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My thoughts on MHA

Saga 1

[01] U.A’s Beginnings - Chapters 1-7 [02] Battle Trial Arc - Chapters 8-11 [03] U.S.J - Chapters 12-21 [04] U.A. Sports Festival - Chapters 22-44 [05] Vs Hero Killer - Chapters 45-59 [06] Final Exams - Chapters 60-69 [07] Forest Training Camp - Chapters 70-83 [08] Kamino - Chapters 84-97

Saga 2

[09] Provisional Licensing Exam (PLE) - Chapters 98-121 [10] Shie Hassaikai - Chapters 122-162 [11] Remedial Course & School Festival - Chapters 163-183 [12] Pro Hero - Chapters 184-193 [13] Joint Training - Chapters 194-217 [14] My Villain Academia - Chapters 218-240 [15] Endeavor Agency - Chapters 241-252 [16] Paranormal Liberation War - Chapters 253-306

Saga 3

[17] Villain Hunt - Chapters 307-328 [18] Stars & Stripes & U.A Traitor - Chapters 329-342 [19] Final War - Chapters 343-423

Saga 1

~! [01] U.A.’s Beginnings: Let’s start with MHA's beginnings. We are shown a wide array of characters, and our protagonist, who defies older shonen tropes and is much more emotional. I’m sure we’ve all heard the critique by now. The infamous “Crybaby Deku.” Now my two cents are that it isn’t a problem that he cries, it’s a problem with how often he cries. Don’t get me wrong, I think looking back that Deku is probably the most relatable protagonist within Shonen. Who wouldn’t cry in his shoes? But when a protagonist cries so often, whether that be for actual personal moments (Saving Bakugo), as a gag (When he is working out on the beach), or for every inconvenience, it can really depreciate the value of that character’s feelings going forward. I also want to appreciate the amazing character archetypes and writing for some of them. Bakugo does a fantastic job of showing the reader the societal hierarchy that rewards others with. The strong are seen as those who will reign supreme; others are viewed as lesser beings who will amount to nothing. I will glaze Bakugo’s writing much more in the future. [02] Battle Trial Arc: This arc doesn’t provide as much insightful world view or character building, but it’s an early arc, so we don’t expect that of it, right? Let’s talk about something that will be a clear problem for the entirety of this series: the sexualization of the students and, generally, female characters of MHA. This has been a heavy topic for me to discuss in depth because I don’t think people understand what I mean by it. First, let’s distinguish the difference between [Fan service](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_service) and the [Male gaze](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze). Fan service is a method of showing the reader “Exactly what they want” and can come in many different forms, not just the sexualization of women. It can also be certain fights, moments within sports manga, etc. Fan service is fine! It’s pure preference. The male gaze is not a preference; it is a sign of bad writing and a lack of understanding of your female characters. Now let’s show some examples! Mt. Lady! We are shown that she is a promiscuous hero in society, and is later elaborated on by showing that she is purposeful about it to gain popularity within the hero society. This is fan service. Now Momo. Momo is shown to us as a genius with a good quirk! Her character is one of the many who are sexualized by a little gremlin named Mineta, the worst character ever written in shonen. She is constantly diminished and sexualized, and whereas she has her moments to shine from time to time. We are made to see her in a more favorable light to appeal to the male view model. This is the male gaze. Even the way her hero outfit is portrayed reinforces this idea and mindset; there’s nothing about her outfit that suggests “practicality.” And if we’re saying it’s pure sex appeal. 1. That’s a high schooler. 2. There are a million other ways to look sexy and still be practical; this outfit is not one of them. (A sports bra, for example, is much more sensible.) This serves more to show you, in the future, what I mean when I ever refer to these moments. It also goes to show Horikoshi’s mistreatment of his female characters within these first two sagas, especially. [03] U.S.J: Most of my critiques of reading U.S.J boil down to problems with manga that exist for the sole purpose of getting an anime adaptation. This arc does a great job of expanding our cast and gives us a decent fight with All Might, but, compared to the manga (from the clips my good friend @Kikuoka gave me), it’s like night and day. The manga does not portray action very well early on, and much of it feels like “me punch harder.” In which case, there’s not a lot of substance there, and all this arc does is introduce us to our overlooming big bad, the league of villains. [04] U.A. Sports Festival: The culmination of a lot of character plot points, serving as a way for us as the reader to start feeling attached to many of these characters, especially Horikoshi’s poster child. Todoroki is the favorite child of Horikoshi, someone built to succeed with excellent writing, a strong backstory, and plot elements out the ass for future events. But if you don’t fall in love with our story's favorite eugenics child, maybe you’ll fall in love with Uraraka’s story. Uraraka was my favorite part of UASF. She wasn’t complex in her wants and desires for the future. She was relatable and strong, shown to be someone who can keep up with what is widely considered the best in the class, and to defy the societal standard that “the strong quirks succeed.” I loved it! We will be talking more about her in the future. So let’s turn our attention to the man of the hour. His backstory is so unbelievably tragic. Personally, it didn’t grip me, but that’s not to say it was bad by any means. It was a breath of fresh air and showed how dark this manga can really be, setting a tone for future events and showing Endeavor as the culmination of society’s false heroes. [05] Vs Hero Killer: Stain is the moment I fell in love with this series, introducing ideologies and vilifying the hero society. This also prompts Shigaraki to take more action in the story and to grow in parallel with Midoriya, where Midoriya finds his strength through his mentorship, Shigaraki seeks what motivates him, and his views on society are shaped. But enough about the story’s progression. This arc also resolves Iida’s thematic questioning of what it truly means to be a hero and whether he is looking to live up to his family legacy or to be his own hero and define that for himself. It truly shows some excellent character writing, and within Saga 1, it easily became my favorite arc while I was reading! It made the series a lot easier to binge for me early on. [06] Final Exams: Well, we had a good streak of arcs going here; it was bound to end at some point. Final Exams arc is easily one of the weaker points within Saga 1, and ultimately comes out as a complete mess. We get to elaborate on Momo and see her and Todoroki share some kind words. We see Bakugo and Midoriya fighting their idol, where this arc