Boku no Hero Academia
My Hero Academia

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It's the rising star of Jump, the so called "next Naruto/One Piece." Yes, it's of the mold of the two. Yes, you can see the similarities in holistic structure, but what is it that makes Boku no Hero Academia a compelling read for shounen fans looking for something to pass the time?

Story- 7
The premise is simple: Many people have superpowers, the boy has none, he gains powers through strange means much later than others, and he enters THE school of superpower training. Right.
It is only a 7 because the premise has been set and there are simply developments going on at the moment-- this manga ... will likely be written for a while and being 39 chapters in is kind of early for the story to develop. That being said, story isn't a strong suit CURRENTLY, but the quality of writing has been gaining steam in recent weeks (for a shounen weekly) and Horikoshi Sensei showing flashes of brilliance from time to time, I think this will be higher soon enough.

Art- 10
The style is typically cartoony, but this is only because of the whole superpower premise. Sure, it isn't realistic, but if you look at the art in context, it is exceptionally well done. Horikoshi has certainly developed his own style that we could distinguish after reading Boku no Hero Academia for a few chapters. The art is detailed all around: the backgrounds, character designs, facial expressions; you name it. To top it all off, it's consistent, and really, that's all we could ask for isn't it?
(Note to fellow readers: I think Midoriya freak out faces and Bakugou psycho faces are insanely good)

Character- 9
There are only so many characters: Izuku (main character), Bakugou (MC main rival), Todoroki (MC rival 2/upcoming close friend), Uraraka (heroine), All Might (the hero Izuku looks up to), and plenty more who are nameable, but the list would be too long.
The fact of the matter is that they are nameable. Readers can distinguish between these characters not only because of their different physical designs but their personalities as well. The characters who seem as though they'll be relevant in the future are being developed with their own pasts. And these character layouts are just so different from most shounen manga we've seen in the past 30 years or so.
For example: Izuku and Bakugou. (Minor spoilers ahead) Midoriya isn't your typical main shounen in the sense that he's an idiot who loves to eat and such, but he thinks for himself. He writes notes on people he think might be rivals with as material he could possibly get on them. He analyzes everything down to a science, fanboys about them, and anticipates how anyone could fight each other due to their specific circumstances. He overthinks, sure, but he does it beautifully and relatably that I think most of us would understand.
Then we have Bakugou, the rival. He is so mean: bullies people around him, taunts them, and destroys their souls. Yet, at the same time, we can see another layer under him that wants to be a hero the same way Midoriya does, just coming to conclusions in a different manner than Izuku. He also analyzes, albeit to a much lesser degree; he lets the powers he's used to do the other half of the work for him.
The characters really express Horikoshi's respect for Togashi: thinkers who manage to be realistic but at the same time captures our attention by being over the top at the right times, motivating us to be the best we can be. Really, characters are a strong suit here.

Enjoyment- 10
I love reading this each week. I look forward to the art, the character development (there's always some), and hope for the day that the story takes a turn and just skyrockets and makes this manga THE big thing. It's just a good part of my day when I read it.

Overall- 9
Some shounen veterans might say this number is too high, but I'm giving this manga a 9 due to ALL factors, especially my investment in it. Although at the moment it's an 8, I think it will become a 9 because of the direction Horikoshi is taking it each week. It has strong development, consistent art, and good writing overall. If you like shounen, you will definitely enjoy reading this: it has all of the normal stuff in blood, tears, and determination, but readers of all will definitely enjoy reading this for the character development if nothing else.

This review is for those who saw All Might on the cover and thought this manga might resemble a decent read, but this is cut from the same cloth as Naruto or Hunter x Hunter. The main character, Deku, is the absolute star and if you don't care about a high schooler's boring, emotional, cliché-ridden rise to prominence, there is little else at offer in this story.

To get right into it, the manga opens on the premise of a world where superpowers have become commonplace. One superhero, All Might, stands above all and is idolized by many. Unfortunately, All Might's time is running short ... and he must pass on his power. All Might in his infinite wisdom chooses a loser named Midoriya who is shown to be a complete pushover who nevertheless, won't stop trying! (If you've read any shonen manga before you'll know where this is going.)

Midoriya and his edgy rival join the superhero high school along with a plucky teenage girl who randomly befriends Midoriya because that's what happens at high school. A bunch of events happen. Not very interesting events, basically your average shonen stuff, the kids race and throws balls really far, they vote for class president. There are some fight scenes that I'll get to later. This whole section is where you're assumed to care about the high school characters' personalities, but they're all tired stereotypes. You have the prefect, the dumb blond, a teacher who'll really put the class through their paces but has a heart of gold. God help you if you are like me and hate a high school setting, it's pure torture.

This manga has many, many similarities to Naruto. You have the fake out "I will expel you if you fail, oh you failed, that was the point!" cliché from the teacher at the start of the school year. Melodrama between Deku and his rival because his rival is a massive unlikable douche. Many, many flashbacks even in the first volume because that's not lazy. The author has stated his main inspiration was the masterpiece Naruto and it's obvious if you suffered through that garbage for any length of time. The art style loves to focus on EXTREME CLOSE-UPS of characters supposed to evoke emotion, but it's so predictable. The writing takes absolutely no chances and is as cookie cutter as it gets.

Fights in this manga center around the idea that you are tired of good fights, so lets throw in tons of "strategy" of people talking and nothing happening. Then the protagonists win in a handful of panels. That's what happens in the first real "fight" of the manga around 20 chapters in. This was also done in Hunter x Hunter to great fanfare from the MAL crowd. I can see why it would have its appeal by subverting rules set by series like DragonBall, Kinnikuman or JoJo where fights have any impact or long-standing effects, because apparently this approach isn't a thousand times more overdone at this point. The main character broke his limb for the tenth time! I wonder if he'll go to generically have it healed up for the tenth time too...? Really keeps my interest.

The art and pacing of this manga has its ups and downs, some designs like All Might are good, unfortunately he immediately is shown to have a weakling form that looks like a starving The World Ends With You protagonist. That's not not necessarily a bad thing, but he is by far the best designed character. Being on the cover is basically a statement that he is an extreme compared to the boring, lame high schoolers. They dress in ridiculous outfits you'd see at a high school fair, though elementary school might be more accurate, and of course there's a sexy student whose cleavage is always exposed. She apparently designed it this way herself, I wouldn't mind if she wasn't 14! I also liked Noumu's design, but he is a Goomba for all intents and purposes, not a character.

One of two main villains of this manga is an absurdly edgy and shallow character called Shigaraki. The author will dangle the keys in front of the reader that he might do anything impactful, but after almost 30 chapters nothing happens after the big confrontation, everyone is fine and Shigaraki just returns to his boss. The boss character's design, looking it up, is fun but he blatantly does nothing and is replaced by Shigaraki because Shigaraki is a beloved character, apparently. Shigaraki talks in his own EVIL EDGY WOBBLY TEXT but what he's saying is obviously meaningless and for effect. I might have read further if this first encounter wasn't such a letdown and red flag.

I will give some credit to the art and humour, as it's the one enjoyable part of the manga. The art style is cartoony and befitting of a comic book, superhero setting, only let down by constant flashbacks a la Naruto. The humour especially with All Might at the start is good, but once you get introduced to the other high school characters it goes into the cringe Naruto territory. Many side characters exist purely because their quirk, or superpower in Hero Academia terms, is a gag, most have essentially a gag personality.

I am personally in the mindset that shonen comes in two forms, there's DragonBall, Kinnikuman and One Piece, and there's Naruto, Hunter x Hunter and Fairy Tail. This definitely comes in the form of the latter, where every character is trying to be either cute, edgy or comic relief, the story is insanely predictable and obviously cashing in on the latest craze without any real plan for the future. After being strung along once or twice by these kinds of series I don't get how manga readers continue to be fooled, but if this is your first manga I can't blame you. If you like those three series I mentioned, or even one of them, you may like this, and there's nothing wrong with that. Just be warned too if you hate any of them that this manga will be as much of a letdown.

MHA is undeniably the most popular newcomer in Jump right now. Having read 183 chapters of the manga and also caught up on the anime, I’m still at a loss as to what it is about this series that's generating so much hype. Unless this is your first shonen, I advice that you dismiss any claim that it “deconstructs” or “subverts” anything. It’s a shonen to a T, which I don't have a problem with at all if the execution is good. But it's not.


Story:
First chapter opens with our protagonist, Izuku Midoriya (As called Deku), who's born into a world where majority have super ... powers, dubbed "quirks". In this world one can become a super hero, which has been his dream since he was little. But sadly, he wasn’t part of that majority and is picked on for being "quirkless". One day, he runs into his idol, All Might (The greatest hero in all Japan), who initially tells Deku to give up on his dream of becoming a hero. But upon witnessing a selfless act by Deku not long afterwards, he acknowledges him and tells him the one thing he's always wanted to hear his whole life, that he too, can become a hero. And thus Deku's journey to become the greatest hero begins, end chapter. You are given the impression that this is an underdog story about Deku's struggle to achieve his dream despite being at a disadvantage (Think Rock Lee from Naruto). But this is completely thrown out in the second chapter as Deku is conveniently handed down the strongest quirk (One for All) in the whole series, and then it's not long before his classmates acknowledge him and he's also able to compete with a kid who's been sparring with the second strongest hero his whole life.

