Episode 5, The Martial Arts Tournament

Metal Knight arrives and tries to defeat Elder Centipede, failing miserably. This episode is filled with a large list of new heroes and monsters. Most of them will be red shirted and exists to be fodder for the stronger characters. Anyway, Metal Bat and Garou square off, with Bat doing far better considering his injured state. Garou admits that Metal Bat would have defeated him if he could have landed a hit. Metal Bat is actually about to hit Garou with a major blow when his sister Zenko arrives.

She gets in the way of Garou as he tries to kill Metal Bat. Garou leaves seemingly having a soft spot for children and goes to find Watchdog Man. Metal Bat collapses. Pineapple and Mohican are attacked by Rhino Wrestler and easily defeated. Two other monsters Phoenix Man and Sludge Jellyfish attempt to recruit Garou into the Monster Association. I don’t know if I missed it, but this is the first that I heard of the MA. It seems that like the Hero Association, the monsters are trying to gain notoriety. It’s unclear whether they are ranked or not.

Many monsters (Martial Gorilla, Do-S, Hundred Eyes Octopus, Pure-Blood, and Make Plasma) arrive simultaneously overwhelming the heroes. Fubuki makes an appearance saving a hero from Do-S. Meanwhile, the Fighting Tournament begins and we are introduced to a massive group of heroes. Lightning Max returns, while new fighters Bakuzan, Suriyu, Ring Ring, Hamukichi, Choze, Zakkos and Snek enter. Saitama is assumed to be “weak” and is paired with Zakkos.

After the credits, Saitama defeats Zakkos with one slap. The outcome between Zakkos and Saitama was always going to be predictable, I do have an issue with putting part of the episode after the credits. It’s not the end of the world but I often turn the episode off before the credits (mostly to avoid seeing the trailer for the next episode). Anyway, it’s a weird thing to do, I wonder why they made that choice.