Boku no Hero Academia 5th Season (My Hero Academia Season 5)

UA Academy's Class 1-A has been the focus of a substantial amount of public attention due to the multiple villain attacks they have faced over the past school year. This attention has left Class 1-A's rivals, Class 1-B, feeling quite bitter. Desiring to prove their skills, they look forward to the opportunity that has been given to them: a set of mock battles between the students of each class.

The classes are split into squads of four, each of which is tasked with capturing the other group members. The winner is the group who first secures all of the opposing team. While this sounds simple, a curveball is thrown into the mix with the inclusion of General Course Student Hitoshi Shinsou, who wishes to transfer into the Hero Course. Despite using his training with Class 1-A's homeroom teacher Shouta "Eraserhead" Aizawa to prove that he's capable of being a real hero, he is still far behind the others due to his lack of experience. However, Shinsou is determined to overcome this challenge.

Thus begins the fiery competition between Class 1-A and 1-B as each tries to prove that they are superior to the other.

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Adaptation:	Boku no Hero Academia
Prequel:	Boku no Hero Academia 4th Season
Other:	Boku no Hero Academia the Movie 3: World Heroes' Mission
Sequel:	Boku no Hero Academia 6th Season

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Midoriya, Izuku

Main

Yamashita, Daiki
Japanese

Todoroki, Shouto

Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki
Japanese

Bakugou, Katsuki

Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko
Japanese

All Might

Supporting

Miyake, Kenta
Japanese

Aizawa, Shouta

Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi
Japanese

Kirishima, Eijirou

Supporting

Masuda, Toshiki
Japanese

Uraraka, Ochako

Supporting

Sakura, Ayane
Japanese

Toga, Himiko

Supporting

Fukuen, Misato
Japanese

Asui, Tsuyu

Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi
Japanese

Dabi

Supporting

Shimono, Hiro
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Nagasaki, Kenji

Director

Mukai, Masahiro

Director

Kuroda, Yousuke

Script, Series Composition

MAN WITH A MISSION

Theme Song Performance, Theme Song Composition

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Opening Theme

	1: "No.1" by DISH// (eps 1-13)
	2: "Merry-Go-Round" by MAN WITH A MISSION (eps 14-??)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Ashiato (足跡)" by the peggies (eps 2-13)
	2: "Uso ja Nai (嘘じゃない)" by Soushi Sakiyama (eps 14-??)

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Sep 25, 2021

25 of 25 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 1

SingleH (All reviews)

357 people found this review helpful

This show got worse? I’m sorry, but what the fuck are you talking about? How is this any different than it has ever been?

Ever since working from home became a thing, my alcoholism has gotten exponentially worse, and I think I’m dying. Sometimes I’ll stand up, and then just find myself on the floor. Other times I can’t tell if I’m hungover, legitimately ill, or if I simply laid down funny and part of my body fell asleep. I’ve been an insomniac for years, but now my circadian rhythm is completely fucked. But the biggest issue is my memory. I’d rather eat nails than try watching this shit sober, so much of this season is foggy to me, but what I do remember about it just makes me want to drown myself in even more liquor. Most of it is spent going back to interclass tournament arc style bullshit that’s filled with recap footage and feels like filler even when it isn’t. It was dumb, ugly, and I hated every second of it. The villains come back toward the end, but they’re still one-dimensional nobodies with nothing interesting to say about anything, and there’s still zero stakes because, just in case you forgot, “This is the story of how I became the greatest hero!” The artwork and coloration are hideous since Bones only cares about making non-canon movies, the show is 80% still images, the pacing is at once horrendously rushed but at other times painfully slow, and the fights are more panning stills with people screaming and crying at each other like autistic babies. It looks awful and nothing about it is entertaining. Everything it has ever done, is doing, and will continue to do has been done before, sometimes well, but often terribly, and even in the former case, many such properties are dragged out until they crash and burn or just slowly decline into dogshit. This series is somehow doing both, but you wouldn’t think so if you listened to its common reception, and I find this rather odd. Apparently, this show began to sully its reputation during season four, and its deterioration has clearly continued, but what’s weird is this has prompted people to start reminiscing about better times, and I don’t understand this at all. People talk about the good ol’ days, back when this was a show about a powerless kid working hard and overcoming weakness and hardship, whereas now we’re just watching an overpowered Gary Stu with infinite power who’s totally unsympathetic, and therefore it’s worse. This is not only bizarre considering the quote I used earlier, where season one begins by outright telling us Midoriya is destined to become the world’s greatest hero, but also because the series never embraced these themes to begin with.

