Boku no Hero Academia
My Hero Academia

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Boku no Hero Academia or My Hero Academy, is the new and upcoming successor of the big three shounen, but what makes it so good?

8/10 Plot: A young-boy named Izuku Midoriya, a quirk-less (Super Power) being in a world where quirks are the norm. While his dreams of becoming a hero seem distant due to his circumstances, he crosses paths with the number one hero, All Might. After a series of events, All Might deems him to be the worthy successor of his quirk, "One For All". The story follows Izuku through his entrance into U.A. High School, a school that cultivates the next generation ... of Heroes.

10/10 Art: Whether you like or dislike the story itself. Its undeniable that the artwork within it is nothing less than amazing. From casual scenes to action packed fill panels, the illustrations are always dynamic and vibrant. While occasionally being dark and gloomy, if the story calls for it. Overall the illustrator/author for the story makes each panel eye-candy for the readers as the detail for characters and scenes are so well thought out and done. The art also associates its style and feel with a more westernized look that relates to American comics. This allows it to pull in a much wider demographic.

9/10 Character: While the story follows Izuku Midoriya and All Might, the main characters for the story. It's easy to get invested and evaluated with a large variety of the cast members with in it whether they be heroes or villains. Each character feels as if they have substance and weight to the over all story. Which in the past, shounen manga's have had a rather difficult time doing aside from its very clear select few of MC's in their stories. Its even possible to find yourself rooting and looking forward to the growth of other characters rather than the main focus of manga, Izuku Midoriya. Aside from the actual characters themselves. The author makes it feel refreshing and unique given a cliche system idea of super powers being present in so many writings throughout the world we live in today. With each Quirk (super power) being unique and actually interesting aside from the characters they are attached to.

9/10 Enjoyment: From the first chapter to the current chapter, I always find myself looking for more and researching individual characters that are just from the supporting cast as well with the main cast. I get lost with time while reading and observing the panels due to the amazing artwork that makes action scenes feel tense and fluid for just being one solid frame. While myself, being a 19 year old male, I find myself in the shoes of my younger self getting excited and hyped by the classic idea of super heroes as well with overall manga. I have not felt this passionate or excited for a new shounen in a long time. As they all feel to fall short somewhere along the line.

9/10 Overall: With amazing characters and artwork. This rehashed story of a power-less main character on his journey to become the best or most powerful character (or reach an end-goal) does not seem like it will be an issue. As it makes readers forget that this trope has been done many times before and drags you back in. Although it is a fairly new shounen, its future definitely shines bright and shows a lot of promise.

Hello curious reader, hopefully you enjoyed reading this review! Whether or not you're still iffy about checking it out for yourself because the story will be a huge investment considering it is a shounen. I highly suggest you give it a shot! My review can only give you a glimpse of what it has to offer. Also if you find yourself uninterested in the manga, I would suggest giving the animated series a shot as well. Its well paced and conveys a lot of the manga well while skipping over minuscule details that are just extra for the readers and those more interested in the story. I say this because I was uninterested in the Naruto manga, but I highly enjoyed the animated series (aside from filler obviously). Thank you for taking the time to read this and have a nice day!

I would like to express my gratitude to Horikoshi for the 10 years of serialization of one of the most successful manga of all time. Despite some negative nicknames like "Mid Hero Academia," the series has redefined what it means to be a hero and has inspired many people to pursue their dreams. As a fan of the series, I'm overall satisfied with how it ended, but I do have some issues with the ending. Despite the ups and downs and controversies during its serialization, I appreciate how Horikoshi stayed true to the essence of the title. I think the ending could have been better, ... which has been an issue with the series from the start. However, I still respect Horikoshi's dedication to the series. Ultimately, the series leaves behind a legacy that is irreplaceable, much like the hero All Might.
Overall rating: 8.5/10

“This is the story of how I became the greatest hero.”

And so it comes to an end one of the greatest shounen ever. At least that's what I would like to say, but now, after it ended, I'm not so sure. It certainly was one of the most popular, to the point it became a cultural phenomenon that transcended manga and anime, like Dragon Ball and Naruto before it. But how good was it after all?

Horikoshi's work is the manga version of a western comic book. And yet it was unrestricted by canon, by the weight of a hundred years of previous stories and expectations: ... it was free to be whatever it wanted to be, to kill any character the story needed to die, to end whenever the author wanted. These are the shackles of mainstream comics: to be eternal and unchanging, to sell the same story over and over. And these shackles are absent here, giving this story potential.

That is, if Horikoshi actually committed to his ideas. From the get-go, the concept of the story changed from “Deku will become a hero despite being quirkless through his own efforts” to “Deku is given a handout by the greatest hero and inherits the most powerful quirk in the world, because there can't be quirkless heroes”. The story then proceeds to contradict itself at this point many times — quirkless heroes pop into the story in crucial moments, proving it *is* actually something possible. And Deku has no agency in his own story; his power-ups are not earned, but given.
Horikoshi then promoted popularity polls for his characters, and (in my opinion) he changed the very core of the story to accommodate these results. The most beloved characters were moved to the center of the plot, while the unpopular characters were sidelined. This is not how one is supposed to write a story. There is a quote by George R.R. Martin that is very fitting here: “Art is not a democracy. People don’t get to vote on how it ends.” And it's basically what happened here.
Another instance where the author doesn't commit is killing his characters. Numerous times, when some character is on the verge of death, Horikoshi regrets it and brings the character back for no reason, in detriment of the story, and in some cases to never be used again anyway. Refusing to kill your characters lowers the stakes considerably. The potential to be free of this classic comic book flaw is wasted if you refuse to kill them anyway.
At the end of the story, it is obvious to the reader that Horikoshi is burned out. His chapters become shorter and shorter, and it's clear he is beelining to the end. It is understandable, given it's his first long-running manga, and it's also a weekly one at that. But the ending is mild at best, and that's just unfortunate.