Anyway, the story then becomes about Deku trying to master his newly gained powers and become the greatest hero. How does he do this? By going to hero school, where it seems like the students are being trained to become athletes rather than heroes. For example, the entrance exam consist of them just destroying robots to earn points like a video-game. What does this have to do with heroism? It doesn't, and one of the teachers even calls out the exam for being irrational. This was also the case later on when they must take an exam in order to obtain a "hero license" (This is needed in order to take on villains legally). I want you to take into account that the villains they may come across may be seriously dangerous individuals (As shown in the next arc right after), but what does the exam consist of? Playing glorified dodgeball. And at the end of the day, failing doesn't really seem to matter in the long run. Like with the entrance exam, Deku fails to destroy any robots, earning him zero points and ultimately fails the exam. But it doesn't matter, because there was apparently a way to earn extra points that no one knew about and he gets into U.A anyway. Same with the hero license, if anyone failed the exam, they could just take it again in three months, and if that doesn't work out, they still have 2nd & 3rd year to try again. Throw in some villain attacks here, there, in-between and you have the story of MHA.


Characters:
Deku, is an odd case for me. He want to be a hero, but aside from being quirkless he already has the qualities of one from the get go; he's brave, self-sacrificing & inspires others. So his "journey" pretty much amounts to leveling up One for All. I've also heard how 'different' Deku is from the "typical shonen protagonist" but he is just a wimpy high schooler like Kenichi, Ippo & Tsuna, how original.

As for the rest of the cast, their designs are great and most have likeable personalities, but that's all there is to them. Few characters like All Might, Bakugo, & Todoroki for example, get fleshed out along with any screentime. The majority are stale, underused and only get 1 minute of fame. Plus, when they do get their moment of screentime, it more often involves them derailing rather than progressing. Momo for example, is presented as a confident individual. She apparently loses her self-confidence at some point in the series, which is not only brought up but also resolved that same chapter. Same with Iida, who is presented as a stickler for rules and morals, his brother is attacked and so, he sets out to take down the villain that did it. Once the arc is over, he reverts back to how he always was, and hasn't had much of a presence in the series ever since. Granted, this is a long running series and is subject to change. But as of now, I don't understand where the praise for how the characters are handled comes from. Naruto introduced 9 characters during the Chunin Exam each with their own distinct personality, and along with the main 3 (That's 12 characters), expanded on their goals, hopes, abilities & heritage (Ok, 11, cause Tenten is no more relevant than that one dude in 1-A who talks to animals). One Piece dedicates an arc to each member of the Straw Hats. Even Black Clover, another really average shonen, does more with the members of the Black Bull than MHA does with class 1-A, and so, I can't help but feel like all the praise the series gets for its characters is misplaced.


Villains:
The main villains are known as the "League of Villains" led by Shigaraki. Every last one of them is shallow (Except maybe Jin). We know next to nothing about their motives, ideals, and their achievements feel very unearned. Then there are the other villains like Stain & Overhaul,

*This bit is going to contain spoilers*

Stain is introduced with his goal being to "purge" the world of "fake" heroes. He believes that a hero should be self sacrificing and prioritizes saving people who can't save themselves, like All Might. This would have made more sense if the setting of the story actually supported it. A lot of heroes may be shown having the dream of fame & money, but none of them put that ahead of saving lives. When Dabi attacks the students in a classroom during the Training Camp Vlad wasted no time jumping in the way of the students protecting them and then detaining Dabi in seconds. Eraserhead ended up brutally beaten up by the villains but still didn't stop trying to protect the kids at every point of the way during the USJ arc. Mount Lady & every hero involved in the raid prioritized rescuing the students and other citizens. Gran Torino doesn't even consider himself a 'hero' but still takes part in villain raids and protecting citizens. Heck, Iida's brother is shown saving lives in the story and when Iida confronts Stain and asks him why he attacked his brother, Stain answers with "because he was weak", which just makes him appear as a mad man itching to kill rather than creating a better society like he says. What's even more laughable is the fact that the series tries to justify him by saying the crime rate have decreased thanks to him, even though his actions should lead to the opposite. I previously said that the League of Villains achievements feel unearned and this is one of the reasons why, as Stain's actions somehow lead to a upraise of villains, who seek out Shigaraki, basically handing him a bunch of allies he never did anything to merit.

Overhaul is introduced talking to Shigaraki and telling him his goal to eliminate all quirks as he sees them as a disease. To do so he creates bullets that can erase quirks, yet also creates a serum that restore them back. We later get a flashback explaining how he was saved by the Yakuza and wants to raise them to the top of the market, as thanks for saving him. To do this he plans to sell the bullets to the villains and serum to heroes. Makes sense so far right? You'd think maybe he was just trying to persuade Shigaraki to buy his bullets but nope, instead we get another flashback on how he's seen quirks as an abnormality that must be eradicated since he was little and he will rid the world of them, which is only contradicted by his creation of serum and doesn't fall in line with his plan to "reinstate" the Yakuza. Also, Overhaul is also suppose to be a capable fighter according to Rappa, yet he, along with three of his underlings, get utterly destroyed for 10 minutes by Lemillion. I initially chose to give Overhaul the benefit of the doubt here as Lemillion's quirk could be seen as a counter to his, but even after Lemillion lost his quirk Overhaul, along with Chrono, were still struggling for 5 minutes straight, Overhaul even gets his right arm broken (Makes you wonder how he lasted 10 minutes in the first place if Lemillion's punches can shatter bones). It isn't until after he fuses with one of his subordinates and powers up that he's able to pose somewhat of a threat. And once again after the arc is over, the League of Villains swoop in and take everything Overhaul's worked for as their own.

*Spoilers end here*

Long story short, Stain & Overhaul feel like they are nothing more than plot devices who only exist to make Shigaraki better.


Setting:
Not much to say, it's basically our world but with superpowers thrown in. Sadly, a concept this simple is still greatly underutilized as U.A and the other hero schools are never explored, classes and training sessions are either skipped entirely or immediately interrupted by villains, school events are clumsy brought up right before they begin with no build up or foreshadowing, and besides U.A, it doesn't really seem like Japan is affected much by the huge villain attacks.


Action:
This is of course, a battle shonen, so one can expect a lot of fights. The first, being between Deku and his rival, Bakugo. It had a lot of dramatic weight to it as their relationship had been built up as a rocky one due to Bakugo seeing Deku as inferior in every way possible, and has done so since they were little. Deku's intelligence comes to play here as you see him constantly analyzing and making use of the knowledge he's acquired in his notebook. In terms of choreography, you have dynamic panels consisting with Deku using martial art grapples and Bakugo's fighting style being flexible with his quirk. There are a few fights like this, emphasis on "few". Majority of them aren't that action packed: they consist of characters mostly talking than actually fighting, they also lack build-up and don't have much going in terms of choreography as scenes mostly consist of characters spamming the same again over and over again. Deku vs Todoroki comes to mind as an example of this. This also brings me to my next issue, being that most characters don't use their powers or skills in creative or interesting ways. Overhaul for example is able to disassemble and then reassemble anything he makes physical contact with either back to it's original form or to something new entirely, yet 90% of the fight consists of his spamming the same spikes attack over and over again. This applies to Deku too as later on, he kinda just stops using martial art techniques and his fighting style becomes quite plain and straightforward. One of the villains even calls him out on this, and when none of his attacks were working he didn't think up a plan or come up with a way he could be flexible with his skillset (Like Naruto or Luffy would, and they're suppose to be the dumb ones unlike Deku), he instead received a deus ex machina to resolve the fight.


Art:
If there's one thing I'm mostly positive on, it's the artstyle. As previously mentioned I think the character designs are great, even for the grunts like Nomu. The scenes pack a lot of expressions and raw emotions that simple scene feel impactful. Only down side would be that later on, actions scene get really messy sometimes, making it a little difficult to understand what is going on.


All in all:
I actually do enjoy the series, for what it is. Be it the anime or the manga, it's entertaining. I do however, find the praises extremely overblown, the show doesn't do anything that older shonen series haven't done before. Granted, generic isn't bad if the execution is good, but I don't believe MHA does that well either. Out of all the newer Jump series, I would recommend reading Promised Neverland & Kimetsu no Yaiba over Black Clover & My Hero Academia, as those are actually good and try to be much more than just a downgraded Naruto.

There's something to be said about watching a series you've grown up with end. It's a cathartic moment that almost feels like closing a chapter of your life. I have kept up with this series for nearly a decade and it contains some of my favorite moments in the medium. The emotions, the messages, I have found myself thinking about the sheer heart this story has when it comes to looking at it as a whole. While it's not without flaws, particularly the latter half's pacing, throughout its entirety there are times it has me feeling something seldom like many other media.

The ending specifically, I've ... seen some talk over, and I have to say it brings the story full circle in a way that feels realistic, but also inspiring. It brings home the theme that you, yes you, the reader can be a hero in anything you do.

What seems to be the next big thing in Boku no Hero Academia certainly has the potential to do so, but has a long way to go before it gets there. So far, its every piece of copy and paste material and generic story out there. However, one thing that intrigued me was how well it used its generic story and characters. The first chapter speaks to itself honestly. Izuku our main character has a problem that gets dealt with in a very very satisfying way that got hooked and invested in the story. The story is interesting and the world is simple, but can ... be built upon. The characters all remind me of the Konoha 11 from Naruto. Each one of them have their own special abilities and personalities. Its refreshing.