paints Bakugo as the most annoying and unsympathetic character imaginable. Which, in hindsight, was a good decision by Horikoshi, but in the moment, it doesn’t feel too great, and with every single fight happening in tandem, it got messy quickly. In the same arc, we finally get our fated encounter between Shigaraki and Midoriya, which had some of my favorite moments. We get our introductions to our favorite yandere, Toga, and our edgy burn victim, Dabi. Overall, the arc is fine. I would say this was the lowest point for the manga’s first saga. But it was used as a building block for our next arc, which I’m sure to love… Right? [07] Forest Training Arc: I was wrong. After watching the anime scenes, I can understand why people enjoy this arc! However, this arc brought forward continuity errors. These fights are just the same version of “punch harder = win,” and emotional stakes for characters that we haven’t already established within the story, and only introduced within this arc. But, for the sake of argument, if you felt differently about Bakugo and thought, “Oh shit, maybe he could be a villain.” Then that’s fine! I, however, never had a single doubt, because this story is structured to mirror Shigaraki and Midoriya, not Midoriya and Bakugo. Looking at the story thus far, this arc feels redundant. As well as, ahem, why the actual fuck did Principal Nezu allow these kids to go to an isolated place in the woods to train? What is stated to be the most intelligent creature, if not one of, is not foreseeing a moment like someone leaking the information? On purpose or not, this is a GLARING oversight, and entirely out of character! The character who’s committed to overseeing the safety of U.A. students sends their most popular class to a secluded area in the woods with a solid six heroes? Yeah, no, I remember the night I read this and argued with my friends Kikuoka and MelodySong on a call about it. NOBODY had any reason why this arc even happened! IT SHOULD’VE NEVER HAPPENED! Disregarding my qualms, all in all, they basically used this as the precursor for our [Three-Act Structure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-act_structure), and in terms of what it strived to achieve, it was okay? We got introductions to the rest of our League of Villains—sinister undertones with the disappearance of one of the Wild, Wild, Pussycats. And hints that Dabi knows more about Todoroki than is perceived. (Spoilers, but when reading this in a call with friends, I clocked this, and the first thing Melody said was “Don’t say anything, he will find a hidden meaning within it.” Thought that was funny.) [08] Kamino: This arc has some of my most appreciated moments from the entire series. Iida’s projection of his own vigilante moment, class 1-A, and their arguments over what is justifiable in this moment. Consequences for Midoriya and the infamous AFO entrance. This arc was CINEMA! It was every moment in this saga building to this one moment, a moment to define heroism, to push the boundaries of what it means to be the symbol of peace, and ultimately to determine the impact it will have on society once that pillar falls. This arc serves as the climactic passing of the torch, not just for OFA, but AFO as well. Everything about the invasion of the hideout, to the fight with AFO, was terrific, and watching the symbol of peace’s ideology crumble was something outside of the norm; it showed consequence. I think you’re seeing a trend here. [Overview of Saga 1] These first eight arcs had some stellar highs and lows. Ultimately, the only time my rating for this series increased was during My Villain Academia. This is the best of the three sagas for me in hindsight. Now let’s speak on some key issues with this arc. This saga shows an early lack of use of [foils](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foil_(narrative)). As Shigaraki and Midoriya’s foil is not established until much later on within the saga, it made it feel very stale and, in general, gave Shigaraki no backing as a villain that really poses a threat for our protagonist, Midoriya had no reason to grow, and even through this entire saga, had no reason to grow because Shigaraki’s growth wasn’t drastic enough. Shigaraki is my favorite character within MHA, but this saga does not do him any favors. I understand it’s to build him up from nothing, but it truly hurts, as a Midoriya protagonist, that he has nothing to grow off of. If Midoriya can’t grow, the sidecast that is connected through him will have an even harder time growing. Don’t get me wrong, Iida has his own moment that is very compelling, and so does Todoroki, especially when he goes to see his mother. But Uraraka’s character is intrinsically attached to Midoriya. Without growth from him, she is not growing for a lot of the show, so long as she has these feelings for him as her main plotline. And instead of Midoriya having his own mission, it will just be school life leading into event after event until ultimately everything leads to the end goal, which is much more boring than seeing a protagonist who has his own compelling moments to grow. The art was at its lowest within this saga, but that doesn’t mean it was bad, more jarring? Some of the art contrasts between heroes and villains are staggering. Not in the conventional means of one is bad, one is good. But more like one is good, but the other is amazing. Otherwise, the panelwork was standard and, from memory, really wasn’t eye-catching within this saga; it picks up much more later on. Fight choreography, art, and general telegraphing were probably the weakest at this point, with panels just being Shoto touching the ground and then BOOM big ice! And most fights are resolved with a mantra of going plus ultra and a more potent punch, nothing spectacular or groundbreaking. But AFO’s art, Shigaraki’s art, and many other villain moments are standouts within the gorgeous linework Hirokoshi provides for his villains. The narrative and story are strong overall! Nothing abnormal for shonen as a genre, but the outlier is the absurdly complex societal implications of heroism. We’ve seen strong world-building from other giants in the genre, but this scale leans more toward the philosophical than toward something more elaborate, which is really spectacular! This arc sets the stones for what becomes my favorite part of the series (And the only reason it's rated above a 5) Last qualm for me is that Quirks are boring. Instead of an inspirational power system that is defined by your personality, it feels more like your personality is defined by your quirk from birth. Oh wow! The guy with explosive powers has… an explosive… personality… Almost like it writes itself? Anyhow, it’s very uninspired; it can lead to incredible powers! But those incredible powers come at the cost of feeling like your character has any depth outside of their quirk. And if you want to make the argument that it’s supposed to be like that to reflect the ideology that society has of leaning on quirks… Ok? That still doesn’t make it any LESS BORING! !~

