My Hero Academia’s manga has just ended this month, causing bittersweet feelings within the fandom, and its seventh season is also wrapping up this month, leaving just one more season until the series is (supposedly) done for good. Before that, though, the fan-favorite superhero anime will get another movie,My Hero Academia: You’re Next,this October. Needless to say,it’s a pretty big time for the series, and with so much going on, it’s worth looking at howMy Hero Academiais changing the superhero game. After all, we’re in the heyday of superheroes, with Marvel films and series coming out multiple times a year, shows likeThe Boystaking a swing at the status quo of the hero, and anime likeTiger & Bunnybeing revived after over a decade with new seasons. You have to keep things fresh.
For the uninitiated,My Hero Academiais about a world where,instead of superpowered individuals being outcasts and an oppressed minority, about 80% of the world population has superpowers, called “Quirks.”These come in all shapes and sizes, from super-strength and gigantification to smaller and seemingly less useful quirks like being able to levitate only small objects. Because people with powers are in charge, there’s enormous pressure for kids to develop Quirks. We follow Izuku Midoriya, a kid who spent most of his childhood being bullied for his lack of a Quirk, but that doesn’t stop him from enrolling in U.A. High School, the best superhero academy for future heroes.
Though the story starts as a simple one about a kid with a dream being given the chance of a lifetime by All Might, a hero he’s looked up to his entire life, it quickly reveals that there’s more than meets the eye. The society these kids are training to protect is one that is full of misfortune and corruption that breeds the League of Villains, who are hoping to wipe out the heroes for good. But know thatMy Hero Academialoves to operate in the grey areas.Don’t think all the villains are cartoon evils or all the heroes perfect examples of good.
My Hero Academia
A superhero-admiring boy enrolls in a prestigious hero academy and learns what it really means to be a hero, after the strongest superhero grants him his own powers.
‘My Hero Academia’s Heroes Have To Face the Consequences
But not having perfect heroes is okay in the universe ofMy Hero Academia. One of the things the show does right isgetting its characters into actual trouble when they use their Quirks outside of U.A. High School.Unlike the kids at Hogwarts, who are placed in mortal danger every semester and no one cares, or Charles Xavier’s pupils, who join the school’s special task force, Izuku and his friends are almost expelled when they use their Quirks outside of class and without a hero license, as shown in the arc where Izuku’s friend,Tenya Iida, tries to fight hero slayer Stain alone. He does this in a fit of rage upon finding out that Stain had nearly killed his brother, Tensei, and he realizes pretty quickly that he’s under-prepared and overpowered when Stain manages to paralyze him. He doesn’t get the win easily just because he’s the good guy; he’s forced to face the fact that he used his powers for the wrong reasons.
Another example is when the school was on the verge of closing because of multiple attacks on the faculty and the student body. The school had to open the student dormitories to better protect the kids, meaning they had to be separated from their families in order to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. This show features an increasingly big cast of superpowered characters thatfeel like individual people and not just extras, in a way not seen in any other superhero show.Avengers:Infinity Warhad a massive number of cameos, andDC’s Legends of Tomorrowgives the audience a superhero team of rotating characters, but U.A. High School is the closest to the feeling of family found in the pages ofX-Mencomics. And unlike Marvel’s attempt at consequences,Captain America: Civil War,My Hero Academiaactually explores the reasoning behind why its characters do what they do, and give reasonable consequences. Well, they do at leastmost of the time.
Because of the huge number of heroes, the rate of crimes committed by villains with Quirks is quite low. Despite this,My Hero Academiashows that the system isn’t perfect, and the show’s villains serve as a reflection of this imperfection. Every person has to register their Quirk as soon as it manifests, so every hero’s identity is public knowledge and tracked by the government. You cannot use your Quirk in public, not even at work, unless you have a government-issued hero license. Interestingly enough, there was no civil war over this, and no friendships dissolved only to be reconnected via a giant purple titan. By starting in a future where heroes are already public record,the show smartly moved past skipping the tired question of vigilantism and heroes who are above the law— which is every single show and movie about superheroes — and instead questions how the use of Quirks needs to be regulated.
