Nuclear Power: the One-Punch Man of the Climate Debate

Does defeating your enemy with a single punch leave people feeling…underwhelmed?

“♪ ~POWER! GET THE POWER!~♪”

##SPOILER ALERT## this article makes reference to storylines from One-Punch Man Season 1.

I highly recommend having the opening theme playing in a loop while reading.

One-Punch Man is a Japanese cartoon series made by the aptly named Studio Madhouse, based on a viral web comic by amateur comic artist ONE. It tells the story of Saitama, a job hunter and part-time superhero in his mid twenties, living in a world constantly under threat from all manner of horrible monsters, who is so powerful that he can vanquish any foe in his path with a single, overpowering punch.

“♪ ~Girigiri genkai made, HERO! ♪”

No monster, alien, terrorist or monster-alien-terrorist stands a chance against our hero. Any villain foolish enough to stand in his way quickly finds themself turned into mincemeat with one swing of his mighty, dish-washing-gloved fist. When One-Punch Man shows up, you can bet that justice is served faster than anyone can say “pls Nerf”.

JUSTICE is SERVED.

So under the protection of such a powerful champion, all’s right with the world, the monsters are vanquished, everyone loves him, and the series ends in one episode, right…?

…Right…?

When we are first introduced to Saitama in episode 1, our hero is already burnt out by the years of monotonous tedium that come with defeating enemies who are no match for him day after day after day. He is frustrated for getting nothing for his troubles: no sense of accomplishment, no gratitude or even acknowledgement from the millions that owe their life to him, not even enough cash to pay for groceries.

The reason for his woes is soon made clear: the government does not approve of unregistered superheroes, considering them vigilantes who take the law into their own hands and a risk to society. In episode 5, Saitama decides to register himself as a professional hero with the Heroes Association. Saitama passes his physical tests with flying colors, impressing examiners and fellow applicants alike with his unmatched physical prowess. Later that afternoon he gets the results of his tests back.

…And he ends up in last place due to flunking the written test.

“Stop analyzing it! You Jerk!”

There are parallels between One Punch Man’s experiences and those of nuclear power: nuclear power, a seemingly all powerful solution to our ever-worsening energy woes and climate change problems, silently saving millions each year from the effects of air pollution, remains unliked, untrusted and unappreciated by society, never allowed to live up to its true potential thanks to unnecessary regulations and bureaucratic red tape.

I swear, watching episode 7 gave me Fukushima flashbacks…

Why is this the case?

You might be inclined to blame the shallow ignorance of the public and those in power for this unfair arrangement, and ONE certainly points fingers in that direction. In One Punch Man, heroes get promoted through popularity polls, and the top ranks of the Heroes Association are full of con-artists and psychopaths with pretty faces and sharp suits. Bleary-eyed Saitama in his oppai hoodie didn’t stand a chance.

Wait…that shirt…

But the show points out other problems too, illustrated beautifully by the “Deep Sea King” story arc.

One fateful day, a monster unlike any before it climbed out of the sea. Calling itself the Deep Sea King, it laid claim to the surface world and declared war on humanity. Association heroes sent to deal with the menace soon found themselves defeated by the monster’s power. All that now stood between it and certain doom for humanity was the Mumen Rider.

“Justice…CRASH!!”

The Mumen Rider is a bottom-rung Association hero. He isn’t big or strong, and he has no superpower. His only weapon is his bicycle, with which he kamikazed into his opponent. The Deep Sea King was decidedly unimpressed and proceeded to wipe the floor with him.

But the Mumen Rider got back on his feet, proclaiming his solemn duty as a hero to protect civilians, even at the cost of his own life. Time and again he was beaten down, not even scratching his adversary. Time and again he got back up, bloodied and broken and hopelessly outmatched, but on his feet. The civilians cheered their champion on as he continued his ever more hopeless struggle with the fiend.

Then Saitama came out of nowhere and OHKOed the Deep Sea King.

The crowd just stared in disbelief, trying to make sense of what just happened. The end was nigh, but all it took to diffuse the situation was a single punch!? Something clearly wasn’t right. The mail arrived the next day and, well…

It turns out that the people have decided that Saitama must have cheated by exploiting the efforts of those before him, arriving just in time to deliver the final blow to take all the credit! How else could you explain one dude in a bed sheet cape defeating such a powerful monster in a single hit?

There is a common desire that big dramatic problems like climate change, energy scarcity, or even abyssal monarchs, be solved by small elegant solutions. People want to believe that David can indeed slay Goliath, that the Mumen Rider can indeed win against the Deep Sea King, that small-scale renewable energy projects by individuals can indeed overcome the disaster that large scale fossil fuels have wrought. Stories about the little guy winning against all odds resonate with us deeply. We are all small, weak humans trying to find our place in a big scary world, and seeing the little guy succeed gives us hope that, just maybe, we can overcome our own big, scary problems too.

Big, efficient solutions like Saitama and nuclear energy don’t get the love they deserve because they just seem so … anti-climactic. Insulting. Blasphemous, even. It feels invalidating when the selfless sacrifice of the ordinary guy on a bike was rendered meaningless by a single, super-powered punch. I remembered first realizing shortly after starting college just how powerful a tool nuclear energy is in the fight against climate change. And it scared me. I remember desperately combing through all the relevant books in the library. Something had to be wrong with nuclear, some fatal flaw that only the sun and wind can address…

“And never use the A/C in the summer, so you can strengthen your mind!”

It seems unfair that such great impact can be made with (comparatively) so little work. Superheroes were supposed to spend their entire lives honing their abilities to gain even the smallest edge over their opponents. Saitama became invincible by doing “100 push-ups! 100 sit-ups! 100 squats! EVERY SINGLE DAY!” in just a couple of years. Solar and wind forms of energy have been around for thousands of years, the most recent phase of their development has been going on for 120 years, yet they still struggle to put a dent in fossil fuel use. Nuclear power went from lab testing to powering nations in just a couple of decades.

This reaction from the show sums up what’s on people’s minds when they are told a story like this:

And yet sometimes miracles do happen. Once in a while, regular exercise will give you world-saving superpowers, messing around in the lab will give you world-saving super technologies, and after we get over the initial shock of finding out about them, perhaps we should learn to love and appreciate them for what they are.

For One-Punch Man in the real world, people did. Premiering in 2015, the first season was an instant hit (hehehe…) with audiences and critics alike, currently sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. People were moved by what, at the end of the day, was a simple story about a gifted young man trying his best to find his place and do the right thing, in a world that’s constantly giving him crap for being gifted.

Gorgeous animation really helps, too. But I’m not sure how that applies to nuclear…

Will people be moved by the story of nuclear too? Will nuclear energy find its place in a world currently giving it crap for being so…effective?

Here’s to hoping that it will.