Summary
Unlike many other anime and manga,One Punch Manis a series that is very clear on its power system and the background and categorization of heroes in its ranking. One can always tell the strength of a character based on where they sit in their ranking, whether the character is a monster or a hero. All the monsters in the series are ranked intheir respective disaster levelsranging from Wolf to God, and those that dwell in the lower levels of power are merely characters that have one quirk about them and are basically fodder while the higher-ranked characters are those that destroy entire cities if they choose to.
As mentioned above, this categorization exists forboth monsters and heroesand the way that it is set up is virtually identical for both. In place of disaster levels, heroes are categorized into one of 4 classes; C-Class, B-Class, A-Class and S-Class, with the latter housing the strongest heroes. Like the monsters, these classes range from small-time heroes that deal with petty burglary and very low-level threats to heroes that can destroy entire armies single-handedly. So, with that in mind, let’s break down the classes for the heroes!
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C-Class
The C-Class of the Hero Associationis the lowest grade of all of them and is the weakest out of all the classes that are present within the Hero Association. While the heroes within this class are typically seen as being stronger than the average civilian, they tend to only be strong enough to deal with petty crime around their respective cities as well as dealing with Wolf Level monsters, the weakest of the disaster levels. However, the scaling for villains is a little different as sometimes enemies belonging to a certain disaster level can defeat multiple heroes from their corresponding classes. Still, though, C-Class heroes are the ones that generally deal with Wolf Level threats.
This class holds a total of 390 heroes, the most of any class, and every single hero within this class has a weekly quota that they have to meet to staywithin the Hero Registryor else they will get kicked out. While most heroes start within this class and have to work their way up, this isn’t always the case as Genos was catapulted straight to the S-Class after his testing, while Saitama had to begin here and work his way up by fulfilling his weekly quotas and defeating monsters. The number 1 ranked C-Class hero is Mumen Rider and the rest of the class includes D-Pad, Battery Man and Tanktop Tiger.
B-Class
Right after the C-Class,we have the B-Classwhich has a total of 101 heroes. Heroes in this class are generally much stronger than those that reside in the lowest class and can dispatch a Wolf Level monster by themselves. Much like the C-Class, however, this class can have some problems defeating certain members of its corresponding disaster level. An example of this is the Tiger Level monster Kombu Infinity taking down multiple B-Class heroes.
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When a hero reaches the grade of Rank 1 in the C-Class, they then have the option to move up to the B-Class, a benefit of which is that B-Class heroes do not have to perform weekly quotas in order to stay within the Hero Registry. While strong, these heroes are still the second weakest class in the entire setting and can very easily be defeated by thehigher tiers of monsters. At the setting of the story, the number 1 ranked B-Class hero is the fan favorite Fubuki, with the class containing other famous heroes such as Glasses, Captain Mizuki and Darkness Blade.
A-Class
The A-Class is where the heroes of the Hero Association start topick up in terms of power and ability. These are characters that can defeat Tiger Level threats on their own fairly easily, though this may not always be the case due to the varying degrees of strength within each class of monsters. The total number of heroes in this class is 39 after Saitama is officially promoted to this position as of the manga and while A-Class heroes can reliably take down a Tiger Level threat, they have great trouble dealing with those in the Demon Level or higher and cannot face them alone.
Much like the previous grade, those that reach the number 1 rank of the B-Class can choose to get promoted up a class, or if they have performed great feats of heroism like Saitama then they just shoot up all the classes directly. While A-Class heroes are very popular in the eyes of the public, they cannotface the strongest monstersas some Demon Level threats are stronger than anything they’ve seen before, as seen when Deep Sea King was able to defeat S-Class hero, Puri-Puri Prisoner, with relative ease. The number 1 ranked A-Class hero is Amai Mask and the rest of the class includes Saitama, Iaian and Death Gattling.
S-Class
The S-Class of the Hero Association inOne Punch Manis theabsolute pinnacle of power and strengthfor the side of the heroes and there is no level beyond this. The heroes in the S-Class are numbered only at 15 following the resignation of Silver Fang and Child Emperor, which just shows how tough it is to be within this class and each one of them is powerful enough to defeat all threat levels below Demon Level alone and without any difficulty. Most of the mid-ranked S-Class heroes can effectively deal with even standard Demon Level threats by themselves and many of them can even fight on equal footing with enemies that are around that level. This can be seen inOne Punch Man, season 2, episode 5, “The Martial Arts Tournament” where a heavily injured Metal Bat can on fairly even grounds with Garou, who at that point had already cemented himself asbeing in the S-Class tieras he beat Tanktop Master. Furthermore, Garou even noted that if Metal Bat’s final hit had connected, it would’ve killed him.
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Just like the other classes, the hero at the number 1 rank of the A-Class can choose to move up to the S-Class, however, the current A-Class Rank 1 Amai Mask refuses to do so as it would allow weaker heroes to enter much stronger ranks. Despite this, however, Amai Mask is very easily strong enough to be in the S-Class, as seen inthe Monster Association arc. In the series, the S-Class is referred to as a category that houses heroes that are each equivalent to an emergency army division.
Even within the S-Class, however, there are very few characters that are entirely in a league of their own, namely Blast and Tatsumaki. While there hasn’t been a detailed reason why, these heroes are far stronger than any of their contemporaries in the same class and can easily face off against Dragon Level threats, as seen whenTatsumaki fights off against Psykos and Orochiwith some help from Genos. She was even seen to have the ability to destroy an entire city on her own. Blast has the power to manipulate gravity and black holes and his speed was so great that the fastest character in the S-Class, Flashy Flash, could not even see him. This power allowed him to fight on par with Cosmic Fear Mode Garou, who even said that Blast’s strength was very worthy of making him thehighest-ranked hero in the Association.
Saitama
Saitama is an anomaly in the very series that bears his own alias. His strength and potential are at a stage where it is impossible to reach his level, as was made very evident in his fight against Garou. While Garou was leagues beyond everyone else and had evenreached Saitama’s level, the Caped Baldy’s potential and rate of growth were so enormous that Garou simply couldn’t keep up and was thoroughly defeated. There is much to Saitama and his power that the series hasn’t made clear yet, with the only thing that may have hinted at this was when talking about God, it was revealed that it may have been Saitama that drew his attention to the Earth.
Because of Saitama’s incalculable strength, many fans have put King in the same tier as him. Despite being a hilarious and completely inept character,King is ranked 7 in the entire S-Classand is called the ‘strongest man alive’ who seems to defeat villains who just happen to die one way or the other, usually to Saitama. Saitama’s entire character arc revolves around him being just so much more powerful than others that he has become bored with his life as he can now never experience the thrill of a battle anymore. Now, no matter the disaster level, nothing is a challenge for him anymore. The closest that Saitama ever came to a fair fight waswhen he fought Cosmic Garou, who was still eventually beaten by him.
Whatever the case may be, Saitama is a character that is vastly above every other hero and villain and may only get his wish for a fair fight at thevery end of the series. Though he doesn’t fit into any existing hero class, he is one character that the heroes are very lucky to have on their side!
