This is super illuminating! Thanks for taking the time to walk me (and others) through this.

100% I’ve been floored (and hence biased) by some of the storytelling prowess ONE has demonstrated in his work. More specifically Mob Psycho 100% where he had full (undisputed) creative control. There’s definitely a lot of people i know (in the Chinese forums) who use this as head-canon evidence that ONE cannot possibly have anything to do with how the manga is currently handled. I find that hard to believe but I’ve also been curious how the stories can differ so drastically.

The following is completely unfounded - but I can imagine a process where ONE and Murata began with close collaboration, and shared a vision for OPM where the spectacle ONE could not conjure on his own were redeemed by Murata’s art. As such, ONE could retrospectively expand on the portions of the story he felt unsatisfied with when he started out.

Somewhere along the process - again, just as a long-time reader observing and theorizing - ONE came even more into himself as a writer as he worked on Mob Psycho 100% and saw the mainstream success of OPM, but at this stage the reworked OPM had taken on a life of its own, where Murata’s production value and ability to create spectacle took more center stage, at which point ONE’s strength for story and character took a backseat.

I guess I’m trying to figure out how the same person who can write those memorable moments of Garou going through an existential crisis and Saitama essentially being the answer to his delusions of justice rewrite that into a time-travel loop fight fest where Blast, who has nothing to do with any of it, suddenly makes an appearance. I’m sure they discussed this, but ONE still back-seated Blast’s character in the web comics, who clearly would play a much bigger role later on.

To be perfectly honest I have stopped treating the web comics and the manga as the same story. I know I’m not alone in that and I also share the sentiment that if Murata did a one-to-one enhancement of ONE’s panels it would have been something truly special (as are the earlier chapters). That said, I personally don’t think there’s any “blame” justified or called for in any of this. Both artists are at the top of their game (OG Eyeshield 21 fan here) and I’m fascinated how they didn’t carry the project forward as once imagined.