Getting Rid of the Parents: Saitama and Genos in One-Punch Man

One of the rules of fantasy is "Get rid of the parents." If one intends to send children off on an adventure, there must be a dearth of parental figures snapping, "Get away from that wardrobe! There are hangers in there! You'll poke your eye out!" 

In One-Punch Man, Saitama must be gotten out of the way. Otherwise, many heroes would not have a chance to showcase their talents. In fact, Volume 23 of the series only has two minor appearances by Saitama (who went underground to stop the annoying noise--that is, the monsters--near his apartment). Most of the volume focuses on other heroes, such as Zombieman.

Getting rid of Saitama may be obvious. What is interesting is that to allow other heroes to shine, Genos also has to be temporarily out of commission. 

For one, when Genos is someplace, Saitama usually shows up eventually. But there is another reason. Although Saitama and Genos are quite different in personality, they are similar in one sense: when they set out to tackle a monster, they don't stop. 

Saitama doesn't stop in part because he doesn't need to--one-punch and it's over. However, scenes with Saitama when he still had his hair suggest that he was as impulsive and relentless as Genos. He got up and kept going. 

Genos never stops. Legs gone. Half his face gone. All his metal parts showing, he keeps going. In a pinch, he would likely blow himself up. 

Both heroes are lacking the calculating self-interest of the other heroes. This self-interest isn't bad. It's normal. Metal Bat, for instance, will alter his trajectory based on his little sister's demands. 

In other words, King's complaint that Saitama doesn't appear to have the capacity to get himself out of his rut--to go on vacation, for example--applies to Genos as well. They are both somewhat tunnel-visioned, though in quite different ways. 

In order to give less tunnel-visioned heroes opportunity to show their stuff, Saitama and Genos need to be elsewhere.