Is Genos Really Dead in One Punch Man? (& Who Killed Him)

One Punch Man has been one of the biggest revelations to hit the manga/anime world, with its seinen themes hitting the mark for a lot of fans. However, with the apparent death of Genos at the hands of Garou, is Genos really dead in One Punch Man? 

Genos looks to be dead as Garou separated his core from his brain. While Genos has taken significant damage and been repaired in the past, it is likely that this damage was fatal to Genos.

Let’s look at what really happened to Genos and explore whether he is dead or could be brought back to life. We’ll also consider his killer, Garou, and look at why the battle was so important.

Is Genos Really Dead in One Punch Man?

The creator of One Punch Man, Yusuke Murata, is certainly known for his wild endings and twists as the series has continued.

However, taking on the very strong Garou seemed to be too much for Genos, as a huge punch ended up taking out Genos’ core completely.

Genos is a 19-year-old and the apple of Saitama’s eye.

The young cyborg Genos is presently an S-class at Rank 14, and goes by the wrestler’s name Demon Cyborg, and has joined the Hero Association. Given his master/disciple relationship with Saitama, he is very quick to help out Saitama and defend his honor.

However, even though he is a cyborg, his bodily functions and other processes are carried out in his core, so having it removed completely by a massive blow from Garou is very likely to have killed him.

It’s also important to realize that the death of Genos could be very important to the overall character development of Saitama. Rarely has Saitama had to deal with this amount of pain and heartbreak, and surely the loss of Genos will push him harder than ever before.

Did Garou Kill Genos?

Garou recently received a power-up that gave him attacking power that has not really been seen before in One Punch Man. Garou also had received God’s powers, elevating him right to the top of powerful enemies that Saitama or Genos has ever had to face.

Blast even mentioned directly to Garou that his powers had gotten so out of hand that he could possibly destroy the entire planet with a single blow, let alone the fact that he is elevating radiation at a high enough rate to hurt or kill humans anyway.

With this power, even by punching out parts of Genos, given that Genos is a cyborg he can replace these damaged parts and keep on going. Genos also seems to not have damaged Garou in the slightest, so his return isn’t exactly going to strike fear into the heart of Garou.

A classic seinen trope generally involves a character like Genos coming back stronger after his defeat and learning from the experience to then take down Garou, but the apparent death of Garou is going to make this type of storyline hard to pull off.

For example, past fights involving Genos and the Deep Sea King saw Genos heavily damaged. Despite this, Kuseno sensei was able to rebuild Genos due to the still existing link between the core and Genos’ brain.

Just before the possible death at the hands of Garou, Genos was also in a massive fight with the Monster Association which saw Genos lose all his limbs. 

At this point, many may question why Genos even decided to fight, but this is because Genos is one of the few characters that can withstand the radiation coming off Garou.

Genos also lost part of his brain in the fight, so not only is the link severed between his brain and core, but the brain itself is damaged. This could mean that Kuseno sensei has a backup to restore Genos from, but due to the brain damage perhaps Genos won’t quite be the same.

There is also the possibility that Kuseno sensei has a variety of other techniques not yet revealed that could bring Genos back if he is indeed dead, as previous repairs and even the full abilities of Kuseno sensei have not been revealed yet.

Is Genos Dead in the Webcomic?

The One Punch Man manga is drawn by the above-mentioned Yusuke Murata, which is different from the original webcomic, which is instead written and drawn by ONE. 

It is important to note that there have already been several major changes from the webcomic to the manga, including this very battle in which Genos apparently died.

Saitama and Garou originally fought and ended the battle much earlier than occurred in the manga, and Garou did not receive the powerup. The webcomic is much further progressed than the manga, and Genos is a very important later character to the One Punch Man arc.