The 2015 fall anime season holds a lot more of interest than the summer did: we’ve got second seasons of Noragami (which is a must-watch, by the way), Haikyuu , and Seraph of the End (another good show, if you’ve already seen the first season). As far as more fall anime 2015 goes, we’ve got Young Black Jack, One Punch Man, the new Lupin series that premiered in Italy, and baffling but promising original sci-fi Concrete Revolutio. Fall anime season 2015 is shaping up nicely.

The subject of today’s review is One Punch Man, the irreverent parody of a zillion shonen fighting anime. One Punch Man is based on an ongoing Japanese web comic that went viral, spawning a digital manga remake on Shueisha’s Young Jump Web Comics site in 2012. The anime adaptation was announced in March 2015 and is done by Studio Madhouse, the studio behind Death Note, Beyblade, Hunter x Hunter and Trigun.

My take? Allow me to fall on the pile of people already falling all over themselves to praise and hail One Punch Man as the deliverance of fall anime season 2015. One Punch Man is a hysterical take on what happens when you’re strong… too strong . Here’s why One Punch Man deserves all the hype.

It’s strikingly visually accomplished in both animation and design.

The villains are all numerous and immediately dispatched. The sheer number and variety of them is a source of humor all on its own. They appear non-stop and are terminated by an increasingly more despairing One Punch Man just as quickly. And their stories are all that bizarre mix of wild and vapid that marks so many anime villains.

Purple Piccolo gives a rambling speech about how he’s “Vaccine Man,” formed from the Earth itself to rid the planet of the blight that is humanity. Flashback to three years ago: enter Crablante, who turned into a half-crab hybrid after eating too much crab. Crablante’s brawny thighs burst out of pristine tightie-whities attached to the upper half of a crab. Crablante doesn’t even need to speak to be hysterically funny. In the future, a gigantic man stomps through the town with his tiny scientist brother perched on his impossibly enormous shoulder. One punch. Down. Afterwards, some two-bit villain in an alleyway blathers on at high speed about how his love of cars turned him into SUPER CUSTOM YO6491 MK III. One punch. Done.

But wait, there’s more: “the true earthlings” and their Subterranean King, giant hulking mole-men who come from below in overpowering numbers…. just kidding, One Punch Man was dreaming a happy dream of people who could put up a fight. But the sheer wacky inventiveness and variety on display are funny without an iota of sound.

On top of that, One Punch Man ’s transitions from emotionally invested (eyes get more detail and ferocity, eyebrows flex with emotion) to emotionally dead (round face. round eyes. stare. staaaare) are done really well, as are the fight scenes. I’d be remiss not to mention how well the fight scenes are animated. When One Punch Man takes out the “World’s Strongest Man,” the blood and bits of teeth fly everywhere as his opponent’s cheek is impacted by the power of Saitama’s punch. When Crablante is destroyed, the ropes of sinewy and delicious material inside his crab-like shell spurt on and on endlessly. It’s seriously nice work on the animation side.

It’s really, really funny.

One Punch Man doesn’t try to be funny. It simply is. Its humor is more original than a panty flip or a smack over the head with a convenient fan, and it starts from the moment you see the first alien cross your screen. If you’ve ever seen a fighting anime, then you’ve seen Dragon Ball Z, and this is frigging Piccolo here. One Punch Man knocks him out with a single punch and then falls to his feet with a howl of despair and a drop to his knees reminiscent of Future Trunks’ iconic first Super Saiyan transformation. The drama! The pathos! The… incongruity? He won, right?

Picture this: One Punch Man standing in his absurdly simple yellow superhero outfit, with a plain white cape and what looks like red rubber dishwashing gloves matching his cherry-red galoshes. He stands at a supermarket fishing endlessly through his change purse as civilians shriek and cower in terror. The lights flicker sinisterly. One Punch Man looks up, having found exact change to give the cashier, who has long since fled. The building’s wall comes clean away. One Punch Man: absolutely unperturbed.

The World’s Strongest Man, bigger than the Titan that took out Wall Maria, rants on and on about finally achieving impossible strength. One Punch Man’s mouth parts in a look of -- for him -- delirious, radiant joy.

Villains flee and put up a little white flag: “Sorry about that.” One Punch Man, who’d been rankling for a fight, stares in dismay.

It’s existential, it’s incongruous, it’s just plain funny .

It’s unexpectedly moving.

You don’t watch a shonen anime parody to cry and sob and think deeply about your life, but One Punch Man kind of makes you think about things. One Punch Man started from a place of existential despair, worked hard for three years and is still there. He struggles to find meaning in his actions and strives only to feel any emotion, even for an instant. Yes, he can punch through anything… but can he punch through the despair in his own heart?

Exploring that question is the only way I can think of for an anime like One Punch Man that relies so solidly on one joke (“he is too strong”) to survive. The fact that One Punch Man exploits this as solidly as it does means it understands this issue and is prepared to address it.

In short: should you watch One Punch Man?

Yes. It’s funny, well-animated, and smarter than you’d think. One Punch Man is available streaming on daisuki.net.