Some other observations and opinions:
• The story could've greatly benefited from a time skip.
• The author has a strange obsession with drawing fingers that creeps its way into the story and becomes more and more prevalent. This manga could just be called Fingers.
• None of the villains motivations really make any sense, except Dabi and Stain.
• Despite being a shounen with a ton of teenage characters, Horikoshi can explore the world and themes much more with the pro heroes and villains than he can with the students.
• Mineta must be one of the worst characters ever in shounen. He is a pervert, but that in itself is not a problem; the problem is being a pervert is his entire character. There is nothing more to him. And it doesn't stop there, he doesn't simply have a bad (or absent) personality, every single aspect of this character is lame: his power, design, costume, everything.
• All Might is the heart of this story and is present in almost all of its best moments. His absence is sorely missed. Curiously, All Might's design is one of the few instances where Horikoshi actually drew a line in the sand and refused to alter it, and look how that turned out. Imagine if he did that more.
• The art, like in most manga, improves over time, and becomes much more detailed.
• The character design ranges from great (All Might, Uraraka, Jiro) to very bad (Mineta, those meme anthropomorphic characters). The female characters usually have very good design, which is a shame because they are all wasted at the end of the day. They never really get a chance to shine, their characters are sidelined by the author and never get closure. Uraraka's arc and her relationship with Deku are abandoned and forgotten.
• Deku really gets the short end of the stick in the end. Even his quote about becoming the greatest hero ends up being misleading.

So, after this rant, you can only expect me to conclude “Yeah, it's terrible” at this point. But no, this is not a bad manga overall. It's a solid shounen, with classic tropes that work well. And, like a good comic book, it has good action, memorable heroic moments, and great one-liners. It's very popular for a reason. I only listed the reasons that, in my opinion, sadly kept it from being great. I rate it disappointing out of 10.

This is my first review so take it easy, but the reason I'm choosing this manga is because I happened to pick it up from the very first chapter's release because I was enjoying Horikoshi's previous works Sensei no Bulge and Oumagadoki Zoo (if you haven't read the latter, do it, there are some cameos in BnHA and its enjoyable). I will try not to be biased due to author/artist favoritism.

Story:7
This is a story all about how a wimpy nerd without a superpower("quirk") in a world chock-full of heroes and how he wants to become a great hero too. A simple and good premise for ... any Shounen, almost a reverse telling of a stand-alone X-men comic. The main character through a twist of fate meets his idol, the greatest hero, All Might, a flashy near invincible superhuman with immense speed, strength, and smiles. Our MC Midoriya seeks his guidance and looks to become not only a great hero, but the greatest hero like his idol All Might. Without spoiling anything, I can gladly say that the pacing of this manga is surprisingly fast, certain arcs can happen in 20 chapters or less without you feeling unsatisfied or finding yourself skipping pages of text just to get to the action all while still finding the time to flesh out the world.

Art:10
The backgrounds look great, the characters are so expressive and in design are interesting looking even at a glance without making characters look too complicated. No man draws hands like Horikoshi, it all shows in Iida how much he loves to use it for expressions. The best thing about the designs of these characters is that it helps with the story telling. You could honestly look at two panels of one character and know practically everything about the character's mannerisms other than their quirk unless that part is glaringly obvious. The characters in a world inhabited by mutants and superheroes have to look diverse and interesting but the important part of any manga is to not make characters look too complicated but still have them make an impact just by their body language and designs alone. The balance is there. Oumagadaki Zoo and Sensei no Bulge are pretty manga definitely but I would be lying if I said there weren't some over-complicated designs. The hero suits and villain outfits look ridiculous and cool. There is one character who has freaking grenade gauntlets. You get so used to them but when you look at them and their design with that guy's outfit it's like they were made for each other. There is another hero who's costume is badass and it's based off of a tape dispenser. A TAPE DISPENSER, it's ridiculous but in aesthetic and actual design it's completely cohesive.(no pun intended) Finally, and sure some of you may roll your eyes but I find this important. Horikoshi draws girls healthy looking, and they look great. I'm a big fan of One Piece and various anime that do draw women like they're straight out of an ecchi manga and it's just refreshing to see a manga where girls are drawn in this way, I wouldn't mind that trend continuing. Also, I wouldn't be doing any justice if I didn't talk about the Western Comic influence that is small but definitely there. Multiple names and special moves are exclusively written in large English lettering straight out of a Western comic book and All Might's face and costumes are very much so influenced by the golden and silver age of American comicbooks.

Characters:8
There's a lot of characters and you get to see them all pretty consistently. It mostly follows around a class of students and their interactions with one another are always enjoyable.
Let's talk tropes though. You've got your rival character, your class president character, your love interest, your pervert, and of course your main character who wants to be the very best like no one ever was, but they're all just so likable in combination with their designs, personalities, and special abilities that it makes it feel fresh even though it's got the designs of a typical shounen.
Much like how Dragonball Z characters are all named after vegetables, instruments, etc. Boku no Hero character names usually consist of Japanese puns that give away what kind of quirk they have and/or personality they have. If you like Japanese aptronyms, this series is for you. (You can probably guess what a character named Tetsutetsu's power)
As far as who becomes what in the end or who is just temporarily filling a role is hard to tell, I'll just have to keep reading, but as of this review things have been consistent since the first couple of chapters the current cast of characters has been introduced. Hopefully more unique and interesting things happen to them in the future.