Saga 2

~! [09] Provisional Licensing Exam (PLE): This arc suffers, as most would after their biggest climax to date: it’s just hard to live up to what happened prior, and even when keeping that in mind, it’s hard to say this arc does anything outstanding for character growth or story, and if anything it just brings into question the morals of the supervisors who are running the license exam, as stated by the man running the event goes as follows: “The first round was basically a qualifier, and you hundred who were chosen to move on all have potential worth cultivating.” Nononono, hold on. What indicates that they can be “real heroes” is a glorified game of fucking dodgeball? What kind of filler ass cop out is THIS! I understand the state of the world is dire, but implying that these kids are eligible for REAL COMBAT when all they did was play battle royale dodgeball is absurd. Outside of this, we have Midoriya learning his new fighting style. Now, we could argue back and forth about whether this is totally out of character for Midoriya not to consider using his feet, or whether this is due to his trauma from imprinting on All Might. I’d say that doesn’t mean he would never consider his feet as a means of combat in the first place, blah blah. The end of this arc is stellar! We see Bakugo at his BEST! Deku was weak, yet commemorated, not by his strength but by his heart. And Bakugo’s entire structure and ideologies revolve around strength. Strength is what gave him value; it was what people praised him for as a child. And to see that strength won’t keep pushing him any further and will instead result in the people he cares about most ending up hurt, what more is there for him to do? Bakugo is a fantastic character from a writing perspective, and this is the start of his journey to becoming a hero worthy of praise, too. Now to stop glazing Bakugo. This fight sucks, too! Hah, bet you didn’t see that one coming. Instead of a back and forth of emotional moments and talking about their differences, it is ultimately just a one-sided trauma dump? The dialogue here takes a massive hit because of their fighting. Midoriya was never given his own moment to speak his grievance, and instead was another person's trauma dumping on him, doing what he could to help. In terms of choreography, though, at least we didn’t punch–Oh goddam- [10] Shie Hassaikai: I’m going to do my best to be critical of this arc because, while reading it was genuinely my favorite, this is the first boss rush-esque shonen trope I actually enjoyed, but to talk about all of this arc would take a while, so I wanna just go over some of my standout moments. The Big 3’s introduction is one of the best in MHA, in my opinion. We finally have a ceiling that is reasonable for our cast to chase; people to look up to, beyond just their raw strength. And permeating that message above them all is Mirio. I think the lesson of this arc, showing what Midoriya has that Mirio doesn’t, is good. But within that same breath, this arc does nothing with it again. We are shown that Mirio is not the first to jump to sacrifice, and sacrifice inherently was the trait All Might was passing down, because being the wielder of OFA wasn’t about doing the right thing all the time. The perfect example is when Midoriya wanted to jump into action upon meeting Eri, but Mirio held him back for the sake of the mission. The reason this isn’t used is that Midoriya doesn’t get his own personal moments until chapter 305, yes, I know the chapter number. So for the next 150 or so chapters, we get no payoff! And trust me, the payoff we get will be talked about. Let’s talk about the boss rush. Kirishima’s backstory was terrific; he got some intense moments, fantastic character moments, and exemplifies the ongoing trait of this arc—the character’s strengths. Tamaki gets his own moment of growth, and of course, our protagonist and Mirio get their own moments to shine. A personal critique is that we are being introduced to too many characters, and this arc definitely shows that Hirokoshi values quantity over quality. Throwing a dart at the dart board until it lands rather than aiming it. Now we have a cast list of over 100 side characters, villains, and heroes! But now, it gives no screen time to characters who may have needed the growth just as much as these new characters. *coughs* Uraraka, Tsu, Nejire. *coughs*. Isn’t it funny how it’s always the female characters getting shafted when it comes to defining character moments? We had one with Uraraka and one with Momo, at least? Ehh whatever. I guess it’s time to talk about the villains, oh yeah, they fucking KILLED BIG SIS MAG! WOAH! Talk about a tone shift. We also get more moments with Toga and Twice, who were introduced during the Forest Training arc and are shown more about the league of villains post-AFO, which was an interesting sight! Okay, fine, I’ll talk about him. Overhaul is fantastic. After the loss of AFO, after being sent to prison, we now have someone taking the spotlight for this arc as a TRUE EVIL BASTARD! This arc has needed this air of menace, especially since it has created a more serious tone with our supporting cast and even addressed societal issues. I mean, come on, a villain that uses a child's blood to develop bullets to erase quirks? GENIUS! Even looking back now, this arc