First, we get a setting where having superpowers is a normality. How come heroism still thrives in this kind of setting? Factors such as the existence of Quirkless people, powers being inferior to others, and the inevitable division between bad and evil are all reasons why. Yet, these reasons could have been used more properly to have a better story in terms of conflict and exploration. The existence of Quirkless people serves as a way for discrimination to thrive into the story, without having any pre-existing remedies to compensate for their absence of Quirks. Inferior powers are also a way for discrimination to be present in the story, but powers could be used in other aspects of life apart from fighting like industry and transportation. The division between bad and good hasn’t been properly explained by the story so far but the impression I get is that it’s biased on one side (Justice always wins). I’m hoping the second season will try to expand on this aspect.
Second, the story takes place in an academy for aspiring heroes. Does it really need to be necessary to enroll in an academy to be qualified a hero? Apart from the main cast being kids which means there must be a sort of school, there is no real reason. There is an organization of heroes in general but having an academy that is modelled after an ordinary school with stuff like English class feel pointless. Powers varies by person and you can’t simply measure their capability through a set of tests following a common guideline. Sure, you can polish things like preparedness, mentality, and utilization of powers but they mostly lie on the theoretical side. How will they train their powers if there is no such thing as an academy? Things such as self-training or discipleship work. Based from what I observed, the main drive for the cast is to have their powers recognized by the crowd and not the noble idea of helping others unconditionally like All Might does. The original meaning of heroism gets twisted. It can make an interesting deconstruction but it doesn’t look that way based on what we are shown thus far.
The story is fairly average as a shounen title but with the attention-grabbing superhero premise. The main cast are not really that interesting and lack the charm to be an interesting hero. They could use better characterization to look less generic and more character background to reinforce their standing and future development as a character in the story. Overall, it has an interesting premise but it’s not being fully utilized by the story. It has a strong start, but it starts to lose steam as it side-tracks into the less interesting parts of the story. The enjoyment is there, with a couple of frustrations along the way, but it could have used its episodes better. But hey, we still have another season and just maybe it might resolve some of the problems I have in the show. For now, it’s just fine as a mindless yet enjoyable and engaging superhero story but not really as amazing as I expected it to be.
