Op Man (One Punch Man x Ip Man stop motion parody)

Hello again! I am Lee Jia Yi, a stop motion animator from Malaysia who likes to bring anime action figures such as Figma, SH Figuarts, D-arts, AGP and etc to life. I still want to thank you for your reward for my work "Absolute Configuration (Rebellion Story Mami Vs Homura figma stop motion remake)" back in 2015. It's been 6 years, but I still want to give another try with another work.
This time, I present to you: Op Man, the combination of One Punch Man and Ip Man.
This video has some story behind it. I originally was supposed to create this video in 2016 (1 year after the Mami vs Homura stop motion remake). However, by that time, I just graduated from my university and started my work life in environmental industry. The work life was busy, and I was satisfied with my work life until I dropped stop motion animation for a while.
But then, a lot of things happened between the 3 years (2016 to 2019). After I worked for a while, I found that environmental industry is not as wonderful as I thought. A lot of reality issues involved. Exposed to some dark truths in this industry. Experienced some corporate politics. All these made me question about the purpose of my life. Then COVID-19 happened. During the lockdown around March 2020, I had time to reflect on what I should do in my life, then I recall my hobby of making stop motion animation. I started to consider: What if I actually chose the animator path instead of the environmentalist path. To be honest, I love environment while I also love anime, but I remember that the reason why I love anime is because I like how anime tells stories that inspire people, and back when I was in school, I also love environment because of my childhood anime, Pokemon. I wish that I can combine both of my favorite career into one. In fact, the reason why I rebooted my animation studio from "Lee Jia Yi Production" to "Malva Studio" is because I have a plan to write a story starring my original character, Malva, who is a magical girl transformed from a guy who undergoes struggle when working in environmental industry.
To create an original story is still very difficult for me right now because I need a lot of resources and skills. I have to build up my popularity before I consider to look for project partners. But for now, I need to hone my skill first, since now I have higher stake due to the fact that I am aiming to be a full time stop motion animator. So recently, I will practice with different styles of movie scenario. I will try and learn different ways to make a film before I eventually come up with my own style.
So here comes the Op Man (One Punch Man x Ip Man stop motion parody), where I can try out something different from Mami vs Homura remake. One of the highlights of this project is, instead of 1 vs 1 combat, Op Man tested my ability to handle the situation where many action figures move together in one scene. The perfect way to try this out is by picking the most infamous scene in Ip Man movie series starring Donnie Yen: The 1 vs 10 blackbelt scene in the first movie. In this scene, One Punch Man will have the opportunity to fight the opponents with Wing Chun style martial art.
I guess many One Punch Man fans might be disappointed with my decision to nerf Saitama (One Punch Man) in this project. Many will argue that Saitama shouldn't become "Many Punch Man", as he usually beats his opponents with just one punch. But let me remind you, Saitama himself also often gets bored of this way of life. He thirsts for the moment when he can fight with his opponent at equal ground. He longs for the time when he does not finish his opponent with just one punch. Just rewatch episode 1 of One Punch Man anime, then you will understand this is indeed Saitama's dream. Fortunately, Saitama joined my studio as a Figma. In this life as a Figma, he finally gets the chance to fight with my other characters with not-so-overpowered ability, although I personally think in this parody, he still retain less than 1% of his total power.
Of course, to make things a bit more interesting, I also add a lot of anime and internet memes and references in this parody. Hardcore anime fans and internet users should be able to identify all of them.
So that's all for the description. I hope you enjoy my video.