Hero Association (One-Punch Man)

The Hero Association is an organization that features in One-Punch Man.

History

The Hero Association (Japanese: ヒーロー協会, Hepburn: Hīrō Kyōkai) was an organization founded by a multi-millionaire named Agoni (アゴーニ, Agōni) after his grandson was saved from a monster by a passing superhero. He decided to use his fortune to create a body that gathered all heroes in the world thus forming the Hero Association along with the National Hero Registry. This saw the creation of a massive, privately funded corporate conglomerate and non-governmental regulatory agency that managed the planetary superhero population to combat continuous monster outbreaks. The group established an elaborate administrative tracking network across twenty-six designated city sectors, constructing a heavily fortified, fortress-like central operations skyscraper within A-City to serve as their permanent planetary command hub. Seeking to thoroughly vet local talent and counter rising monster threat levels, the agency instituted a mandatory, highly rigorous national registration exam composed of consecutive physical fitness trials and a written essay test. The administration used these testing metrics to structure their entire workforce into four distinct tiers ranging from C-Class to S-Class, forcing independent crimefighters.

Through a parasite monster, the Monster Association infiltrated the Hero Association headquarters where an aspect of Gyoro Gyoro made demands to the board of executives. Initially, he claimed that the Monsters had banded together so that they could establish their home in City Z and that they wanted to live in peace with mankind. However, this was a lie and done so as a joke on humans with the monsters having no intention of living in peace. Instead, they made an ultimatum where they revealed where they kept their hostage and told the Association to send their heroes to save him. This was part of a plot to ambush them and decimate the ranks of the heroes thus allowing the Monster Association to hunt down the remaining survivors.

Overview

In appearance, the Hero Association was a seemingly legitimate and highly organized entity responsible for superhero activity in the world. In practice, it was a bureaucratic and independent organization that sought to manage all professional hero activities across Earth. It operated through a strict class system, with heroes ranked from the lowest C-Class to the elite S-Class, ostensibly to ensure a structured response to the myriad of 'Mysterious Beings' and disasters that plagued the world. The association was funded by citizen donations and initially appeared to be the world's best hope for organized protection. However, beneath the surface of professional heroism and public trust, the organization was often depicted as being preoccupied with popularity, internal politics, and public image, rather than pure justice. The organization adapted its visual presence to emphasize an ultra-formal, heavily corporate corporate aesthetic rather than flamboyant superhero uniforms, completely rejecting combat fatigues or matching tactical armor plates. Their garments consisted of dark, tailored three-piece corporate business suits, crisp white collared shirts, matching neckties, and polished leather dress shoes to project an air of high-ranking administrative authority. Their massive A-City headquarters expanded the visual identity of the group through sterile, concrete structural geometries housing expansive, high-tech indoor stadiums, rows of standardized athletic testing equipment, and prominent wall surfaces decorated with the official minimalist geometric shield crest of the association.

An aspect within the Association was the National Hero Registry that was a database that catalogued every officially registered hero. Anyone not registered was not considered a hero with them instead looked as being individuals with delusions of grandeur.

Heroes were classified under different levels that were based on their strengths and abilities:

• S-Class : (S級 S-kyū) the highest class in the Hero Association that was given to those with a perfect score on the entrance exam or was capable of entry for the top candidate from A-Class who were eligible to enter this class.

This ranking system had the effect of breeding a competitive culture among the heroes within the Association resulting in factions being formed.

They relied on their comprehensive institutional tracking databases and extensive corporate wealth to execute highly sophisticated public relations campaigns, process millions of national civilian background files, and coordinate massive emergency evacuation alerts across twenty-six separate municipalities. They did not initially possess innate organic superpowers, shared telepathic links, or passive physical invulnerability, depending instead on state-of-the-art data surveillance networks, independent satellite monitoring grids, and heavily structured legal ranking protocols. Their specialized technology allowed separate research units to evaluate a candidate's punch velocity and vertical leap capacity down to the millisecond, issue official metahuman registry numbers, and classify encroaching monster outbreaks into distinct Wolf, Tiger, Demon, Dragon, and God threat levels.

Funding was achieved through donations from people across the country who provided money in gratitude for being saved by monsters and other threats. In addition, the Association received private funding from various billionaires and business organisations in an effort to generate good reputation and positive public relations. This was deemed as the primary source of income for the organisation who valued the protection of its sponsors. The association's number of sponsors, including major corporations and individuals, was said to number over 1000. Some of the executives were also said to make their money by illegally selling Mysterious Beings as pets and art displays. Furthermore, it was revealed that top executives also conduct rigged gambling event to ensure steady income of major sponsors which pitting some heroes against monsters arranged by the Association.

The Hero Association ranks was plagued by bureaucracy. Even if a hero was seen performing impressive feats, their rank will increase more slowly if they were starting at a low rank, due to the flawed credit system of the Hero Association.

The class system of the Hero Association was notoriously unfair to low-ranked heroes, since most of the S-Class heroes are the only ones that receive the best treatment and privileges in the organization, ranging from higher salary, physical supports, as well as a good publication for their activities to the public. As a result, no matter how much hard work and great achievements low-ranked heroes can put in during their line of work, they're seemingly ignored by the public as well as the Hero Association as a whole. They also rarely receive recognition from the Association to climb their rank or are neglected by the public due to lack of publication of their deeds, since the Hero Association wants to keep the ranking balance in check, as well as the fact that the public only cares about rank and not the true power of an individual, with the prime example being Saitama. As a result, non-S-Class heroes like the A-Class, B-Class, and C-Class heroes sometimes have to risk their life to gain recognition from both the public and the Hero Association by doing incredible things.

Consequently, although the Association proclaimed that they judged the rank of heroes based on the merits of combat ability; feats of defeating monsters; contribution to society and popularity, the organization's negative desire to maintain balance in rank and unfair treatments toward ranked heroes below S-class make them incredibly hypocritical. Furthermore, if taking into the account with the initial reason of the creation of S-Class to headhunt special talents and exceptionally powerful heroes among the low-ranked heroes, the Association can be seen as going against its very own principle as they largely ignore someone as powerful as Saitama most of the time, despite his numerous occasions of showing his unfathomable strength as well as the diligence of multiple low-ranked heroes.

Members

• Blast :
• Tornado :
• Bang :
• Atomic Samurai :
• Child Emperor :
• Metal Knight :
• King :
• Zombieman :
• Drive Knight :
• Pig God :
• Superalloy Blackluster :
• Watchdog Man :
• Flashy Flash :
• Tank-Top Master :
• Metal Bat :
• Puri-Puri Prisoner :
• Genos :
• Saitama :

Notes

• The Hero Association was created by Yusuke Murata where they featured in the setting of the One-Punch Man universe.

Appearances

• One-Punch Man:

External Links

• One-Punch Man Wiki Entry

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