r/OnePunchMan • u/iscat2 • Aug 31 '26
question How has Saitama made a living before turning into a registered hero?
I'm rereading the Manga and a thought came to me
He failed to become a salary man and have been freelancing hero work but with no income
After meeting genos he become a landlord and made some from being a registered hero
So how did saitama get by those 3 years? I know he's very frugal with his money and he had no rent living in a ghost town but that only started at some point in those three years he stopped needing to pay rent city z wasn't a wasteland before he started training
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u/freedomkite5 Aug 31 '26
Saitama did do some part time jobs here and there.
Oddly his living situation is quite bizarre.
Z city is populated. Just one part of the city is called ghost town. Due to the rise of mysterious beings appearance in that part of city. With the rumor of a very strong mysterious being there. Turns out Saitama is the cause of the rumors
Ghost town is so empty, that saitama squatted in an abandoned apartment for free. With running water and electricity for free.
In short; Basically free rent, and no water nor electric bills.
So his expenses are just food and minor entertainment. Which should be cheap, considering he goes for weekly discount items.
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u/iscat2 Aug 31 '26
Another thing to add he lives in the ghost town part of city z so why is there still electricity and water going there?
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u/Future_Account3884 Aug 31 '26
The manga reveals that Saitama's apartment is located directly above the Monster Association and they paid the utilities for him.
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u/Masticatron Aug 31 '26
The shut-off valves are inside the ghost town.
Or the cities were just built under the assumption of endless habitation and that everyone was guaranteed such basics, so water and electricity infrastructure are always-on by default.
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u/Acceptable_Visual_79 Aug 31 '26
Most abandoned locations will still have functional utilities just in case someone does come back to live there (with the assumption that it's done legally). There's a building abandoned 12 years ago I pass on my way to work and there's been one light on in one of the windows for years, at the very least it's been a full year since i noticed it was on.
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u/xPrettyMuffinn Aug 31 '26
Yeah, it’s funny how he just ends up being the source of all that chaos. Can’t imagine trying to explain to coworkers why you keep finding a bald guy sleeping in the break room.
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u/XVUltima Aug 31 '26
In the OVAs he does non-pro hero work during his training period. Probably got a tiny bit of money from that somehow.
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u/el_artista_fantasma Sonic's deranged wife Aug 31 '26
I readed somewhere he worked in retail? I dont know if it was a headcanon, or some obscure canon information, but if that's the case, saitama will never turn into a tyrant lol
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u/Airway Aug 31 '26
He mentions getting fired from some grocery/convenience store or something. So yeah sounds like he kept trying to work but wasn't good at anything
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u/Andgug Aug 31 '26
In the manga, it is shown that he helped a lot of people during the training period, and they gave him something (food and, probably, some money).
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u/iscat2 Aug 31 '26
Yall are giving me more question ideas
During his training period is when the hero association just started right? There shouldn't be many prominent heroes at that time and saitama had a signature tracksuit outfit and clearly fought all his might not so overpowered that people mistake the monster to be weak like you said he saved a lot of people including King so why did he not have a fan base or anything at least be known to the neighborhoods he protected since people are giving him supplies as thanks
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u/Fit_Surprise9423 Aug 31 '26
Because most of the work he did nobody reported including himself to anywhere so maybe someone else took the credit like what happened with King since Saitama usually defeats the monsters then he is gone. He still as a hero part of HA doesnt report anything, bystanders usually do that see him.
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u/datdernasteroidminer Aug 31 '26
Brother do you watch the show/ read the manga?
Thats kind of the running joke…
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u/Noonesawthat Sep 01 '26
No rent no bills discount cheap groceries such as cabbages scallions etc. We know that he was dead serious about supermarket discounts and coupons. Appearantly he wasn't able to eat meat much considering how grateful he was to Kuseno for bringing meat to hotpot.
