Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season

This season really had me locked in. I don’t know what it is about My Hero Academia, but once I start, I just keep clicking “next episode” like I’m under some kind of quirk myself. Compared to Season 1, the pacing and story flow felt way more refined — like the show finally found its footing.

One of the biggest improvements for me was that they started showing more backstories, even if it was just for some of the characters. I mean, I’ve always been curious about the side characters, and it was nice to finally see more than just the surface-level stuff. Getting even a ... little glimpse of what shaped them made me connect more to what was going on.

The tournament arc? Definitely entertaining — the battles were great, and the intensity kept building. But I gotta say... something about the whole “fight to be number one” thing rubbed me the wrong way at times. Like yeah, it’s a hero school, and I get the competition angle, but there were moments where it felt like it was all just ego and pride, and not enough about actually being a hero. I just wish the show gave deeper reasons behind why they want to be top heroes — more than just “I wanna win.” Not every character needs to be deep, but a few more with real purpose would’ve added extra weight to those battles.

Still, as much as I had that small gripe, the season overall was a solid ride. I genuinely had a good time. The character growth (especially for Midoriya), the action scenes, the build-up — it all worked together really well. Can’t wait to see how things keep evolving from here.

5/10 ~ Certainly worse then S1

This is the 2nd time ive attempted to watch MHA and I watched through part of Season 3 the first time around as it was coming out and dropped the show because it wasnt very good. I am however in a weird situation where I need mid anime to watch to pass the time at work that is not too distracting and this show certainly checks that box. If you got Through Season 1 then you will probably disagree with me and just continue on, to each their own.

Pros:
- As I recall Stain in the best thing about MHA, ... I Really wish he got more screen time in S2
- Action is fine, but im not the biggest action person so it just kinda feels like why am I here?
- English Dub good
- Jokes are humorous enough but a step down from S1 / Over used at this point

Cons:
- The tournament Arc at the begining of the show was pretty bad, and to just start it off that way just feels like an over used Shonen formula at this point that is excepted and cringe similar to the likes of a beach episode.
- The Character development is pretty poor across the board
- Plot wise it was all pretty meh
- Icyhot kid has the weakest motivations that dont quite make sense from poor writing
- feels like explody kid is getting powerkrept

If it wasnt for the fact that this show is iust kinda w.e I would just pass on it a 2nd time, I would not recommend anyone watch MHA unless you are a Shonen die hard, sub 14 or just are getting into anime.

INTRODUCTION
Season 2 of MHA was filled with poor writing and new boring characters except stain that didn't leave much of an impression on you. it was a disappointment in many areas and i do personally feel like the writer gave up in some moments throughout the season and did whatever was necessary to move on to the next scene/plot. i found myself constantly sighing throughout the show due to its poor writing and hopefully ill be able to explain my reasoning clearly enough so that you understand my dislike for this season...

TOURNAMENT ARC
The tournament arc was TRASH!!! I'm not even going to get into specifics ... because there's no need in order to explain my reasoning. the tournament arc was supposed to give the students of UA a chance at showcasing their quirks in different settings so that the pro heroes watching the tournament could invite the students to do internship for them, the big problem is the lack of variety in the tasks they had to do in the tournament. every single thing the students had to do were more suited to students who had powerful quirks or quirks that made you faster than everyone else, there was no variety so that other students who aren't fast and strong could showcase their abilities and because of that they looked like they were crap compared to the stronger and faster students. the fact is that the pro heroes need to see the students in different scenarios so they can pick the right student for their internship, so to fit that they should of had more variety and not just make it about the fast and strong people. i don't know if you know this but in the world of MHA there's not that many quirks that are strong and most of them are only suited to specific tasks. so all I'm saying is that there was no variety. when it came down to the one vs one battles a lot of the fights were rushed in order to get to the more appealing fights which isn't exactly a problem but it would of been nice to see more fights. hardly any of the students in the one vs one fights actually used strategy, there was only one moment in the Uraraka vs Bakugo fight but that ended with guess what... the stronger character won. overall it would of been nice to see some surprises, maybe one of the 3 stronger characters losing to one of the weakest but i just thought the entire tournament arc was poorly executed and i think the writer forgot the whole point to this Sports Festival (Tournament). ill get into some of the others tournament stuff later but overall i thought the tournament arc was TRASH!!! MOVING ON!!!!

