This review might be edited or even changed completely depending on how the rest of the season plays out.
I usually dislike preliminary reviews, yet here I am, writing one myself. Why? I will explain that in a moment. But first, let's talk about what makes a superhero story good, and by extention, what makes a shounen good. If you said "story", you're wrong. Main characters? Wrong again. All these parts can be secondary, but one thing just must be good. And it's the villains. The protaganists are boring by nature: they're either good and want to play by the rules, good, but don't want to play by the rules, or, if the show's wrinting is a bit better than average, some of them are morally gray. And that's it. If a character is described as being a hero, he must follow these 3 categories. Villians, however, come in different forms and shapes. While the counterparts of the 2 hero archetypes are certenaly popular, there are much much more variations to them. But all that talk about villians is not even the main point. They can be interesting, or they can be shallow, but one thing they can never be.
WEAK. And that is what MHA villians are. Frankly, they're pathetic. Never once a threat to begin with, and now they're even weaker, to the point where the show itself refrains from even showing them in favor of the main cast just, you know, living their lives. The villians don't even look that bad design-wise, and from what we've seen they could've been interesting characters, or not. But I doubt they'll ever be scary. As of now, any single one of them can get their ass whooped by a high-schooler, essentially making them a laughing stock. The only ones who could pose any sort of threat (and not even big threat mind you) are currently out of comission. It feels at times as if the mangaka has written himself to a corner, where the main cast is already overpowered at the start of the story. The media always teaches us to root for the underdog, so I'm rooting for the bad guys.
And that's already the bad outlook for the show. Sure, the Batman villians have more fans than the hero himself, but for a diffirent reason: charisma. Here, I'm rooting for the villians because they're weak and because the protagonists are arrogant. This brings us to the next section
STORY AND CHARACTERS
I've combined these two into one, because there's not much to talk about in terms of the story, and I don't mind. This being a shounen and all, my expectations were low and they're pretty much met. So the world is now a superhero society with 80% of the populus having some sort of a superpower, or as they call it a "Quirk". The MC didn't have one, but now he has it and with that newfound power he aims to be the best hero ever. And to reach that goal he... just enrolled in a hero academy. That's all there is to this story and as I said before, I didn't expect anything more. The characters are much more important.
The characters might all be just repackaged archetypes from the previous shounen series for all I care, as long as they've been done properly. And like many things in MHA, this here is a hit or miss.
Deku -- the MC of the story and as it often is its most boring character. He wanted to be a hero really bad, but in this kind of society it's kind of no big deal. So even his most prominent motivation feels unimportant. His biggest character trait is his constant fanboyism over the greatest hero, All-Might. And everyone loves that one, so once again, even in the setting presented, Deku doesn't stand out. He's also said to be smart, but that's thrown out of the window as soon as the writer desires. But maybe other characters are better?
Bakugo -- he's my least favorite character here, or anywhere, probably. He's always angry, always an asshole to anyone and always shouting for no reason. It feels like they've cut him from AoT and pasted right here for no reason. And no, before you ask, his personality is NOT a foil or a facade, becuase we've seen his entire backstory in flashbacks. He was always a douchebag with no redeeming qualities. Why is this a problem, you ask? Well even if his story arc is him becoming a better person (which at that point it better be), he can only become an average character. Not good, not even decent. His very ceiling as a character is average.
Oh, and he embodies another problem I see with the show, questionable messages. Bakugo is an asshole bully, who everyone calls a Deku's friend, even though AT NO POINT in the story, the two acted like anyone but enemies. No teacher thought to himself "hey, this guy bullies one of the students, maybe we shouldn't put them in the same class at least?". No, they all laugh it off. And honestly, can you see anyone like him making any friends? I could, even the writers would show it to me. But nope, we're just told that him and the other character are now "friends". And that's not even the end of it. Instead of stopping trying to reason with this obviously abusive guy, Deku makes extra sure to try again and again, while also hurting Bakugo's fragile self esteem. Deku knows the consiquences, yet he does it anyway. It's stupid, no sane person would do that, and honestly, it smells of Stockholm Syndrome to me. So what's the message here? Having this syndrome is a good thing? But I digress, since there's a lot of characters to cover. Too many, in fact.
All Might -- the strongest, most overpowered hero, also known as a symbol of peace. That's the only section including SPOILERS FOR THE 3RD SEASON UP TO EP 15 so you've been warned. I always thought he was gonna get killed off for dramatic effect and to rise the stakes, and to affect Deku's character growth. It was an obvious, but effective choice. Exept, they never do that. Even with everyone learning about his true form, he still beat the big bad, and he's still alive to babysit the MC. And with that the only possible dramatic tension is now gone.
END OF SPOILERS
Todoroki -- the best character. Even the MC said it himself, he should've been the protagonist. Even if he's still kinda generic, he's got a decent backstory, and also character flaws. The latter is a rare sight in this show, so he can't help but stand out. That's all fine and good, but he embodies yet another questionable message of the show. Well, not he himself, but his father instead. It's revealed in the season 2, that his father is a domestic abuser, yet the show never calls it out. Todoroki hates him, of course, but the rest of the show never does anything with it, Endeavor is the same "hero" as everyone else. I can't tell if it's intentional or not yet, so I won't comment on it any further.
Iida -- an upstanding class rep of the class 1-a. He's got a decent enough motivation in season 2, but I won't spend my time talking about him, since he just isn't interesting enough to me. The same can be said to the rest of the cast, so here's a quickfire review of some of them:
Uroraka -- a generic love interest with a usless quirk. Had something going for her at the start of the season one, but now does absolutely nothing.
Tokoyami -- even though he has a problem controlling his power, no actual flaws in his character can be found
Asui -- the frog girl. Once again, flawless as a character.
Mineta -- being a total degenerate and a creep is okay, as long as you're on a winning side. My second least favorite character.
Yaoyorozu -- has confidence problems that are never given much attention. Still a decent character.
Shigaraki Tomura -- does nothing
Kurogiri -- also uselss with a weakness obvious even to school kids.
Dobi -- looks the coolest out of the entire cast, but does nothing.
Everyone else -- I don't even remember them.
PRODUCTION
I don't really care about the animation, but in case you're wondering, it's Bones, you know the drill. The fights are flashy, the colors -- vibrant. Class room scenes look like shit though.
Music -- produced by Porno Grafitti, the openings are really good. I don't remember any other tracks from the show.
CONCLUSION
So why am I writing a preliminary review? I truly don't think anything about MHA will change. People seem to be enjoying it, so the writers never feel compelled to lift the status-quo. And they don't need to.
Overall, this is sadly turning out to be just another shounen, if not worse than the rest of the competition. MHA really needs to make its villians more of a threat, or at least make some new ones, if it can't even manage that much. So far the stakes are non-existent and the anime feels more like a superhero-themed Slice Of Life than anything else.
