I’m gonna let you guys in on a secret… I’ve never seen My Hero Academia. Now I know that must be hard to believe consideringthe numerous times I’ve talked and made videos about the series in extensive detail,but it’s true, I’ve never seen My Hero Academia and I’m not even completely surewhat it’s about. As I’m sure many of you will say next, Irealize that it is completely unacceptable for a channel like myself which deals primarilywith… well, anime, to have not seen or even know much about what is undeniably the posterchild for the medium right now. The only thing I do know is that like mostpopular things, you have people on both sides of the fence who either call this series overratedtrash, or the second coming of shonen Christ.
If anything, this just makes me want to delveinto the series even more, and find out what could be causing such a polarizing response. So today we’re going to do just that andget to the bottom of this, I’m gonna check out this franchise for myself, and give youall a completely unbiased and neutral perspective on what is easily the most popular anime airingtoday. There’s just one little problem… I don’t actually own My Hero Academia, at least not physically, now we could take the baby route and stream it through a site like Crunchyroll or [ ], butwhere’s the fun in that? If we’re going to experience the biggestanime in the world, I want to do it through the most unnecessary and archaic way possible.
Now I just have to think about how we’regoing to ge-- [doorbell rings] Wait, who’s that? Gimme one second, guys. Well would you look at that. As fate would have it, some kindly soul hasoffered to me their completely authentic copy of My Hero Academia, so it would be a crimenot to take advantage of this situation and finally experience it for myself. I do have to say though, it’s… not exactly wh I was expecting. Walt Disney Pictures presents… My Hero Academia. The front of the box says it’s “A cleverhybrid of Harry Potter and The Incredibles”, and I happen to like both of those things so here’s hoping for the best. Our story opens with a teenager named IzukuMidoriya living in a world where superpowers have become commonplace, not commonplace enoughwhere you can just reveal them to anybody, but enough where if you looked into a crowdof people, you’d definitely have quite a few who possess some kind of super ability. Midoriya happens to be the son of a worldfamous husband wife superhero duo, and we begin our tale as he’s sent to train hisown ability at the most respected hero academy in the country… Sky Hi-- I mean, U.A. High Scool. There’s just one little problem with allof this, Midoriya doesn’t actually have a superpower of his own, and he's been spendingthe early years of his adolescence pretending to have powers in the hopes of not disappointinghis parents, one of which being his father All Might, played by Kurt Russell, who wasgiven the extraordinary gift of super strength. It’s not exactly the most original premisein the world but it’s endearing enough in the beginning to have you root for Midoriyaas an underdog and want him to succeed. He has a lot of hurdles he has to face beingnot only a powerless member of a renowned superhero family, but also a powerless highschooler surrounded with classmates his age who have already developed their own. It’s here where Midoriya makes friends withseveral other classmates who have been deemed misfits, as well as his childhood friend OchakoUraraka, as they all do their best to make it through high school while something moresinister brews behind the scenes. Right away what stood out to me about My HeroAcademia was the writing, it has a wit to it that you don’t normally see in thesekinds of shows and I feel like that ultimately made the more mundane scenes throughout theseries the highlight in contrast to the big bombastic superpower sequences that are scatteredaround.
It’s genuinely entertaining just listeningto these kids talk to each other and learn how to appreciate their company. This is especially focused on with the relationshipbetween Midoriya and Uraraka, it’s one of those dynamics where you can feel the romantictension between the two all the time, but they also manage to just have this reallywholesome and uplifting friendship that you can actually buy they’ve been friends sincechildhood. There’s also another character I won’tget too in depth with named Katsuki Bakugo, another student at the academy with fire powerswho acts as sort of a foil and rival to Midoriya. At first he comes across really douchey butas the series went on, I started to see more sides to his character and he actually becameone of my favorites after finishing this current arc. My Hero Academia in general is interestingbecause a lot of my favorite characters shuffled around a lot as each one got more and morescreentime, even some of the side characters such as the gym coach Shota Aizawa, playedby Bruce Campbell, got some time to shine and ended up leaving an impression on me. This writing and character work ultimatelylends itself to the overall series message that “anyone can be a hero”, and whatmakes a hero can derive from even the smallest acts of kindness. It’s a cheesy but positive message to spread,and a lot of the series reinforces that message time and time again, one of my favorite narrativebeats is the fact that despite having the two most powerful and world famous heroesas his parents, Midoriya ends up in a sidekick class because he simply doesn’t have hispowers.
