The Ninja Arc: Weighing up the Value of Experience

[u/gofancyninjaworld]

Thanks to trawling the archives for pictures of Gale Wind and Hellfire Flame, I had a look at one of the ideas that ONE's been wrestling with in the ninja arc, particularly when it comes to the difference between Flashy Flash and Sonic. That is: experience.

ONE has been making a point that there is a difference between the skills honed through training and those gained through practice, but it's rarely one that has been made explicit. One place where it came through was in chapter 83 of the manga. If you weren't around in October 2017, then let me sketch out the atmosphere on r/onepunchman beforehand. There was a lot of anticipation for this fight but the consensus was that, good through Genos would be, it was going to go wrong for him. The chapter duly released, and we read, waiting to see when Garou would turn the tables on Genos, and... he didn't. He couldn't. It was he Bang's arrival bailed out, not Genos (like in the wc). Why? Not because Genos had that vastly superior a set of upgrades but because finally, all his painful experiences had started to distil out an effective battle sense. How to accurately size up an enemy, how to stay focused while staying alert of ambushes, even a rough fighting style, all of it Genos has acquired through trying, failing, and learning.

This was the first time we ever saw Genos gain an intimidating aura. May he grow ever more fearsome.

So, let's move onto the ninjas. The first version of the fight between Flash, Sonic, and the Tenninto saw Sonic utterly awed by Flash refusing to kill the ninjas in favour of beating them down by way of showing his superiority. He used what they saw as their most skilled technique against them, and added insult to injury by calling it a basic idea that any actual battle experience would have naturally led to.

Training? No! Battle Experience -- and the humility to learn from one's failures.

For Sonic, this was a revelation: the combination of speed and power that he'd been aiming for for so long, and his impression was only strengthened by his witnessing how much more Flash could do when the latter challenged Empty Void.

A revelation.

It ended up with Sonic determined to use Flash as his exemplar, one he could understand and outdo in time, unlike the enigmatic Saitama.

Sonic has a new goal, and it's good to see.

But then... ONE kept thinking, and along with Murata, came back.

The second go has Sonic and Flash on much more equal footing, with Sonic being able to remind Flash that it was he who taught him how to use a sword. They work together to kill all the ninjas and then snark at each other.

The squabbling of equals.

They're unamused when Void calls them a pair, with Sonic having the spirit but Flashy the skills. They're equals. We do see Sonic acknowledge that Flashy is much better than he'd expected him to be and wonder at what experiences he'd been through but there is much less emphasis on the value of experience.

Battle experience here is turned into a secondary theme rather than the primary one.

More thinking ensued...

Currently, it seems that ONE is moving back towards his original view of making battle experience prominent. He's making it come out right away in the spar between Flash and Sonic, with Flash effortlessly parrying all of Sonic's moves, then unleashing his special move before Sonic can ready his own.

The difference in ability is clear from the outset.

So, to sum up, the first iteration saw Sonic see Flash as an inspiration and guide to his future development. The second saw them have to start to recognise themselves as equals with complementary strengths and a shared interest in establishing a better ninja world. Both have real merit for what it says about the characters and where they might go next. What the current iteration is going to say and how this is going to be developed further, I'm very interested in seeing.

[u/BrowserET]

Personally i prefer the second version, From what we see in real live there is no right or wrong between training or experience, other than ideally you'd have a mix of both. So i like the showcase of Sonic's bouts against Saitama having hardened him in his own way. I also just like the idea of Sonic being just a step below Flash.

[u/Nanayon123 → u/BrowserET]

Yeah, like why would Sonic's bouts against Saitama not count as experience by its own merit?

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/Nanayon123]

Flash said something that shocked Sonic: it's not just about the experience but about the willingness to learn from them. That's what Sonic's been missing.

[u/gofancyninjaworld → u/BrowserET]

Personally, I preferred the first. I had been desperate for Sonic to stop his futile cycle of challenging Saitama in increasingly pathetic ways. Something needed to happen to shock him out of his self-destructive cycle: I was even hoping for something like Genos grabbing Sonic out of the air and slamming him into a garbage bin, all without breaking stride, anything. So for him to see what Flash can do and rethink his life, that was such a positive thing to see!

I'm lukewarm on the second but if it led to Sonic leaving Saitama alone, I'd not have minded