Enjoyment:10
I just dig it. I can't stop reading it, I read it every Thursday, I watch the episodes that are coming out while this review was made and I look forward to it's future. Keep it going Deku, you absolute Madman.

Overall:9
It's dope. If you liked the anime, read the manga. If you like Western Comics, give the manga a try. If you are already reading the manga but not watching the anime, watch the anime dumb dumb it's being animated by freaking BONES.

*Slightly long Review*

As of chapter 425 (EDIT: Completed manga:)

*Sigh*..... This manga is disappointing. For context, I've been keeping up with MHA since the anime released in 2016. I was a fairly big fan of this for a while. I fell off at the Eri arc's end and binged the rest a few years later (around the double raid arc to just before the beginning of the final arc) and I digged it as I loved the Dark Deku arc. Until I didn't. This manga is far, FAR too safe. It cannot commit to its setting nor have consequences befitting its plot of literal child soldiers. ... This manga has no stakes, no tension, and an extremely bloated character list that prevents anyone from having any development or impact on the story besides a very small few. Not to mention the extreme convenience of quirks. Any character that gets hurt or killed could be brought to life or healed by some random bullshit quirk and it completely robs the manga and anime of ANY tension because you know that everything will be okay in the end. The anime also censors a lot and that's really cringe plus it's "animated" horribly for a yearly anime (it looks more like an long running anime like one piece, not the kind of animation you'd expect from a yearly anime like Demon Slayer).

Due to these reasons, I cannot recommend this manga/anime to anyone who's even slightly experienced with properly written anime/manga. This is perfect for beginners, and the tournament arc is the best tournament arc in Anime/manga history in my opinion, but the flaws of this manga are so deep that once you consume actual good writing, MHA falls apart and you start to notice all the bullshit in it.

The ending is also bad. Not only does the manga never resolve most of its character plot lines, but the ending is rushed. Which is par for the course of manga unfortunately. You are left feeling tremendously unsatisfied. Out of the many characters, only 6 or 7 had any sort of closure to their characters. Even then, it was also only one panel, two at the most. It's insanely disappointing and a clear example of why you shouldn't make such a large cast of characters if you can't write a large cast of characters. One Punch Man succeedes in having a large cast of heroes while still giving them all adequate screen time and development, because unlike MHA, the main character doesn't take up all the focus. This is partially due to how uninteresting Saitama is as a person, but it's still an perfect example of how to treat a large cast of characters. Actually spending bloody time on them. Horikoshi's obsession with the very weak character of Midoriya, the cliché hothead Bakugo, and the cliché quiet yet attractive Todoroki, otherwise known as the "Three musketeers", should've been the focus from the get go. Instead of starting to develop the rest of the cast, have these characters be intertwined and focus solely on them, the dynamic would've been amazing due to the conflicting personalities. But no, instead we got the horrendous cast of 10000 characters with extremely surface level or ZERO backstory with no depth. What a joke. This is why the spinoff is so much better, because it focuses on a small cast that gives time to develop each and every one of them.

3/10 personally. The art is some of manga's best and is the only positive thing this manga provides outside of two, actually great, arcs. However the ease of access to beginners to anime/manga, the epic art, the occasional hype moments and the impact this anime/manga has had on the world bumps my overall product rating to 5/10.


I DO however, recommend the spin-off "Vigilantes". THAT manga actually has phenomenal writing and stakes and tension, and is an incredible manga that does everything MHA is attempting to be, but magnitudes better. Vigilantes is in my top 20 favourite manga!!!

I'm NOT a contrarian, and if your opinion differs, be civil. Your opinion is as valid as mine. Don't rate this as "confusing" just because you disagree with my view, instead, criticise the actual writing of the review. That's what it's there for. Don't be a child.

I know how volatile and defensive the MHA fanbase is, heck, I used to be one of you! So instead of proving everyone right that this fanbase is one of the most toxic, instead, rate this review fairly. It's not confusing in the slightest, so rate it as it's written. And please just accept that people can have different opinions!!!

Thank you for reading my review, have a nice day/night!

Story:9
What does it mean to be a hero? If you are a Dc comics fan such as me, then you are probably going to say beings who sacrifice themselves in order to do good and vanquish all evil. But it's different in BnHA, as a hero is a profession. Something people look up to the same way you would a celebrity. in a world filled with supernatural beings and people with extreme talent, its really refreshing to see our hero obtains the most basic power and uses it in creative ways.
Art:9
The art work is one of the best in shounen jump. It is fantastically ... detailed(obviously not as detailed as berserk). The fight scenes are this mixture of energy, dynamic movements and utilizing one's quirks to their advantage.
Overall:9
The way it's going, in the future I can easily see this as being a 10/10. if you haven't read this and you display some level of interest in battle shounen you should definitely give it a go. it may seem generic at first, but it builds arc after arc and quickly turns into one of the finest pieces of entertainment i have witnessed.

This will be an in depth review so if you're looking for something to really read have fun with this. If you react to words like slugs to salt, please don't leave a frothing swan song about how many words there are before dying.

Soundtrack 5/7, perfect score

The music I listen to while reading is awesome.



Jokes aside…

Boku no Hero no Academia is going to be THE shonen manga to read along with One Piece (and not so much Fairy Tail). To those familiar with manga you'll understand that there is a stylistic flare that sets the mainstream shonen manga appart from others, and this is the ... oudou(king’s road). There’s several things that are seen as part of this oudou but it pretty much boils down to ‘hero heads out into some big world with some great power because he wants to change it’. The other thing that has always have to be true is that the main character must be a character that is fundamentally hopeful and good. To name some of these manga they’d be ‘One Piece’, ‘Dragon Ball’, ‘Naruto’, ‘Ruroni Kenshin’, ‘Bleach’, ‘HunterxHunter’...even ‘Bakuman’ might fit in here. As many of the great juggernauts of the shonen genre are either ending or becoming pretty bad or both(Bleach lol) I was actually wondering when Jump would come up with another BIG NAME to really get behind… or they’d just have to stand behind One Piece for the remaining ten years of its run.

