Spoilers ahead:
Protecting people in the face of adversity; even in the means of sacrificing yourself, using unique strength only found in the hearts of some people for good, being brave and standing up for the people you love… this is what it means to be a hero. A hero isn’t something you strive to be, nor is it something to be viewed as a career. To be qualified as a hero in the first place, is to be selfless. By devoting all your life trying to become a hero by wearing a cape and a superhero outfit made by plastic is, in and of itself, a selfish and childish dream. By dreaming so only results in a messiah complex.
To be running around and jumping from building to building wearing goofy clothes only defeats the purpose of being a hero. Only people who are looking for attention do this; narcissism at its best.
Having a girl wear a suit that reveals most of her cleavage, and a skirt so short to the point where it should be called a belt, only makes me wonder why she didn’t become a prostitutional entertainer instead. And also having a character wearing a cape whilst stepping on the bad guy they just beat up whilst laughing like a maniac and shouting, “Don’t worry, your savior’s here.” only makes me wonder why he didn’t become an exhibitionist.
Every character in My Hero Academia only have a single goal in mind: to become a hero that everyone looks up to. That’s really it. There’s no other character in the series that has a different ambition — even if they do have a bit of a different ambition, it’s still completely connected to being an admirable hero. Being a show about heroes, it’s okay for everyone wishing to become a hero. But if that’s the only primary goal in their mind, then that’s just a writing excuse — all of these characters have a goal, thus, all of these characters are three-dimensional — or so the author thinks. The characters are like a group of Flamingos who have chain reactions. If you can’t handle writing a very large cast of characters — especially by trying to flesh out all of them — then don’t try to do it in the first place.
Characters are indeed hard to write. It’s definitely okay to have a large cast of characters, but do so at your own risk. The writer, in this case, tried to give some personality to other side characters. But what resulted in was underdevelopment of main characters — not to mention failing at even making the side characters decent.
Deku is the underdog of the world. He’s also shy and not so good socializing with girls; in other word, he is us. This isn’t supposed to be an ecchi-harem show, Kohei Horikoshi.
Trying to make us experience everything through Deku’s body only admits that he’s flat as a character. Normally, we’re supposed to put ourselves in the protagonist’s shoes, but to actually become the protagonist is lazy writing. This is just an excuse trying to make the character “relatable”. A character can still be flat even if they have an ambition, backstory, and development. Because execution is what matters.
Deku’s ambition and backstory are quite simple. He wants to be a hero like All Might, but he doesn’t have a quirk, unlike most people. He then gains powers from All Might by eating a single piece of his hair. This is all fine and all, but what about his development? He pretty much stays the same and has the same mentality throughout the whole two seasons. Being stronger and being able to control your powers better isn’t character development. What Kohei Horikoshi tries to do is make Deku break his bones over and over again just for the sake of looking “cool”. And then he breaks more bones in the second season, which tricks you into thinking that he developed as a character. But he has the same ideology and personality intact; only being able to control his powers, or rather All Might’s powers better.
I doubt the possibility that Deku will ever improve as a character throughout the whole show; he’ll stay the same; crying, speaking, thinking, and acting the same exact way he did at the start. The reason is simple: there is no room for improvement. Deku is, at first, actually what he should have developed into, not start with it. Only if he develops into an evil character — developing an ideology about heroes the opposite of the one he had before — can he be able to improve, or develop as a character. But the spoiler which Deku gave us at the beginning, and also looking at the genre of this show, there’s zero percent possibility. Having better powers, or controlling a power better, or creating your own proper power is often confused with character development. But it’s not.
Deku is known as a rare protagonist because he’s smart and analytical. But he’s stereotypically so. Putting your hand on your chin and thinking aloud while having words flying out of your head isn’t identified as being smart; it’s just an attempt at being one. It’s very easy to make other characters point at him calling him “smart”, when in reality, he’s only slightly above average. He actually reminds me of Sakamoto from Sakamoto desu ga — due to the fact that every character looks up to him, for the exception of some characters who hate him and want to surpass him, but end up giving up and acknowledging the main character’s superiority. But let’s not forget that Sakamoto was loved due to him being cool, meanwhile, Deku is liked for no justified reason whatsoever. Sure, he is strong. But don’t forget that he was a loser who was being bullied at first and viewed negatively by almost everyone. So there’s no way people’s view on him would change in such a short span of time just because he got stronger.