One of the best things Boku no Hero Academia does in my very own personal opinion, is its detail. For instance, you just can't have super strength, without there being some sort of burden on your body, or you cant just shoot fire from your hand. There's a scientific explanation to everything, which reminds me a lot of Hunter x Hunter. What I also love, is Izukus personality. Sure hes the stereotypical bullied MC trying to become stronger, but really how he separates himself from other MC's is his intelligence and his battle strategies. He doesn't rely only on his quirk, but his brains allowing what seems impossible situations seem possible, thus hinting a common theme shown in the series. Everyone is not born equal

Overall, while objectively, yes, it is nowhere near special or the best thing I have ever read in my entire life, but it does what it does greatly, and it makes it worthwhile. I'm excited for the future of the series, hope it keeps improving ^_^

So far from the looks of things this manga has alot of potential to be on par with the big 3, in fact it could be better, it might even be the next Hunter x Hunter.

The overall plot for the manga is rather interesting, besides following a few cliches (because shounen) the setting is generally based in a world at which humans have been somewhat evolved to a state in which at the age of 4 they develop powers in which then can became SuperHeros, which is pretty unique in my opinion having a society run by heroes. Yet also in this world their a ... villains which the heroes must fight an save the land. What I love from the story so far is just how generally simplistic it is, it's also cool seeing American Comic Book styles and influences incorporated in to the manga. It is a nice story that is as followed pretty cliche yet overall fun and entertaining.

I absolutely adore the art. I love simple. The art is fun and simple. It, like the manga, is just fun and entertaining which brings a nice smile along my face it makes me engage within in the world better and I love the kind of wacky character designs. The art overall has this nice charm to it and you can really tell that a lot of love has gone into the making of it.

The Characters are somewhat a nice mix between Blue Exorcist, Naruto and Hunter x Hunter yet feel very stand alone. The only 3 character worth mentioning, so far, as follows: Kacchan(the ass hole childhood friend who hate MC's guts and wants to be the best hero of all time), Deku (our wimpy, at first, MC who is always willing to help those in need, regardless if he doesn't have any powers) and All Might (the greatest hero of all time who has chosen Deku to be his prodigal). The character so far have been slowly developing and all have their own nice quirks and charms. Even if Kacchan is the biggest DICK of all time.

Enjoyment: I'm Loving it (also I should note that it takes place in a HighSchool setting, forgot about dis, people will hate it because of this) it's simply a nice shouen that uses Cliches correctly while maintaining it's own personality.

I'd recommend reading it or checking it out if your'e a fan of Naruto and need something to fill that hole. Or if you just want a fun shounen to read and something that doesn't require a nice amount of brain processing full of symbolism and dark disturbing imagery.

This review is just something I had to get off my chest (It will also contain spoilers)

Story:-
It's nothing but training, exam, training, exam, training, then once in a blue moon a villain appears, who eventually either escapes or is arrested, and then we're back to more training. Granted, it is called My Hero ACADEMIA so this should be expected, and this kind of set up could work; Assassination Classroom is a prime example for that, but I find it very weak in My Hero.
First of all, there's a lot of training in this, which isn't a bad thing, I mean, look at Hajime no ... Ippo, Haikyu or any other manga where you have a lot of training arcs. But in those manga series, the training arcs are actually fleshed out and are thus, interesting. In My Hero, you get a page of exposition then a few more pages of characters doing stuff and then the rest is skipped entirely. For example, the students go to a training camp with the aim being to improve their quirks, how? By using it more and "smashing past their limit". Then we get 3 pages of "training" and it ends there. In any other manga with a focus on training, we see the characters struggle as they try overcome the physical or mental wall played in front of them. Like Naruto's training for the Rasengan or Tsuna's X Burner or Ippo's newly improved Dempsey Roll. Heck, the first half of Greed Island in Hunter x Hunter is one huge training arc with technique development at the end. In My Hero, you get an arc for quirk improvement that is almost entirely skipped, another arc for learning special moves where the protagonist comes up with an idea for something but we only get to see the end result.
Then there is the test/exam, where in a series like Assassination Classroom, which is set in our world, they take regular exams like we do. You get a chapter or two of the students studying and then a montage right before the exams begin. The interesting part is how the exams are portrayed as actual battles, with questions being illustrated as monsters and such and with the characters being placed under a lot of stress, it's engaging. And when characters didn't meet expectations, like Karma for example, they learn and grow from it. But in My Hero's case, it is set in a world where everyone has superpowers and are hoping to become superheroes. You'd expect the exam to have something do with "quirk control" or "quirk power", or just general fitness all round and the like. But no, instead, you have them playing glorified dodge ball because why not? And the worst part about these exams is that failing doesn't matter; Deku failed the entrance exam? Well, there was apparently a secret way to pass that no one knew about so he gets in anyway. Whoever places last place in the trails gets expelled? Sike, the teacher was just messing with them. Bakugo & Shoto failed the license exam? Meh, just take the extra classes.
And finally the villain attacks. I'll be frank with you; the villains are pathetic. The main ones being the "League of Villains", these guys are no threat whatsoever, they get beat by heroes in training and have to be rescued by another big bad, if anything they are the true underdogs of the story.

TL:DR, lots of training arcs with little or no actual training, lots of tests/exams with irrational requirements and no actual consequences, and the villains are a laughing stock.

Art:-
Great character designs and backgrounds but fight scenes have poor direction and panelling.

Character:-
In a class of 20, there's Deku, Bakugo and Shoto. Best not bother remembering anyone else in the class because they are just extras. Seriously, after finally catching up with the manga I couldn't stop thinking about how much praise this manga gets for its characters, and then wondering if I was reading the same manga as most people. Majority of the characters struggle to even get some freaking screen-time, talk less of development or characterization. I think the current arc pretty much embodies everything about the characters in this series; currently, the manga as of this writing is on another training arc with both class 1-A & 1-B, and it seems like the author is trying to say that people should give a damn about all these characters BUT HALF OF THEM AREN'T DOING JACK SHIT. It's mind-boggling, and I think it really says something when freaking Shino from Naruto has done more in one arc (Chunin Exam) than majority of the cast has done in the whole series.

Enjoyment:-
I can't find much enjoyment here when everything about this series is so half-assed, and has been done far better elsewhere.

Overall:-
This series has taught me not to buy into hype; I saw so much endless praise for the series, but it's nothing like I heard it was. That said, I really want to stress that I have nothing against the people that like this series, but more with the praise of how this series "breaks the mold" or "perfects shonen" when it's really very much a standard shonen manga.

My Hero Academia is currently one of the most popular anime and manga out there for quite a few reasons; it's simple, it's rather black and white conflict, story and characters which we've seen a million times before is easy to understand and works somewhat like a popcorn flick - you open it up, stare blankly at the page, enjoy whatever flashy action sequence is going on, and say "Yeah, it was fun." Considering how westernized and inspired by western superhero comics it is, it also makes quite the perfect gateway into anime.

You can probably guess from my score that I'm not going to have ... very many positive words about this particular anime, but, I do want to preface this by say I understand My Hero Academia's appeal, the characters all have a quirky trait which makes them likable to people, flashy fight scenes, the classic story of the "underdog" achieving great things, it all makes up a safe and relatively enjoyable experience. Now, with that out of the way, let's get into the review.

One of the things fans of this series claim, is that it executes it's cliche premises and ideas well, that it takes these shounen tropes we've seen so many times in works such as Naruto, and polishes them, this is possibly the biggest "selling point" I've seen marketed by fans of the series, however, I have one problem with this argument.... in what way does it execute them any differently than every other shounen? Some may argue that Deku had to work hard to control his power, but so did every other shounen protagonist, Luffy trained hard to make his devil fruit ability strong, Naruto trained hard to control the nine tailed fox, Gon trained hard to utilize and polish his natural talent. All of these protagonist have something granted to them out of luck, for Izuku it's his extremely powerful quirk, for Luffy it's his devil fruit, for Naruto it's his nine tailed fox and for Gon it's his natural talent, and ALL of these characters train to utilize their abilites, this was never something unique to Izuku.

Besides this argument, to this day, I still haven't seen anyone provide a proper example on why MHA's execution of these cliches stands out in any way.

Overall, the story is just copypasted from every shounen ever, with absolutely nothing to set it apart. Hell, I'd argue that it's story is worse than your average shounen, it never deviates from it's formula of training arc -> tournament arc -> training arc -> tournament arc, with some failed attacks from villains sprinkled in. This sort of format is okay for sports manga, since training and tournaments are the entire point of the story, but for a battle shounen? There are many interesting ways to toy with the formula instead of recycling the same thing over and over because it sells.

Now, speaking of the villains, let's move onto the characters. The League of Villains are - again, worse villains than that of your average shounen, they genuinely have no motivation other than that they want to be more evil and villainous, the villains as characters are flat, one dimensional, and barely have any character traits to set them apart, some villains, like Gentle and even Stain were actually decent, but when it comes to the main villains? One for All and Shigaraki? They almost have nothing that even makes them characters, no motivation, no backstory, no personality, they're the embodiment of evil for the sake of evil. Evil for the sake of evil isn't even necessarily bad, Hisoka from Hunter x Hunter is a great villain despite being just that, and what makes Hisoka good unlike characters like Shigaraki and OFA? He has charisma and presence, he has tons of personality and is an enjoyable wild card, these are all things that the League of Villains lack, Shigaraki especially is absolutely pathetic.

