One Punch Man: Who is Amai Mask?

To say that One Punch Man is a series full of strong characters is a massive understatement. This is because it makes fun of traditional anime and manga power scaling systems by making almost every single one of the top tier of heroes powerful enough to almost destroy the planet. Categorized into 4 tiers, all heroes are placed into different classes depending on their levels of strength.

The top spot of the A-Class, the second-highest tier of hero categorization, belongs to the mysterious hero, Amai Mask. In all of his appearances in the story of One Punch Man, he is shown as an extremely powerful combatant who belongs within the top brass of heroes, but chooses not to be in it for his own reasons, owing to a mysterious backstory. So, let’s break down who Amai Mask truly is.

Who Is Amai Mask?

Amai Mask, whose full name is Handsomely Masked Amai Mask, is the hero who sits at the number one spot in the A-Class. Within the Hero Association, he not only works as a hero, but he is also a part of the hero rank evaluation staff.

On top of this, Amai Mask is also the most popular star in the entire world. He is an actor, singer, and model who is popular no matter where he goes, something which has also made him a target of monsters in the past. Though Amai Mask’s origins are pretty mysterious, the webcomic has finally given fans a glimpse of his much-awaited backstory.

In truth, Amai Mask’s true identity is that of a horrifying and disfigured monster. At the very beginning, he was just a very ugly man named Beaut who used to do hero work with a mask on, which is also the reason behind his name. However, due to the pent-up rage and hatred he had for his ugliness, he eventually transformed into a monster with the ability to change his physical appearance, which he did by altering his visage to that of a tall and handsome young man.

This change was more than just a physical one, as Amai Mask got many new powers and abilities that were a result of his monsterification. Despite all of this, however, he still holds the ability to reveal his true self, as he did in his fight against Pesky Clown in the webcomic.

What Is Amai Mask Like?

Amai Mask possesses a very strong and stern personality when it comes to his job as a hero, although he is very kind and approachable to his fans. He is very charismatic and is always looking for ways to please his fans, as he genuinely cares for the well-being of civilians despite truly being a monster, stating that it is the job of heroes to protect everyone else and, if they are unable to, they must get strong enough to do so.

As for how he is during combat, Amai Mask is extremely powerful and very arrogant about his abilities. Since he is the top-ranked A-Class hero, he is offered the choice to move up in the rankings. However, he refuses to do so as he believes that more and more weak heroes will then fill the A-Class and, in turn, the value of the S-Class will be brought down as well. After the defeat of Lord Boros and his forces, Amai Mask arrives on the scene and insults the S-Class heroes for being weak, then quickly kills the surviving alien captives.

Aside from his charismatic and charming personality towards his fans, Amai Mask harbors a far darker side. He has an intense hatred for anything he deems as evil and believes that there should be no mercy towards it, as even those who are complicit in evil should be punished.

Due to his true self being hidden from the world, Sweet Mask takes the utmost care about his appearance and perception. He often comes off as narcissistic as he cares about his image over all else, as was seen with how he thought about eliminating the entire S-Class to hide his loss against Fuhrer Ugly. But despite his negative qualities, Amai Mask genuinely wants to help people and rid the world of evil for it to be a safer place for regular civilians, and he keeps monstrous urges in control for the greater good.

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Amai Masks’s Powers And Abilities

Due to his true nature as a monster, Amai Mask’s abilities and powers are far greater than those of regular heroes, as he is repeatedly stated to be on the tier of the S-Class heroes. He is an expert martial artist, possessing a tactical mind on top of his brute strength to fight his enemies, as seen in his fight against Suppon.

He even possesses inhuman levels of strength and speed. He is quite often shown to use a hand chop to dispatch monsters effortlessly, just as he did to the Dark Matter Pirates. In the Monster Association arc, his prowess was on full display as he defeated many monsters because of his immense strength and speed, eliminating them ruthlessly and efficiently.

His most impressive ability, however, is his regeneration. This ability has been displayed a few times, but the most incredible usage was against Do-S, who struck out his eye, which he quickly grew back and the other time was when he got ripped into 2 pieces by Fuhrer Ugly but was able to completely reform himself. When faced with great evil, he goes into a black rage where his eyes turn red and he gets a very feral appearance.

One Punch Man can be streamed on Amazon Prime and Netflix.

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