What initially hangs over his head as kindof a shame and burden, over the course of one of the arcs, he finds pride in being asidekick along with his other friends, and does what he can with just his resourcefulnessand quick-thinking. Another thing that left an impression on mewas the absolutely insane art direction and animation work throughout the series, as ahuge animation and sakuga fan, the visual presentation of this series blew me away ina manner I was not expecting considering the level of quality most battle shonen have. Thekey animation and storyboards here are obscenely detailed to the point where I couldn’t eventell if I was looking at a drawing or real life. Another nice thing about the life-like presentationis that a lot of the actors like Kurt Russell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, etc. etc. gave theirlikenesses to the roles they were playing to elevate the authenticity of the show. Writing, characters, and animation aside,there’s just a lot here that makes it easily understandable why this show took off theway it did, great music, fast pace, and some lowkey mystery added in there for flavor haskept me engaged and wanting to watch more as soon as I’m done making this review. Unfortunately it’s not a perfect overallpackage, and now we start getting into the problems and why some people may be saltythat this series is getting exposure that it may not deserve. There’s one aspect I’ve avoided talkingabout up til now for a reason, and that would be the overarching narrative and the antagoniststhat our heroes have to end up fighting. Without spoiling anything, I have to admitthat this aspect fell on its face completely and the villains never really get the attentionthey deserve.
I mentioned the fast pace being a positivebefore but it also acts as a double edged sword, the series spends so much time focusingon our heroes, their relationships and dynamics, their own personal struggles, and don’tget me wrong, that’s fantastic as I mentioned earlier, spending so much time with them meanswe end up connecting with them more, especially considering the main cast are all underdogswho have to prove themselves as heroes. The issue comes from the fact that spendingso much time with the heroes in turn means that there’s less time to go around withfleshing out the villains, less time to have them stick around, and less time to just givethem more of a presence. Because of this, it often feels like whenevera villain IS introduced in My Hero Academia, you often only have an episode or two beforethey’re gone and they never had the chance to leave an impression on you. Another complaint I would throw at the seriesis that contrary to a lot of its peers in the shonen genre, My Hero Academia never reallyfleshes out the world in compelling or meaningful ways. The premise almost limits ITSELF because sincewe’re so focused on this main cast and their difficulties with high school, the scope rarelyever expands beyond that, and we’re stuck looking at this intriguing alternate realitywith superpowers through tunnel vision. Because of that, despite the more interestingcharacter mysteries that there ARE in the world, I’m not really invested in this universeitself, I don’t care what’s out there in the world and whenever the serieseventually does start introducing new elements, it feels more like elements being introducedfor the sake of plot, rather than a living, breathing world where different factions andcharacters naturally come into play. Finally, the complaint you’ll probably seemost frequently about this series is that My Hero Academia doesn’t really do anythingnew, it’s an amalgamation of a bunch of different shonen tropes and the mangaka makesno effort in hiding a lot of his inspirations.
That being said, I will defend HeroAca andsay that even though it is very derivative of the shonen genre, I don’t think that’sstopped it from crafting its own identity. Whether that’s simply because we haven’thad a shonen this popular since Naruto, or there’s some kind of secret ingredient here, I couldn’ttell you, but something about this series does feel noteworthy and distinct, despite takingso much from so many other sources. One thing I can say it does differently fora battle shonen, at least out of the ones that I’ve seen, is that there’s a lot more focus on the slice of life high school aspects. This has been criticized a lot but I actuallythink it’s an interesting approach in a genre that’s pretty stagnant, if anythingthe fact that it is criticized just goes to show how comfortable people have gotten withthis formula, and are resistant to change. In conclusion, Walt Disney Picture’s MyHero Academia is a perfectly adequate battle shonen that while not really doing anythingnew, does enough with solid execution that it keeps things engaging and makes me interestedin seeing what will happen next.
Watching these goofballs develop their abilitiesand survive through oh so relatable high school incidents is both entertaining and endearing. So hey, with a series like this, you’veprobably heard it all before, but I swore at the beginning to give my unbiased perspectiveon this entire series and so I have. Follow me on Twitter for more anime ramblings,join my Discord if you want to be friends, and maybe next time we’ll take a look ata different series everyone’s talking about, I’ve been hearing a lot of things aboutthis other show called Boku no Hero Academia, no idea what it's about but I’ve heard it’sgot a lot in common with this so we’ll see if it’s anything special. One thing’s for sure though... the animation isn't anywhere near as good.