That’s when Boku no Hero no Academia hit. I followed this manga since from about its ninth chapter and I kinda knew immediately that it might be huge, but with only a handful of chapters out I just had my fingers crossed and prayed that it would be good.

Art 10/10

The art was amazing right off the bat, with some visuals borrowed from American comics, and you can definitely see the influence on poses like the one deku makes in page 5 of chapter nine where his pose definitely seems a little familiar (*coughcough* spiderman *cough*) This is great because while Japanese manga depends a lot on background lines, explosion effects, and clever panelling to convey a sense of movement, American comics are very good at making pictures seem dynamic with only people in it. This was one of the few manga that really concentrated on visuals that were clean and dynamic with other front runners being One Punch Man(which is just kinda a comedy), and Shokugeki no Soma(dem sweet sweet doujin art foodgasms). The costume designs are also a treat with clothing that fits the personality and powers of each character immensely well, and some are just a treat to look at. Some are also little love letters to hero genres like Rikudou Satou seeming a little oddly like Kinnikuman, All Might being very obviously a lesser Superman, and just the simple abundance of leotards. Also grapes, cause grapes need a callout.
All this ends with a good artstyle where you can very obviously ‘feel’ the action intuitively, and the punches really have some weight behind them.

Story 9/10

The story is good, although there’s still not enough out there to really give it any arousing standing ovations yet… althought it deserves lots of clapping still. As a warning there will be very slight spoilers throughout this segment so if you don’t want any please skip to the next. The thing is the manga has just been slowly upping the tension without hardly ANY let since day 1… so we’ll have to see how it’ll all explode to really see if the mangaka can pull through or not.
The manga hits the spots it wants to effectively, but has yet to really hit the deep hits like *One Piece spoiler* when Ace and Whitebeard died, and it lacks the straightforward ‘-dattebayo’ speeches that the pre-timeskip naruto did well.
The story executes shonen tropes beautifully; the entrance exam, the strengthening of the main character, the introduction of the baddies, all these are done well. This isn’t to say the story is complacent as it keeps you on your feet, and it doesn’t let the plot get bogged down; burning through arcs at a breakneck pace. Each arc is only about 10 chapters long, and each one only leads to greater power, greater stakes, greater something. If one thing gets resolved two things take its place. My hands are tied as I can’t really spoil much here, but I’m really wondering how everything is going to be resolved for the first overarching arc… or even when this overarching arc will finish.( Anyone who wants to talk about it PM me?)


Characters 9/10

The first chapter alone is better for characterization than what a ton of manga have been able to pull off in their entire run, and does a very good job of making Deku relatable. What I really like is how the mangaka thought through the motivations of several characters, and made them real people. This is no small feat considering the sheer quantity of characters the mangaka is juggling. I think that this is acutally the first shonen manga that really does this well. If there is a gripe I have with it it’s that Todoroki’s background was taken care of a little too fast… but I’m thinking that there might be reasons as to why this was rushed.
The thing I really like is Bakugou… while he seemed to have triggered some bad memories of having been bullied in middle school for many dear readers leading to lots of initial hate they missed the point ENTIRELY. Bakugou is a rival character that’s hardly ever been seen. I’d say that the only ones that come close is Green in a lot of pokemon fan stuff (Read any translation of Festival of Champions if you can find) and maybe Vegeta, and perhaps pre-emo Sasuke.
Every character has a voice and personality, and you can see through the small omake pages that the writer really likes a lot of them. There’s lots of love there.


Enjoyment 10/10

What’s there to say? It’s a very fun manga that has messages but isn’t bogged down too much by what it has to say. The pacing’s fast, but good, and the resolutions are sometimes thrilling. The manga is easy on the eyes, and the plot is not convoluted or overtly contrived. The characters are easy to understand and like, and it even has some comedy.

Overall 10/10

If you like mainstream shonen you’ll love this one.

The manga is very average and predictable.Even after 100+ chapters it doesn't show any improvement story wise causing me to drop it.I wont say I hate this manga but I wont say I like it.The class characters are too many (16) causing some characters shine brighter than others.(Also the girls seem to have same body syndrome,only their height is different).The heroes and villians don't seems to have any reason for doing what they are doing(except for shoto I supose)

I would recommend reading the manga rather that the anime if you are tired of the slow paste the anime have.

Between this and Black Clover ... I would definitely choose Boku no Hero Acedemia.

Although I don't care for Boku no Hero Acedemia I can't say I don't appreciate the mangaka's and his assistants' work.

So picture this: You're Japan's greatest hero, your power is fading fast because of the terrible injuries you sustained while fighting your archnemesis while you were at full power. You know he's going to return and you need somebody to pass your powers on to so that they can stop him. Do you choose:

A) One of the top 3 best students in the best hero training school in the country with 17 years of practice handling a high difficulty ability that makes him nearly invincible, the attitude and drive of a professional and a recommendation and combat training from your trusted sidekick who can see ... the future
OR
B) A kid who threw his bag at a villain, ran into danger with no plan whatsoever that you met that day but he said he wanted to be a hero and cried about it despite not even putting in the effort to be physically fit.

If you answered B you have what it takes to be the number 1 hero in Japan according to this manga.

In case you were still unsure from that one example the characters in this are as flat as the paper they're drawn on and act in ways that are beyond my mere mortal understanding.

