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There are multiple complaints that the manga has "ruined" Garou's character, and how he is a "gag" character, how he isn't the absolute evil that he should be (?), how there's lack of stakes, etc. I will be addressing all of these complaints in this one post.
To start, for the complaints about the lack of stakes; that's the point. Saitama being there fully evaporates any stakes that any monster would have and the story is actively making fun of this fact, which it has always done. If you don't like the lack of stakes here then you shouldn't like that Saitama was introduced this early from the start.
Garou teaming up with Metal Bat is perfectly in character as well. Garou stopped fighting Metal Bat because a child did so, and Garou literally saw Metal Bat protecting Tareo, which is obviously the most important person to him currently. It would be out of character for Garou to prioritize hunting Metal Bat when he literally saw Metal Bat was willing to protect the most important person to him. I feel that people conveniently leaving this part out.
For the complaints that SC and ENO ended up being useless; do you not realize what manga you're reading? Beefcake, Vaccine Man, Carnage Kabuto etc. all got the same treatment.
And lastly, Garou's character. Seriously, the amount of people thinking Garou was going to become an absolute evil is baffling. There have been countless hints, even straight up entire scenes showing that Garou isn't this evil monster he's out to be. He straight up protected civilians in dine and dash, he stopped fighting when a little child told him to, he stopped fighting Darkshine when he had flashbacks of bullying, he went up against monsters and heroes alike trying to protect a child. He is NOT supposed to be a human monster. He is NOT supposed to be a villain. His entire character arc is that it's all a facade because in truth he wants to become a hero. The point of the light hearted scenes, is again, to satirize this. This could all be accomplished without the goofy faces, which I agree shouldn't be there, but that doesn't mean the idea is bad. For the people complaining that the stakes aren't like the webcomic: That's only because Saitama wasn't there like Saitama is here currently. If you notice the moment Saitama arrived the story treated it like a comedy scene; the S-Class ignoring Saitama just like Garou is ignoring Metal Bat. And that's the point.
The point of this chapter is to set up Garou's eventual fight with the S-Class, and to set up something happening to Tareo. The light-hearted stakes here is only meant to set up the dark-hearted stakes we'll eventually get when Garou's human side will begin to cover up and it really seems like he'll become a monster, only making it more impactful when the S-Class and Saitama goes up against him, and the S-Class calling for his death. And finally, this is to bring in the comedy and the parody that OPM was originally, that the latest chapters seem to have a lack of."
Found this on Reddit. Pretty good take on the current chapter.