As for the main characters, they aren't any better than the villains, Izuku follows the extremely overused and boring underdog to badass storyline with the execution just as cliche as the arc itself. This trope isn't even necessarily bad, to point to an example of it done right, Hajime Hinata from Danganronpa 2 went through the same arc, but what made his arc interesting is that he didn't receive a lucky quirk to set him on his journey to become a gary stu, he willingly gave himself up for human experimentation, his memories, personalities, thoughts, all of it was stripped away to due to his own unsatisfaction with himself. THIS is what I call good execution of a cliche character arc. Izuku's arc was played completely straight and by this point, he's just a gary stu. He has 7 quirks, has good control over All for One, we know he'll become the number 1 hero, everyone loves him, even the villains fixate on him or begrudingly respect him. He's a boring, badly developed character.

Side characters like Iida, Bakugou and Todoroki are poorly done as well. Bakugou has absolutely no reason to develop an inferiority complex when he did, he definitely has good reason now, but back when they were kids, Izuku was quirkless, weak, didn't even try to make up for his lack of a quirk, he had more reason to be insecure of his other lackeys than Deku. Bakugou is also annoying as hell, he's the complete opposite of entertaining. His relationship with Kirishima is half baked and the very example of telling and not showing, we got what? One interaction between them before Kirishima rescued him? But since Deku exposited how close they were despite the fact we were never shown them being close, we have to take his word for it.

Iida's "arc" in the Stain arc can't even be considered one, he tries to get revenge after almost losing his brother but this entire arc has no longterm effects on his character or psyche, it's almost like it never existed, he's also a bland, boring character who I forget is there half the time. Todoroki's abuse subplot was poorly handled and rushed, his reaction to Endeavor's abuse is unrealistic, and he gets over it like nothing happened, it has no longterm effects on his psyche just like the Stain arc didn't for Iida and gets along with the others just fine. Every other character is completely one dimensional with a single defining trait. Uraraka is the only character I even came close to liking in this entire manga.

MHA's battles are one of the worst parts of the series, a good fight must have two elements to make it... well, good. A) the fight itself - the mechanics, strategy, layout and everything technical about it and B) the emotional core. MHA attempts only one of these, and fails at both. All of MHA's fights lack any sort of competence in the technical aspects to the point you can see the author doesn't care about it, Deku vs Todoroki is a prime example of this, the fight itself is incredibly poor, it's just a reptitive and non stop barrage of Todoroki hitting Deku with ice attacks and Deku knocking him back, it's clearly bad. As for the emotional aspect, it feels extremely contrived, like it's trying way too hard to make you sad. MHA's thing is to jump from one hype emotional moment to the other, leaving empty spaces of nothingness in between. As for an example of a fight I'd say does both aspects of a good fight well - Gon vs Hisoka from Hunter x Hunter. It's a strategic, tight and well paced fight. It doesn't need contrived stuff to build an artifical emotional core like dramatic flashbacks, or angsty inner monologues like MHA to make it strong, the body language and fighting style of Gon and Hisoka conveys all the emotion it needs to, making the fight seem filled with personality.

Now, as for MHA's positive. The art is pretty good, the panelling is competent, the fight scenes are rather clear and the art looks detailed and good.

And that wraps up this review. I find MHA to be a below average shounen which is not worth it.

(This review only included the first 95 chapters since I decided to drop this manga due the the problems that will be mentioned in this review)

Personally, I have no problems with shonen manga having very common themes like rivalry, friendship and dreams etc. or having sort of childish humor. (If the gag talks more about the character I'll like it anyway.)
Some people like to despise shonen manga, saying something like kiddies shonen blah blah blah but I think there's potential for shonen manga. I love one piece, first part of naruto, dragon ball and hunter x hunter. I think if you tell a story ... well, even when the themes of the story may seem generic, it still can be a great story.
However Hero Academia isn't one of them.

Hero Aca has really good character designs. All characters look unique and match their own personality even when some of them are just background characters.
There is a wide range of characters in the main cast and all of them have interesting supernatural abilities (quirks). Quirks always match one's personality. That makes the characters feel more grounded.
And most of them have likeable and unique personalities that make you side with the characters when shit hits the fan.

However, the greatness of Hero Academia ends right there. (at least for me)

It's just way too spread out on its characters.
It's trying to talk about too many characters without going in depth with any of them except for a few. (Deku, Todoroki and All Might). A lot of the characters(like Ochaco, Eraserhead) can be interesting but none of them had their backstories explained or took a major lead in any of the arcs.

This simplistic characterisation for the main characters can be a great thing for long running shonen series. Main characters don't get fully developed in the early stage of the story so don't end up being static due to the length of the manga and ultimately harm the longevity and the quality of the manga.

Well it works for Hunter X Hunter.
Hunter x Hunter has a similar case before chimera ant arc. It has amazing villains like Hisoka, Phantom Troupe while the main characters have very little backstories but just interesting enough to get you root for them. In Chimera ant arc, Gon took a huge turn with his character and we can still see he's changing and learning more in the future. It isn't like One Piece where the bond between the crew is already so huge after timeskip. It doesn't show anymore about them when they sacrifice for their friends. And the story has been becoming more and more stale. (This can be controversial but hey, that's just my opinion.)

But that doesn't work for Hero Academia.
Villains aren't very well developed in this manga.
Like, their ideals(what exactly they hate about the heroes except they are smiling and can't save everyone), how they come up with their ideals (backstories), what's the relationship among them, those things don't seem very well told.

Main characters aren't as well developed than that in HxH either. In HxH, we've seen a main character went on a big revenge arc. We learned about Kurapika's goal and his way to achieve his goal, and how Gon and his friends react to that. While Gon, Killua and Leorio weren't getting a whole lot of character development. We still have something to think about the characters.
In Hero Aca, we just got a really short revenge arc for Tenya which is way more underwhelming than that in HxH.

You can go for a simplistic characterisation. But you gotta have good villains and one to two good main characters.

Not many shonen manga has truly great villains, but without even well developed main characters, the story just ends up feeling empty.

I don't understand why people hate Naruto with a passion but end up loving this manga. Naruto's part 2 (shippuden) had gone downhill and ninja war arc was shit. But its exam arc was actually good with a range of well defined characters like (nenji, hinata, lee, shikamaru, sakura and naruto himself), and a big interesting overarching plotline.

While some people may claim that Hero Academia's main weakness is its generic story, I tend to disagree. You can have a very generic structured tournament arc but still have a very good story by making the characters interesting. Just having characters with different/opposite personalities clashing each other, seeing them learning from each other and becoming stronger in terms of skills and mentality can be fun as hell like what I've mentioned about Naruto.

Up until chapter 92 in Hero Academia, I still don't see there are many memorable character moments for the characters except Todoroki and All Might. I still hate that the author tried to make the main cast saving the most unlikeable and annoying character in the manga which doesn't build up the emotion at all.

With a lot of similar traits with Naruto's, I just don't see Hero Academia have come close to its predecessor, not to mention having surpassed it. I'm passionate about shonen manga. Maybe I'm just a jaded old man who can't appreciate new shonen. Feel free to discuss with me by leaving comments in my profile if you think I'm wrong.

Art: the art of this manga begins with a cartoony style but goes through a substantial upgrade early on to become one of the best ever in WSJ, although it at times feels overly blocky and sterile. Over time it becomes more detail heavy and choppy and feels like less a manga and more a series of illustrations each seeking to be as impactful as possible, the fights scenes may be confusing for some readers especially later on due to the unorthodox paneling.

Plot: The plot starts out as the epitome of a trope heavy shonen story done right, later devolves into periods that drag endlessly, ... feel rushed, fake outs and dropped plot threads, and just a feeling of huge wasted potential. It also becomes extremely self referential with regular flashbacks. The plot does not go in the direction most are expecting so it is unpredictable in that sense avoiding major tropes usually found in super hero stories or battle shonen, but what replaces them isn’t particularly gratifying.

Characters: The characters start out likable and well written if a bit one note, however over time most become relegated to the side lines with more and more introduced that get little to no development, the characters that do get focused on often become empty shells of themselves or just constantly grovel and apologize in the case of heroes, and becoming tantrum throwing self parodies with meaningless development in the case of villains.

Themes: The story injects many philosophical points seemingly inspired from classic American comics such as discrimination, what it means to be a hero, mutations, the morality of killing, corruption among heroes, freedom to use powers, etc. but generally most of these are rushed and explored poorly while ultimately giving mixed messages.

Overall: this manga starts out very strong for the first quarter or so, it starts to decline but still has its moments, but by the last third ranges from mediocre to truly awful.

Before i started this many people were hyping this up to be the next naruto so i decided to see what all the hype was about.Right off the bat i could see this was somewhat different from the usual shounen manga as the main character was not the usual dumb knucklehead type.The main character is very smart and uses his intelligence alot in battle which is rare for shounen he doesn't just go into battle swinging he always has a plan.The mangaka of this series also takes the time to flesh out all his characters and explain their powers and it isnt just the usual ... group of people who team up he mixes it up as well.It isnt like the usual shounen but its shounen nonetheless so there are gonna be some cliches but it isnt that bad and there are some very hilarious moments(grapeboy =best boy lol)The art is this manga is pretty good for a weekly shounen manga as well you can see the author improved his drawings since the first chapters.So in conclusion if you like a superhero kind of manga you will probably like this.

My Hero Academia aka. Green Naruto is the one of the more overhyped shounen to come out in recent years. It amazes me how fans hype up this generic, average shounen that does nothing unique or better than it's predecessors.

