One-Punch Man's Third Strongest Hero Just Committed An Unforgiveable Sin

While the One-Punch Man anime is seemingly trapped in an era of disappointing new releases for its loyal fans, the manga's return to more regular releases has been quite encouraging. Itself an adaptation of ONE's iconic webcomic, the series is fully entrenched in the Neo Heroes Uprising Arc in which Saitama and his allies have a rival to their Hero Association. As the Neo Heroes continue to undermine the efforts of the Hero Association while building their own profile using impressive tech and rising manpower, the latest several chapters present the latest reason for the public to turn against Saitama and the series' third-most powerful hero altogether.

As seen in One-Punch Man chapter 228 (later released by VIZ as 226), Tatsumaki, the #2 S-Class hero has carried out her latest careless act of city-wide destruction. Facing one of the five sudden Dragon-level threats, Aggregation (VIZ: Conglommero), a potentially infinite-sized swarm of insects capable of engulfing the planet, Tatsumaki unilaterally decided to grind their battleground, City P, to dust. It's a level of ruthless pragmatism perhaps only seen on a similar level in the Monster Association Arc as the public's trust in Hero Association headliners like herself begins to wane.

One-Punch Man's Third-Strongest Hero Grinds an Entire City to Dust

Tatsumaki, having previously resolved to create a similar funnel attack to destroy Aggregation as seen in her fight against Psykos, quickly takes more drastic measures as one bug tries in vain to cling to her leg. In a sudden fit of fury and a spectacular full-page panel, Tatsumaki completely obliterates City P and Aggregation alongside it. Seeing their only goal to be destruction, with Tatsumaki ultimately doing the most damage, she pragmatically believes it was the right move. But as City P journalists emerge on the scene to ask why she didn't wait for the Neo Heroes, it's clear that, beyond the collateral damage, this is a new PR nightmare for the Hero Association.

After all, while Tatsumaki fought Aggregation, other established heroes fought corresponding new threats such as:

• Tanktop Master vs. Heavy Smoker
• Suiko vs. Machine God Mirror
• Genos vs. Big Fam of Darkness
• Blue vs. Eel Dragon

Blue focuses on the threat at hand without actively sabotaging the Hero Association's reputation, but he arguably doesn't even need to anyways. His efforts against Eel Dragon in City L are relatively tame compared to the scene in City T, where Genos defeats his opponent while, again, obliterating much of the cityscape like Tatsumaki does. But even then, Tatsumaki's conversation with the media, and her dismissive response to their questioning of her methods, however justified they were, underscores a trend of collateral damage fitting her moniker of the Tornado of Terror.

Tatsumaki Has an Appetite for Destruction in One-Punch Man

Across hundreds of chapters now, One-Punch Man hasn't exactly left all of its cities intact by any means. With the lore of the series unfolding and detailing multiple eras of change driving humanity to one supercontinent and a complex of cities, such wanton destruction is especially frightening for the civilians. Whether it's against the Hundred-Eyes Octopus, Psykos, or even Saitama himself, Tatsumaki's unfathomable esper powers prove nearly impossible to contain, and utterly devastating to the nearby environment.

This includes instances of crushing monsters into a compact ball and dropping it onto the city like in chapter #68, or destroying much of City Z in her fight against Psykos. The fight against Saitama, even in the outskirts of City A, threatened massive damage to the nearby area, even posing mortal danger to passersby. While it's all played up for laughs, it appears this tendency is going to be a problem for Tatsumaki and the Hero Association as the Neo Heroes continue gaining the public's approval, especially in light of the Sweet Mask incident.

While One-Punch Man's hardly going to see the end of Tatsumaki with even this latest incident on her shoulders, it'll be interesting to see how Yusuke Murata's elegant adaptation of the original webcomic plays out. With the Neo Heroes' leadership still unveiling its true nature, and plenty more twists ahead, the third-strongest hero is far from down for the count even after destroying a city on a level she'd never approached before.