What about the girl he saved once which automatically made them very close friends — Uraraka? She’s very poorly written. She reminds me of Tenten from Naruto when she kissed Neji’s ass in the Chunin exam. Her main purpose is to be cute and support the main character. She shouldn’t be one of the main characters of the show, especially considering how weak her character arc was. Her backstory is basically having bad family circumstances, so she wants to become a “hero” for financial gain. She has about two or three personality traits. And that’s it. I can’t help but think that this show would’ve been fine without having her even appear in the show. There’s nothing to add on to her character because I feel like she’s even more underdeveloped than other side characters.
Avenger stories are, at best, fine. Iida’s whole drama about avenging his brother was executed poorly, and was extended way longer than it should have. The best way to realize if a character is three-dimensional and has depth, is to have the character pursue a certain motivation, but doesn’t see the need in explaining his or her actions to other people. Iida’s long monologue explained all of his motivations to Stain; his enemy. This is the best example of how you should be showing instead of telling. If a story tries to flesh out their characters by having them tell their ideology, instead of showing their ideology through their actions just shows the lack of the author’s writing ability to do so. Iida’s motivation is in and of itself fine, just done very poorly.
Another example of a fine character with a fine backstory, yet terrible execution — Todoroki’s whole character development is eventually decided by mister psychiatrist, Deku. Todoroki is a decent character, but was very inconsistent throughout the whole show. His personality changed through dialogue — meaning that he’s Todoroki in one scene, but a totally different person in another. His ideology, personality and perspective change in a very short amount of time, making him inconsistent. He started as a very promising character, but is slowly evolving into another one of Boku no Hero’s ordinary characters.
If you can remove a particular character from a story and can still have the story function as well as it did before means that the character should either not be there entirely, or write them differently so that he/she has a purpose in the story. If the author of Boku no Hero did this, then he would be left with a total of four-five characters that can actually function as an independent character. For a show praised by the way it handles its characters very well, it’s actually very subpar when it comes to characters.
The author wrote a character for the sole reason of being hated — Minoru Mineta, the pervert. Why? Was this used so that we hate a character so much that other characters feel like decent people compared to him? There is no doubt that the author wrote this character this way intentionally. Was he expecting people to like him? I doubt it, hence why I think my reasoning is correct. If the author himself doesn’t care about his own characters then why should we?
The characters in Boku no Hero remind me of IDubbbz; dressing in a very weird costume, and dancing around here and there, shouting, “I wannabe gay!” — If this analogy isn’t true, then I don’t know what is.
If the writer is eagerly trying to make me like the characters by using very cheap techniques, then I might as well admit the absurd fact that my, and also many other people’s emotions are being toyed by. I don’t see any positivity from this show — if the character’s are merely “simple”, then why use tricks such as melodramatic character arcs to further our bond with the characters? Doesn’t this contradict the simplicity of the characters?
The characters’ existence is for a sole reason: comedy. Whenever a comedic scene comes by — which is very frequent — I’m reminded of Black Clover because of the amount of screeching thrown at the screen. Characters are eventually used as a remark-factory in this case, as in remarks are the only things side characters ever say. Not only does this make for very cheesy comedy, but it also confuses my emotions. This show is ultimately a comedy, so when a serious and “emotional” moment comes up, I laugh, wondering why the characters are all of a sudden taking everything seriously. I’ve laughed more at sad and emotional scenes than I did in the actual comedy scenes.
When Deku finds out that he doesn’t have a quirk and goes home and plays the video about All Might on his computer, I was smiling, because that’s what this show wants me to do, right? I mean, look at Deku’s crying face. He’s crying with a hysterical smile. I automatically take this as the show trying to tell me not to take this seriously. If the show wanted me to take it seriously, then why have him smile instead of frown? I know a lot of people try to hide their actual emotions by smiling, but kids are straightforward with their emotions.
Uraraka’s character arc wasn’t supposed to be emotional at all, yet they somehow tried to make it emotional. Same with Momo losing her confidence. As I came upon this particular episode, I tried to watch the previous episode thinking that there was something I missed. But there was nothing. I was very confused as to why she’s even acting like that. It was apparently because she lost her battle in the tournament, but they went way over the top with her drama. The show can’t draw a clear line between comedy and drama. E.g. Showing a character’s breasts in the middle of a “horrifying” battle, Mineta gripping another character’s breasts while another character is on the verge of death, etc… And so when I come upon these overdramatic scenes, I no longer care what happens to the characters, since you can’t take something seriously when it doesn’t even care to take itself seriously to begin with.
People like to point fingers at other shows like Anohana and Kiznaiver and call them overdramatic. Yet Boku no Hero has as much, if not twice as much overdramatic events — a shounen having more drama than some other slice of life-drama show is very weird. What part of Boku no Hero is overdramatic, exactly? All of it, probably. As I said before, this anime is a comedy; a pure one in that matter. So when the show throws in these overdramatic emotional moments, I laugh off — not considering the possibility that the characters are on the verge of dying.
