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I have seen only the anime and not the manga. I am utterly curious about the
ability and power of Saitama.

In the starting episodes, he mentions that he trained very hard and also
details his training regime.

However, I am still curious to know: is there any mention of the source of his
enormous power somewhere in the Manga?


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one-punch-man
What is the source of Saitama's enormous power?


The anime version of One Punch Man is really accurate on regard to the manga
so nothing has been revealed in the manga that hasn't in the anime.

As you mentionned, in the manga, Saitama followed what he would call a hard
training every day :

  * 100 push-ups
  * 100 sit-ups
  * 100 squats
  * 10 kilometers every day
  * no air-conditioner

[![Saitama
training](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yCJUD.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yCJUD.png)

As a result, Saitama loses his hair, and becomes incredibly powerful.

* * *

This training **is** the source of his power. Keep in mind that One Punch Man
[is intended as a shonen
parody](https://anime.stackexchange.com/q/29034/15542) as it is making a
parody of its codes.

In a lot of shonens, training is a main part of the manga.

As an example, in Dragon Ball, the sayans spend years in the [Hyperbolic Time
Chamber](http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperbolic_Time_Chamber) in order to
become stronger.

By making the training of Saitama so simple (compared to the heroes
capacities), One Punch Man is making fun of this Shonen code. Therefore we may
not expect any more explanation on what Saitama did in order to become
stronger.


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Out of universe (aka, in the real world), OPM is definitely a parody of seinen
and superhero stories (Power Rangers type stuff, in particular), especially at
its inception. So his power simply _is_ , and serves to parody the
aforementioned genres, as indicated in HamtaroWarrior's answer. He is just the
hero that shows up to vanquish the monster at the very end of the story, only
in this case he doesn't do it for Love or Justice or any high ideals like
that.

In-universe, though, there have been certain indicators that Saitama's power
was obtained by constantly ignoring his limits until eventually he stopped
having any. See Chapter 56 of the webcomic*, in particular:

> The following is Dr. Genus speaking to Zombieman about why he has given up
> on the House of Evolution--Saitama made him realize it was futile, as all he
> would ever do was raise the limits of humanity, which could never compete
> with something without limits. ![Dr. Genus relates his experience with
> Saitama to Zombieman](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ts2mA.jpg) There are a few
> panels before and after this one that continue to discuss Saitama's power.
> Go read the rest of the chapter for them.

The manga is not quite this far along yet, but it's not terribly far away, and
there are some things in the manga that are not in the webcomic (see the image
and surround text below, for example).

Someone who is already in decent shape will not be fazed much by Saitama's
exercise routine (see HamtaroWarrior's answer). Their biggest problem, if any,
would be the lack of rest days. However, people in bad shape would take to it
much differently. I know in my current couch-potato state I'd have a lot of
trouble with jumping straight into that kind of routine, and would likely
inflict several long-term injuries on myself from muscle pulls etc. I've
basically done so in the past, actually. Years ago, when I was a scrawny
little nerd who never really exercised, I suddenly decided to try to get some
muscles and tried getting 100 push-ups done total throughout the course of a
day (2 here, 10 there, etc.). I pulled a stabilizing muscle around the spine
and shoulder blade. I collapsed face-first onto the floor with a scream when
it happened. For a few days I had limited use of one of my arms and spent most
of my time in bed (which was still painful--you never really stop trying to
use a stabilizing muscle, thanks to gravity), and I had painful muscle spasms
in that area for many years.

Saitama was probably in better shape than that when he started, but he wasn't
in particularly great shape either. He was just a lazy, unemployed lay-about,
after all. I would expect him to be pretty firmly on the side of "doing this
every day will lead to injuries and a lot of pain" when he started training.

The manga adaptation has a sidestory about Saitama's training days that shows
him powering himself past intense pain, actually.

[![No pain no
gain](https://i.stack.imgur.com/7AI2H.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/7AI2H.jpg)

> It's worth noting that the pain was from a bad tooth, not his training. He
> was already in his 300th day of training during this story. Once the tooth
> was knocked out he felt fine, but before that he's in great pain and
> continues his workout and saves a few people along the way regardless.
> There's another sidestory early on about his training days, but doesn't go
> into what pain he may have experienced in the early stages. The anime
> adaptation of the scene from Hamtaro's answer includes a brief clip showing
> Saitama in pain while training, though.

Saitama essentially always trained beyond whatever his limits were--if he
suffered an injury like I did, he would havewilled himself past it and
continued to do 100 pushups and everything else every single day regardless.
For the record, this is a really bad idea in real life. Please don't do it.
Exercise programs and such should be taken seriously when they tell you to
consult with a doctor before starting any exercise routine.

*Or you can now see chapter 88 of the manga ("88th Punch: Limiter") for essentially the same exposition. Be careful if you go looking for this online, though. This series is notorious for having completely different numberings according to different people/sites, to the extent that some sites still have certain earlier chapters out of order. I see this chapter in question listed as chapter 135 in one location, for example.


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isn't the explanation of his powers tied to the universe it's self? the crab
monster eating too much crab, the custom car guy becoming a custom car.

before he kills the crab guy he even says he wanted to be a hero not a
businessman, a hero who could send scumbags like crabman flying with a single
punch. add all that together and then pay attention to the scenes where his
eyes glow with intensity and I think you have the answer.

now why those powers form from the obsessions/desires I don't know but I think
his powers come from his deep desire or obsession with wanting to be a hero +
the universes ability to grant powers to people.


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2016-06-18T07:31:50.123
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I think his powers come from his intense desire to be an all powerful super
hero. He wants to be the strongest there is and so he sets himself what he
sees as an intense workout program and unlocks his power and assumes it came
from his workout regime.

I also see Saitama as a parody not just of manga characters but also as an
homage and parody of the Superman from the 60's and 70's. That Superman was so
overpowered that he literally could defeat anyone who came against him without
breaking a sweat. It became hard for DC comics to have him fight villains
because of just how powerful they had made him. They usually had the villain
resort to tricks or hoaky scenarios to weaken Superman so he could be fought.
He was essentially a god not a hero and he could have beaten anyone with just
one punch.

If you look at the anime you can almost see Superman in the way Saitama moves
at times in his costume and the way the cape flutters and moves. Even
Saitama's costume is more of an American style costume than a Japanese style.


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2016-10-09T06:54:27.553
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I would think there is more to his power than just insane training, if you
remember genos once said that even saitama doesn't know the source of his
power, and according one-sensei(the creator of the series) sitamas power
equals to half of the power of big bang that created the universe, I think
it's better to wait for sensei to reveal his secret

> the big chin kid is prob a deity, and he got his powers from helping him.
> you see the glow in his eyes start during that fight. maybe big chin kids
> invisible guardian or such...but that would be my guess


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