Starting with Bug Ego: Discovering ONE's Storytelling

What makes ONE's stories feel so distinct?

Even without a polished art style or a traditional structure, there’s something immediately recognizable about ONE’s work. It doesn’t necessarily follow the rhythms you expect, and it doesn’t always present itself in a way that feels “refined”... but it’s hard to ignore. There’s a kind of sincerity to it, something a little awkward and a little unpredictable, that makes his stories feel different from the start.

Skip to "Where to Start"

Who is ONE?

ONE is a manga artist who originally started publishing webcomics, building his audience before ever entering the mainstream industry. He’s best known for creating One-Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100, two series that, despite their very different tones, share a similar emotional core. His work stands out because it often quietly sidesteps shonen-genre expectations, focusing less on spectacle and more on how characters think, feel, and change over time.

What Defines His Work?

Simple art, strong expression

At first glance, ONE’s art style can seem almost too simple, especially compared to more polished mainstream manga. But the simplicity is part of what makes it work. Expressions feel exaggerated but genuine, and emotional beats land clearly without needing heavy detail. The focus isn’t on technical perfection, but on communication.

Absurd premises, grounded emotion

On paper, his stories sound ridiculous. But the core of them isn’t. Underneath the absurd setups are very grounded emotions: loneliness, insecurity, the desire to improve, or just to be understood. The contrast between the premise and the emotional reality is what gives his stories their weight.

Character-driven storytelling

More than anything, ONE’s work is built around characters rather than plot. Big events happen, but they’re rarely the point; the real focus is how characters respond to them. Growth tends to be internal, slow, and sometimes awkward, which makes it feel more genuine. Even when the stakes are high, the story often comes back to something small and personal.

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ONE's Three Works:

One-Punch Man

A satirical take on the superhero genre, following a hero who can defeat any opponent with a single punch... and is completely bored because of it. What starts as a joke premise quickly turns into a mix of high-energy action, absurd humor, and surprisingly grounded character moments.

What is this thrill I feel when my back is against the wall?

Mob Psycho 100

A quieter, more introspective story centered on a middle schooler with overwhelming psychic power who just wants to live a normal life. Beneath the supernatural elements, this series focuses on emotional growth, self-control, and what it means to become a better person.

Here. As you requested, these are my emotions. This is what happens when I give in to them.

Bug Ego

A more recent work that leans into ONE's characteristic strangeness, blending offbeat concepts with a focus on internal conflict and perception. It's a little more experimental at first glance, but still carries the same underlying interest in how characters think, react, and struggle with themselves.

Some of the hacks are dangerous. You could risk bodily harm or even your life if you try them, you should know.

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Deep Dive: Finding ONE's Signature in His Works

Caution: Reading past this point may have some minor spoilers for the earliest parts of the series. This blog primarily discusses what happens in the first volume of any given series.

Bug Ego

Simple art with strong expression

Art by Kiyoto Shitara

ONE's stories often have intentionally simple art, and Bug Ego is no exception. Much like Saitama and Mob's simple character designs in One-Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100, Kokudo and Hitsujiya both have relatively simple character designs compared to other shonen series, with extra detail added for dramatic or comedic effect. As One-Punch Man is a satire of the superhero genre, its character designs are often over-the-top, and Mob Psycho's settings were drawn with as little detail as possible to keep focus on the character interactions. Bug Ego is actually distinct from the two other works in this regard: because much of the theming in Bug Ego is around imagination, the art style varies greatly from page to page. Each panel is drawn with a purpose, and ONE's characters live in an incredibly vivid world.

Absurd premise with grounded emotion

At its core, the "hacks", the rituals that can change reality, are absolutely absurd, but they have just enough reasoning to them and just enough logic that you feel like you could learn them like a language. But that feeling does not last. The more the boys try and barely fail to execute the hacks correctly, the more obvious it is that there is no rhyme or reason to them, and they are not understood at all. The mistakes come with real consequences.

What grounds this all very neatly, however, is how the human characters feel within this system. Kokudo especially carries a very real insecurity, questioning whether Hitsujiya really sees him as a friend or just values him for his knowledge in hacks. That kind of uncertainty adds tension beneath the surface of the surreal elements; when the dreamscape becomes nightmarish, and insecurity becomes the only emotion you recognize.

Character-driven storytelling

Nobody ever told either of the boys to use "hacks". In fact, they were told not to write them down or share them, yet they did both anyway. There is no particular villain or antagonist in the earlier half of the volume; it's simply the boys versus the hacks themselves, which aligns with a more "man vs. nature" theme than anything else. There's no overarching goal or mission to accomplish; the story is just the two boys practicing their "hacks" and using them to build out a world they can live in conveniently.

Mob Psycho 100

Simple art with strong expression

Art by ONE

The stylized art style is 100% intentional and supports the purpose behind the simplicity and unconventionality it has as a "default". Detail is majorly added for comedic timing and to give emotional moments more impact, rather than being the baseline.

When the art style takes itself seriously, you pay closer attention to what it conveys. When the art is unorthodox, you're left to find the "missing detail" yourself in the setup; in the setting, in the character design, in the dialogue, in the scenes themselves. You're forced to engage with the story itself rather than passively look at the illustrations.