The main character- Deku, is a beta crybaby who’s quirkless and does nothing until his hero shows up and gives him one on a silver plater. He’s the most bland/vanilla shounen MC I’ve ever seen. His quirk is limited and boring, the only flaw he has as a character is lack of confidence, other than that he’s been a hero since day 1. His dialogue ... is repetitive e.g. “I won’t let anyone die. I’m going to save you Eri!” Deku's stockholm syndrome & admiration to the little shit who bullied him for a decade sends the wrong message to readers. His development is too centered around OFA that Deku becomes more of a vessel for OFA rather than a character. I don’t care about him training to unlock higher OFA %, give me some internal conflict!

OFA ruined Deku’s character, let me explain:
- It doesn’t fit his character. What started as a quirkless fanboy underdog who wanted to be a hero and was noteworthy for: his intellect, using his notebook to analyse heroes/opponents and fighting out of the box, has devolved into a OP Quirk Avatar. It’s completely overshadowed any of his interesting traits.
- He wins every fight by punching harder instead of winning through I don’t know... strategy, skill or teamwork.

As a firm believer that “Deku should have remained a quirkless hero”, I will admit Hori slowly started to change my mind with the way he had Deku discovering new ways to use OFA. I enjoyed watching him come up of full cowling, shoot style and air force. Also, I liked the bond OFA created between Deku and All Might, making them closer than simply student/mentor.

That all changed with the ‘6 extra quirks’ reveal. Whenever Deku uses his other quirks e.g. blackwhip, I sigh in disappointment. Giving your MC so many quirks while other students have to rely on the one quirk they have is a cheap copout and made Deku less likeable/interesting. OFA was already busted with 50% being enough to steamroll pro heroes/villains, what the hell was the point in adding more?! Deku has a clear advantage over his peers both power and versatility wise now. He makes students like Sato and Sero redundant because he’s basically got upgraded versions of their quirks. The 6 extra quirks was the final nail in the coffin that killed his character for me. If this direction was planned from the beginning then they should have gone the Batman route.

Bakugou is NOT the worst rival (that title goes to Yuno in Black Clover). However, angry boy is a prick with the personality of a 10 yr old Fortnite player. He’s a bully who never faces consequences for his actions because Hori attempts to sweep what happened under the rug & retcon it as if they're good childhood friends. As a result his development is shallow & undercut due to the persistence of his quirks e.g. he told the kid not look down on others, only to call his teammates extras.

Bakugou's constantly wanked by the fandom & in-verse e.g. chpt 208: “Look guys, Bakugou has changed!!1!” His ‘flaws’ are there to make him look cool, they aren’t treated negatively or have lasting consequences within the narrative e.g. he lacks social skills, nope has perfect teamwork and can pull off flawless victory in JT.

Deku and Bakugou have the worst toxic rivalry in shounen. Deku admiring his bully who mentally and physically tormented him for a entire decade turns me off to their relationship and character. It doesn’t even stop there, Deku gets mad whenever someone calls out his precious ‘Kacchan’ for being a little shit (Deku Vs Monoma). It would have been better if the writer had someone address to Deku how messed up their relationship is and admitting getting help with his Stockholm syndrome, but instead it’s victim shaming “poor Kacchan, he’s a victim. Why didn’t you notice and help him Deku?!” There's a mind-numbing hole in the story as to how the top school in the country for heroes in training wouldn't do background checks on students. Deku and Bakugou shouldn't be in the same class, heck Bakugou shouldn't be admitted into U.A. In the first place! But the story emphasises it doesn't matter if you're a bully, you can be a hero if your strong. AM and Aizawa are shit teachers as well for not doing anything about them.

The rest of the students are bland and one dimensional with barely any interesting flaws. They’re all just ‘good kids’, which is why they’re all god damn boring and can be defined by a couple of personality traits. The series suffers from character bloat e.g. most students are useless and don’t get development for long periods of time. The weaker students like Hagakure, Sero, Kouda, Ojiro, Shoji, Aoyama might as well not exist because they’ve done jack shit since they’re inception. The only students that matter in the story are: Deku, Bakugou and Todoroki.

The villains are generic one dimensional losers, for example:

Shigaraki- Nihilist edgelord villain who wants to destroy everything.
Toga- generic yandere,
Dabi- asshole who’s entire existence hinges on ‘Todoroki is his brother’ theory, since he has no character
Twice- A Deadpool pastiche. Granted, he's the most well written and human in the League.
Spinner and have Mr Compress- nothing to the characters worth mentioning
All for one- Big bad villain who’s evil for the sake of it. We barely know anything about AFO because everything’s ‘shrouded in mystery’. Too bad he just comes off as an underdeveloped, incompetent moron who has the ability to absorb all quirks, yet decides to clash with AM head on when his only quirk is punching harder.

The League are just a bunch of hypocritical assholes who want to cause destruction and commit genocide because “we live in a society”.

Re-Destro and his followers should have been the main antagonists and i'll shout it from the rooftops to the cows come home. Here we had a group with a history in the MHA world inheriting ideals from past generations that has cultivated over time a: resources, influence, power, double agent heroes that believe in their goals while being integrated within hero society. There motivation (while extreme) is understandable for the readers considering its about oppression and free-usage of quirks for everyone. Re-Destro had everything to be the Magneto of MHA, but what happens? The merry group of nihilists managed to defeat and take over the Liberation army and Re-Destro became his bitch ever since, smh.

There’s barely anything grey about the series because the heroes are pretty much selfless & idealistic (which diminishes what AM represents and Stain's ideology), while being labelled as the ‘good guys’ and the villains the ‘bad guys’, which makes it even more boring and predictable.

The arcs are repetitive following the same formula e.g. either endless training arcs with no stakes or villain attack ones.

The fights are terrible and too simplistic. There’s no real choreography outside of flashy, special attacks. They’re too short and rarely involve strategy or teamwork. Every Deku fight basically boils down to who punches harder. The powerups follow a similar structure of stronger punch/run faster/hotter fire. No creativity or versatile use of quirks.

The world building is pretty much non existent since it’s focuses on a school in the normal world and rarely shows what’s happening in the world or it’s history. We're told 80% of the population has quirks and yet such a phenomenon has barely affected the world.

A positive ill give MHA is: Endeavor. He's the best written character in the series. Here's a hero who let his obsession with All Might & being #1 hero cloud him and hurt his family. What I like about his story is the way domestic abuse is handled in such a realistic way with him and how the Todoroki family reaction. He messed up and isn't asking for forgiveness because he knows he doesn't deserve it, but is still trying to be a better person & hero.

MHA is shallow and has no substance. I don’t recommend wasting your time with this manga as there’s better shounens out there. If you’re interested in MHA because of the superhero genre then you’re probably better off reading a comic.

This manga is a journey not only in following the students in their quest to become heroes, but also in the highs and lows of story telling. BnHA starts out strong. The characters are likeable and engaging. The story has a lot to say and invests as much time in its villains as its heroes, creating a complex world with complex problems. The first about half of the story is the best part of the story. It has decent pacing, engaging content, and a need to know more. The second half is unfortunately not like that. The pacing is a little wonky in places, though ... it's better as a binge read than a weekly read. There are some really great moments but there is some clutter and speed runs in-between. Yet, the themes presented in the first half persist and so there's still a drive to know more about the characters and story. This kept me reading even during the wonky portions but the payout just evaporated when the time came for it.

One of the more interesting things about Horikoshi's writing is he likes to subvert expectations, but this is also one of his weaknesses. The ending really let me down to the point I'm not going to finish the anime because I have no interest in watching the final arc after reading it. The epilogue was nice but because of the disappointment in the climax of the story, I have trouble enjoying it.

When I first started reading this title, I rated it an 8. When the second half got wonky, I rated it a 7. Now I'm giving it a 6. It's a decent story and the characters are characters that I'll carry with me for years to come, but the ending was just not my bag, but it wasn't technically a "bad ending," just extremely disappointing given what seemed to be the themes of the story. However, some subversions in the epilogue were good and I'm glad for those choices. It's really a mixed bag of an ending to a manga that started out pretty strong and engaging.

If you like standard Jump stories and enjoy epics reads, then I would really recommend checking this title out. Even though I didn't really like the ending, it might work for other people. If anything, this manga is worth it to get to know the cast and think about how things could have turned out instead.

I'm going to begin this review by making two statements; firstly, don't expect this manga to be deconstructing tropes or to be anything vastly different from the norm, despite what you hear. Secondly, this manga is currently one of my favourites currently in publication, and may end up one of my favourites ever.

Now, onto the actual review [OBLIGATORY MINOR SPOILER WARNING].

Story: 8

No matter what is told to you by fans of the series, don't assume going into this that it'll be entirely removed from any typical shonen story that you've ever seen/read. The story is a usual one of a boy with powers in ... a special school where everyone else has powers, and thus numerous battles ensue involving the protagonist and his buddies.

However, what makes this manga fantastic isn't that it's completely removed from shonen tropes; rather, what makes it great is the astounding skill with which the mangaka executes them. Story arcs do have similar foundations to what you've seen in many shonen manga, but it's the way they are meticulously done that draws you in. The story arcs are perfectly paced, and never overstay their welcome. They develop naturally and with style. You can really tell that the author put a lot of thought into the structuring of the story arcs and the overall plot of the manga, down to every single chapter.

The only reason it isn't higher is that the start isn't nearly as strong as the later arcs, as they aren't as interesting, and Horikoshi becomes more comfortable as the story progresses and becomes more detailed. However, this is promising too, as this means that the upcoming arcs are going to be even better than the last few. An exciting prospect, to say the least.