was SOOO fun! And the art got a significant buff, especially with direction and even panels! Lastly, Nighteye’s death. With two deaths in this arc, I think this sets a standard now that tells us, “Holy shit, people can die in this manga.” For people who have finished the manga, you know where this is going. I think Nighteyes' death is perfect; it sets a standard for the reader and future events of the manga. I also think this arc does a great job at building up characters! I’m sure Horikoshi will write them very well going forward… Uh oh. [11] Remedial Course & School Festival: Remedial Course was… yeah… We learn about Quirk Singularity Theory, and that’s pretty much it. Don’t worry, guys, Inasa got another moment to shine, I guess? We also get the start of Enji Todoroki’s redemption arc, oh boy, time for some controversial takes when that starts. School Festival, however, was nice! I think the harsh criticisms it gets aren’t really valid. Sure, I’m not the biggest fan of Gentle and Labrava either. But the consistent theme of trauma in this arc is excellent: Eri finding the will to smile again, Uraraka coming to terms with Nighteye dying in her arms, Midoriya lacking feelings of self-worth, and Jirou learning that sometimes fighting isn’t the best way to save someone. I’ll be honest and say I didn’t enjoy this arc much while reading it, but after going through and skimming through it to write this, I can’t help but love it for what it was! And then they put the 3rd best hero in the fucking school as god damn beauty pagent fodder ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDI- [12] Pro Hero: I don’t have a lot to speak on for this arc; the Todoroki family drama never pulled me in as a reader, even less so now that Enji is the one at the forefront of seeking repentance. The online discourse I’ve seen of this character is staggering, though, and the number of people who think he’s worth forgiving is… gross? He’s not a better person just because he nuked himself in the sky fighting a Nomu, but his chase for forgiveness this arc and the symbolic nature of it wasn’t a bad read. Lastly, Hawks is daddy. [13] Joint Training: Ugh, I’m tired of these side characters being forced on me, grandpa! On a more serious note, this arc is paced awfully and also placed awfully. Imagine the climax of the Enji Todoroki fight just to be back in school getting another fucking training arc? But a training arc nonetheless just to shoehorn side characters in while other characters (WE ALL KNOW WHO!) Get more lackluster moments. Speak of the devil! Uraraka! The mold of her ideologies is cool and all, but it has come to the point where it now revolves around her saving her friend (Midoriya), aka her crush. When a few arcs ago in this saga, she pushed aside her crush on him as a focal point and focused only on heroism. Also, within this arc, we get another controversy! The inclusion of the vestiges. I don’t think this was bad writing, but what Horikoshi did with it? Yeah, bad writing. But we also get good writing for Eri and build her intrinsic bond with Midoriya. Overall, this arc isn’t my favorite. I don’t have much good to say about it, and this is where I honestly felt like giving up reading MHA, as well as the reason I didn’t want to continue reading with so many mediocre or straight-up bad arcs back to back. [14] My Villain Academia: The best arc within MHA. No, seriously, from religious subtext, societal impact, character growth, development, set pieces, and building the best protagonist of the series. This arc is spectacular. Building our league underneath the nose of our protagonist can be seen as a bad design choice by some, but for me and many others, this arc provided the tone for the rest of this saga and the next saga to come. I couldn’t have been happier reading it. Let’s start with the characters. Shigaraki’s backstory was devastating. The themes of Nana leading All Might to become the symbol of peace, which in turn prompted Midoriya to heroism, and in the same breath, causing the Shimura family to denounce heroism and send Shigaraki down this path, is such strong writing. Toga’s backstory, as told through her mask, was that she had to wear it for society just to feel accepted and loved. Twice, as a contrast to Toga in many ways, he found that, instead of finding a place to call home and people to call family, the only person he could trust was himself. But with time learning, he can’t even trust himself, and no longer has anywhere to turn. Spinner finally finds a purpose for himself after spending his time following the shadow of Stain and Shigaraki. The humanization of each of these antagonists finally gives us that missing piece the story needed til this point. Some criticisms may say it was too late (me.) But overall, I’m happy we got it in the first place. We also learn more about quirks themselves and “Meta Abilities” as well as get introduced to Gigantomachia as a means to give Shigaraki a goal. To tame this beast and finally fill the shoes AFO left for him. The only issues I can say with this arc are that the antagonist isn’t very compelling and that Quirk Awakenings are bullshit. [15] Endeavor Agency: God damnit, another fucking training arc. We should’ve just had two sagas and a middle saga named “Training Arc.” Fine, whatever. The Endeavor Agency arc