Reviews

Unfortunately, My Hero Academia season 5 is a bit of a downgrade from previous seasons. The animation has taken a noticeable hit. Scenes that could have been far more beautiful look much more stilted and generic. Even my mother, who is not heavily into anime noticed the stark difference. I really hope this is due to COVID affecting the animation schedule and nothing more. Despite this, the animation is not bad by any stretch, just not living up to the standards of the previous seasons.

Further disappointment hits when you realize the season is largely just set-up for future events. The main heroes spend the first half of the season training and improving their abilities slightly and we see more of Midoria and Bakogo's friendship, but very little in the way of plot or inter-character relationship progression. I was actually surprised in the finale that it was, in fact, the finale. Nothing really happens in it and it feels more like a summary of things that have happened this season than any kind of climatic throw-down we've come to expect.

The major saving grace of this season, and the main reason this does not get an even lower score is due to the last half of the season. The Character development for many of the villain characters we've been following is very strong this season. While the development shall remain unspoiled here, it's not quite good enough to keep Boku no Hero Academia season 5 in the 8 range I would normally give it.

In conclusion, season 5 has a noticeable decrease in quality in animation and feels much more like set up for season 6 than a season in its own right. Hopefully the setup will pay off in spades whenever the show returns in full form.