Boros

Boros (ボロス, Borosu), also called Lord Boros (ボロス様, Borosu-sama) by his subordinates, was the leader of the Dark Matter Thieves, a group of alien invaders responsible for the destruction of A-City. Like Saitama, Boros faced a self-imposed existential crisis, having become so powerful that no battle thrilled him. His intergalactic travels in search of a worthy opponent led him to Earth, where he was killed by Saitama.^[5]

Boros is the main antagonist of the Alien Conquerors Arc.

Appearance

Boros was a very tall cyclops-like alien with light-pink, spiky hair and bangs that fell over his face. He had sharp teeth and pointed ears lined with a row of gold earrings (silver in the animated adaptation). He had one large blue eye and light blue skin with dark blue crack-shaped markings that started from his eye and covered most of his body. He wore a set of armor with spikes on the shoulder and forearms and wore a pair of matching curved boots. In the manga, his skin in his sealed form was purple with darker purple stripes on his face. He also had a red orb on his chest with purple markings on his stomach and arms. He wore a pair of white harem pants, held by a magenta-colored sash with silver-lined purple blades hanging from it.

After Saitama destroyed his armor, Boros’s appearance changed. His muscle mass increased, and his body grew spiky plates and his spine and the surrounding tissue became exposed, while his skin changed to a navy blue color with light blue markings that emitted energy. He was shown with an additional yellow eye under his chest which moved in sync with his original, now yellow eye and his hair was completely spiked up becoming slightly darker in color.

In his Meteoric Burst form, his appearance changed drastically. His hair grew, reaching his back, his eye became completely white, though at times a black pupil became visible, and his body got engulfed in white energy, while his markings returned to their original, dark blue color.

Personality

Because of his incredible power, Boros was both arrogant and prideful. Due to his love of battles and his inability to find an opponent who has been able to match him in power, he roamed the universe looking for worthy opponents that would be able to stand against him. He was also extremely callous, indifferent to the destruction and loss of life his invasion caused to A-City, and the destruction of his ship and the death of most of his crew while fighting Saitama. He did show a certain amount of courtesy and respect, reassuring Geryuganshoop when he was concerned about the ship, greeting and exchanging names with Saitama when he arrived and showed increasing amounts of respect to Saitama as their fight wore on and he continued to survive Boros’s attacks. After being defeated, he seemed to be at peace with his imminent death, discounting the prophecy, but still satisfied that his fight with Saitama had been as exciting as he desired it to be, even if he was not victorious.

In battle, he was shown to have a very cautious and serious behavior, attempting to end fights quickly and make sure his opponent doesn’t have any chance to surprise him.

History

An alien seer told Boros that on a faraway planet he would find an opponent who could fight on equal footing with him and give him the enjoyable fight he had always desired. Boros traveled the universe for 20 years before finding Earth.^[6]

Plot

Hero Association Saga

Alien Conquerors Arc

The Dark Matter Thieves appear above A-City and bombard it with shells, destroying 99.8% of the city in an instant.^[7] The only structure left standing is the Hero Association headquarters.^[8] Saitama, who was in the building, breaks into the spaceship and kills Groribas^[9] and Geryuganshoop, two of Boros’s top subordinates, much to the alien’s surprise.^[10] Saitama then confronts Boros.

Face to face with Saitama, Boros explains that he traveled to Earth because of a prophecy that foretold of a worthy opponent there.^[11] He attempts to goad Saitama into fighting with him. Suddenly, Saitama punches him into a pillar and berates him for destroying A-City for a stupid reason. Boros, much to Saitama’s surprise, survives the hero’s punch and stands up. With his restraining armor now destroyed, Boros unleashes his true strength and prepares to fight the hero.^[12]

Boros and Saitama engage in an intense fight. Seeing Saitama is unfazed by his attacks, Boros uses Meteoric Burst and continues his assault on Saitama. He finishes his attacks with a knee that launches Saitama to the moon.^[13] Saitama jumps from the moon back to Earth^[14] and hits Boros with a barrage of punches. Even after being punched into pieces, Boros’s regenerative ability allows him to re-form almost immediately.^[15]

Eager to end the fight, Boros decides to use his final attack, Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon, to kill Saitama and destroy the planet. Before the blast hits the planet, Saitama uses Serious Series: Serious Punch to repel it and critically damage Boros. Defeated and incapable of regenerating from the heavy damage, Boros compliments Saitama for the splendid battle.^[16] Boros then states that he knew he had no chance of defeating Saitama and that the prophecy that he had gambled on was a lie. Boros dies while a victorious Saitama leaves the ruins of the spaceship.^[17]