never feels like an internship they take with Endeavor; more of an expositional onslaught and rehashing of familial issues within the Todoroki family, building up one last plot point before their final climax in the saga. We also get Midoriya using Black Whip after specifically stating he will not use it until he masters OFA. So that was bullshit, I guess? We also get some more abuser apologistic moments for Enji Todoroki in which he does his job, then seeks forgiveness again. Look, I can understand people liking this arc. If you can relate to the idea of repentance for prior actions, you will probably love any of Endeavor's moments. But at this point, this is just another arc to build up a “big reveal” for the Todoroki family, a big reveal that I will complain about in the next arc. Lastly, I’m not saying that this arc does a bad job at portraying the family trauma of the Todorokis. I just can’t find any personal reason to enjoy reading about these moments from Enji and his family, especially now that Shoto has taken a back seat as the primary driver of this subplot. I guess it’s worth mentioning that the Hawks subplot has been great! Learning about him, his motives, Twice, and the other villain’s plans in the meantime has been great for the series. [16] Paranormal Liberation War: The climax of Act 2. “The best arc within MHA.” Let’s start by saying this arc is devastating! Seeing the destruction of Gigantiomachia and Shigaraki was great for our story, as it created stakes for many of our characters and civilians. The art hit a new high with this arc as well. I remember a few chapters where screenshotting every page wasn’t uncommon; the art was cinematic and helped convey stories such as Twice, Toga, Hawks, and Shigaraki, showing the moral gray areas and, in many ways, throwing the concept of heroism in everyone's face. And let’s not forget about Bakugo and his excellent progression as a character. But that’s about where my pros end. This con list is going to be long, and I’ll be rehashing some points from earlier in my post, starting with the series's world-building and political climate. Up until this point, the social aspect of heroes and reliance on hero society, or more frankly, reliance on All Might, has been a pivotal part of this manga. With the symbol of peace gone and this “War” starting, we’re expected to feel sorrow for the world of MHA and its people, even though we know nothing about the areas or have any ties or stakes. Yes! It’s time for the “Stakes” argument. I’m not going to focus on this point too heavily, considering it’s a dead horse. I’m going to speak from purely a writer's perspective; I wouldn’t be openly killing and creating stakes for characters if I intended to take it back later. I would not have killed Nighteye if I didn’t plan to kill someone in this “War.” And before we start with “Oh, but Gale, they did kill someone!” Trust me. I will talk about it later. Now, let’s disregard the fact that Bakugo gets “Swiss Cheesed” in his words, or the fact that Gran Torino gets a hole punched through his entire stomach! But the character that dies actually gets OFFSCREENED! Midnight's death was one of the most egregious writing errors I’ve seen in a manga in a WHILE. A character who has been with us for such a long time, who has ties to students and teachers as a friend and mentor. And what was the grieving process for her? She is COMPLETELY disregarded by her friends Eraserhead and Pres. Mic. Then, with her students, she gets a mention! So Midnight got less grieving time than Nighteye did. Why? Uraraka spent an entire arc grappling with the death of Nighteye, but then Midnight was just “another day?” But hey, let’s forget about that, it’s a minor infraction on character details and world-building! How about we talk about where the fuck Lemillion and Best Jeanist were? Best Jeanist COULD HAVE joined the invasion of the mansion. And as we saw WITHIN THIS ARC! Could have held down Gigantiomachia, which also would have prevented Midnight’s death. Oh, and hey, let’s bring these first-year students to battle, but not Lemillion, who just got his quirk back? Mind you, got his quirk back OFFSCREEN! Man, I wonder what would’ve been great to help with the chase in the Lab. Maybe a guy who can subsequently go through every single wall and defense Garaki has set up! Hey, while we’re at it, how did EVERY SINGLE PERSON at Garaki’s lair survive the cataclysmic attack from Shigaraki? Has anyone ever questioned THAT! But hey, it’s not all bad, the invasion of the mansion was still good, Hawks vs Twice was good, Shigaraki got some perfect panels! And Shigaraki underwent significant character growth. Right? RIGHT? AFO's takeover of Shigaraki completely diminishes Shigaraki and his character’s defining moments. This is the equivalent of Avengers: Endgame when they’re fighting Thanos, and he states, “I don’t even know who you are.” THAT’S NOT OUR ANTAGONIST! OUR THANOS ALREADY DIED! Shigaraki is not held liable for what he does! IT’S JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF AFO! THIS IS AWFUL! THIS ARC RUINS SO MUCH ABOUT THE WRITING! Now, I’m going to be fair, this arc is good in the moment for a lot of people, and I can understand why, a lot of the problems in this arc aren’t transparent until the next arc or much later within the series. !~