We have our main character Midoriya "Deku" Izuku a boy who was born without a quirk like around 10% of the total population in the HeroAca world. Instead of choosing to get a normal job he decided that because of a YouTube video he watched when he was like 5 he wanted to be a hero, not just any hero mind you considering all kinds of heroes exist in this world but a hero like All Might, the punchiest , liftiest hero in all of Japan. He plans to accomplish this through a strict regimen of doodling in notebooks while whispering to himself and crying until one of the strongest abilities in the story falls into his lap along with a free mentor character. The story also wants you to believe that Izuku is a very smart boy but it took him until much later in the story to realize that kicking was a thing. He moves the story along by doing nothing at all until the next arc finds him.
The rest of the cast are just as bad going from the background fodder who have like 1 character trait (read literally every U.A student that isn't a main character) to Endeavor the man who mentally scarred every single member of his family but it's cool now because he had an awesome fight scene.
The best character is Shigaraki Tomura the villain that is being built up as Deku's nemesis since he is the only person in the story who learns and develops as it goes on and has a clear motivation.

The setting of HeroAca is as baffling as its cast. Imagine if everyone in the world suddenly got superpowers, for good or bad society as we currently know it is done. Yet in this world the only difference is that there is a new job called "hero". That's it. No different infrastructure to accommodate the different kinds of people that have evolved, no tension from people with bird heads riding the bus with you, everybody is fine with needing a license to use their quirks except for the most extreme villains or unorganized street thugs.
The majority of the story takes place in U.A the hero school the main characters attend yet somehow we've only managed to see 3 senior students. Where the hell is Class 2A? Nobody knows.

The art is great and Horikoshi is a master of character design. The fight scenes are well drawn and if the characters had as much personality as their designs promised this manga would have been excellent.

The story is bland shonen fare and anybody that tells you " but it does shonen better" is wrong. If you like shonen you'll like this ( at least for a while till the inconsistencies and lack of depth get you). There are no surprises, no plot twists worth mentioning. The students go to school and do school stuff, villains do their thing, they fight, students win. Rinse and repeat with differing scale and a different person defeating the villain each arc and congratulations you have the story so far. I can't wait for the arc where the heroes lose, everyone acts sad for a bit and then they come back and win.

Overall it's a mediocre manga with great art, terrible characters with excellent designs and a world with as much depth as that generic fantasy world that every bad Isekai is set in.

Total letdown from volume 25 to finish, the appalling ending just left a bad taste in my mouth and I DO NOT recommend anyone to even give this manga a chance. The art style is good but it isn't making anyone taking screenshots or spending 5 minutes to admire the details because its mostly fluff, relationships between characters barely make it past the point that 5 year olds establish between each other, characters get introduced just to emphasize how "strong" someone else is then is thrown aside, the moral values being taught are really surface level and doesn't take much away from it just being ... a heroes vs villain cliche.
Finally, the ending is rushed, characters act of out character, panels rush through getting everyone their own panels to leave their impression on you and it has too many plot devices and not a lot of sense.

2/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND

Honestly, I don't know why this manga is so popular. 296 chapters in, and I still don't see any semblance of a plot. We know there are heroes, and villains, who literally call themselves that. There are these super cool abilities called 'quirks' (some of them are not cool admittedly, but I suppose the concept is). However, beyond this, there's no worldbuilding at all. The storyline is badly plotted, with tons of repetitive story arcs where Deku gets to play hero and save the day.

The characters are lame. Deku is your classic Shounen protagonist and nothing more than that. The other characters are forgettable ... at best- the only one with any potential was Todoroki but even his character was ruined halfway through the series. Even the villain, All for one, is cliche. I have mixed feelings about Shigaraki. Dabi's backstory was the most predictable backstory in the history of predictable backstories, but I suppose the guy shows a twinge of promise.

If there's one thing I actually like about this manga, it's the art. It has explosive action, which, though predictable, is certainly fun. That's two things I like, then.

Case 1: Naruto - I'll become the strongest Ninja ever *rasengan!*
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Case 2: Bleach - I'll become the strongest Soul Reaper ever *getsuga tenshou!*
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Case 3: One Piece - I'll become the strongest Pirate ever *gomu gomu no!*
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Case 4: My Hero Academia - I'll become the strongest Hero ever *detroit smash!*

It's the same old wine, now in a fancy new shining bottle. Standard main characters. Standard side-characters. Standard villains. Standard relationships. Standard power-ups. Standard plot. To justify this critique further, I encourage you to do a little thought experiment for me. Replace the Hero world with Ninjas, substitute Midoriya, Bakugo, All-Might ... and Akatsuki with Naruto, Sasuke, Jiraya and Villains respectively. Ta-daa! New manga series!

This isn't to say that the mere presence of these shounen tropes makes Boku no Hero Academia so mediocre. Far from it. If that was to be the case, then we wouldn't have so many versions of Shakespeare's Hamlet. What makes this series mediocre is that the author doesn't attempt to do anything new with his characters. It sticks to the power-ups and plot developments as if it was being written by an AI machine-learning robot. There is zero sense of anything exciting or new that would make a reader sit up and say "now, that's interesting!" The only place where the author did attempt to do so is with the character of Endeavor - a flawed superhero who seeks redemption. Sadly, given that this is a shounen-manga aimed at 12-18 year old boys - Endeavor is and will remain a side character not getting as much focus as I would have liked.