Abilities and Powers

As the leader of the invading force of aliens, Boros had authority over the entire armada, his rule being absolute while being extremely powerful in his own right. According to Boros, his species developed the greatest regenerative ability in the entire universe to adapt to living on their home planet, which had harsh climates. Boros also appeared to be able to sense peoples’ energy, which manifested itself as an aura around said person. Boros was the first enemy who survived a normal punch from Saitama, a notable feat considering all of the previous disasters had been obliterated, while Boros simply had his armor destroyed by the first punch. In fact, Boros was hit with 3 Normal Punches, a Consecutive Normal Punches attack, as well as the shockwave caused by a Serious Punch. This puts Boros on a whole new level compared to the other enemies Saitama had faced before, with the hero stating Boros was the most powerful foe he ever faced.

Physical Abilities

Boros was gifted with superpowers from birth, which vastly increased his powers with time and experience. He claimed that he, in particular, possessed regeneration, physical prowess, and latent energy that far surpassed all other members of his race.

Immense Strength: Boros displays extreme amounts of strength during his fight against Saitama. He was able to knock Saitama through several pillars with only one punch, the alien’s various strikes easily damaging the place. Boros’s punch had so much power behind it, that the sheer pressure of the collision of his fist drove away an immense smoke cloud created by his energy blast.

Immense Speed and Reflexes: Boros had incredible speed and agility, as he was able to keep up with a casual Saitama. He used the latent energy shunted from his body as a means of propulsion, making him incredibly fast. Even at high speeds, Boros was very agile. Even inside the ship, the two were so fast that normal human eyes would have been unable to follow their fight.^[2]

Immense Durability: Boros was shown to be amazingly resilient, to the point of being the first opponent of Saitama to survive after being hit directly by his normal punch, despite having his full power sealed by his armor. Even after receiving a direct punch from Saitama in his Meteoric Burst form, he remained intact, despite bleeding and injured. When he had his planet-destroying attack repelled back at him by Saitama’s Serious Punch, he was strong enough to remain conscious for a short time.

Regeneration: Like the rest of his race, Boros had an incredible rate of regeneration, with Boros himself surpassing all others of his race as stated before. Boros had been shown to regrow an arm in seconds just by concentrating his energy on it. When struck by Saitama’s Consecutive Normal Punches, he was blown apart but was able to regenerate his whole body in an instant. However, Boros’ regeneration ability had a limit, as it showed in the end, he lost to Saitama and was unable to regenerate again after being struck by Saitama’s Serious Punch as he had already used up all his energy.

Energy Projection: Boros could use the latent energy that his body produced to fire large energy blasts from the eye in his chest with great destructive power. He also combined his energy projection with his physical attacks, resulting in shockwaves and blasts capable of destroying city-sized areas. The invader had stated that the resulting blasts were so powerful that small fries would find even their bones vaporized instantly.

• Flight: By releasing energy from his body through his use of energy projection, Boros was able to propel himself through the air at incredibly high speeds.
• Energy Bullets (エネルギ弾, Enerugi-dan): Boros condenses the energy in his body and shoots through his eyes.^[2]

Power Release (パワー解放, Pawā kaihō): Boros wore an ornate suit of armor that was designed to keep his immense powers in check. When the armor was removed his body, it became black and spiky and began to glow from the released energy. Boros praised Saitama for being the first to last as long against his power in that state, suggesting that even in that form, Boros was immensely powerful compared to other enemies.

Fighting Style

Highly Experienced Combatant: Boros was an extremely skilled fighter with decades of experience and not a single loss in combat, making him an extremely dangerous and powerful fighter. As such, he tried to end fights quickly and did not hesitate or hold back, presumably as a strategy to avoid giving chances to his enemies.

Trump Cards: Boros had several techniques that he used when he wanted to finish a fight quickly or thoroughly destroy an opponent.

• Meteoric Burst (メテオリックバースト, Meteorikku Bāsuto): It was Boros’s trump card which he resorted to when he wished to settle a fight quickly. He used his latent energy to boost his body to speed and power beyond normal limits, at the cost of putting an immense burden on himself and even shortening his lifespan. This also completely changed his appearance, the color of his body changing to cherry pink.

