Summary
Blast’s revelation about his former partner and the Ninja Village ties the current arc into the overarching God plot, providing a more obvious connection to the story. Blast’s involvement and his past battles with his teammates added depth to the Ninja Village arc, expanding the leader’s personality and demonstrating God’s corrupting influence. These changes create opportunities to further develop God’s storyline and Blast as a character, making the new arc of the One-Punch Man manga an engaging one.
Warning: Spoilers for One-Punch Man Ch. #196 (JP)/#194 (EN)Chapter #196 of Man one punch has revealed a ton of new information, courtesy of the #1 hero, Blast, and it represents a big change from the webcomic—but it’s one that’s undeniably the best. Blast’s information ties the current Ninja Village arc into the overarching God storyline in a way the webcomic never did, weaving these elements together to form a more fleshed-out story.
In chapter #196, Blast explains to Saitama and Flashy Flash that he once had a partner – a ninja named Empty Void. Empty Void helped Blast hunt down blocks related to God, but betrayed him and made a pact with God, monsterizing and reaching much greater levels of power than before.
He founded the Ninja Village and began training young assassins such as Flashy Flash and Speed-o’-Sound Sonic to do his bidding. Blast and Empty Void fought it out 15 years ago, ending with the founder of the Ninja Village being seriously injured and forced to go into hiding ever since.
Blast’s participation completely changed the Ninja Village Arc
Initially, both the Blast and God storylines were unrelated to the webcomic version of the Ninja Village arc. Blast actually appears much earlier in the manga than in the webcomic, which sets the stage for his involvement in the plot here. Not only does this help really tie what’s going on with Ninja Village to the larger plot, but also it finally reveals some aspects of Blast’s past, what he did and how long he did it. The Hero Association itself is only a few years old, so for Blast to fight his former comrades 15 years ago, they must have been following in God’s footsteps for quite some time.
This also expands significantly on who leads the Ninja Village. In the webcomic, he has no connection to Blast, other than their fight. Turning the Ninja Village leader into Blast’s former teammate is an interesting twist, as it suggests that even strong people whom Blast trusts can be corrupted by God’s influence. It explains why Blast is so invested in collecting these blocks, as if even someone as strong and perhaps righteous as his partner can fall, so can anyone. , and the likelihood of that happening must be minimized. It also gives Blast a reason to personally participate in this, instead of it simply being another mission against God.
It will be interesting to see how these changes play out in the rest of the story; The webcomic’s original ending for the Ninja Village leader was fun but not necessarily narratively satisfying. The further development of the God storyline is certainly important here, and learning more about what motivated the leader of the Ninja Village to accept the power of God could be very revealing. This also gives the story a chance to develop Blast more as a character, as he ends the chapter leaving Saitama behind. The Man one punch The new manga based on the Ninja Village plot could be very interesting thanks to these big changes from the webcomic.
