Highlights
- Orochi is the terrifying leader of the Monster Association and is considered the Monster King due to his ruthless attitude and phenomenal power.
- Orochi's backstory reveals that he was once a martial arts and fighting genius who turned his back on humanity and was later transformed into a monster by Psykos.
- Orochi possesses incredible powers and feats, including the ability to monsterize others, powerful energy beams, heightened speed and durability, and the ability to fuse with Psykos to form Psykorochi, a form with vast psychic abilities and gravity manipulation.
In the One Punch Man manga, we were introduced to the terrifying Monster Association, an organization that works as the complete opposite and counter to the Hero Association. This organization seeks to bring monsters to the forefront of the world and to make them the rulers, destroying the Hero Association and all its heroes in the process. The very top brass members of the Monster Association, known as the Cadres, are Dragon Level threats and are considered to be the most powerful monsters that have been introduced in the story, with each one being strong enough to destroy entire cities.
Even within this class of monsters, however, there is only one monster with the title of Monster King; Orochi. Orochi is the horrifying leader of the Monster Association and has been working in the shadows for many years before the start of the series. The reason he is known as the Monster King is because of his ruthless attitude and phenomenal power which allows him to rule over the lesser monsters with an iron fist. So, let's take a look at who he is.
Backstory
Much like most of the other monsters in the organization, very little is known of the backstory for Monster King Orochi. However, the information that we do have is that Orochi was once a man who, for one reason or another, chose to turn his back on humanity. Though we don't know his identity, we do know that this man once used to be a martial arts and fighting genius, which eventually led to him crossing paths with Psykos who was able to sway him into joining her cause.
After allying herself with Orochi, Psykos then relentlessly experimented on him. She put him through a growth-stimulating process that continuously put him through many near-death experiences, causing his body to keep adapting to these experiences, eventually leading to him becoming a monster. Psykos considered Orochi to be her greatest success as she had tried this process many times before with other monsters who would just end up dying. During this process, she was also able to condition his mind into being subservient to her.
At some point before the setting of the main story, Orochi fought and defeated Gouketsu but instead of killing him, Orochi offered him one of his cells to allow him to transform into a monster. This would be the first known case of 'monsterization' in the story. Later, after the Monster Association arc officially begins, Orochi starts to fight against Garou after the latter proves that he has no loyalty to either of the opposing associations.
In this fight, Orochi unveils his true form which consists of seemingly hundreds of dragons, spikes, and mouths. In this form, he stabs Garou through the torso with his horns and eventually defeats him, following which we see him face off against Saitama in the basement of the Monster Association HQ. This time, however, his sheer power is not enough as he is bested by Saitama's normal punch.
Later on, we see that Orochi actually survived his fight with Saitama and was still strong enough to absorb many lower-level monsters within himself to grow exponentially in strength. After absorbing Psykos and gaining immense esper abilities, a new form known by the fandom as 'Psykorochi' is formed and is one of the most powerful monsters ever seen in One Punch Man. This form primarily goes up against Tatsumaki and Genos, with many other S-Class heroes joining in later to finally defeat him. Orochi finally dies when Tatsumaki crushes him with a massive psychic drill attack.
Powers and Feats
Monster King Orochi was easily one of the strongest characters that we have ever seen in the series since it started and was the leader of the Monster Association due to his strength. His most seen ability is monsterification, a process where he gives up his cells to people for them to eat, after which they turn into extremely powerful monsters. An example of this is Gouketsu, a martial arts fighter who turned into a Dragon Level threat and an executive of the Monster Association only after consuming one cell.
He is also incredibly strong because he uses powerful energy beams along with hand-to-hand fighting, as was seen in his fights with Garou. In this fight, he was able to keep up with and overpower Garou with very little effort, defeating the half-monster Hero Hunter with relative ease. On top of this, he is also a great combatant. Due to his past as a genius martial artist when he was a human, he was able to effortlessly analyze and copy Garou's martial arts by only viewing them very briefly. Just as Garou stated that Orochi's strength could not match his skill and got in the stance of Bang's technique, he was surprised to see that Orochi himself had mastered that technique on the spot.
Orochi is also extremely fast and durable. His immense speed can be seen when his horns pierce Dr. Bofoi's robot quicker than it can even self-destruct, as well as when he kills Awakened Cockroach, a monster known for its speed. As for durability, Orochi is one of the most durable characters in One Punch Man as he can not only continuously keep getting stronger by consuming others, but he also survives a normal punch from Saitama.
However, Orochi's real power went on display after his fusion with Psykos to unlock his Psykorochi form, which got a further boost in strength due to the additional powers they received from God. His ability to control every facet of his body still remains, but is now heightened to much greater levels, as seen when his energy beam cuts a slice of the Earth's hemisphere. This form is also able to regenerate and has gravity manipulation on top of its vast psychic abilities.
This form can manipulate its structures well enough to the point where one of the horns could turn into a jet for Psykos to escape. The sheer amount of power output that this form could let out was enough to not only force Tatsumaki to get serious but also overwhelm her to the point where Genos had to come and help her out.
Monster King Orochi is a character that has easily cemented his name as one of the greatest threats that humanity has ever faced. Even though he essentially acted as the enforcer of Psykos's will in the Monster Association, he is a character that more than deserves the title of Monster King!
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