If anything, this just makes me want to delveinto the series even more, and find out what could be causing such a polarizing response. So today we’re going to do just that andget to the bottom of this, I’m gonna check out this franchise for myself, and give youall a completely unbiased and neutral perspective on what is easily the most popular anime airingtoday. There’s just one little problem… I don’t actually own My Hero Academia, at least not physically, now we could take the baby route and stream it through a site like Crunchyroll or [ ], butwhere’s the fun in that? If we’re going to experience the biggestanime in the world, I want to do it through the most unnecessary and archaic way possible.
Now I just have to think about how we’regoing to ge-- [doorbell rings] Wait, who’s that? Gimme one second, guys. Well would you look at that. As fate would have it, some kindly soul hasoffered to me their completely authentic copy of My Hero Academia, so it would be a crimenot to take advantage of this situation and finally experience it for myself. I do have to say though, it’s… not exactly wh I was expecting. Walt Disney Pictures presents… My Hero Academia. The front of the box says it’s “A cleverhybrid of Harry Potter and The Incredibles”, and I happen to like both of those things so here’s hoping for the best. Our story opens with a teenager named IzukuMidoriya living in a world where superpowers have become commonplace, not commonplace enoughwhere you can just reveal them to anybody, but enough where if you looked into a crowdof people, you’d definitely have quite a few who possess some kind of super ability. Midoriya happens to be the son of a worldfamous husband wife superhero duo, and we begin our tale as he’s sent to train hisown ability at the most respected hero academy in the country… Sky Hi-- I mean, U.A. High Scool. There’s just one little problem with allof this, Midoriya doesn’t actually have a superpower of his own, and he's been spendingthe early years of his adolescence pretending to have powers in the hopes of not disappointinghis parents, one of which being his father All Might, played by Kurt Russell, who wasgiven the extraordinary gift of super strength. It’s not exactly the most original premisein the world but it’s endearing enough in the beginning to have you root for Midoriyaas an underdog and want him to succeed. He has a lot of hurdles he has to face beingnot only a powerless member of a renowned superhero family, but also a powerless highschooler surrounded with classmates his age who have already developed their own. It’s here where Midoriya makes friends withseveral other classmates who have been deemed misfits, as well as his childhood friend OchakoUraraka, as they all do their best to make it through high school while something moresinister brews behind the scenes. Right away what stood out to me about My HeroAcademia was the writing, it has a wit to it that you don’t normally see in thesekinds of shows and I feel like that ultimately made the more mundane scenes throughout theseries the highlight in contrast to the big bombastic superpower sequences that are scatteredaround.
It’s genuinely entertaining just listeningto these kids talk to each other and learn how to appreciate their company. This is especially focused on with the relationshipbetween Midoriya and Uraraka, it’s one of those dynamics where you can feel the romantictension between the two all the time, but they also manage to just have this reallywholesome and uplifting friendship that you can actually buy they’ve been friends sincechildhood. There’s also another character I won’tget too in depth with named Katsuki Bakugo, another student at the academy with fire powerswho acts as sort of a foil and rival to Midoriya. At first he comes across really douchey butas the series went on, I started to see more sides to his character and he actually becameone of my favorites after finishing this current arc. My Hero Academia in general is interestingbecause a lot of my favorite characters shuffled around a lot as each one got more and morescreentime, even some of the side characters such as the gym coach Shota Aizawa, playedby Bruce Campbell, got some time to shine and ended up leaving an impression on me. This writing and character work ultimatelylends itself to the overall series message that “anyone can be a hero”, and whatmakes a hero can derive from even the smallest acts of kindness. It’s a cheesy but positive message to spread,and a lot of the series reinforces that message time and time again, one of my favorite narrativebeats is the fact that despite having the two most powerful and world famous heroesas his parents, Midoriya ends up in a sidekick class because he simply doesn’t have hispowers.