THE TODOROKI PROBLEM
Todoroki in the first season rarely had any speaking lines whereas in this season practically revolves around him which isn't a problem. Todoroki is incredibly overpowered for this MHA world, the reality is that Todoroki could probably win against most villains. you see how OP he is when he goes through each task in the tournament. Todoroki unlike everyone else goes through a character arc which was utter BS, Deku practically begs Todoroki to use his left side to melt the ice particles that are building up which he doesn't want to use because of his dad. the problem is that throughout this arc and the 1st season Todoroki has no problem using his left side to melt ice he created. now that's a issue because in this particular scene I'm wondering "why don't you use your left side to melt the ice like you've already done before?" it breaks the illusion of what is supposed to be a intense moment. once Todoroki's character changed he becomes a wet mop and is easily one of the most boring characters in the entire show, every single time he talks he barely has any emotion, its almost sad...

THE STAIN ARC/INTERNSHIPS
This arc is easily good because of stain, he is the only character in the entire show that has a different belief/ideal that anyone else and that makes him interesting and new. if you think about it who out of the students has a different ideal to anyone else in the group, they all want to be the best and have the same outlook for the most part. its the same with the villains, the villains are evil just because, not one of them actually has any interesting ideals or beliefs that drives that character to make certain decisions. its these reasons that make stain interesting, however is he an master piece of a character? no, no hes not but he is interesting unlike everyone else. to be honest the internships were a joke, the only characters to do anything interesting was Deku and Froppy. the problem with that is that the internships is supposed to be a peek for the audience and the students so they have an idea of what a pro heroes life is like, its supposed to be a reality check but you never feel like anything interesting is happening and it almost feels pointless until Stain arrives in the arc. if stain was not in this arc it would of been incredibly boring, i mean Momo and the other girl did photo-shoots with their pro hero, the harden brothers did nothing but manual labour, Uraraka learned a few things but never put it into practice at that time, Lida paroled the streets but again until stain showed up he wasn't doing anything interesting either. it would of been nice to see these students have to deal with real world problems that pro heroes deal with on a daily basis but we don't get that. this whole arc apart from stain is poorly written and again i feel the writer missed an opportunity to open our eyes to the world of MHA.

FINAL ARC
This arc was TERRIBLE. you have to remember that these students just came back from their internships which is where they should of got experience and probably should be a little bit smarter. The main part in this arc i want to talk about is the practical exam because this is where shit got stupid and allow me to give a few examples, Todoroki and Momo are fighting Eraser Head and eraser head ties Todoroki up to a pole so hes hanging there while Momo is supposed to be running away, Todoroki can use fire and ice and yes he doesn't use either to try to get from being tied so he can help Momo. the reason the writer didn't even make Todoroki try is so Momo can have a little bit of character development where she has to learn to think for herself even though we've barely seen that as a problem before. this is an example as i mentioned before where the writer wanted something to happen and in order to make that happen he avoided all logic. another example of this is when earphone jack and Anivoice are fighting voice, during this fight they are getting really loud sound waves blasted at them while there in a forest and voice stands at the exit gate. Now the problem with this scene is that at no point did the students use any strategy for example, MOVE OUT THE WAY OF THE SOUND WAVES!!! this could be done because the teacher doesn't know if he hits them with the sound waves and he doesn't know exactly where they are so it would be easy for them to move. By the way ill just remind you, THEY JUST CAME FROM INTERNSHIPS WHERE THEY SHOULD HAVE LEARNED TO BE BE SMARTER. They get out of it by Anivoice making bugs crawl up the teachers leg and he passes out because he was afraid, one problem... He's a PRO HERO and he passes out because of some bugs on his leg, imagine if that was a real situation. The last fight i wanna mention is the fight against thirteen who can suck people towards using her black hole fingers, Uraraka gets sucked towards her and thirteen is shocked and has no plan in place for when someone actually comes towards her and she gets taken down by a little girl!! My biggest problem with this practical exam is how stupid these scenarios are, its as if the writer didn't know how to get them out of a situation and he wanted to do it quickly so he came up with the most stupidest solutions. As i just mentioned these students just came back from internships so how come they fight exactly the same as they were in the FIRST SEASON!! the others fights were OK, the all might fight was meh. I don't like the fact that Bakugo said he'd rather lose than team up with Deku because Bakugo surely still wants to be a hero so surely you'd want to do good in these exams.

My opinion overall is that this entire season is devoid of strategy, idiot moments where the writer couldn't figure out what to do, introducing a few new characters and doing nothing with them and all that SHIT is topped of with a cherry called stain!! i hope I've explained my reasons for giving this anime a 4/10, its actually funny because originally when i watched this season i didn't think it was so bad and that was partly to do with the fact that i wasn't really watching it properly and then i re watched it and realised how bad it really is....