Art: 9

The art in Boku no Hero is one of its strongest points. And it may not seem like it at first, as one could find it slightly jarring. The manga takes lots of influence from Western comics in more ways than one, so to many it could seem like (in terms of art) the two styles don't mesh perfectly. To those I would say, give it time. It might seem goofy or strange at first, but Horikoshi becomes much more comfortable as the manga progresses. The line-work and tones give it the Western feel, but at it's foundations it still looks Japanese. This also applies to the colour pages, which use bright, vibrant colours and larger-than-life poses to give it an awesome superhero aesthetic. As a package, it feels like a breath of fresh air.

The artwork is incredible in the action sequences. Every movement is crystal clear, and the panels are creative and have a sense of fluidity. As the fights progress they become more and more intense; and this applies to the story too. As the mangaka develops as an atrist, the fights themselves also develop in intensity.

But where the art really shines is the characters. They're designs are insanely creative, and sync up with their individual powers and personalities perfectly, from the hair to the costumes. It's extremely refreshing to see a mangaka put in so much effort into detail, even in side characters. There is one villain especially that has a few panels that are so intensely intricate that it's practically nightmare fuel.

Character: 10

Undoubtedly, the characters are the best part of the manga. I could go on about how much detail is put into almost every character, even side characters, and how well they develop over the course of the manga. I could talk about how they all have their own distinct personalities, and how it's a joy to watch them interact. I could talk about how one of the villains might be one of my personal favourites of all time. But instead, I'll just talk about the main character.

The main character of Deku is genuinely different to any main character I've seen in typical shonen manga. Usually, they're either a hot-headed idiot or a brooding teenager with hidden powers. But not Midoriya Izuku. He grew up without powers in a world where everyone else had one, but he still wants to be a hero. This underdog tale isn't unique, but his personality is what makes it. He doesn't just work out a lot and shout at people who don't believe in him, rather he uses his sharp wit and analytical skills to one day achieve his goals. Even when he does (spoiler warning) inevitably get powers in the first few chapters, this is still incredibly important, as while it is insanely powerful in concept, it comes with a massive (and genuinely dangerous) toll. Thus, he needs to intelligently use his power in creative ways to push through an situation that comes along, sometimes not even using it at all, a welcome detraction from many manga where the MC just uses his OP power to overcome any obstacle in his path.

He still goes through the usual shonen trope of winning out of pure determination (as well as the previously mentioned intelligence, often in conjunction), but the difference is when he's destroying his body, the reader genuinely connects with his character, and it comes with a sense of consequence and worry when the fight is finally over, unlike most shonen when the reader knows that the main character will recover quickly even after pushing himself to the brink. This becomes much more apparent during a certain tournament arc and continuously as the story progresses, especially in the most recent battle. You may have heard the term 'Absolute Madman' thrown around often in relation to this character.

Enjoyment: 10

This series is a roller-coaster ride from the first chapter. Watching the manga grow and watching it develop has been immensely enjoyable. It hooks you in from the first chapter with its refreshing aesthetic, massive characters and world-building. Most importantly, it's a wild amount of fun to read, and I'm excited as to where it'll go next, especially with the current arc, which, depending on the direction it takes, might be one of the best shonen arcs in recent years. I genuinely can't wait to see where Horikoshi Kouhei takes it next.

Overall: 9

My Hero Academia was my favorite anime/manga when I was newer to the mediums. It incorporated elements with strong appeal to my tastes. I am a sucker for characters who overcome some inherent disadvantage they have by thinking outside the box, and cutesy low stakes slice of life stuff. Both of these are staples of the early series, and led me to falling in love with the characters. As I've read more though, three major cracks have become too noticeable for me to enjoy this story like I used to.

My first major complaint is that the author is good at introducing likeable characters, but fails ... to keep them relevant and interesting to the story after they complete their first character arc. Rather than characters overcoming new obstacles as the series advances, old characters fade into the background while we are told to care about different classmates who will ultimately meet the same fate. This could work in a different series where characters can rotate in and out of the main cast, but MHA is not one of these series. We still see characters once promised to be important who will do nothing significant or interesting for the remainder of the narrative.

The second major issue I have is the timeline and competence of pro heroes. Early on pros are established to be considerably more competent than the main cast. They are the end goal that the characters are trying to reach, and this makes sense given the premise of the series. However, as MHA progresses pro heroes start feeling more like clowns who have no right to the title of pro. While I understand the need to show our characters growing, the speed at which they grow feels entirely too rushed when looking at the timeline of the series. The growth these characters have undergone would feel much more natural to me if if the major arcs occurred over multiple school years instead of just one.

My final issue, and the one that got me to drop MHA for a time, is the author's habit of sexualizing minors. Any series whose female cast rarely feel like more than eye candy annoys me, but the fact that these characters are all 15-16 ish years old made me too uncomfortable to continue past the chapter cover of 368. I only picked it back up after my sister begged me because she needed someone to talk about the new chapters with.

To add some thoughts now that the series has ended, Horikoshi really borks the pacing towards the end. It feels simultaneously rushed and dragged out. Character moments will play out way too quickly to feel satisfying, and the fights felt like they were going on for too many chapters. I particularly hated one of the plot developments because it completely robs an important character of agency in a way that feels so inappropriate for the series. There is an argument to be made about it tying into the themes of the series, but the way it undermines what came before makes it fall so flat. The last chapter was pretty good. It had a lot that I loved as a send off to the series, but it too runs into the issue of feeling like it undercuts an earlier plot point that was crucial to the growth of a character in a way that just gives me the ick.

My Hero is so frustrating to me because I know this series could have been something amazing. Horikoshi is an incredible artist, but his writing ultimately turned this series into a whole weaker than the sum of its parts. I can understand why someone would plan on reading this series, but I would put it lower on the priority list if you do.

As this is my first review on MAL I’ll start with a summary of it:

Overall I liked the first arcs of Hero Academia, but it was too inconsistent plot wise for me to continue reading. The manga would do things to reel me in just to lose me the next arc and I decided to might as well drop it.

My problems can be explained in 3 aspects of the writing:

Deku as a protagonist:
Deku to me is a boring character. He has undeniably right ideals and motivation, he has an overpowered quirk and he never faces real consequences. His idea of a hero and why he ... wants to be one are too pure and cliche to be noteworthy. Mentally, he won’t change and in a long run that proves to be boring to me. Then, can his quirk make him interesting? Well, the story behind is, but a quirk that can just smash through everything is too plain in a series about how everyone has unique powers. Bakugou can use his explosions in creative ways, Uraraka has to be clever to fight with zero gravity, but Deku just powers up to the next percent and punches to win. And when he doesn't win per se, the situation always solves itself. He can’t use OFA or else he gets injured? Only happens in UA and he can be healed right away. He does get injured in an important battle? Doesn’t matter he can just man up. He breaks government or school rules? Oh, well you did good so let’s move on. I find supporting characters like Bakugou or Todoroki way more interesting but the problem is that everyone’s developments are tied too much to Deku. I know he is the protagonist and the plot is about him, but some characters should be allowed to shine on their own. As a rival, Bakugou’s development is obviously tied to him. Todorki’s arc revolves around Deku and his pep talks. Iida’s arc gets intense but of course Deku has to be there. And poor Uraraka, a lot of times she is just there to be Deku’s future love interest.


Villains:
Extending the perfect protagonist point, he have to talk about villains. If our hero is too good, then we need a good villain to keep the narrative interesting. If the hero is too pure, then the villain should challenge him in a philosophical way. Either make him doubt himself or make an impression on the reader. If the hero is too powerful, then the villain should be able to challenge him to keep fights engaging; and if the hero progresses his power the villain should too. If the hero never loses, then the villain should be resourceful enough to keep things close. So far all the villains (Shigaraki, Stain, Overhaul, Gentle) have none of these traits. Now, they don’t need to be perfect too and hit on all 3 traits but one should be enough to make things interesting. All 4 are too crazy to sympathize with and too evil that they’ll never shake Deku’s ideals or motivations. All 4 are nowhere near close to Deku’s fighting prowess, and, if they somehow were, they would just get obliterated by the next OFA percent. All 4 are also incapable of forming interesting strategies. Stain, Overhaul and Gentle just straight up end up fighting the good guys up front without being even close to escape, and Shigaraki has to have his behind saved all the time.


Focus:
Now I did say that at first I liked the manga and that is true. When the author limited himself to a couple of students and All Might’s life in UA and how they dealt with their emotions as events unfolded it was a good read. The background of a school and setup of the classrooms to have at least 20 other supporting characters was promising. But, for some reason or another the author kept adding more students, more heroes, more villains before giving proper time to the ones we had already. This made one dimensional, secondary characters more plain that they already were that it makes me question why are they even there in the first place. The story went from exploring characters in this interesting world to trying to explore the world and then maybe the characters themselves in a really sudden change.


I really recommend reading the first few arcs. For me, they were good and they introduced some characters that I started to like and care for before they were thrown into the bench with little hope to dive into them as much as I would have hoped. The later arcs varied too much in quality for me and at one point the story took a different route that I don't really care for. Out of the 180 chapters I read I would say it was a 50/50 hit and miss ratio.

This review will contain spoilers-

After reading 236 chapters and watching the majority of the anime aired i'm done with MHA at this point. I love shounen manga, I love almost everything I've read in Jump and MHA was no exception, but gradually I've come to dislike it.

