Where to even start…
Well I’d like to debut by saying that this review will be covering both seasons of the show. Although it has been confirmed that the series is to continue for yet another instalment, I seriously doubt it’ll change much of what will be said within this opinion piece. In a nutshell: Boku No Hero Academia just doesn’t cut it, for me at least, and I would like to explain my reasoning, so here goes: The reason why this series falls short is because it’s a shounen.
-*Wait Vishi! Is that the only reason why you don’t like the show?!?*-
Ok, ok…let me rephrase that…It’s a shounen eh!?!?
-*FacePalm*-
I say this because the shounen genre, in general, has this tendency to create an ever-expanding world setting that, in all honesty, requires a god-awful amount of time to anchor itself into place. Hero Academia, falls right into that molding but, regrettably lacks the time to flourish into something marvelous. Quite frankly, I don’t believe this show will garner the support needed to elongate its existence within the realm of anime. Put differently, I’m betting this show’ll sink after S3: and this will effectively prevent it from gaining momentum in its story telling.
Furthermore, the content being shown throughout is underwhelming, worsening its “raison d’être” and adding to my initial presentiments. Exceptions can be made, however, for the show’s first few episodes. More exactly, I’m talking (err typing) here about episodes one through four: they’re amazing! Basically, I fell in love with the start, grew tired of the rest. From the beginning, the series exposes us to an MC, hereby named Young Midoriya, who has this unrivaled admiration for all heroes: yup! The show’s about a boy living in a society that has professionalized the hero trade. Citizens, those whom have been chosen, are granted, from birth or during infancy, super-natural powers or “Quirks”; and most eventually find interest in using those abilities for heroic deeds by educating themselves into becoming “certified heroes”. Our MC is one such hopeful except, he lacks any sort of Quirk.
From this premise alone, we get to appreciate the unsurmountable challenges that Young Midoriya has had to face. It’s David versus 50 goliaths’ as our protagonist fights with two opposing forces within his very own being: The realist in him constantly urges the boy to give up on these foolish dreams of becoming a hero, while the dreamer inside simply can’t settle for anything else. This conflicting nature is addictive! I saw myself in him, I could relate: So, I was pulled in! Above all heroes he so vehemently fawned over, young Midoriya was most enamored with All Might: The number one hero in the world! So, although constantly reminded by what he lacked, our wannabe hero found solace in everything His idol embodied: serving as a symbol he could rally behind. At this point I’m just crying, because I saw this boy’s drive to become a better person, and lauded his eagerness to find his own definition of “what being a hero” truly meant.
Sounds good, right? Well it ends there. Seriously everything else is all just a big blur. Though I don’t have it in me to demean the continuance of the show post-Episode 4. I also don’t have anything to say about it that might encourage someone to start on this, if not for the beginning. The humor is monotonous. The atmosphere is always so quirky. Most villains (the antagonists if you will) are lame, both in character and quirk (although the last episode introduced some nice additions to the “bad guy(s)” category; alas they remain a mystery as the show didn't bother fleshing them out). The plot made us question so much, as curiosity requires, but does very little in answering anything as it progresses. I don’t know, I started losing faith mid-way through. The most annoying thing was when I started realizing that the MC was getting upstaged by a supporting character: Todoroki I’m looking at you honey - if you’re gonna try and steal little Mido’s shine you can just leave and make your own anime series. What a prick that guy. Okay… Take a breather Vishi, inhale and ex…hell maybe I did have it in me to demean Boku No. I’m sorry. Had to let it out.
Lastly, I didn’t appreciate how Hero Academia tried emulating Naruto’s chunin exam, and Dragon Ball’s martial arts tourney. The appropriation of ideas from other series is fine, but this was sloppy: the outcome being totally different from what those series tried depicting in their respective arcs, you got the feeling that the writers were trying to be clever with it, but failed miserably. I highlighted two examples, but sloppiness is a recurring theme here, taking away from my enjoyment of the overall work that is Boku No Hero Academia.
