What Is One Punch Man Rated? What Parents Should Know Before Letting Their Kids Watch

One of the longest-ongoing tropes in the world of anime and manga is of a hero who is training to be the best. Goku (Masako Nozawa in the original Japanese and Sean Schemmel and others in the Funimation dub) wants to be the strongest fighter in "Dragon Ball Z," Ash (Rica Matsumoto in Japanese, Veronica Taylor and others in English) wants to be the best trainer in "Pokémon," and Deku (Daiki Yamashita in Japanese and Justin Briner in the dub) wants to be the world's greatest hero in "My Hero Academia." "One Punch Man," however, takes a different tack for its story.

Rather than setting up the main character as a likable underdog chasing the gold, "One Punch Man" starts where most other shows end. Saitama (Makoto Furukawa in Japanese, Max Mittelman in English) is so powerful in the first episode of the shonen action-comedy that he can take out any monster, alien, or demon with a single punch — hence the name of the show.

With his godlike success, Saitama has become bored with life. Thus the crux of Saitama's struggle in "One Punch Man" is more existential than it is tangible. Still, for parents who might be worried that this will make the series too intense or adult for their kids, they can likely rest assured that this particular anime won't be too troubling for most youngsters so long as they're in the preteen age category. In fact, some parents on Common Sense Media suggest the show for kids as young as 9.

While one may want to watch a couple of episodes with their kid just to be sure that "One Punch Man" is a good fit for them, they can likely rest assured that if their child is even as old as 10 or 11, this show won't bother them one bit. Though "One Punch Man" can get violent from time to time, due to the show's overall light tone, the violence is often played for laughs. For example, Saitama will often get excited at the prospect of a fight, only to explode his enemy into goop with a single hit or send them flying off into oblivion. There's sometimes a blood splatter, a scary monster, or a disembodied eyeball, but the show isn't very gory.

Due to Saitama's ennui, the character can sometimes be seen drinking or smoking, which may be a concern for some parents. He also grows depressed and listless from time to time and struggles with his mental health as a result. Still, neither of these elements becomes too heavy for most kids to handle.

Though there is some off-color humor occasionally and a couple of the women are dressed somewhat scantily, aside from a glimpse of Saitama's butt (again, played for laughs), there is never any human nudity. Some monsters and demons might forgo pants, though. In terms of language, no character ever swears outside of lighter words like "hell," "bastard," and "damn." With these factors in mind, "One Punch Man" is pretty safe as far as anime goes.