MHA overall is a very good manga, Horikoshi Sensei's art is amazing, it's unique and he has a real talent for designing characters. The world that has been built is interesting and better than a lot of other shounen I have read. There are some really good characters and an recently some of the villains are finally getting ... the treatment they deserve. Unfortunately despite all these good things I don't enjoy the series anymore, which is something that hasn't really ever happened to me before.

I do not like superhero media, it's not my thing, so when I heard about a superhero shounen manga I thought that it might be hard for me to like, but I was completely wrong. Just like many other shounen manga it captivated me, I loved the idea of Deku being a huge underdog in a society where everyone has something special except him, All Might telling him he could be a hero was a very inspiring moment that honestly brought a tear to my eye, It felt like it was telling me anyone could be a hero (which is something shounen manga often does) but gradually changes in the manga either proved that it was not an intentional message or that the writing has poorly betrayed that sentiment.

Even at the beginning it doesn't deviate from the common trope that the main character gets "the best ability", and it later gets even worse when it just so happens that Deku is the one person with OFA who gets the "extra abilities". It felt like a big kick in the balls to watch as he developed because it trashed the idea that: "anyone can be a hero", Deku got extremely lucky and a once in a lifetime chance gave him exactly what he wanted. A lot of what I dislike about MHA is very personal and why that is is because it executes what I value in shounen manga poorly. A lot of shounen manga can be read as a sort of power fantasy, and similarly I think a lot of people read shounen to inspire and motivate themselves to work harder and succeed which are some of the core values that shounen manga hold. When I read shounen I want to be inspired, and often what inspires people most is the main characters of their manga like Luffy, Naruto, Ichigo, Goku etc, who keep fighting and struggling until they reach a hard earned victory. As the story progresses Deku gets insufferably annoying, as he whines and cries far too much, I could never be inspired by him since he acted so weak even though he had such a strong ability, and even when he does overcome this weakness he just feels bland, in comparison Asta from Black clover from the very start is incredibly upbeat and even at a point where he's seriously crippled for life he still remains optimistic and hopeful which is why I enjoy that series much more, it gets me pumped up and inspired, this is entirely subjective and my own opinion and I can understand why this wouldn't matter to most people but the way MHA is built up and how similar it is to other shounen I feel like it would deliver the same kinds of feelings I get from others, but it doesn't which leads me to feel betrayed somewhat.

Onto more understandable gripes is how the school setting ruins the manga in a few ways, firstly it promotes a larger cast size which it follows through with leading to MHA having far too many characters with some receiving barely any development but people still vouching that MHA has a very "deep" cast of characters. That's not so say there aren't developed characters as there are, it just so happens that the main 3 from class A are ones I dislike, Deku is bland and offers nothing new whatsoever except how much a crybaby he was. Bakugou is angry to a point of annoyance but a few interesting things are done with him. Todoroki has an understandable backstory but is very overrated in my opinion which can be said about the majority of characters in the manga. Whilst the fanbase should have no bearing on the bearing of the manga, it can irk me so much when they praise something for being the "best shounen ever" when almost every element is done better elsewhere. The fanbase is definitely something that's contributed to why I dislike the manga now which is a shame since i'd like to be as fair to it as possible.

Some characters I did enjoy are Mirio who is well developed and I'd much rather him, be MC. Some villains are also well done in my opinion, Stain and Overhaul are the standard of shounen villains we should be getting with Love Lover and Gentle being my favorite, The arc they where in was perhaps the last time I enjoyed MHA since their motives and story was very touching. Twice is also a recent edition to characters I liked which can't be said about the rest of the League of Villains. On that subject I will say that around the time of dropping MHA Shiguraki is finally getting some much needed backstory, for a main villain who is meant to directly oppose the main character we have barely known anything about him for years which has annoyed me so much over the couple years I've been reading, at this point I am thoroughly displeased with what I have seen as it's some of the edgiest stuff I've seen in shounen and it also doesn't give me any reason to like him or understand him, he is one of the most overrated characters I've seen and his motives from what I understand stem from when he was a very young child and have not changed since, his father who beats him is much more sympathetic than him which is a big problem for a main villain.

The quirk system is a decent shounen power system for the fact that it allows Horikoshi to be creative when making characters and their powers, however I think it's very underutilized as we usually get a very standard ability like fire and ice generation or something stupid like having a tail or getting angry if you eat sugar, HxH's Nen and Stands from JBA do the unique power system way more justice. Deku's ability is another downside as it's very simple and I think that's beginning to show as I imagine that the recent events with him receiving new powers is either his own or an editors way of admitting that combat might be getting stale. You could make up any quirk and you give your MC super strength, it just seems like a wasted opportunity. I'd have liked the series much more if Deku still had no quirk but managed to become the top hero as it could do justice to how Deku is portrayed to be more intelligent where perhaps he could find out his opponents weaknesses and use their quirks against them.

I'm aware that this has been more complaining than reviewing but I just need to express my gripes with this series in words before I can move on and stop reading it. If it does get amazing later I might be tempted to try it again in a few years but for now I don't enjoy reading the manga at all.

Story: 5/10 - Some arcs are well done and present interesting dilemmas and further characters but a lot of weight is lost to the events that take place as the students just return to school, because of this stakes often feel low and fights don't seem to matter much.

Art: 9/10 - Horikoshi Sensei's Art is amazing, he illustrates action very well and has really good character designs for the most-part.

Character: 5/10 - Often shallow or dis-likable, with the character that do get attention either being well developed or offering nothing new, a real mixed bag with the overwhelming majority being duds.

Overall: 6/10 - Not the worst by any means but definitely overrated and over-hyped, if you like shounen manga give it a whirl but I wouldn't recommend it over something like One Piece, JoJo's, Hunter x Hunter or a bunch of other manga.

I'm open for discussion on MHA if people want to enlighten me on certain aspects of the story or characters but for now i'm tired of it and don't enjoy reading it weekly.

***Spoilers***

I wonder how it came to this. Now, before we get started, I just wanted to say I'm writing this review solely as a way to grieve. I loved Boku No Hero Academia. It got me into anime. I never really got into it anime as a kid or teen. Obviously I watched Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, but that was about it. I more played the games than actually watched the show with those as well.

Now, a couple years ago my friend convinced me to watch My Hero Academia. I did so, after much whining and putting it off. ... In my mind, the entire anime medium comprised of nose bleeds and well endowed women being disrobed in ridiculous situations. I was of course, wrong.

I adored it. I cosplayed multiple characters from it, went to cons, read the manga, and bought a plethora of merchandise. I got caught up on the manga right around the remedial arc and the battle with Overhaul.

Funnily enough, immediately after is when the manga took a severe drop in quality for me. Before, I thought the character depth was solid and development was nicely paced. The story was well thought out and while a bit repetitive at times, flowed well. I loved some characters and loathed others, like you should with any good fiction.

Now, I just don't care. I don't care about any of the characters I once loved. Don't feel much of anything towards any of the characters I once loathed.

Character development is erratic. Some characters have been seemingly forgotten about. Others develop for little or no reason. The biggest example of that is Tomura Shigaraki. What has he honestly done to warrant this sudden rise to villain mastery? What in his personality causes people to follow him so devoutly? There is literally nothing about him that says main antagonist, but there he is, all of a suddenly at the head of a villain army.

The story, once very focused and heading somewhere, now jumps about with no rhyme or reason. Plot developments are seemingly added on a whim. Deku, is getting a bunch of powers All Might never received in his decades of One For All bearing. The traitor is suddenly a thing again after the author admitted he forgot about them. Endeavor just up and decides he wants to be a good dad after years of abuse and neglect. The list goes on.

It really makes me sad, to see something that once meant so much to me reduced to this. I didn't want to give it up, but I can't bring myself to care what happens anymore. It's obvious the author no longer cares about this manga, so how can he expect fans to do otherwise?

I've noticed hipsters panning this series at length simply because they want to be contrarian and dismissive of how monumental and well done a series Boku no Hero Academia is. Yet somehow you see these same people praise series such as Black Clover, Fairy Tail, and Seven Deadly Sins. It's beyond me how someone could unironically criticize Boku no Hero and yet have nothing but rose colored glasses for those hot messes. Not shaming you if you enjoy these manga, but if you're of a reasonable mind, I'd have to imagine you also enjoy Boku no Hero, assuming you've given it a fair shake. Maybe ... you even have, but you find that Youtubers and internet hipsters downplaying the series so much have made you forget how great it is. So I'm going to write out some of the countless reasons this series is deservedly at the very top of Shonen.

Story: 10 Outstanding
Boku no Hero Academia's story is deceivingly simple. What introduces itself as a heartwarming underdog story soon reveals itself to be a dark and nuanced story of heroes and villains. Structurally, it's not quite as daring as Hunter Hunter, but there's still a lot to love here that shakes up your typical formulas. The main hero doesn't shoehorn his way into getting the big win of every arc, the impact of antagonists is still felt long after their time in the limelight, and mangaka Kohei Horikoshi has a keen sense of focus often lacked by his peers in the medium.

Art: 9 Great
Horikoshi's panels firmly establish him as one of manga's greatest artists today. He more than holds his own with the likes of Kubo, Kishimoto, and Toriyama, which is no small feat. Given the frequency with which he must release chapters, there are occasional lulls where Horikoshi seems to go minimalist during setup or exposition chapters, but these are generally inoffensive. I can't necessarily compare his panels to those of Kentaro Miura - who admittedly takes INFINITELY more time to produce his - but Horikoshi's work is undeniably strong and unique. Stylistically, it strikes me as something of a merge between Kubo and Toriyama with plenty of notes of Western comics added for flavor. Of course, that's just my opinion. You may well connect his style to completely different works.

