the jump on what Saitama is thinking, boundless teleportation grants Saiki speed that rivals Saitama's, and Saiki possesses a ridiculous amount of abilities that would succeed in subduing Saitama as a threat.

Not to mention, Saiki literally has the ability to change human genetics, rules of nature, and the status quo, as he literally mass brainwashes everyone on the planet into thinking that his hair color is natural and not worth questioning.

Saiki could quite literally beat Saitama without being conscious of it, as he has lost control of his powers during his sleep in the past.

There are tons of characters in anime that simply cannot stand a chance against Saitama, and a few that actually can. Despite being a gag character, Saitama has limitations, which makes it incredibly entertaining to debate whether or not a given character could put up a fight against him.