What initially hangs over his head as kindof a shame and burden, over the course of one of the arcs, he finds pride in being asidekick along with his other friends, and does what he can with just his resourcefulnessand quick-thinking. Another thing that left an impression on mewas the absolutely insane art direction and animation work throughout the series, as ahuge animation and sakuga fan, the visual presentation of this series blew me away ina manner I was not expecting considering the level of quality most battle shonen have. Thekey animation and storyboards here are obscenely detailed to the point where I couldn’t eventell if I was looking at a drawing or real life. Another nice thing about the life-like presentationis that a lot of the actors like Kurt Russell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, etc. etc. gave theirlikenesses to the roles they were playing to elevate the authenticity of the show. Writing, characters, and animation aside,there’s just a lot here that makes it easily understandable why this show took off theway it did, great music, fast pace, and some lowkey mystery added in there for flavor haskept me engaged and wanting to watch more as soon as I’m done making this review. Unfortunately it’s not a perfect overallpackage, and now we start getting into the problems and why some people may be saltythat this series is getting exposure that it may not deserve. There’s one aspect I’ve avoided talkingabout up til now for a reason, and that would be the overarching narrative and the antagoniststhat our heroes have to end up fighting. Without spoiling anything, I have to admitthat this aspect fell on its face completely and the villains never really get the attentionthey deserve.
I mentioned the fast pace being a positivebefore but it also acts as a double edged sword, the series spends so much time focusingon our heroes, their relationships and dynamics, their own personal struggles, and don’tget me wrong, that’s fantastic as I mentioned earlier, spending so much time with them meanswe end up connecting with them more, especially considering the main cast are all underdogswho have to prove themselves as heroes. The issue comes from the fact that spendingso much time with the heroes in turn means that there’s less time to go around withfleshing out the villains, less time to have them stick around, and less time to just givethem more of a presence. Because of this, it often feels like whenevera villain IS introduced in My Hero Academia, you often only have an episode or two beforethey’re gone and they never had the chance to leave an impression on you. Another complaint I would throw at the seriesis that contrary to a lot of its peers in the shonen genre, My Hero Academia never reallyfleshes out the world in compelling or meaningful ways. The premise almost limits ITSELF because sincewe’re so focused on this main cast and their difficulties with high school, the scope rarelyever expands beyond that, and we’re stuck looking at this intriguing alternate realitywith superpowers through tunnel vision. Because of that, despite the more interestingcharacter mysteries that there ARE in the world, I’m not really invested in this universeitself, I don’t care what’s out there in the world and whenever the serieseventually does start introducing new elements, it feels more like elements being introducedfor the sake of plot, rather than a living, breathing world where different factions andcharacters naturally come into play. Finally, the complaint you’ll probably seemost frequently about this series is that My Hero Academia doesn’t really do anythingnew, it’s an amalgamation of a bunch of different shonen tropes and the mangaka makesno effort in hiding a lot of his inspirations.
That being said, I will defend HeroAca andsay that even though it is very derivative of the shonen genre, I don’t think that’sstopped it from crafting its own identity. Whether that’s simply because we haven’thad a shonen this popular since Naruto, or there’s some kind of secret ingredient here, I couldn’ttell you, but something about this series does feel noteworthy and distinct, despite takingso much from so many other sources. One thing I can say it does differently fora battle shonen, at least out of the ones that I’ve seen, is that there’s a lot more focus on the slice of life high school aspects. This has been criticized a lot but I actuallythink it’s an interesting approach in a genre that’s pretty stagnant, if anythingthe fact that it is criticized just goes to show how comfortable people have gotten withthis formula, and are resistant to change. In conclusion, Walt Disney Picture’s MyHero Academia is a perfectly adequate battle shonen that while not really doing anythingnew, does enough with solid execution that it keeps things engaging and makes me interestedin seeing what will happen next.
Watching these goofballs develop their abilitiesand survive through oh so relatable high school incidents is both entertaining and endearing. So hey, with a series like this, you’veprobably heard it all before, but I swore at the beginning to give my unbiased perspectiveon this entire series and so I have. Follow me on Twitter for more anime ramblings,join my Discord if you want to be friends, and maybe next time we’ll take a look ata different series everyone’s talking about, I’ve been hearing a lot of things aboutthis other show called Boku no Hero Academia, no idea what it's about but I’ve heard it’sgot a lot in common with this so we’ll see if it’s anything special. One thing’s for sure though... the animation isn't anywhere near as good.
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