Since we’re talking about death, let’s talk about plot armour. I’ve heard many times from many people comparing Boku no Hero with Naruto, calling it superior. Even though Naruto had immense amount of plot armour with its main characters, Boku no Hero goes beyond the limit as to give every single character in the series plot armour. Plot armour is okay as long as it has the right amount of it.
Naruto is tragic, and had a lot of characters die. Meanwhile, Boku no Hero is a very carefree and a childish series. The kids were beating up the villians in ease. It’s like they’re so experienced in their first try. None of them even had any major injuries. If Naruto was Boku no Hero Academia, then Naruto would’ve become Hokage in episode four.
I would’ve fallen in love with Boku no Hero Academia had I been an eight year old, because that’s what children want: a fun series about heroes saving the day, which has no development or tragedy; something you watch on Saturday mornings.
I’ve got nothing against simplistic shows. In fact, I love a lot of shows which are very simplistic, and in some cases, generic. But that’s not how I view Boku no Hero; rather than finding it simplistic, I thought of it as bland and subpar.
Boku no Hero Academia isn’t generic. It’s actually subpar. This show is praised for having simple characters. But that’s my down point, because they aren’t even simple; they are so much simpler than simple. They are flat cardboard characters that are very hard to connect to. To begin with, one of the most important point of a story is to connect with the characters. Sure, there are shows and stories I’ve enjoyed and loved without liking the characters, but the possibility of that happening could be because of the superb storytelling. Does Boku no Hero Academia have that? No. The story is, at best, average. The world building is underexplored (Using my knowledge upon completing the first two seasons).
At the very least, I remember the names of about four or five characters from the series. As for other characters, I don’t even remember them in general, let alone their names. As I said before, the characters are dealt with simultaneously; like a chain reaction. Making all of them have the same personality traits and reactions to particular events. They speak, eat, fight, and react in the exact same way. E.g. when everyone in the class talks simultaneously.
The characters don’t each stand on their own because they aren’t even a fully fleshed out character to begin with. Characters are indeed the weakest part of the series — but the ideology is not only poor, but horrible.
Back to heroism, I don’t like the way heroes are viewed and treated in Boku no Hero Academia. Some of the most memorable heroes of anime aren’t characters that wear capes and acknowledge their heroicness, they’re rather the complete opposite. Okabe from Steins;Gate is, in my opinion, the most memorable hero of all anime. He went through more than a thousand wordlines, experiencing so much adversity, pain, and death just to save his friends. This is what it truly means to be a hero. (Not shounen, but still profits my point) Never did Okabe say, “This is a story of how I became the greatest hero of all time.” Admitting your own heroicness, no matter how good of a hero you are, defeats your title as a hero.
I can also say the name of a lot of characters from other series that can absurdly be considered better heroes than the characters of Boku no Hero ever were.
Put any hero in Boku no Hero in a situation where they have to choose between two options — those options being: Would you rather save humanity from a disaster that could potentially kill billions of people, but be considered evil by everyone, or save a single person, but be considered the greatest hero of all time; being admired all over the world, forever — most, if not all characters would definitely choose the second option. Basically, it’s Boku no Pride Academia, not Boku no Hero.
Now ideology aside, the underlying issue of this series is that, I don’t see this anime going anywhere. I don’t see any meaning for its existence. At the beginning, Deku says, “This is a story of how I became the greatest hero.” I, and many other people, know that the main character is going to be the best; prevailing over any other character in the series. But we still have a feeling of uncertainty at times. Deku confessing the future on screen, in the very beginning frame of the first episode, just removes the whole point of this show. At the very least, I wanted to experience the journey that Deku went through without knowing what’s to come in the future. There’s no point in watching this series anymore because I’ve basically watched the whole show now. And the problems of Deku’s character, as I talked about before, removes the potential of me caring for his journey.
I despise this show in all of its being. There’s a barricade wall between me and the characters; distancing us from each other and preventing any further connection other than merely knowing two bland personality traits of each character. Additionally, the thought of having my emotions toyed with by cheap tricks makes me feel disgust, combined with the fact that the second season was two-cour even though there wasn’t any strong necessity; not to mention how the dullness of the show made it feel like a sixty-four episode series.
The only thing preventing me from rating it a one out of ten is the superb visuals by Studio Bones. I respect this show as a piece of art, but no more fabric of the show do I admire.
I’m open to any criticism I’d get upon closing this review off saying this is one of my least favorite show of all time.
