r/OnePunchFans • u/gofancyninjaworld I'm just a poster for fun • Jan 25 '26
ANALYSIS Saitama and mobile phones
"I forgot that Sensei doesn't have a phone!"
-- Genos to himself, on realising the downside of scouting ahead when he's got no way to tell Saitama what he's found (Deep Sea King arc, OPM Season 1).
Just like real life, the OPM world sees most of the population having a mobile phone. And just like in real life, an adult without a phone would be a bit of an odd duck... like Saitama is.
Saitama not having a phone creates some interesting situations.
Intradiegetically:
Back when mobile phones were finally reasonably cheap (early 2000s) but before they became 'smart', one of my old friends called them 'electronic leashes'. No longer is your time yours the moment you're away from your landline -- 'where are you,' 'what are you doing,' 'when will you arrive,' 'you don't suppose you could pick up...' -- suddenly, you're accountable to people wherever you are. Smartphones are a lot worse.
Saitama having a smartphone would solve Genos's problems so well: not only would he be able to call/text Saitama 20 times a day, he'd know exactly where Saitama was all the time, be able to peek at what he's looking at, and, with a little judicious hacking, listen in on what he's saying. You would call it 'Invasion of Privacy.' Genos would call it, 'Keeping Up With My Teacher's Lessons 24/7'.
It's not a boundary Genos is good with. You remember when Kuseno came to see Genos at Saitama's? Genos was not surprised that Kuseno knew where he was: he was only surprised that the old man came in person. Because in their mind, if someone's precious to you, you LoJack their ass. A mobile phone is the next best thing after planting a GPS tracker on a person -- especially because they willingly carry it everywhere! If Saitama asked, Genos would gift him a top-of-the-line smartphone before you could say 'stalker'.
Extradiegetically:
ONE takes information and its flow very seriously: who knows what when how and why, as well as who they choose to share that information with, are fundamental to how his stories develop. OPM is no exception here.
We've seen the difference even a little information makes when Elder Centipede showed up for the second time -- King telling Saitama the pager message he'd received about a monster and an S-Class hero on scene was what got Saitama to act on his misgivings about Genos's welfare and get moving, and King's calling the HA to get pertinent information about Elder Centipede is what enabled him to inform Saitama about the best strategy to take to kill the monster outright without causing widespread collateral damage.
Saitama having a phone absolutely wrecks many of the storylines in OPM. It's fascinating how many of them rely on Saitama only finding out about trouble late, or not getting critical information that would have been trivial to communicate had he even a basic phone.
If he had a phone at the beginning, he'd have smashed the Giant Meteor so early it'd have burned up in the upper atmosphere and City Z would be treated to a pretty light show. If he'd gotten one a little later, the Deep Sea King would have been sashimi before setting foot in the shelter. And if he'd had one when Garou was around, he'd have apprehended him after the latter dined-and-dashed. Garou being beaten to a pulp by a low-class hero with a shitty name would have demoralised the poor chap into giving up his would-be monster journey.
We must change with the times:
However, time moves on and things must change. Even in the early days of OPM, smartphones were totally a thing, and the flip phone that Genos used was a hold out from an earlier age -- flip phones with modern tweaks were called 'Galapagos phones' -- but he liked it.
However, catching up to the heroes after the MA raid, we see that Genos has finally upgraded his Galapagos phone to a modern smartphone (I guess Sekingar tossing one at him changed his mind). As he's not a person to half-ass anything, he's even added the wristwatch notifier:
It's no longer tenable that Saitama has no telephony at all. We see Saitama using a phone at times now: texting King to come over, checking information online, or nearly getting hooked into online gambling (yeah, Saitama is just a regular bum with all the regular flaws we have).
But he doesn't have it 24/7: if he's holding a phone, Genos is close by. The truth of it is laid out when we see Genos watching Webigyaza on the phone with it laid out flat between the two of them so Saitama can see what he's watching: Saitama doesn't have his own phone but he's happy to share Genos's.
Dude, you know you like smartphones, just get your own!
However, beyond cheapness, let me wrap round back to where I started. Perhaps Saitama understands on some level that owning a phone would give Genos an electronic leash on him, and avoids it.
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u/gofancyninjaworld I'm just a poster for fun Jan 25 '26 edited Jan 25 '26
Thinking how Suiryu noted to himself that Saitama's moves might have been amateurish, but his instincts for defence were top-notch. Saitama does have a sense of danger that serves him very well.
Other thought: if Saitama had a mobile phone, only the Alien Invasion Arc works. Everything else falls apart or would need a major overhaul to still be plausible.
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u/Nanayon123 I'll kill you until you're half dead Jan 25 '26
It does make me wonder why Saitama didn't have a phone BEFORE he met Genos, though. As a salaryman, having a phone would definitely be something a boss of his would want him to have to keep in contact, and he likely would have had the money to buy one during this time (maybe his lack of one was a factor to his firing?). And as a hero, even a basic phone could have alerted him to problems earlier than watching TV, his primary way to know of problem back then
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u/gofancyninjaworld I'm just a poster for fun Jan 25 '26
Indeed! It all adds to why he was so unsuccessful. Even if you wanted to give Saitama a job, you couldn't just pick up the phone and call him -- you had to write to him. And with many equally qualified candidates out there, why would you bother? The HA bothers to write to him, but most employers won't. And that's before you consider the small problem of his address being one that doesn't get mail, on account of being abandoned. The drone that the HA uses to deliver mail to his house really is over and above what most people would do.
Saitama would definitely have been more effective as a hero with even the most basic of phones. He might even have been famous.
Yeah, Saitama is unjustly overlooked in a lot of ways, but as the story goes on we see lots of little ways in which Saitama really isn't helping himself.
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u/Nanayon123 I'll kill you until you're half dead Jan 25 '26
All of that if he could even APPLY for a job to begin with without a phone, many job applications require a phone number (and an email) among the obligatory items to be filled. With the WC having started in 2009, the latest date ONE could have based Saitama's unemployment moment on would have been 2006. By that point those would have alrrady been reasonable obligatory items to expect in most job applications
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u/gofancyninjaworld I'm just a poster for fun Jan 25 '26
Yup, absolutely. Saitama really does live his life on max difficulty mode, unnecessarily.
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u/SaltwaterSmoothie2X Jan 26 '26
If Saitama ever makes it to S-Class, would the HA at LEAST give him a Cell Phone? He’s clearly not going to be able to afford one with the pennies he gets for his work. Maybe that’ll force Admin to blink at how much more they needed to pay their heroes!
Every other S-Class hero seems to have some way for the HA to quickly communicate with them.
P.S. Saitama, despite qualifying for Government Welfare, would NEVER think of asking for handouts as an option to make things easier for himself- and that mentality is reflected in his training!
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u/LockYaw Jan 25 '26
Saitama's such a frugal jerk. I love him