I know it’s typical to refer to the protagonist of a story as the “hero,” but one should only be celebrated as a hero if they preform heroic feats. People often conflate heroism with classic altruism, being a selfless actor who is concerned more with the needs and wishes of others than with their own, but whereas altruism is more about selflessness no matter the context, actual heroism requires self-sacrifice, putting yourself in harm’s way for the sake of others. It is for this reason the word is so often associated with the phrase, “war hero,” a solider who loses their life in battle placing valor, duty, and honor above their own personal safety. When it’s revealed All Might wasn’t born with a quirk and had instead been given one by a benefactor, it squanders the underdog story inherent in Midoriya’s determination to become a superhero despite his own powerlessness, but it also makes you wonder. What is even the point of delineating between people with and without quirks when, by this logic, a quirk isn’t even a congenital factor of one’s birth? The concept of “disadvantage” doesn’t hold in a world where “advantage” is a tangible commodity able to be gifted. This misunderstands the burden of superpowers and what it actually means to have one. The privilege of power materializes only in what you are physically able to do as compared to those without such privilege. Advantage is a blessing, a boon, it makes life easier like advanced technology, modern infrastructure, or even clean water does in the developed world, but as seen in Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia (then called Abyssinia) in 1935 or Japan’s invasion of China in 1937, advantage also makes violence and destruction far more devastating when used against the disadvantaged, so as the saying goes, “with great power comes great responsibility.” You can’t fuck around like a stupid, self-obsessed teenager if you can also go nuclear, and this is exactly what boils my blood about My Hero Academia. They insist it’s about heroism, but it’s really about ambition. Mount Lady became a hero for the sole purpose of gaining celebrity status by letting people take pictures of her giant ass in spandex, and Bakugo himself openly admits he's motivated by glory and proving his egotistic sense of superiority. What the hell does any of this have do with heroism? This is vanity and pride. People these days use the word “hero” so glibly, as if “icon” and “hero” have somehow become synonymous, decided by popularity as opposed to the morality of one’s conduct.

It seems the real heroism was the sales we made along the way. Any celebrity or public figure can be christened a hero simply because they’re successful, not because they’re righteous. Bakugo shouldn’t have been allowed to participate in the hero exam in the first place! He thinks like a villain, and had the exam really been a matter of heroism, he would’ve been rejected the second he opened his mouth. Instead he’s allowed to progress, because as long as he scores high enough in the exam, anyone can. UA Academy, and by extension this entire show, does not promote heroism. Being accepted by the school because you’re powerful doesn’t give you moral license to call yourself a hero because not only have you preformed nothing heroic, but never does it require you to. It’s therefore not teaching you to be a hero either, because it permits motivations like fame and glory which by definition are completely unheroic. In fact, what the series truly promotes is this bizarre doctrine of social Darwinism. It contradicts the very themes its terminology attempts to establish while also brainwashing the teenagers and college kids watching it into thinking heroism is something totally selfish. Midoriya’s origin story seems to want to promote the idea that you don’t necessarily have to be powerful to do good, and the desire to do good can itself lead to you becoming powerful (while also being sure to portray said power as an opportunity to do so). You only need half a mind to see how it utterly fails to do this when All Might simply hands him the power needed to proceed, rendering his entire training montage pointless, but what many don’t realize his how insidious this mindset truly is. I’m not saying the author of this series is evil—in all likelihood, they’re simply naive—but they fail to understand the social implications of saying the desire for power to achieve goals is intrinsically heroic. If you start with nothing and attempt to become powerful to do good, the probability that your perception of justice is not seated in jealously of the privileged who you feel have done injustice to you is incredibly slim, especially in a world like this where the “have nots” are openly discriminated against by the “haves.” I’m not saying the only vehicle for realism is cynicism, but what I am saying is such a contrived, saccharine sweet, cloyingly optimistic view of the world is simply dishonest. This show just has a wrongheaded idea of what heroism even means, and this is nowhere near the only toxic message it has to offer.