Saga 3

~! [17] Villain Hunt: This has been the most challenging part for me to write about. Saga 3 is by far the most polarizing within the series, and it all starts with Villain Hunt. Villain Hunt is 300 chapters of build-up for Midoriya to finally get his shining star, his moment within the spotlight, to develop further as a protagonist. Now I’ve been doing my research to get the fandom's consensus and to see both sides of the argument. Was Midoriya’s writing here worth the investment of multiple years and chapters for some? I can’t sit here and tell you how to feel, but after reading 300 chapters, I thought it underperformed on its purpose. Now, the fandom has deemed these people who felt Midoriya’s character arc was lackluster to be “POV Merchants.” And all I will say is that this entire arc felt like Spark Notes, not a whole story or a character's conclusive moment. And I believe that’s primarily due to execution and pacing. Everything about the events in this arc is glossed over, and ultimately, we rewrite many moments that defined Deku in the past. His arm is a pivotal point, for if he can go all out, but we have a new invention now that can completely suppress that, and now he no longer has to worry about it—winning the favor of the previous users of OFA, primarily off-screen. Midoriya’s introspection about the events that unfolded and how he wants to proceed, given a glimpse of which within chapter 305, is now no longer elaborated on and given “the power of friendship.” Nobody is wrong for liking this arc, but in the same breath, nobody is wrong for disliking it either. It makes mistakes, and it’s abundantly clear with that. Whether you choose to look past them or feel indifferent towards them is up to you, but it will kill a lot of enjoyment for me going forward. I’d like to elaborate on the pacing issue. So, from where we left off, we went from our fight with Gentle being Deku at 20% and Black Whip, to Deku being at 100% for Villain Hunt with Black Whip, Danger Sense, Float, Smokescreen, and Fa Jin. Pretty big leap, don’t you think? That’s not all: Fa Jin allows Midoriya to artificially out-power-scale someone, as a way for Horikoshi to basically say, “Use this if you’re ever outmatched.” Ugh. It’s tiring. As for characters, Bakugo gets his long-awaited moment of apology. But instead of it being a meaningful moment or conversation for our protagonist to actually dwell on and finally get a few moments of growth, it’s just another version of Bakugo hitting an apology-esque trauma dump just like last time, and Midoriya just accepting it? This isn’t out of character for Midoriya and his self-sacrificing nature, but I wanted more out of our characters! Instead, this arc makes light of Midoriya’s trauma and portrays it as if “the means justified the end!” Not to mention the fact that Hawks had no meaningful moments to reflect on him MURDERING TWICE! Instead, we got a few panels of him getting grilled at a press conference, and then for the rest of the Saga, we used him as a device to regurgitate prior plot points rather than grow them. But hey, Uraraka got a moment to shine with her speech? But of fucking course her speech is mainly directed at fucking Midoriya bro, I CAN’T GET A FUCKING WIN! But what about Lady Nagant! I’m sure she’s super importa- and she’s another fodder female character. Man, I sure do love our misogynistic writer! Don’t worry, though, she lived even though she got blown the fuck up. Then the backtracking of prior stakes, such as Midoriya’s Arm, Hawk’s wings burning off, it's all so depressingly bad, this arc just fucking sucked to read. But at least it looked pretty? [18] Stars & Stripes & U.A Traitor: This arc is pointless; it almost feels meaningless to talk about it. Shigaraki and AFO are engaged in an internal battle. Shigaraki gets weakened by a character that was NEVER MENTIONED UNTIL NOW! And this entire arc is just set up to make it believable that our heroes can win. It’s awful, from a writer's perspective and as a reader. Awful. But, while I’m on this fantastical hate train, let’s put into perspective what this arc did! “Stars & Stripes got rid of multiple of Shigaraki’s quirks.” Yeah, quirks we never saw or knew existed. “Stars & Stripes extended Shigaraki’s recovery, which gave more time for the heroes.” Horikoshi could’ve just made the timer longer to begin with… “Stars & Stripes showcased foreign affairs and how the union is willing to retaliate to this impending threat.” Except that we got exposition on that earlier. It’s legit, so pointless. I think I could’ve skipped this arc and still understood the entire story. If anything, all it did was piss me off about her quirk because I believe powers derived from name schemes are stupid and never work in practice. This is starting to become just one giant complaint piece so I will spare you on that tangent. Horikoshi at least got to kill off one more female character and make what would’ve been a cool female character redundant. As for the U.A Traitor, you guys remember that plotline? Ykno from 300 chapters ago? Don’t worry cause Horikoshi forgot it! Yeah, apparently, a post said he completely forgot about this plotline and wanted to introduce it much earlier! Actually, around 100 chapters earlier! But don’t worry, this won’t have consequences for the series pacing, right? What about the characters? How do you think they felt about Aoyama betraying them? How do you believe Tokoyami felt about being subsequently used during the Forest Training arc as a pseudo-villain? I imagined he had something to say to Aoyama, since he was directly involved in this event. What about some reflection on the USJ attack and how many people almost died due to the direct involvement of Aoyama and his parents? Bakugo is actually the one with the most appropriate response here, anger towards the betrayal. But the manga paints HIM as the bad guy for acting this way? But don’t worry, I’m sure Midoriya has a lot to say on the fact that every time he’s broken his arms to bits, it’s partially been because of Aoyama and his family. Oh, never mind, he doesn’t care. The “Empathy Machine Deku” jokes don’t seem that dumbfounded at this point. And don’t even get me STARTED on the moments the League of Villains has, they turned this found-family into a self-satisfactory mess, none of which besides Toga spending any time grieving the ones they lost, whether it be Twice or Compress! With this, I want to talk about what I believe is the biggest killer of Act 3: the pace. From the end of PLW (Paranormal Liberation War) to the start of this next upcoming war, the buildup is about 50 chapters. All of which barely cover anything of real substance. We miss out on multiple key plot points and any proper character development, and instead use it to tie up loose ends and create meaningless plot decisions, such as Stars & Stripes. [19] Final War: I wanna start from the beginning and work my way up through this arc because, honestly, it’s tough to write about an arc this long. First, we’re gonna talk about how Shinso and how he was shoehorned into