It has a terrible pace, predictable plot twists, an obnoxious protagonist and an even more insufferable rival. But it has its moments, good action scenes and interesting villains.
If you haven't seen the first season of this show, you can go on, because it's barely a prologue to this 25 episode second season, that is divided in three main arcs, one more predictable than the others: a fighting tournament, a fight with a ninja with superpowers and an exam (which is actually another tournament).
To start, MHA is about Izuku Midoriya, a guy that has no superpowers in a world where 80% of the population has one. One day, the greatest superhero of all, All Might, gives him his own powers and so he can fulfill his dream of becoming a hero. But he has first to graduate from the Yuuei, the most important superhero academy of the country.
Starting with the fact that a "Superhero academy" is a stupid idea, the point with MHA is that is pointless. The series would be about overcoming your own weaknesses in order to become better, but the protagonist, who has no powers (and this could be used in a "I'll become the strongest powerless human" scenario) obtains powers because they are given to him. He goes from being the weakest to be one of the strongest character with no actual fatigue (and no, a montage of him cleaning a beach won't convince me of having worked hard to achieve the best superpower in the world). It's like Naruto, who is actually from the start one of the strongest character in the manga/anime, but is hold back from, basically, being an idiot. Why I should care about such characters? And don't make me start talking about Bakugo, a character that is both a parody of the "angry warrior" (Wolverine, Gatsu) archetype and the apex of the edgy teenager.
Luckily, the author(s) of MHA created some fairly good villain, with Shibaraki and Stain, who seem to come from an horror film and who have some motivation. But what I liked the most is the commentary on the "coolness" of being a bad guy, on the fact that people feel fascinated from this characters just because they are on the dark side and have a motivation for what they do. It is interesting: finally someone tells you "ok, the Joker may be cool and all, but you must remember that he's some f**king mass murderer".
I also really liked the arcs of the secondary characters, especially Shoto Todoroki, who has a great backstory with which many could relate to. Even Iida's storyline makes more sense than everything related to All Might, Midoriya and Bakugo. I could argue that one of the main problems of MHA is having chosen the wrong protagonist.
The action scenes are cool and the animation very good, much better than the first season. The sound design is very good too, but I find the soundtrack not that great, despite the famous "You say run" track.
My hero academia is undoubtedly funny to watch because of all the fights and the spectacle, but is very shallow and falsely inspirational, with a supporting cast immensely more interesting than its main cast. Its success is to me a mistery. Maybe the "hero mania" of the first 2010s due to the success of the Marvel movies? Maybe. But what does this series adds to the already existing 80 years (at the time of the release, about 75 years) of superhero comic books? Nothing new.
