Look, I won’t pretend that the plot is the best thing in the world or anything. But the way it is executed in this anime makes all the difference. And how the hospital raid arc ended was probably a huge shock to anime onlies. I absolutely love this new grittier style the anime went with for the 2nd half.
About the characters, We separate out a bit from our usual Class A characters in My Hero Academia Season 6. Only the essential characters from Class A get the spotlight. In this season, the spotlight mainly goes to Dabi, Shigaraki, All for One, Endeavor, Todoroki, and Deku. Between the first and second halves, Deku’s character development skyrockets. Hawks too is such a standout this season. Then, of course, we have the whole Todoroki family backstory bomb. The character writing in this season was definitely better than in the previous seasons. Even side characters that appear for only a few episodes, like Lady Nagant, get some excellent character writing.
The current situation in MHA has brought attention to the moral grayness of hero society, which has quietly lurked in the series for ages. That grayness has finally become front-and-center, impossible to ignore. Nowhere is that complicated reality more apparent than in the previously unsulliable protagonist, Izuku Midoriya. The tone of My Hero Academia and Deku himself has completely transformed. Someone who hasn’t checked in since the early seasons might find the series and its central character unrecognizable.
The second part of the season which is my favorite has focused on the fallout from the huge battle in the first part. Not only were heroes unable to mitigate the destruction and loss of life, but mega-antagonist All For One orchestrated a mass jailbreak on the same day. Villains are now on the loose all across Japan, plunging the country into a state of violence, lawlessness, and chaos. Worse still, there is simply not enough manpower to address the direness of the situation. and that’s before a ton of heroes began resigning, simply because they’re human beings who can only take so much pressure. Neither the show nor the other pro heroes judge those who have resigned. Understandably, public sentiment toward heroes is at an all-time low. Many citizens are even trying to take protection into their own hands with vigilante justice. In doing so, they often just make a bad situation worse with their lack of expertise and add more collateral damage.
And in the middle of all of this, there’s our boy Izuku. As the current holder of One For All, Deku is the person All For One is after. And he’s currently reading like a mirror to how dark the world of MHA has become. In order to try to protect people, Izuku left UA and is working with All Might and an elite squadron of heroes. However, the pressure of believing he’s the cause of the current dire situation is exacerbated by All For One’s sardonic willingness to kill whoever is getting to Izuku. What happens when you place a ton of pressure on yourself, and then start blaming and judging yourself harshly? Yup—depression, withdrawal, isolation, twisting of your inner monologue. Deku’s “I’m fine” attitude has taken a grim turn. He doesn’t care about taking care of himself. He has started to distance himself from all his allies, even All Might. As long as he gets to All For One, he doesn’t care how people see him. He even now sees his friends in opposition to his goals.
To sum up, the anime has taken a huge step in almost every aspect from animation and plot and character development.
