Shinpei Nagai, the director of One-Punch Man Season 3, has finally introduced himself to fans in English and explained why he chose not to reveal his role earlier.
Nagai, who has worked as a freelancer since the start of his career, said he wanted to avoid giving fans a negative impression because he isn’t widely known and doesn’t have major animator credits. Instead, he preferred to focus quietly on building the series with his team.
The director described his career path: he entered the anime industry at 37, debuting with Hiiro no Kakera. He later worked on hybrid 2D/3D animation in Aquarion Logos, contributed to projects like Altered Carbon, and gained experience at Manglobe with GANGSTA. and Samurai Flamenco. After Manglobe’s closure, he formed a long-term partnership with J.C.STAFF, directing and storyboarding on various titles.
When he was approached for One-Punch Man Season 3, Nagai introduced a new workflow designed to better integrate 3D and 2D production, hoping to make the most of limited production time.
“I sincerely apologize for keeping quiet about this”, Nagai said. “The team is giving it our all. I can’t share details about the production, but I’ll answer what I can within limits”.
New Key Visual:
CAST:
Makoto Furukawa as Saitama
Kaito Ishikawa as Genos
Aoi Yuki as Terrible Tornado
Kazuhiro Yamaji as Silverfang
Kenjiro Tsuda as Atomic Samurai
Minami Takayam as Child Emperor
Hiroki Yasumoto as King
Takahiro Sakurai as Zombieman
Daisuke Namikawa as Pig God
Satoshi Hino as Superalloy Blackluster
Kosuke Toriumi as Flashy Flash
Masaya Onosaka as Puri-Puri Prisoner
Mamoru Miyano as Handsome Kamen Amai Mask
Saori Hayami as Hellish Blizzard
STAFF:
Director: Shinpei Nagai
Series Composition: Tomohiro Suzuki
Character Design: Chikashi Kubota, Shinjiro Kuroda, Ryosuke Shirakawa
Music: Makoto Miyazaki
Animation Production: J.C.STAFF
J.C. STAFF, who handled animation for the second season, is returning to animate the upcoming installment. The first season was animated by MADHOUSE. VIZ Media publishes the manga series in English and Crunchyroll streams the anime.
One-Punch Man started as a self-published webcomic by ONE in 2009. Shueisha began publishing the edition in 2012, and it has been compiled into 26 volumes as of June 2022. The latter was published under the Jump Comics label.
RELATED: One-Punch Man Season 3 Coming to Crunchyroll in Select Regions in Europe
VIZ Media describes the story of the third season as follows:
Saitama is a hero who only became a hero for fun.
After three years of ‟special training,” he’s become so strong that he’s practically invincible. In fact, he’s too strong—even his mightiest opponents are taken out with a single punch. Alongside Genos, his faithful disciple, Saitama performs his official hero duties as a member of the Hero Association.
One day, monsters claiming to be from the Monster Association suddenly appeared, taking a child of Hero Association executive hostage. The S-class heroes gather and plan a raid on the Monster Association hideout to rescue the hostage. Meanwhile, Garou, a ‟human monster” who was taken by the Monster Association during a battle with the heroes, awakens in the Monster Association hideout.
Source: Shinpei Nagai on X
©ONE, Yusuke Murata/SHUEISHA, Hero Association HQ
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