Absurd premise with grounded emotion

The idea of a middle schooler with overpowered psychic powers is obviously outlandish, but the story doesn’t really treat it that way. What matters more is how that affects him as a person.

Mob has kept his powers to himself for so long that his emotions don’t really have anywhere to go. When they do come out, it’s not just power, it’s everything he’s been holding in. He’s aware of this, too. He knows he relies on his powers too much, and he knows they won’t actually help him grow socially or as a person. That’s where the story grounds itself. Even with everything that makes him different, he doesn’t want to define himself by it; he just wants to live normally and improve on his own terms.

Character-driven storytelling

While there are clear antagonists in Mob Psycho 100, the plot still ends up being driven more by the characters than the conflicts themselves.

The fights and big moments are there, but they’re not really the point. What matters more is how Mob and the people around him react to those situations, and what they take away from them.

Even when things escalate, the story keeps coming back to something smaller and more personal: growth, self-awareness, and the effort to change. It’s less about what happens and more about what it means for the characters going through it.

One-Punch Man

Simple art with strong expression

Art by Yusuke Murata

The character design in One-Punch Man lends itself to exaggerated archetypes that carry expression well, and comedic characters that feel like people in their behavior and expression. When it matters, Murata leans heavy into spectacle: the fights are detailed, the monsters are over-the-top, and everything feels like it belongs in a high-stakes action series... until you look back on Saitama. Our lead, Saitama, has an intentionally simple, egglike character design with very clean lines and round shapes. His simplicity lets everything around him feel louder, more dramatic, and more intense while he, himself, remains unaffected.

Absurd premise with grounded emotion

At a glance, One-Punch Man feels like it has a joke premise: a guy who can defeat any foe in a single punch. But the story doesn't treat this as a joke premise; this is the conflict. Saitama is unfulfilled. The excitement, fear, and satisfaction that should come with being a hero aren't there. Underneath the absurdity, you get the emotional core of the story: What happens when you reach the thing that you thought would give your life meaning, and it doesn't?

Character-driven storytelling

Even with how grand the fight scenes get, the story remains centered on the characters' reactions to them, rather than the battles themselves. Saitama moves through everything with quiet detachment, while characters like Genos are trying to grow, and find and fulfill a purpose. The action is there, but it's not what's memorable about the story. The reader's attachment is to the feeling that something is missing, even when everything should be in order.

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The Experience that IS ONE's Manga

Why People Connect With ONE's Work

There isn't one single reason why people connect with ONE's work. It really depends on the series, but what remains consistent is how real his characters feel.

Even in completely unrealistic settings, the leads don't feel like archetypes; they feel like people who happen to exist in those worlds. ONE does an impressive job of "normalizing" the worlds in his stories. The circumstances of each character may be absurd, but for them, it's just life, and that makes their choices feel believable.

Each character makes mistakes and questionable decisions. More often than not, you can't say with full confidence that you wouldn't do the same in their position. There's an incredible amount of empathy built into every character and each of their choices.

What Ties His Stories Together

At the core, all of his stories explore some aspect of what it means to be human.

One-Punch Man looks at purpose: what happens when you lose the thing that's supposed to give your life meaning?

Mob Psycho 100 focuses on emotional growth and self-understanding.

Bug Ego leans into control: how far will people go to understand and optimize their lives, even when it starts to consume them?

Each protagonist feels less like a "character" and more like a medium for each concept.

Where to Start

There isn't a single "correct" starting point.

If you start with One-Punch Man, you get an action-heavy story with comedic edge, Mob Psycho 100 will give you something emotional and character-focused, and Bug Ego is just plain weird if you're looking for something experimental and introspective.

Opinion: Starting with Bug Ego

As I had never read any of ONE's works before, I started with Bug Ego as the story with the "lowest barrier entry point". From there, I reasoned I would work backwards chronologically, and I'm glad I did! If I didn't approach these books with an analytical eye, I would have found the stories growing shallower, but they actually retained their depth of meaning; it's just that ONE's more recent works are more upfront and apparent about the "moral" than older works are.

Bug Ego trained my eye to look for emotional anguish, so I read Mob Psycho 100 more in-depth from there. Mob Psycho trained me to look for a character's "role" in the world they live in, and their outlook on it, which led to a greater understanding of One-Punch Man's empty feeling.

Opinion: Starting with One-Punch Man

If you chose to read One-Punch Man as your introduction to ONE as a mangaka, you'd have the highest level of re-readability for all three series, I reckon. When writing this blog post, I found new details about each story every time I looked back to reference certain chapters and panels. If you start blind with OPM, then move to MP100 and BE, then you can see how each series builds on the last. When you eventually circle back to OPM, you'll find the story itself didn't change, but how you experience it will.

If you’ve never read ONE before, there’s no wrong place to start; just the one that meets you where you are. And if you’ve already read him, it might be worth revisiting… You might be surprised by what you notice the second time around.

If you’re curious, we’ve got all three on our shelves at Senpai & Co.

-Ashe & the Senpai & Co. Team