In life, you learn from your mistakes by enduring the shame, defeat, and loss which they bear, and only after examining and confronting these consequence of your own actions and shortcomings do you get back on your feet and win. My Hero Academia, however, operates by the logic of participation trophies. Nothing is achieved through genuine determination, and anything which is, is undercut by rendering the determination unnecessary through extenuating circumstances which would’ve led to a net gain either way. Even if he loses the tournament, he’s sent to train with the best teacher. Even if the class is defeated by the villains, no one dies, is taken hostage, or seriously endangered. Even if his ridiculously overpowered ability comes at a physical cost, it’s always healed instantly. In this world of heroes and villains, what defines you isn’t how talented you are or how powerful your quirk is, it’s about hard work, spirit, and the willingness to help others against all odds—only it’s not, because he wouldn’t even be a hero if there wasn’t hidden rules back in the original exam during season one. It’s portrayed as if Midoriya’s hard work and benevolent intentions were what made him worthy of All Might’s powers after he trained for a few months—fuck anyone who’s been doing so for their entire life, am I right?—but you have to realize he began training only AFTER he was PROMISED THE POWER. His efforts were impure, because his reward was guaranteed. It doesn’t matter how hard he trained, because there was no risk of failure, since his self-serving reward was set in stone before he expended ANY effort. I mean, it’s not even correct to say he trained to earn the power, as much as it is to say he simply prepared for All Might to gift it to him. All Might is a teacher; this is academic favoritism. The only thing this series ever got right was Stain. My Hero Academia is generic superhero shlock, but Stain challenged the very moral bankruptcy I’ve spend the last two paragraphs detailing, taking the heroes to task for their hypocritical corporate marketing and corrupt motivations, but after the anticlimactic battle with him ends, everyone ignores the manner in which he subverted their bastardization of heroism, all the thematic underpinnings of his arc are trashed, everyone forgets the incident like nothing happened, and we all go right back to boring school-life nonsense, filler horseshit, and shounen training arcs. We’re back to square one, and we learned nothing from the only scrap of intrigue in the entire series.

Season five is the epitome of everything I’ve bitched about, too, because not only does it uphold and continue to promote these fraudulent ideas of heroism, but from the plot to the characters, it’s also the worst possible incarnation of the anime in every way. I haven’t kept up with this show for years, so coming back and putting in the hard slave labor of slogging through this season was pure fucking hell. I’d heard about the broken loli waifu character who could nullify any damage Midoriya did to himself by being carried into battle with him Guilty Crown style, but gosh, who knew every other character would get this preposterous?! So apparently—SPOILERS—Shigaraki is nothing but a literally insane, edgelord school-shooter now? Wasn’t he supposed to be Big Bad #2? Why would the hack authoring this disaster remove any chance the series had at a more thoughtful, interesting villain with new and challenging ideas and instead settle for Jared Leto’s Joker? Now it’s even more threadbare and hackneyed than before—great! Since I last watched this, the power creep has seemingly reached Azathoth scale, and I don’t see how anyone is supposed to matter when a few select characters are insurmountably more powerful than everyone else. Speaking of which, these fights are still the worst of the fucking worst. Minus one or two overdone action scenes, they just exchange blows with nauseating amounts of speed lines and other bullshit to distract you from the largely embarrassing animation production at hand. Plot conveniences still favor Midoriya at every step of the way, even when you may think otherwise, and the author still resorts to excusing asspulls with non-diegetic retcons, like that time in season three when the 1,000,000% Smash wasn’t actually one million percent because the author said so on Twitter, the thing which originally made me drop the show. Even as far back as season two, Midoriya wouldn’t have been able to break the mind control during the tournament if it weren’t conveniently written in such a way his quirk could counter, and it’s no surprise they’re still pulling this shit speaking of the aforementioned power creep, because how else could they limit the main cast now that they too are overpowered if not by introducing every seemingly unbeatable power with one single little weakness which just so happens to make the character in question wildly underpowered when fighting the protagonist who the series is still for some reason treating like an underdog.