the plot for… reasons. It’s kind of funny that Shinso’s one weakness was “I can’t force people to speak using my quirk,” and then we circumvent that by saying “He trained really hard.” What a fucking shit copout. And now Hawks’ wings are good? Suddenly? Because he has synthetic wings, he can now just mind-control them because reasons? Which is basically just another way for Horikoshi to slap the reader in the face and insult our intelligence by rewriting the foundation of these characters' quirks? And this is fundamentally what taught me: Horikoshi is an awful author. He doesn’t care about story cohesion or building into this act properly; he just wants to make his deadline and do all the “fun things” he originally planned. Still, he is realizing he has other shit to write. Such as his writing with Midnight’s killer being exposed by him just randomly speaking about it in earshot near one of the students? But in terms of character build, we never had the actual grieving period between the 50-chapter setup for Midnight, so this plot point lacks substance. They basically used it as a Family Guy callback scene. “Hey, remember that time I killed that hot chick?” Oh, but now we’ve got some good art and a fight between AFO and Endeavor! This should be at least fun, I mean, they have nothing that ties them together. AFO: “By the way, I SET UP DABI TO BE A VILLAIN!” WHAT? THIS PLOTLINE IS SO CONTRIVED! WHY ARE WE SO DETERMINED TO MAKE AFO THIS ELABORATE SCHEMER WITH THE MOST POINTLESS PLOTLINES KNOWN TO MANKIND! At least it’s not focused on nearly as much as it should be. Still, we are focused on Endeavor, who has some of the best moments in the entire arc; his self-reflection is so intense, and the moments when he really puts his grief into perspective. This is the first time I felt anything for this piece of shit. But within this stellar character moment, we get one of the stupidest fucking inclusions ever, and I’ve had many arguments about Quirk Rebellion. Quirk Rebellion is supposedly JUST a side effect from Stars & Stripes' final attack on Shigaraki. Yet the actual concept itself of a QUIRK REBELLION STILL DOESN’T RAISE ANY QUESTIONS FOR YOU? I digress, at least Endeavor wins, oh wait, never mind, AFO is now rewinding due to a reworked version of the bullets that were mass produced from Eri’s blood, reverting AFO back to a younger version of himself due to the help from esteemed scientist Garaki. But for SOME REASON? This rewinding is different from Eri’s quirk, and will actually constantly revert him till nonexistence. But we’re supposed to believe that THIS GUY! IS THE SAME GUY! WHO PLANNED EVERYTHING FROM SHIMURA’S GRANDCHILD, TO DABI IN THE FOREST LEADING TO THIS MOMENT TO TAKE DOWN ENDEAVOR, TO THE MASS PRISON ESCAPE, AND EVERYTHING INBETWEEN. DIDN’T CONSIDER THE SIDE EFFECTS OF THIS FUCKING BULLET? Well, nothing we can do about it now. Let’s see what happens next. Oh, right! The class of another school that nobody gives a fuck about is here! And subsequently fucks up a bunch of twice clo- wait, WHERE THE FUCK WERE THEY FOR PLW? And now Inasa is saying, “It’s okay that Endeavor abused his family! Because he’s TRYING!” Anyway, then we fake-kill Hawks and add that to the “fake stakes” counter, unless you want to count Jiro losing an ear as stakes. Don’t worry, we can make a new one that does the same thing as the last one! Let’s talk about something good. Toga is one of my favorite characters in MHA. Her backstory of just having to be normal for the sake of her family is stellar work, and her final moments and panels really struck a chord with me. “Am I pretty?” is probably my favorite panel in all of MHA because it truly captures all of Uraraka's character and finally gives her the moment of clarity about who she wants to save: she wants to save everyone. Toga was a fantastic foil for Uraraka, and I genuinely think if they each had some more in-depth moments for themselves, this could have been my favorite moment in all of MHA. Now we do get more asspulls with Toga having to “truly love someone” to use their quirks, which is fine. Whatever. It kind of undermines the fight and lessens her impact just to keep her around the same level of combat as Uraraka, but that’s fine. And then the stupid plotline of her “Bloodlust mixing with her Love.” ugh. I swear if we didn’t arbitrarily limit every single villain within this arc (excluding Dabi), this arc would’ve been so much more intense. But instead, Horikoshi had to write himself into a corner. My final complaint comes from continuity. You expect me to believe that Uraraka was going to die from that stab, but Gran Torino lives that punch, Bakugo lives swiss cheesing, and Bakugo lives AGAIN from a hole in his chest? Yeah fuck off. In terms of the actual final fights, this one is fine. One of the few fights with actual dialogue and characters’ defining moments rather than just “Hit really hard” or “THIS IS FOR MY WINTER ARC!” And no, I don’t think Toga’s death is good, but it still doesn’t lessen her character for me. It just hurts the systemic plot put in place by Hirokoshi. Next up was Dabi’s fight, which was actually pretty good! The symbolism between Buddhist rebirth and the death of Toya and the rebirth of Dabi was great, especially given the color-schemed symbolism. Now I do this arc suffers from the typical shameless Endeavor dick-sucking moments from his interns and others, as well as the Quirk Awakening being stupid. But the art was gorgeous, and it was very nice to see Dabi and the rest of the family reunite and decide to take the time to repair what was broken together. Well, that was a fun break from me complaining. Let’s see how long that lasts. What’s nex- God damn it. Why did All Might decide to pit all the minority heroes against each other as a pseudo-racism subplot for the fucking manga? Horikoshi literally threw a bunch of characters together who had no connection into a room, created a random connection between them, and made a subplot that barely existed in the first place because we didn’t do the proper groundwork to create an actual fucking conflict! God fucking damnit this is such awful writing for this entire last half, and instead of giving Spinner nuance and intellectual interactions, he’s now a blubbering mess! Because what is MHA if it had actually good villains, right? It’s absurd to say the only villains who had a proper end that I enjoyed were DABI! The character I DIDN’T CARE FOR! And Toga. Don’t worry, we’ll get to Overhaul and Stain at some point. Speaking of Villains, AFO and Giganto vs everyone happened, and now Giganto is mad for, say it with me, class. Reasons. Aka an asspull. Next up was Shigaraki vs uh, everyone? This part of the arc had some great art again, with the gigantic weapon used by Tamaki and a bunch of the massive attacks by the Heroes on Shigaraki. But all these tend to do is put into scale how broken Shigaraki is, and how fucking stupid regeneration is? Especially considering that for a majority of this manga, a lot of the quirks have been bound by science, all of Act 3 has seemed more and more