I understand the popularity of this manga amongst the current young readers who haven't either read or are still exploring older shounen canon like Naruto, Bleach, Shaman King, Hunter x Hunter, Rurouni Kenshin etc. However, as an older reader who has read and watched these series - I can safely attest that (as of chapter 275), there is absolutely nothing in My Hero Academia that is uniquely original or which hasn't been already been attempted in past shounen manga. The only positive aspect of this series as compared to older series is that it is well executed, highly polished and has an excellent marketing push from the Shueisha execs who are desperately trying to recreate the next money-spinner franchise given that the Naruto, Bleach and Gintama franchises are over.

This standard manga deserves a standard rating: 5/10.

Wow, this series is honestly a masterpiece shounen so far.
Right now, I'm up to date in this manga (Chapter 152).
Honestly, the characters are intrigueing, and so is the writing.
The author shows different social commentaries during the series, look up PendanticRomantic, he's a youtuber that clearly demonstrates these commentaries that the author is trying to show in his manga.

Don't get me started on the art though, it's weird mix of simplicity and detail is honestly fucking awesome. You can feel the energy and emotion in Horikoshi's drawings. Expressions EXTREMELY expressive. Where Horikoshi's drawings really shine are his color spreads and volume covers. They all look badass, ... with some awesome color use; which hypes the fuck out of the reader.

Characters as I said before are intrigueing, we have quite a major cast of characters here. All with extremely interesting designs, probably the most original I've ever seen. Characthers' backstories in My Hero Academia are phemonally written too, we get this feel of sympathy for characters who come off a douchbags at first but have a good reason to be one.

The enjoyment I had when reading this manga is the highest I can give; a 10. Sure, there were some moments when I was uninterested due to the release schedule of mangas, turning the viewer disinterested after a while (at least for me). But in a snap of a finger, you'll be hooked to it again, trust me.

Overall I give this series a 9 out of 10, a solid work of shonen art, and a definite must read, especially of people who love to read Shounen!
Just at least give this manga a try, even if I didn't persuade you to read it already.

Firstly, this manga made me lose any hype or motivation to watch any tv show/ movie that are very popular, thank you.
So, this is very bad, to me is a very generic story and world, characters are huge pieces of nothing(irritating at most), villains are bad because there bad (only exception was their deadpool and I cant even remember his name, but he was the only one with a cool origin story). After reading a lot of this manga I wonder, why was everyone so hyped and saying it was the best of all time, it became clear to me that people hype over nothing, ... because the only enjoyable things are the fights, yet the rest is nothing, a complete blank.
Overall, Im really glad that I read this manga, it made me see popular shows and shonen especically in another way, avoid them, and I didnt watch a LOT of stuff this year because of it, really, really thanks. Peace.

His body suddenly move on its own. He can't help it. When he sees the eyes of people in need, He will come and rescue you.

Midoriya has this qualities. As the story would progress, we will know the true qualities of a hero, as gallantly shown by the main character.

He has the character of a hero. the Values, the moral code but unfortunately, lacks the power to become one in a world where super abilities becomes so common that it be part, probably, in a birth certificate.

With so many super powers, he had no chance.

The manga would show us that the sacrifice and heart ... and mind is all that is needed to be a hero. Midoriya would be in tight spots, almost constantly, enough to make it predictable that when he declares or resolves himself to do this thing that he wanted, expect it that his going to fail, in some way, but the author would look for a detour to make it seem a success. 'cause you know, He is has this hero character but is weak, yet tend to win, somehow, someway.

In this adventure, after he be helped by the no1 super hero in this world, he intended to enroll to the no.1 super hero academy, thus the title. He meets a lot of kids there, many with great potential. Many with faults and problems in their own.

It's not all about saving characters, and persons physically, but also emotionally. The hero is nosey, and failing to dissapoint, Midoriya is as sharp as any dog can be, the nosiest, or one of.

Is there love in here, a speck of romance? I think not or perhaps I fail to notice or maybe it hasn't come, but may yet to.

The stretch and expressions of faces and body that is appropriate to the feel of the scene is a talent with the author. It enhanced the drama even more, if there is one. And if its one of those moments where the hero comes to the rescue, the relief is felt multiple times, but perhaps its just a feel of one backing up your friend since currently, they all have super powers, and little situation provides the scene for saving.

'Tis about Bad and Good. As of yet, I haven't recalled any gray areas, where there is a dillemma. To sacrifice this to save that, more or less. In reality, life isn't simple, and a lot in it has gray areas. It would add a complicated feeling in the manga if it were added. I don't know if it'd end up good for the manga, I guess it depends on how good the author is, and so far, he has talent in his subject.

It is fun. If you're looking for romance, ya ain't goi'n to find it here. If ya expect'n neked scenes, or smooch'n, ya be dissapointed. But if it be pure action, and hard work come to fruit'n, then ya be at the right place, me man or woman!

burp!

This series is definitely an up and coming star if not one already. Although it starts as a typical shounen, it very early establishes itself as something different although the same with the hero dynamic.

Story-9

The story does start out as very generic but after the first main arc it starts to take itself in a different direction by challenging the ideal of a hero. It questions what it means to be a hero and how in a society where being a hero is a profession, it has warped the "hero" from that of selflessness, pure heroism into something people do for the money, fame and ... glory. When the main villains are introduced and the story really begins to develop itself the story begins to really become something. In the latest chapters it really has gone from being really lighthearted in the beginning to becoming a bit darker and cynical (sorta like Hunter x Hunter) and the story telling just gets so much better and unique.

Art-10

Art is definitely one of its strong points as it puts a very nice cartoony dynamic on the characters which just helps to enforce the "hero" dynamic it has going. The art is nice, clean and easy to follow which helps when reading manga's with a lot of chapters. Overall the art really fits this manga perfectly.