Characters: 10 Outstanding
You heard it here first: Boku no Hero Academia has some of the strongest characters Shonen's ever seen. The only manga that even come close for me are probably Hunter Hunter and Bleach, both of which are ripe with my all-time favorites. Even Boku no Hero's supporting cast is better than the leads of most of its contemporary peers. Momo Yaoyorozu has had more development than 99% of Shonen heroines do in their full series' run, Toshinori Yagi is without a doubt one of the three best mentor characters in fictional history, and Katsuki Bakugou has become the most popular rival character in manga since Vegeta.

The main villain of the series is an ideal foil to our protagonist with a golden heart. Think Batman and the Joker or Luffy and Blackbeard. We're given the rare treat here of getting to see our hero and villain both develop in the same frame of time. It isn't often that you get to see the final boss as a petulant upstart. A daring move on Horikoshi's part that has paid off in spades. A whole arc was recently given exclusively to the villains of the series without a peep from the main character for dozens of chapters. Togashi is the only mangaka that comes to mind with the balls to try something like that - Keep in mind, we haven't seen the main character of Hunter Hunter in roughly 100 chapters or so.

The flame hero Endeavor has had the best character arc manga's seen in years. What would've been written off as the douchey but cool dad in any other series has become the most nuanced character in the whole manga. I hope other writers see this example and dare to have characters as risky in their future works.

The character designs also pop off the page quite remarkably, not unlike Kishimoto and Kubo's, though the western comic book tinge to Horikoshi's work helps it stand out all the more. Couldn't be more appropiate for a manga about superheroes.

Enjoyment: 9 Great
I hadn't enjoyed a series so much since Bleach and Naruto during their early peaks years ago. When I caught up to the anime, transitioning to the manga was instinctual. I knew I couldn't wait for the next episode, much less the next season. Like any good comic book, I'm always eagerly awaiting the next issue. That said, this is the most subjective category. We're all going to enjoy some arcs more than others. I loved seeing the two hero courses square off, but others may grow fatigued and want the story to move on to something different when they read the same arc. Admittedly, the manga probably peaked for me at the Kamino Ward battle. While I've enjoyed practically everything since, there is a part of me waiting to be THAT immersed again, a difficult feat for any story to accomplish.

When all's said and done, I love Boku no Hero Academia. It's everything good about Shonen with most of its cancerous bits cut or minimized at the very least. Some of these scores could fluctuate as they story moves forward, but unless things really go off the rails, I don't see any of them changing too wildly. For the time being, I feel secure giving Boku no Hero Academia a 10 out of 10. This series single handedly got me back into the medium. If any of you have gotten even one iota of what I've gotten out of Horikoshi's masterpiece, then that is a truly special thing. Happy reading, everybody.

My Hero Academia has pretty much unanimously been touted as the new age shounen. With massive series like Naruto and Bleach ending BnH stepped up to the spot and has enjoyed an explosive wave of popularity. BnH does a great job of being a very approachable shounen manga with mass appeal. The fact that it has a superhero theme also helps since it has blasted into mainstream western pop culture as of late thanks to 3 well produced anime seasons.

But while this is a competent shounen story with tropes that we’ve all come to love, there seems to be a lot of problems with ... it regarding to its storytelling and characterization. It quickly became clear that BnH was content being a safe, by the books shounen story when it could be so much more, especially when you have 30+ years of material to learn from, from Dragon Ball to One Piece to Naruto and truly create something new and unique. Instead it follows a fairly clear cut structure that doesn’t want to be more than it could and should be. It’s a letdown especially now after seeing what new age shounen actually can be in Dr Stone and The Promised Neverland with unique premises and creative ways to carry out encounters.

Story 5/10

The narrative for the most part follows a very monotonous and boring structure, one training arc followed by a villain arc.

The plot points are also generic, encounters and battles for the most part in the story boils down to who is stronger and our protagonist Deku has been blessed with bar none the strongest quirk in the world. It makes for uninteresting fights because his quirk is as generic as they come, super strength. Super strength does not bring about unique or fancy encounters, it just comes down to who can punch harder which gets old real fast. In fact, most powers are basic with no unique mechanics to make it stand out. I’m not asking for it to be a Jojo, but One Piece is a great example of how unique powers can be introduced without it being extremely complex.

This new age shounen in many ways feels so dated and basic. Battles carry out in the most predictable of ways and there are no unique abilities introduced as yet much less any mechanics that can change the tide of the fight.

What’s weird is that the mangaka can try to make weird quirks if he wants and he did but when compared to the God tiered Deku, Bakugo and Todoroki it’s hard to believe that they’ll amount to anything. And I was right, in the Overhaul arc they don’t.

There also are essentially no signs of world building at all. It feels like everything happens in the high school and nothing really is affected beyond the students/ school staff making for no stakes at all. There really is no sense of geography or immersion within the world. We're essentially reading a hero vs villains story in a bunch of isolated places with no consequences. Characters are introduced and killed off or made irrelevant all within the same arc making for a lot of self-contained stories that do not having any bearing on the overarching narrative. The overarching narrative too isn’t intriguing since the main villain is weak.

Yes, most if not all villains are weak compared to the high school students. So there really is no point in fearing whatever trouble they seem to be in since the God tiered Deku, Todoroki and Bakugo can essentially end the villain's group if they want. I have never felt any sense of dread or danger in this story. The mangaka did try to add stakes in the most basic of ways, by killing off a character that he introduced in the same arc. I didn’t care one bit for his death by the way.

What also bothers me is the lack of comedy or bad attempts at comedy. There’re no solid gags at all which is kind of sad.

Art 7/10

I have no problems with the art style of the manga, there are very cool character designs and they are varied enough for me to differentiate one from the other. There are some shoddy panels here and there but that's fine with me.

What I do feel a let down by are the villain designs, they aren't anything great or captivating. I've never once been captured by a villain only from their design and that's upsetting. Overhaul's design was average at best and All for One's design was nothing unique.

Character 4/10

BnH suffers from the same things that most past shounen did which is funny since there’s been 30+ years of material to learn from. And even then, One Piece solved that problem effectively with others following suit and creating their own ways to counter that problem. This is the “power tiers making others worthless” problem. Quirks are made in such a way that one person is vastly stronger than the other, which isn’t a problem in itself. The problem comes when these students want to all become frontline heroes when a large chunk of them are clearly support who have no place in combat.

There really is no actual relevant battle beyond Deku’s battle, he’s by far the strongest. I don’t need to be shown battles from lower tiered people since they will always be less interesting and will have no bearing on the narrative. Not to mention I simply do not feel any attachment towards them, their flashbacks, motivations and personalities all feel like they are taken from preset molds that lack any creativity. It doesn’t feel original or new.

It also becomes boring when everybody wants to be the “best hero ever” especially when clearly Deku, Bakugo and Todoroki will always ever be in the run for that title, so any conviction for that sort of title from any other character is basically mute and doesn’t make me want to be interested in them. Power creep hurts and if it happens this early it’s going to be a big problem in the future.

Not to mention the obvious main villain of the series is also weak, but more importantly he is not charismatic or menacing, so I really don’t yearn for the encounter. I’m not hyped for them to fight the same way I was hyped for Goku vs Frieza, Naruto vs Sasuke, Whitebeard vs Admirals, Luffy vs Doflamingo. There’s yet to be a villain like that. There’s yet to be characters that hype me up at the mere mention of them and I really like that aspect of other shounen series. It’s still early days but the series has introduced so many bland villains already. Stain was that guy at one point but he’s really low tiered in terms of power, hence he isn't menacing.

In my opinion, the characters are some of the weaker elements of the series.
Overall, I understand why BnH is so popular, it’s the least complicated shounen out there. There’s no intricate world building, no elaborate lore, no complicated power mechanics and more importantly no long drawn buildup arcs that many other “old age shounen” have. It’s super accessible and has well-paced “hype” moments, empty as they may be.

The thing is that when making a shounen like this, which is clearly meant to be accessible and simple to follow, it lacks soul or buildup or anything close to me feeling any emotional beat it clearly wants me to feel at moments. Having characters that have been made a million times before, having villains that lack charisma and are weak, having fights that boil down to who punches harder, it just all amounts to a story that doesn’t really excite me in any way.

And fine, I could still get over the story for being basic and unoriginal, but it needs captivating characters. Not ones that feel like they’ve come from a factory made shounen based mold. It needs a world that feels alive and is its own entity, not a mere backdrop for battles. The world here feels entirely based around the superheroes and superhero culture which isn’t interesting at all.

Again, you’ve got worlds like One Piece and HunterxHunter to learn from. Characters who have with their own paths and goals, they are not connected necessarily to the main narrative. The world goes on regardless, Marines do their work chasing bad guys, political meetings happen between the most influential in the world, different factions have their own aims, you’ve got one preparing to wage war on the world in one corner and in another corner there’s people trying to overthrow a dictator touted as the strongest. You need worlds like these to make me feel invested in this hero villains’ story, why is it a world worth saving?

It’s still early days for this series, it’s only 200 chapters in. The thing is I don’t think it’ll run as long as One Piece and if that’s really the case BnH has to pick up its slack and shake up the formula somehow.