This review contains extremely minor spoilers, as well as Chapter One spoilers.
Disclaimer: I rate manga here based on how well I think they compare to other manga, not just based on enjoyment- so a manga that I find to be average but still a decent read will be around a 50, 60s and 70s are a bit above average, etc. Don't let the score make you think I consider this a bad manga- it's pretty darn good, and it's the manga that got me into reading manga.
My Hero Academia is a simple shonen with a simple premise. In a world where superpowers called Quirks are present in most of the population, Izuku Midoriya dreams of being a hero. Constantly obsessed with heroes like his idol, the #1 hero All Might, Midoriya's dreams are crushed when he finds out that he's Quirkless. Continuing to try and get into the top school for would-be heroes, UA High, Midoriya catches the attention of All Might, who tells Midoriya that Midoriya can inherit his Quirk and become a hero. MHA follows Midoriya and his fellow heroes-in-training on their paths to become heroes.
Love it or hate it, that simple shonen premise has grown into one of the most defining manga of the last decade. It blew up in the West, sells well in Japan, and looks like it'll end at around 40 volumes, selling millions of copies of each. Still, why is MHA such a big deal? What makes it good?
Well, in short, MHA just does a really good job with that simple shonen premise. When it comes to battle shonen, normally there's a few things that make it good- a developing protagonist, interesting characters, good villains, an interesting power system, well done fights, and an overarching story. MHA delivers on all of those pretty well.
First off, the protagonist. Midoriya is a pretty standard shonen protagonist- extremely emotional, strong sense of morals, no father. At the start of the series, the first one is obvious, and Midoriya is borderline annoying at first. Lots of tears, lots of overexcitement. However, throughout the series he continues to develop, and becomes a well done character. He also develops as a hero, and the decision to initially make him Quirkless and force him to play catch-up with all the other heroes in training who've been experimenting with their powers for years works really well. A lot of the moments where Midoriya develops as a character go hand in hand with some new application of his Quirk, which makes it really satisfying to see his growth. Is he a perfectly done character? No, but he's an endearing underdog and over time he's become a very good one.
As for the rest of the cast, well, there's a ton of variance. As you'd expect from a shonen with a large cast, there's some side characters that get a lot of time spent on their development and some that are notable but don't really get spotlighted. The characters have great dynamics, particularly the heroes-to-be, and feel like they're supporting each other in a way not unlike a sports team, which leads to a lot of likable characters. Overall, I do think the series does a good job with making sure most of the primary cast gets their time in the sun, as well as a few of the professional heroes, and it does a decent job bringing characters in and out of the story in a natural way. There's a character or two that're just not well handled (Mineta is a notable one for his personality, but several of the pro heroes and characters like Hagakure or Sato get pretty much ignored), but considering MHA juggles like 60-70 characters in a some way or another, that's expected.
The villains are, in my opinion, what really makes MHA shine. For the most part, they don't have grand goals, most aren't out to rule the world or commit mass genocide or anything crazy like that. In many cases, they're written as just people trying to live life their way and deal with their personal issues, even if that means they're killers and criminals. Are they good guys, no, but they aren't, for the most part, "evil". Spinner and Twice are good examples of that, and Twice in particular is an extremely compelling character. Overall, the villains are characters that you can somewhat sympathize with, and that they get highlighted is always awesome.
As far as the power system and fights go, MHA takes advantage of its superpower system to have some really interesting abilities. Sure, there's super strength, or speed, or creating electricity and whatnot, but there's also creative abilities like tape dispenser Spider-man and the ability to change elasticity. The characters' personalities also often reflect their power, which is nice and keeps the powers themselves from feeling out of place. As far as fights go, they're pretty solid and the pacing feels good. There's some that have truly creative applications of powers, and even when they don't, they're almost always satisfying and entertaining.
Lastly, the overarching story. MHA's overarching story is driven by a great parallel between Midoriya's development and that of the villains, and it works extremely well. To its credit, the series is unafraid to go off on tangents with the side characters, fine with
As far as art goes, MHA has really good art for a weekly. It's extremely clean, with enough detail to make it interesting, and the series has extremely striking panels when they're appropriate, with the occasional facial expression or close-up that gives the moment extreme impact. Particularly later on in the story, it feels like the art shifts a little bit to match the tone, and when the story is less hopeful the art takes on the same quality. It's pretty damn impressive.
EDIT: Thoughts on ending... final arc has its flaws (splitting the fights up and splicing them into each other was just weird to read), but I liked the ultimate ending. Will update review at some point.
Overall, MHA is definitely deserving of its success. It's not perfect or particularly inventive by any means, but it's taken all of the tropes and hallmarks of a basic battle shonen and used them extremely well. With great villains, a fairly well-handled cast, engrossing fights and high quality art, it's well worth the read.
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