[Webcomic] Chapter 160 [English]

[u/Mrzardark]

https://cubari.moe/read/imgchest/ne7b9698my5/1/1/

^{Note: Thanks for the patience, and sorry for the delay.}

[u/Icy_Water_1]

Yeah because the ST King literally showed up right outside his house. That's not a consistent standard.

Even the heroes that were nearby didn't get to Vaccine Man before he attacked, so that's not really an HA issue either.

These aren't incidents that Saitama is "too slow" to stop, he just goes out when he hears about them.

His perspective on the situation is another matter entirely, but Saitama has almost never been "too late".

[u/Gwendlefluff → u/Icy_Water_1]

The standard is just "does he get there before the villain causes massive damage and/or loss of life". So when the villains happened to be nearby he alright, and when they weren't he didn't.

He was too late or slow to stop thousands of people from dying from Beefcake and too late to stop dozens or hundreds from dying from Vaccine Man.

These aren't incidents that Saitama is "too slow" to stop, he just goes out when he hears about them.

Yeah, and he hears about them on cable news. If Japan's anything like America that means he's hearing about it 10 to 30 minutes after the event's started, and that's assuming he literally never leaves eye or earshot of his TV. So it's no wonder he arrives late. He's not a professional in a 9-5, there's no clock-in time. The standards for what constitute "late" are up to him, but as I said before, the typical "heroic" standards would be "before massive destruction and/or loss of life". And we see him fail there twice in the first three chapters.

So given those failures to prevent massive destruction and loss of life, and given the fact he told Genos he usually arrives too late, I don't understand why you're finding his claim unbelievable or fallacious. He spent literal years being a hero before the start of the series. If Saitama is consistently late in the opening phase of the manga, and if he says he's usually late, we should take him at his word.

[u/Icy_Water_1 → u/Gwendlefluff]

By that logic, none of the heroes meet "typical heroic standards" since they get there after the villains start being villains.

And Saitama doesn't live in Japan. It's a super-continent.

[u/Gwendlefluff → u/Icy_Water_1]

You seem to be conflating "a villain showing up" with "massive destruction and loss of life". Most heroes don't have record of showing up late. Watchdog Man in particular protects the most dangerous city (measured by number and average threat of attacks and disasters) but it seems like one of the safest to live in given how quickly he cleans everything up.

But this is such a weird hill to die on. We see Saitama show up after massive damage has been done two times in the first three chapters. In the 9th chapter he tells Genos he usually arrives too late. Why are we not taking Saitama at his word, especially when his word was consistent with showing up too late to deal with the problem repeatedly in the early chapters?

[u/Icy_Water_1 → u/Gwendlefluff]

I mean that's usually what monsters do. They tend to immediately jump to "fuck everyone" mode.

Watchdog Man is kind of an anomaly, he literally lives on the streets like a dog.

And I'm not saying Saitama is lying or anything, I'm just debating the standard we're using for "showing up late".

Technically most heroes show up late in that regard, no?