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.
