OH BOY. I could talk about this show for hours on end. While the first season was good don't get me wrong it was a little too campy sometimes and is a little weighed down from its excellent use of a lot of tropes. I understand that the idea of the story is taking all the best parts of most shounen anime and polish them till they shine the brightest the first season didn't do it for me the same way this season did. After watching the Todoroki/Deku fight I ended up binging the entire manga before next weeks episode came out. This was something I've never done with an anime. This story resonated incredibly hard when I watched that fight and is probably something I will always remember. The thing that resonated with me was that this story asked a question. One simple tiny question: What does being a hero mean to you?
This isn't something that one protagonist can tackle on their own as heroism means something different for every unique person and the show is using it's giant cast to provide story lines and personality tied answers to that question. It's this mixing pot of ideals and characters providing their answers to this question. Due to the nature of having a large cast of characters conflict is bound to happen either between the aspiring heroes of UA or when the League of Villains shows up and especially for Stain. That's the thing about this show, even the villains have their own answer to that question. Hell I would even go far enough to say that even the antagonists of the show aren't that morally wrong.
I won't touch on the Leagues motives because at this point in the anime that point hasn't been explored yet and I wouldn't want to spoil that. Their means don't really justify the ends, but the ends are something that I can't fault them for. Being brought up in a society filled with heroes chasing the almighty (heh) dollar and losing their way as it were, was the reason Stain formed his ideals. He hated seeing selfish heroes only looking out for their own well being because a hero to him was someone who put others far above their own. So what does Stain do? He goes around killing heroes that go against his personal ideals of society. Again can't agree with the means of his ideas cause ya know, murdering is bad but that's his way of cleansing the stains on society (why is this guys name stain again?). That's the most important point of the show. Each character has their answer to the question and pursues them to the best of the abilities given to them.
Characters with strong reasons for the actions they take are always bound to clash with someone who has a difference of opinion. Every single fight this season has this underlying narrative of how these two ideas go against each other. If I'm being honest, from a choreographically standpoint the fights are relatively bland. Hell, Naruto has more complicated fight choreography the MHA, but the complexity of the fights doesn't matter. The focal point of the fights in HeroAca is showcasing the ideals of each fighter and how they react to them. MHA at this point has shown it's true colors; a character drama using the guise of its flashy fights to be a shounen. When Midoriya fights off against Todoroki the fight and the show up to that point was purely about the fight. But the show uses subversion of the tropes it employs in great effect mind you, to change the tone of the fight and the series going forward to be about how these characters express themselves in the hero society.
The other thing this show subverts it tropes is how it handles an age old technique of the mid battle power up. The way My Hero handles this is by having the characters tackle a mental block on their power or gaining a deeper understanding of how their quirk actually functions (this being explained a bit in season one but exploring that more in this season). Why shounens use this trope is probably to keep the action fresher by introducing new things the characters can do in the fights, gives your eyes something newer to look at. The execution of this trope is one of the coolest things it does to further push the idea that the show is not really about the really cool looking fight sequences and is primarily about the characters. Not to mention the immense amount of character development and payoff we get for these characters. Todoroki before the fight was built up to be this gargantuan hero who had zero flaws. But the reality is his entire existence is a flaw. He existed purely as a way for Endeavor to try and topple All Might as the number one hero and in one moment, in one fight Midoriya shatters all of these walls Todoroki had built up and get this intense depth to his character.
Departing from the deep dive I took to explain the highlight fight of the season the other facets of the show got massive developments. More of the classmates and other side characters got a ton of developement, Uraraka and Lida being the highlights but even some of the more minor characters got their time in the spotlight, Yaoyorozu being one of my favorites of the season.
My Hero Academia can be surface level for some and enjoyment can be had but below the surface of the show lies one of my favorite character dramas I have had the joy to experience. This series has become my all time favorite anime and I'm curious to see if something else is capable of taking it off that spot. I mean Gurren Lagann was solidly at that spot for the better part of 5 years for me thinking it was unbeatable. But with only 1 episode showing off so god damn much to show its true hand and completely blind siding me with something special. It's a deceptively simple show that has incredible strength in its simplicity and im always grateful for taking the dive into it.
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