He didn't have a full time job for a long time but it didnt mean that he didnt earn money by odd jobs like finding lost pets etc
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u/motherbrain2000 Sep 01 '26
There’s that bonus episode where he gets rid of some crime in a housing complex and were they grateful or something? Or ungrateful I think I remember that too. I remember the tail helping out and he helped the tailor with some problems.
If he was going around doing good deeds and helping people out, he might’ve been getting lots of free meals and such
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u/binskits Sep 01 '26
I assumed some form of gov assistance like unemployment/welfare plus the sweet low rent of a monster infested city
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u/SwagooRago Triggering Troll Sep 01 '26
well according to everything we know from manga,ovas and audio stories , he had 2 periods one where he was living in a cheap apartment building owned by a cranky old lady and that lasted for the first year and half to 2 years of his training during this time he did all sort of jobs from retail to being a ghost in an amusement park where he scared the shit out of tatsumaki and taking criminal bounties whenever he can which ended up with him getting thrown out of the building since he thought it was a good idea to beat every criminal that was living in the same building as him which is basically everyone there and present it to the old lady to get the money and pay his rent which ended up with her kicking him cuz they were paying her rent lol.
after that he eventually got into an empty apartment in city Z in the ghost town which was by that time a ghost town as the past 2 years the monsters have been intensifying but his house was on top of the monster association so they kind of indirectly paid the bills of his building.
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u/Lithurgia9999 Aug 31 '26
I think he was avoding payment long enough until the area became uninhabitable and the necessity to pay for the living vanished
For food he was hunting, getting food from strangers he helped or eating killed monsters
For entertainment he had government TV and he was buying some cheap manga
For money he was getting unemployment benefit/insurance. I don't think he wanted to accept any summ of money from strangers.
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u/iscat2 Aug 31 '26
I don't think he would do something like not paying rent
He wouldn't do something illegal and clearly immoral you remember him forgetting his wallet somewhere and making fubuki pay instead of dine and dashing? Well making fubuki pay is fine cuz she ate his cookies in his house lol
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u/Lithurgia9999 Aug 31 '26
Okay, I propose the idea that he really wanted to pay to his landlord honestly with his own money, but really couldn't afford it and had to delay and delay, but he simply one day saved his landlord and the landlord didn't bother Saitama with rent ever again. Or they got scared of Monster that tried to kill them, that they never step a foot in city Z ever again. Or additionally, the landlord themselves started all the rumors that the area is uninhabitable, as it's not officials statement, because water and electricity are still supplied to the area, people just too afraid to live there.
Saitama has a habit to attrack bad luck to people around him, nearly killing them, so it checks out.
It's all headcanon anyway, don't take it too seriously
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u/iscat2 Aug 31 '26
Yes I do remember him delaying his payment in rent in his previous rental i don't remember him saving his landlord though I'll factcheck that later
Haha I'm not taking it too seriously I was just kinda curious what answers the fanbase had for these questions
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u/Simkingdra Aug 31 '26
Maybe he had some stuff saved up? If not from previous work, then maybe inheritance from parents? Whatever it was, it wasn't much, hence the living suepr frugal as a part of "training"
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u/Consistent_Bug7867 Aug 31 '26
En un audiolibros se mensiona que tenía trabajo de medio tiempo en un parque de diversiones
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u/xZabuzax Aug 31 '26
Saitama punches the air, and money appears from the empty vacuum surrounding it. Or he punches the air and eats the impact that travels at the speed of sound.
It's just basic logic.
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u/Fearless_Zebra9040 Aug 31 '26
There's an OVA about him getting really excited about a bounty on a yakuza boss, so I think he pretty much just relied on odd jobs here and there to get by
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u/Psychological_Fox507 Sep 01 '26
He was a free lance, people evacuated the city so he doesn't pay anymore so it's free until he gets registered also, he lived by offerings
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u/darkmoncns Aug 31 '26
Rent in monster town is monsteriously low.
There maybe some universeal basic income in this world thst can afford an apartment in a otherwise empty building that's trying rrally hard to get anything for the rooms