Augmented Strength: Along with his other attributes, Boros’s strength grew to preposterous levels. One of Boros’s kicks had so much strength behind it that its force was enough to send Saitama rocketing through space, all the way to the moon. The kicking technique envelops the opponent in energy and moves them at almost,^[18] if not at the speed of light.^[19]

Augmented Speed: Boros’s speed was also shown to increase drastically with the activation of Meteoric Burst. He moved so quickly that he appeared as just a purple streak and caused the ship around him to melt just by moving within its vicinity.^[20] Boros’s movements are propelled by energy, not his limbs.^[21]

• Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon (崩星咆哮砲, Hōsei Hōkōhō): While in his Meteoric Burst form, Boros could launch a massive beam of energy from his mouth which was much larger than his average energy beam. The color was also different; instead of being only blue, it had golden tones to it. Boros stated that he needed to concentrate and release the entirety of his latent energy to perform this technique. The beam was stated to be powerful enough to destroy the surface of the planet or the planet itself depending on the translation.^[2]

Equipment

• Restraining Armor: Boros wore a set of armor that restrained his power. It was shattered by Saitama’s first blow.

Major Battles

Quotes

• (To Saitama) “There exists a prophecy. I was once a traveler, exploring the universe, ravaging everything in sight. But I was too strong; eventually, I found there were none left that could face me. I came to know the torment of utter, all-encompassing boredom. Then one day, a great seer told me somewhere on a faraway planet, a being exists who is my match; one who could rekindle my passion for battle. That was nearly 20 years ago; have you any concept of the distance I’ve traveled to get here? My men thought the prophecy was a ruse, a fairy tale meant to focus my attention and lure me away. But now I am certain it was true! Come, and give stimulation to my existence! That, is why I am here!”
• (Referring to Saitama) “This state… It burdens my body immensely, similar to anaerobic exercise. It’s supposed to be a trump card I only use to settle a fight quickly… but this man, makes me wanna go all out!”^[22]
• (To Saitama) “That’s the way, Saitama. You are indeed worth defeating!”

• (To Saitama) “You lie. You had strength to spare. I never stood a chance. It wasn’t even a battle. So much for prophecies. You were too strong… Saitama…”

Trivia

• Boros is ranked 11th in the character popularity poll.^[23]

• In the first release of the manga, Boros looked more human and had a steel-plated looking armor with a skull ornament. His design was later redrawn by Yusuke Murata in order to look more alien.

• Boros was the first opponent of Saitama that survived after getting punched, much to Saitama’s surprise. In fact, he is the very first of Saitama’s opponents that took more than one punch to kill; Saitama even considered him to be the strongest opponent he had faced so far.

• The origin of Boros’ name is from a game ONE played.^[24] Though it’s unknown on what the game was.

• In an interview where ONE was questioned about who would win in a fight between Boros and Garou, ONE said it would be a “good match”; however, Garou is stronger in close combat.^[25][26]

• ONE has stated that Boros’ disaster level is “Dragon or higher,” but did not outright say God. A similar statement was also made about Orochi’s disaster level by Murata.^[27][28]

• Boros is one of the few opponents that has deduced Saitama’s immense power without first underestimating him based on appearance, the other two being Carnage Kabuto and Orochi.

• Boros is actually an allusion to one of ONE’s previous works that was never officially released, Taiyo Man (Sun Man). In the story, the final boss was too strong for the plot to progress, so ONE had to scrap it.^[29]

• Murata states that Boros and Deep Sea King are his favorite monsters due to the impact they have had on the series.^[30]

• Boros is the only monster so far that can destroy a planet or its surface.^[20]
• Murata wanted to give Boros another transformation past Meteoric Burst before unleashing Collapsing Star Roaring Cannon. The idea was abandoned because that would imply Boros was still holding back in Meteoric Burst mode, which wasn’t the case, he was already going all out.^[31]
• In the 2017 One Punch Man Halloween cover, Boros was depicted as Great King Enma (閻魔大王, Enma Dai-Ō) with the kanji 王 (King) on his hat.
• In the anime, Boros’ fight against Saitama presents many similarities with Saitama’s dream fight against the Subterraneans in terms of poses and the heartbeat, creating a connection between the first and the last episode of the season. This further highlights how Boros can relate to Saitama’s existential crisis and felt the exhilaration of a real fight like Saitama in his dream.

References

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