For years, drooling internet shills, many of whom have been sponsored by Crunchyroll, have claimed My Hero Academia was no conventional hero story, and for years, they have been talking out of their asses. Nothing about it has ever broken the mold or subverted the expectations of anyone who’s seen anything like it, or in other words, anyone who’s seen any shounen anime in the history of existence, but unlike every other shounen anime in the history of existence, My Hero Academia is ugly. Yes, this season has particularly shitty animation, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean the design sense is awful. Please just take a second to think about shounen’s Big Three. Depending on the character, the designs in Bleach can be downright erotic, and it’s filled to the brim with hot babes and chad hunks. One Piece has some of the most distinctive and eye-catching designs in manga, and while Naruto’s designs aren’t exactly glamorous or creative, its color palette is at least consistent, and Tetsuya Nishio’s anime adaptation designs were outstanding. The newer hits also follow this pattern. I think everyone agrees Demon Slayer’s artwork is all it has ever had going for it in both manga and anime form, Hiro Mashima’s success is openly predicated on nothing but sex-appeal, and just look at One Punch Man. It was a cult classic when ONE was drawing it, but when Yusuke Murata began drawing it three years later with his insane digital manga detailing and irresistible women, it took the world by storm. Say what you will about these series perpetuating visual archetypes despite high-quality artwork, but Jesus Christ on a fucking bike, at least their character designs are worth advertising! BUT EVERY CHARACTER in My Hero Academia looks PANTS ON HEAD RETARDED, and forgive me for sounding so close-minded, but I simply will not entertain an argument to the contrary. They are just fucking goofy, period. Maybe, just maybe, one or two waifus are marketable, but most just look dumb, and the thoughtless coloration of the anime makes the weirder ones stand out like a sore thumb and lose any niche moe they may’ve had in manga form. Also, and I’m usually not one to complain about fanservice, but when highschool girls dress like camera sluts despite having a shy and modest personality, their whole character feels backward. I suppose it doesn’t matter, though, since even our protagonist himself is an inconsistent mess, an incongruous chimera who is both a crybaby loser who the viewer can empathize with during melodrama, and also a stone-faced alpha male they can self-insert with during hype action to satiate their trashy power fantasies.

A few years ago, people began saying, “A-1 Pictures is the problem,” and I naively thought everyone was finally waking up to the issues plaguing the industry. However, since then, everyone has turned their ire toward other studios like Deen and JC Staff, because Post-Maruyama MAPPA is now guilty of everything everyone hated A-1 for, but since MAPPA also produces many of the newest fan-favorites, those same people who were rightfully decrying A-1 for their incorrigible outsourcing, absurd mismanagement, inhumane scheduling and working conditions, and cynical “quantity over quality” business model have now had to forgive and forget so they don’t sound like hypocrites when sucking up to their new favorites. I, on the other hand, have not forgotten this outrage we used to share, and in an attempt to rekindle negative attention toward these toxic business practices, I too stopped saying “A-1 Pictures is the problem,” only so I could instead start saying, “If A-1 Pictures is THE problem, then Bones is MY problem.” Like many others, Bones has sometimes engaged in these poor practices as well, of course nowhere near as much as A-1 or MAPPA, but the real reason I feel they should be maligned is different. I feel they should be maligned for manipulating their impressionable teenage, college-aged fanbase into marketing their anime for them. Don’t even worry about the complete fucking trainwrecks like their 20th Anniversary Production, Carole & Tuesday, and just watch My Hero Academia, Bungou Stray Dogs, Noragami, or even some of their shit with actual artistic integrity like Captain Earth or Concrete Revolutio, and I dare you to tell me you found ANY fucking consistency therein. Sure, you’ll have a few flashy action scenes drawn by a few talented holdouts from their early Sunrise days like Yutaka Nakamura, but their background art and compositing are often pitiful, and the animation itself is atrocious outside those few action scenes. But those action scenes are more then enough, because they’ll metastasize through social media and forum sites like a cancer and infect every unsuspecting consumer they can find. Bones earned their reputation in the 2000s and early 2010s when they were just a bunch of Ex-Sunrise boys whose creative ambitions were too big for Bandai, but they saw where that creator-focused business model lead Manglobe, and they aren’t stupid. This is why I call it a me problem and not a real problem, because not only is it silly to slap a label on entire studios when many have constantly changing staff, constantly restructured teams, constantly fluctuating budgets, and are almost always managed by corporate level business decisions which are made by production committees far above the pay grade of the actual creators working there, but also because to this day, Bones continues to produce amazing and objectively impressive works of animation. However, the prestige they justly earn from such projects goes on to unjustly ascribe prestige to other projects which look like they were fished out of a fucking pig sty, and those who’d mistake a Blue Raspberry Ring Pop for a Ten Carat Diamond Ring eat it up regardless, hailing Bones as the consistent and absolute best.