bound to magic. Now there’s zero limit to how much Shigaraki can regenerate! Because having a functional weakness is boring suddenly? But I digress, this fight was super contrived, and I didn’t enjoy anything about it. But then we get to Bakugo’s death! Oh boy, Bakugo’s death was AWFUL! Yeah, I know, shocker, right? Bakugo going in on this and fighting alone when he’s on the verge of death is super out of character for him. If you disagree, go read "Villain Hunt," where he tells Midoriya to stop carrying the burden alone. Or better yet, any arc involving Bakugo as a primary character within Acts 2 and 3! But at least it was a meaningful death, and we got a really cool sendoff to such a beloved character. Why didn’t we continue to the following paragraph? Oh god FUCKING DAM- Bakugo is now being saved by Edgeshot. Well, at least Edgeshot had to sacrifice himself to save Bakugo, it doesn’t make the most sense, and it really doesn’t do much for either of their characters, but. Now we have consequences. Why am I still here… Oh no… Okay, so next up on the ballot. A 55-year-old paraplegic in a mech suit vs the grand mastermind of the series, who is also his archenemy? Oh fuck YE- And Horikoshi ruined it. To start us off, All Might donning the Iron Man suit is awful for his character and his entire progression up until this point. Not to mention the fact that this suit of armor spits in the face at the idea we’ve been building for 350 chapters of “You can be a hero without having strength” By giving a man who lost his self worth, mechanical strength, rather than him being a motivating force for others and a symbolic sense of the word Hero, rather than the literal term. Now we have support gear that can actively fight one of the show's strongest characters. Yeah, nah. Then you take a second and ask yourself, “Why doesn’t everyone else do this in UA?” And now nothing makes sense. It’s fucking stupid. And all this portrays is that instead of needing strong ideals and a good heart, all it takes to be a hero is deep pockets. Anyways, this arc is one big ragebait for AFO by All Might, which WHAT? The “mastermind” is getting ragebaited and losing track of his goal FOR THE 7TH TIME! Of meeting up with Shigaraki to complete his final vessel. Then they kill Stain (For fun?) And that’s the end of one of the most interesting characters! Oh, but don’t worry, All Might won’t die! Even though his entire moment here is tantamount to him wanting to commit suicide for no reason. Oh boy! It’s tiiiime! THE CLIMACTIC BATTLE! SHIGARAKI VS MIDORIYA! WOOOO! Midoriya enters the scene as Mirio shakes his ass at the enemy! Oh boy, I bet Midoriya will have some tremendous character growth here once he sees Bakugo! OH, he’s raging again like last time! I wonder if he will come to terms with himself and learn to hold himself back for the sake of the others! And that was thrown out the window, too. Mirio saves Midoriya, preventing any meaningful personal growth. How typical. But this sets a trend for the final battle: Midoriya is nothing but a thoughtless, strong character, no longer introspective or thoughtful. He had his “moment” in Villain Hunt. And with that moment being over, all that’s left is his goal. The rest of the entire arc for Deku is people telling him what to do and how he should act, such as the vestiges coming up with the idea to break into Shigaraki’s core by giving up OFA. But that’s enough about my disdain for Deku, BAKUGO IS AWAKE OMG WOW COOL! Nighteye’s quirk is now understood due to Bakugo saving All Might and… Oh my god. We really are Mickey Mousing, aren’t we? If we wish hard enough, the course of reality will change. I guess the villains just didn’t “wish hard enough” and lost in that one moment? Cool. Well, that’s it for that momen- GOD DAMNIT EDGESHOT IS FUCKING ALIVE TOO? Oh, well, of course, it’s because Edgeshot didn’t save Bakugo! Bakugo JUMP STARTED HIS OWN HEART! SOMEHOW? Well, now Bakugo can fight AFO. Wait. Why? What the fuck does Bakugo have to tether him to AFO this fight? He looks like the second user? Really? That’s what gives this battle heart and drive? God, a fucking kindergartener who selectively eats the green crayons could write this shit. I want to talk about one last thing before I finish this off, because I genuinely had no praise for this arc outside of the art and the prior fights I’ve mentioned. Why are people not more upset about Shigaraki’s character being diminished by AFO? Shigaraki was an amazingly complex character and a perfect foil for Midoriya. Their parallels as children of opposing circumstances, as carriers of a legacy far greater than themselves, are spectacular in concept! So WHY did we abandon this in favor of AFO controlling Shigaraki? This was the catalyst for me that made me actually regret reading this arc. These final moments for Shigaraki’s character are now sullied because AFO had to be some grand mastermind. Still, we were only JUST RECENTLY given background on AFO as a character outside of “Well, he’s just evil!” I know my post is missing out on a lot of context from this final arc, but after 100 chapters, there’s going to be shit that I don’t care much for personally, as well as even more moments that just blatantly pissed me off. These are the focal points and my consensus regarding the final fights. !~ Final Conclusion: I want to provide my final ratings for everything, with a brief explanation of why I believe in each rating. ~! Art: I think the art in MHA is the best part of this manga, aside from some early inconsistencies and questionable design choices for characters. I believe this is the manga's most significant selling point. 9.4 Characters: Horikoshi has a mastery of character creation, but zero idea of how to truly flesh them out and develop meaningful moments for them in their final arc, leading to many concluding moments falling flat. 5.7 Story/Narrative: The societal impact within MHA is spectacular and well explored, but the parallels and abandoned themes, as well as many storybeats tossed aside for plot convenience, left me bewildered. 5.7 Personal Enjoyment: I’ve had to read this twice now, one was very thorough, and the other was just a refresher on certain arcs to write this and make sure I got my information straight. My personal enjoyment dropped quite significantly during this time as I realized so many arcs just pissed me off the further I got into the story. 4 !~ ~~~With a final score of 6.2/10 Thank you, @MelodySong, for giving me this req (even though you KNOW how I feel about shonen!) And seriously, thank you for taking the time to read any of this. If people show interest, I’ll talk in depth about the Epilogue. I know it’s missing from this, but after writing it for LITERAL WEEKS, I just wanted to finish.~~~ ~~~✦•······················•✦•······················•✦ https://anilist.co/manga/85486/Boku-no-Hero-Academia/ ✦•······················•✦•······················•✦~~~ img1000(https://pixelsafari.neocities.org/dividers/boilingflowers.gif)

My thoughts on MHA

ToC

Saga 1

Saga 2

Saga 3

Saga 1

Saga 2

Saga 3

Galeanthropy