Characters-10

The characters is definitely the strongest thing going for the manga now. They are all unique, both personality and design wise and makes you like or hate them for completely different reasons. Especially when it comes to your main character Izuku Midoriya. He is one of the most relatable characters and he is certainly a new type of shounen MC whereas instead of all the other shounen MC's iZUKU Izuku isn't a knucklehead who just rush into battle without thinking or constantly devoting himself to training. He spends his time taking notes on all the heroes he finds interesting and using his brain to formulate plans during battles to keep himself alive since his biggest handicap is actually his own power. He gets a lot of development in the story where he starts off as a weak, whiny kid who constantly gets bullied because of how it is more uncommon to NOT have a power than it is to have one. he then starts transforming into an admirable hero with strong ideals and a brain that helps him get through his struggles as he fights the villains.


Enjoyment- 10

This manga is very enjoyable, when i began reading this I found myself ploughing through chapters and only stopping because I was forced to wait a week for the next chapter.

Overall-9

The only reason I'm not giving this a 10 is because the story is still gaining pace but this will definitely be a 10 in the future. The story starts off mediocre and starts gaining steam and just keeps getting better and better.

So in conclusion, if you haven't read this manga yet, do yourself a favour and GO READ IT! You are missing out on probably one of the best manga's of the decade!

Boku no Hero Academia requires no introduction, and closer to the time of its meteoric rise, was oft toted as the "next big shonen". The question is, did it live up to those expectations?

The premise is simple: people are born with a superpower (named Quirk in this universe), and the MC doesn't have one, until a chance encounter with the world's current #1 strongest hero changes his fate.

Arcs in the early to middle portions of the manga are generally very strong, proving difficult to put down once you pick them up. There is a wide array of characters, and the various Quirks they possess gives ... them their own interesting personality and flair. A not-insignificant amount of care is also taken to explain the details and intricacies of each Quirk where necessary. Humor is a also a strong point for the first half or so, given the vast number of striking personalities in the story.

Around the final third of the manga, the tone shifts somewhat and attempts to become more serious. I say 'attempts' because the characters' actions and dialogue fail to live up to this shift. It's around this time that the writing takes a rather steep nosedive, and really starts to feel like the mangaka wasn't finding as much enjoyment in writing.

Fights begin to feel drawn out and convoluted, in a constant state of trying to one-up themselves; the artwork also seemed to occasionally become much more confusing and difficult to follow during action sequences.

Unfortunately, the manga never really recovers beyond this point, meandering haphazardly to its eventual demise; the ending is not spared from this decline, attempting to wrap things up with a time skip, which left me feeling a little unsatisfied with the outcome.

Now, to answer the question posed at the start of the review: ultimately, I would say Boku no Hero Academia did not live up to its lofty expectations; the highs are wonderful, but the lows are really quite dire. Nevertheless, its strong early half has likely cemented its legacy in the shonen world, but given its numerous shortcomings, I would struggle to heartily recommend it.

Plot: 6
Characters: 8
Art: 6.5
Enjoyment: 6.5

Never liked my hero academia, saw bits of it here and there, couple of episodes together, wasn't my thing didn't get all the hype around it, couple years later more and more share this sentiment I've had about the series and then some, now that the series is finally over after a decade I decided to spend the last month reading the series properly, see the discourse around it, and as a result, this post I create now isn't something I anticipated doing nor the nature of it, which can be seen as review but more so a essay and apologia about the series and ... maybe even a rant. There is no need to write what the series is about, plenty self explanatory from the title and unless you live under a rock in the anime/ manga community you should know the main premise, instead better to write about everything "wrong" with it.

If you're as terminally online as I am you have probably come across or at some point felt the sentiment, "meaningful words used meaninglessly will inevitably be stripped of it's meaning" aka "enough with the buzzwords", the most common used against MHA - generic, predictable, overrated. First overrated, from what I've briefly seen more people have called this overrated than actually rating it highly even people in the communities that like MHA nobody rates it that highly, so if more people are calling a series overrated than actually rating something is wrong here. Secondly, generic and predictable (both at the same time as both are basically on the same side of the same coin), people are tired of the seeing the same story over and over again is a common complaint raised but people tend to actually mean is that "MHA uses tropes I don't like and I want something else", cause when trying to figure out what is so generic and predictable about MHA it's either something so vague or vacuous, or being to similar to another certain series featuring a orange jumpsuit ninja or appealing to the mythological idea of a shounen formula, I say mythological not in the sense as profound and based as Greek and Norse myths but empty and foundationless to believe in. The fact of the manner is, that there is no shounen forumla, there are just have tropes that people like and tend to be more successful than others, artist have been borrowing/ stealing/ ripping off tropes from one another since the dawn of art, your favorite story is probably generic and predictable believe or not and given what the top rated manga and anime series on this website are it's hard to believe anyone actually cares about their series being generic or predictable, and that's really my biggest gripe with critiques made against My Hero Academia is the uneven standard that the series is held to.

I never liked My hero academia and to be honest still don't like, but reading through it this last month I was able to appreciate it a lot more which was helped by the amount of hate not criticism this story gets, and that's why I rated it as highly as I did, contrarian of me I know, but as "basic" as My Hero Academia maybe the criticism and hate towards it is definitely more basic. In conclusion of this review/rant/apologia I can't honestly recommend this series but if you are into a feel good superhero story with coming of age angst try out the first few chapters to see if you like it, if you don't then drop it and not hate read like many people do.

So there has been a lot of reviews about My hero academia, but there's not a lot of reviews specifically about the recent chapters (296- ongoing), so here it is.