According to the lovely moderation team, I’m required to make the disclaimer that I dropped season three six episodes in and didn’t watch season four. Big funny.

Thank you for reading.

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Sep 25, 2021

25 of 25 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 1

LordSozin (All reviews)

178 people found this review helpful

To say I was going into the 5th season of My Hero Academia with high expectations would be an understatement. Even though I’m not a My Hero Academia enthusiast or even a fan for that matter, I can wholeheartedly say that this season of My Hero Academia was supposed to be the series game-changer and tone shifter. The 5th season was supposed to set My Hero Academia in a new and more compelling direction. A direction that would’ve brought My Hero Academia’s writing to a new height because of the fascinating and enchanting thematic value that it has to offer. As the egregious season has read more

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Sep 25, 2021

25 of 25 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 4

Stark700 (All reviews)

135 people found this review helpful

It's 2021 and we can call My Hero Academia a major franchise among Shounen Jump's IPs. While it may not be the single biggest hit of the decade, it does challenge the Big Three with its cult following. That doesn't mean MHA is a masterpiece franchise just because it's popular. In fact, MHA may be one of more controversial anime this year.

My Hero Academia is a franchise that needs no introduction at this point. It's been an established franchise for years and we all came to know the heroes and villains that makes up its roster. For any long time fan, MHA has also explored the hero society and dark underworld of the villains league. What if I told you we get to see an in depth look at both sides? Season 5 may have a more expanded character roster and plot but that doesn't always translate into a better show overall.

From the first half of Season 5, we are once again reintroduced to Class 1-A with some of its most prominent characters such as Deku, Bakugo, Todoroki, among others. Their primary rivals are Class 1-B where they compete in a series of matches. To put it simply, it's a battle of pride and respect on the line. While Class 1-B's character roster is nowhere near as prominent as Class 1-A, there are still some important members to take notice. Among them include Itsuka, Ibara, and Tetsutetsu. Some of these almost represent mirror images of Class 1-A such as Shihai when compared to Tetsutetsu. On the other hand, it's hard to root for Class 1-B due to their limited screen time and lack of development. Instead, the season decided to throw them in to showcase their abilities against Class 1-A to see which side is more dominant.

When that's out of the way, Season 5 also decided that Deku needs more training to improve himself. So what does that lead to? It means training with none other than Endeavor. Deku, Bakugo, and Todoroki decides to all participate to improve themselves. Meanwhile, it appears that Endeavor knows when the Meta Liberation Army will strike so it's a chance to prepare everyone for the inevitable battles. While this all seems well structured on the surface, the season decided to drag its pacing by showcasing more of Todoroki's past, specifically his family. As if we didn't know enough already, the anime really pushes the envelope to show the type of man Endeavor is. It becomes an oversaturated character study where we just want to move on from the past. Let's face it, we know enough about Todoroki for who he is. It's freaking Season 5 already.

But perhaps the most intruging part of Season 5 is the side of the villains. Specifically, I'm talking about the League of Villain led by Tomura Shigaraki. As one of the most prominent characters in the entire franchise, his dark past is explored in detail from his childhood. It casts a shadow of how a once seemingly innocent kid becomes the gruesome villain he is today. He's not the only one we feast our eyes on either as the Villains gets their background stories told that includes Toga and Twice. It's important to understand their origins as the show wants us to experience the dark side of MHA. If you ask me, "My Villain Academia" is the best thing to happen this season.

We're in a timeline where every year, MHA makes its presence felt. I say with confidence now that Bones and the directors will adapt the rest of the manga to the dawn of time, for when it ends, so shall the anime. That doesn't mean MHA managed to live up to the hype all this time though. And in fact, the next season will have a lot of work to do if it wants to regain its former glory.

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Sep 25, 2021

25 of 25 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 6

terrence_ (All reviews)

96 people found this review helpful

The fifth season of Boku No Pico Academia is finally here. Welp, I guess it's now time for me to review this thing.

This review will have some spoilers BUT THERE WON'T BE ANY BIG SPOILERS SO NO WORRIES :D.

I don't even know why I called them spoilers; the stuff I'll be mentioning are so little I can really just say this review is spoiler free.

Before we start, for those people who are too lazy to read I made a very short version at the end. Just scroll all the way to the end for it.

All right let's get straight to it !

!!! Here's a recap read more

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