Character · One Punch Man
Garou
He trained under the best martial artist in the city, then decided he would rather be the monster.
In Otakana the clue reads: Human monster who hunts heroes
- Type
- Character
- Series
- One Punch Man
- Letters
- 5 · Normal
Garou was Bang's most talented student until he beat every other student in the dojo and got thrown out for it. His theory is that heroes are boring, that everyone secretly roots for the monster, and that he can prove it by hunting professional heroes one at a time. He calls himself a human monster and keeps a list of who is left.
He is also the best pure technician in the series. Garou reads a style in the middle of a fight, copies it, and turns it back on the person using it, which is how he beats opponents ranked far above him. Every beating he takes leaves him faster. The manga's long monster arc is a study of how far that can go before it stops being human.
The name is 餓狼, starving wolf, which is doing plenty of work on its own. ONE published the webcomic version from 2009, and Yusuke Murata's redraw turned Garou's fights into some of the most extravagant action pages in modern manga. The anime moved to J.C. Staff in 2019, which fans argued about at length, and later seasons picked his arc up again.
Spelling GAROU
GAROU is five letters and it breaks the usual rule. Japanese long vowels normally vanish in English, so Gojou becomes GOJO, but the official spelling here keeps the U. 餓狼 is ga-rou, starving wolf, and the OU stays on the tiles. GAROU, not GARO and not GAROO. Knowing the Gojo trap is exactly what makes people get this one wrong.