I think everyone who's keeping up with the manga can agree that the story started to get better and better starting with the my vilain academia arc. From there, we've seen Horikoshi-sensei get better at characterization, paneling, fight choreography, artwork, worldbuilding and overall creating a rich story with layers. The my vilain academia arc was phenomenal, focusing on the vilains and developping them into well-written characters, I'd say Shigaraki, Toga and Twice being in the ... top 10 best characters of My hero academia. After, we got the Endeavor agency arc. For me, it was okay. We got to see the main trio develop more into pro heroes and more of the Todoroki family, but nothing else. The war arc was the biggest arc in the series, so I'm not gonna dwell on it, but it changed IMMENSLY the story and the overall atmosphere of the series. So, the review is about the aftermath of the war and the arc we are currently into at the moment: the vilain hunt arc.

Firstly, the aftermath of the war (chapter 296-306) is great, it shows properly the fall of hero society, the mistrust in heroes caused by Dabi in the climax of the war and how both affect society in general. We see hate, doubt and rage against heroes, cities in ruins, heroes retiring and an increase in crime caused by vilains and civilians. So the heroes who are left are the ones who don’t give up, the real heroes, like Mount Lady, Eraserhead, Mirko, Kamui Woods, Hawks, Endeavor and of course, Deku. This part of the story is split into two parts: the Todoroki family and Deku and the users of One for all. It sets up also tne inner conflict between Shigaraki and All for one. The chapters about the todoroki family are really good, but also shocking and disturbing, showing what a broken family the Todoroki really were with Toya and Endeavor at the center of the problem. The chapters about Deku and the users of One of all properly set up the future of the series with the reveal that Deku might be the last user of One for All, showed lore of the quirk One for all and showing Deku’s resolve, that he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to kill Shigaraki, but he still wants to save him. Then, finishing the arc with the amazing 2-page panel of Deku looking at the city saying he left UA high school. Those 11 chapters did a great job of setting the future of the series.

Secondly, the vilain hunt arc is amazing, it’s a great payoff to everything this series has built up from the last 6 years. We revisit some characters that we hadn’t seen in a long time like Muscular, Overhaul and Stain. One of the highlights is the introduction of a new character: Lady Nagant, with only 6 chapters of screentime, she has become one of the most interesting characters in the series, showing the real problems of hero society, more precisely, the public hero safety commission. It did a excellent job of worldbuilding. Next is the main reason why I wanted to do a review: Deku’s character development and progression. Deku has always been my favorite character from the start of the series and now we get to see his natural progression of his character, he always wanted to help people since he’s a kid, but now what happens when you put all the world’s negativity and pressure on an already stressed out, anxious, but helpful teenager? His mental state deteriorates drastically and he develops a severe case of quixotism; where he intends to stop All for one and Shigaraki without taking account his mental state and his body. And I think his new hero costume represents his wellbeing, as the story continues, his costume becomes more torn up and dirty to the point he looks like a horrifying vilain, it’s a really good metaphor. Btw, I've always loved Horikoshi's hero costume's designs, especially Deku's, that's one of his major strengths as an artist, but recently, he's been going all out with Deku's design and I absolutely love it, one of my favorite hero's design ever. Returning to what I've said before, I mean, in the latest chapter, Deku abandons All might and Endeavor to do everything himself, uses blackwhip to walk, because he’s so tired and even then he falls, has no energy and still intends to fight All for one and Shigaraki. Finally, we see Bakugo telling people on his phone that he found Deku. So in the next chapters, it would be really awesome to see Deku vs Bakugo 3 or even Deku vs Class 1A. Either way, Deku needs to stop. On another topic, I’m not mad that Deku didn’t have consequences for going all out in the war, because Horikoshi-sensei did give a good reason (he went from using 5% of his power to using 45%, so his body is stronger now) and anyway, we needed Deku in a good form to progress the story, but next time, I want consequences. Also, I just want to mention that Horikoshi-sensei took a child abuser (Endeavor), a heartless bully (Bakugo) and a man child (Shigaraki) and made them into some of the best characters in Shonen Jump. So for that, I congratulate him.

Finally, My hero academia is an incredible series and I can’t wait for what happens next.

As of typing this, I am currently on Chapter 288 in the War Arc

Horiksohi started this Manga as a fun idea that spiraled out of control due to the popularity, I can see why.

My Hero Academia is a series that takes ist time to develop, you can see this as a good or bad thing, in the end I believe its a great thing. If you dont look at the big picture and analyze in terms of stroywriting then you will miss out on a lot here. The story starts off rather basic with a strong premise regarding the world in which they live ... in. It starts off 2 dimensional and goes full on in depth. Characters have their own arcs dedicated to them that make you root for them unsuspectingly, as well as the execution of what happens is just amazing.

In terms of Art, nobody in the Shounen Jump Industry is better than Horikoshi, Yuske Marata is close but Horikoshis style is so unique and outstanding, his coloring is so different from normal Mangaka. I love it


Main character is Izuku Midoryia, a boy born in a world of powers without any of his own, this has been done before but the series gives this a twist. Instead of Izuku (Ill be calling him Deku from now on) being a determine, strong, and confident boy; he starts off as shy, quiet, and timid. People can easily fall into the "Deku is a crybaby" argument and drop the series because they dont want to understand the message here . The message here is that even if you are a weak, scrawny, and unconfident person, you can still be a hero which is shown in Episode 2 of the anime and chapter 2 of the manga. Dekus character is about development, just like the series itself, its not about Deku climbing the hero rankings as much as Deku improving as a character, to become a confident, and strong willed young man.


Look, I can talk about this series all day, people overhype it for the wrong reasons, its story is overlooked by many and the popularity can make people more prone to criticizing it harshly, MHA is one of the best Shounen anime to ever come out in Shounen Jump and I cant wait to see how this series ends because i consider it a true masterpiece