There is even an implication of how the heavy regulations forbidding young people from using their Quirks made an impact on the number of villains, as they don’t get to let out their frustration or use something that, to them, is like an extra limb while growing up. This succeeds in making Izuku a more compelling protagonist as well, as we get to see the opposite with him. Izuku didn’t grow up with a flashy Quirk, and experienced firsthand what having a “special” Quirk could do to someone, as Katsuki — who was his best friend until his Quirk manifested — became a total monster to him after being told that his Quirk was amazing. Even when hereceived a Quirk himself, Izuku didn’t know how to control it at all, and we get to see howhe builds himself up and breaks himself down to become the hero he wants to be.
‘My Hero Academia’ Isn’t Just About Heroism Being Great
Though the show still focuses on the school side of things, the last few seasons have explored the question of what it means to be a hero who’s sanctioned by the government. In the world ofMy Hero Academia,the status of being a hero has been reduced to just another salaried job.We are pretty much living in a world where Syndrome fromThe Incredibleswon and everyone’s super. Because of the overabundance of heroes and the government regulations, becoming a pro hero is now just a matter of studying hard, being lucky, and getting popular. As Izuku gets closer to graduating and potentially becoming a paid pro hero, he has come face-to-face with his own clashing ideals and the consequences of rushing into danger to do the right thing while breaking hero-regulations. This is especially true in later seasons, when the lines become more and more blurred as war with the villains becomes heated.
‘My Hero Academia’s Villains Are a Reflection of Heroism’s Failure
In Season 2, it is revealed that Hero Killer: Stain was once an aspiring hero who turned into villainy after being disillusioned by heroes who went pro seeking fame and fortune. He kills pro heroes to“take the word ‘hero’ back”andreturn to the old idea of self-sacrificing heroes who don’t seek compensation, which in turn inspires villains to come out of the shadows and join the League of Villains. Though his methods were obviously wrong, the show (via Izuku) has started to question whether Stain has a point in his disdain of heroes.
Likewise,My Hero Academiahas shown how living with superpowered people in your household affects young kids. In Season 3, we meet Kota, a young misanthropic kid who believes his parents abandoned him by choosing to work as pro heroes and dying on the job instead of taking care of him. He thinks villains battling heroes is just a popularity contest via death matches and blames society for allowing people to use their Quirks for violence.This can also be seen in Shoto’s backstory and his relationship with Endeavor.Endeavor is a character that can beconsidered by many to be villainous, given his abuse of his family and the fact that it led to the creation of Dabi, and he stands as an example of many of the things that are wrong with the world ofMy Hero. He is a pro hero who is horrible to his family behind closed doors. He was so obsessed with the idea of being number one that he engaged in the practice of eugenics to create a child that could help him achieve that goal. And in his pursuit, he deeply hurt all of his children. However, the seriesstill tries to give him a bit of redemption; that’s where the grey area comes in.
The backstory for one of the show’s main villains, Tomura, blames his villainous origin on his suffering in an incident as a kid where no hero came to save him. People who passed by never offered to help as they assumed that a hero would take care of it. It is easy to see how living in a world full of heroes made the citizens of future Japan overly dependent on them. Because heroes are government-sanctioned and the first line of defense,the police force serves simply to arrest the criminals that have been subdued by the pro heroes.
Withconstant comments of superhero fatigue, and superhero movies focusing on big stakes and world-ending events,it is refreshing to go back to stories about people with ideals and the longing to become a hero, and how they face a world that doesn’t treat heroism the same way they do. While the world ofMy Hero Academiais as imperfect as our real one, having a protagonist who still believes everything can be solved with kindness and a smile can get you to fall in love with superheroes again.
