Before I begin, I would like to preface that I HAVE NOT SEEN THE ANIME!! nor am I necessarily familiar with Horikoshi's past works. This review isn't a rip on Horikoshi as a person or writer, but merely on the creation itself. I hope nothing but the best for him and his future works.

Introduction/beginning thoughts:

As late as I am to the MHA party, I think the fandom put me off it for a very, very long time. Some of the fans of this series are either way too attached and parasocial or just flat-out braindead (Twitter is the life and death of MHA ). While this isn't a fault of the series, nor am I saying every fan is exactly like this, it's something worth noting because I think it is the main reason so many people either hate or put off reading/watching.

Overall Idea and World Building:

The world-building and concept of quirks are a very interesting idea, and I quite liked the concept of fighting the morality of having quirks and what it means to be a hero (both the good and the bad), and I think a lot more of the superhero genre should look into formulating that into their own series. It ties a lot of real-world issues into its message, and that's something I respect greatly. The timeline is my biggest issue with the world-building; too many things happen in too short of a time. (You're telling me both war arcs lasted a few days and some change, yet we spend THAT much time on it?). I also think that the message of "trying to do your best with the world rooting against you" gets shoved in your face WAY too much, especially at the end.

Characters:

This is a lot of people's highlights and where most of the praise goes to; however, I will be devil's advocate and play on both sides. I will start off with Deku. The issue with his development is that his flaws as a person are completely negated and turned into something positive. For example, finishing the war arc by trying to do everything himself, completely ignoring his friends and allies, yet not resulting in any sort of punishment, or when he was told multiple times (BY LITERALLY FUCKING EVERYONE) to stop trying to act like All Might, yet he completely ignored this and was unaffected because being All Might is portrayed as a good thing. There is no reason for him to learn any sort of lesson because, at the end of the day, it all works out. Over the course of the story (other than learning about strength, which would be kind of a no-brainer for a superhero story ), he only really learns how to be confident.

Shigaraki was also lost potential, I feel. It was a very interesting idea of a villain who goes from literal manlet to genuine threat to the cast, and I thought the backstory was good for that character, but by the end of the war arc, he simply turned into a walking power scale. He was supposed to be the yin to Deku's yang, but it felt like his intentions and ideas on society were subpar at best; he's only driven by his hatred and nihilism, which get VERY boring by the end. I would add AFO to that as well, but he does that shit for the love of the game.

All Might's character was probably my favorite, a man who pushed everything away to become the one pillar of society that everyone can look to. Having the idea that he himself must help people to have value as a person is probably the best character message in the series, that no matter how powerful you are, you're still a single individual.

There are a lot of interesting side characters that I think have a lot of potential (LADY NAGANT KNOWS SHE'S A BAD BITCH ). However, a lot of them just don't have the proper screen time they need to be as fleshed out and nuanced as Horikoshi wants them to be, which ends up doing the exact opposite effect and leaves me confused and frustrated because there are so many characters trying to be their own thing. I don't need to hear everyone's opinion on one subject, nor do I need to see 18 flashback chapters of a single character who I don't give a flying fuck about.

The Problem With Star and Stripe:

What the fuck was this? Genuinely, what was the point?. Besides her being the baddest bitch in the entire series (no, I will not change my mind on that ), the ENTIRE arc and character were a waste of time. Her ENTIRE existence was solely to nerf Shigaraki; her quirk was literally too strong for her to be alive longer than, like, 10 chapters, if that!!! I will say, her fight panels were incredible, and I love the way she's portrayed, but it felt like such a nothingburger plot device that had a subpar backstory and was later mentioned for literally no reason at the end.

Plot and Pacing:

My least favorite part of the whole series, I understand that it's a serialized shōnen and that Horikoshi was either rushed or sick most of the time while writing, but the constant loop of extremely boring and dragged-out buildup, with a somewhat hyped climax, only for it to go back to torture buildup again, really pissed me off the most. The filler in some of these arcs is a genuine headache, and paired with the constant bombardment of character development, it left me just flat-out annoyed. Do not get me wrong, the high highs in this manga are very good, and most, if not all, the fight scenes are genuinely amazing (and yes, some of the filler is important to the overall story ), but Jesus Christ, is it a slog to go through.

Art:

This is where I will get happy and praise Horikoshi to no end. The art in this manga is probably some of the best I've seen since starting my anime and manga consumption. The thick outlines with smaller details and the facial expressions are genuinely awe-inspiring. Never have I seen a cartoon/shōnen art style feel so...right. Some of the panels in this series are genuinely amazing, and I would spend hours looking at every detail. Especially later on down the line when more is happening and the tone shifts into the gritty and more surreal feeling, chefs kiss (Deku's vigilante suit is top 10 designs in my opinion). Horikoshi also definitely knows how to draw women. It's no wonder so many artists try and recreate/copy the MHA art style; it genuinely is incredible.

Conclusion:

My Hero does a lot right and A LOT wrong. It suffers from being extremely ambitious without room to grow. I think Shōnen Jump had a big factor in the faults of this manga, and I think some of Horikoshi's writing needs to be improved. However, there is still a lot to gain from My Hero, both artistically and conceptually. It's amazing, and sometimes it does a very good job at pulling that off. If you are into the superhero genre and are starting out with manga, anime, or Japanese media in general, give it a shot.

TLDR: ts aight, 7/10.