Anime 33486 Boku No Hero Academia 2nd Season Reviews Filter Check 2

Yo, I've pretty much exhausted my patience with the overly generous reviews for this show, so I'm going to resist the masses and give this show a real review.

This show is super basic. I don't have a problem with shows being basic, so long as they are good. Unfortunately, this show really isn't that good. Being basic AND not that good is a pretty deadly combo. The only thing positive I can really say about this show is that it's very professionally made and well polished.

As far as I can tell this show is attempting to be the new shonen super power of ... animes. I'm therefore going to review it as such.

The big shonen anime generally have a slow and steady kinda plot. Bleach, Naruto, One Piece etc are pretty good examples of this. Often they follow an "arc" based format. The cast of characters remains mostly the same as they progress through these arcs and the characters and sometimes the overarching plot develops along the way. Boku no Hero Academia pacing seems to be set up in order to facilitate turning this into a very long anime. It very well may be setting up future plot points but as I watch it feels as if the shows going nowhere at all. It's almost as if the plot is getting side tracked. This is something that tends to happen in these types of anime but generally, these moments serve to develop the character or their powers/abilities. I can't see any noticeable signs of that in this show though and it simply feels like they are wasting time that could be spent on more relevant things.

I'm gonna keep the art/sound reviews short. This is a pretty big budget anime. As a result, the quality of the animation and sound is high quality. That Being said it's basic. There also doesn't seem to be any kind stylistic elements to the show. Twinstar Exorcists was a very similar show to this one, IMO, that at least had a very well-crafted style in its art and sound. Boku has a generic design for characters and settings while at the same time making them less interesting than other animes with a generic design. Hunter x Hunter had a pretty basic style, but the characters in that show had infinitely better design, not only in the way they were drawn but also in their personalities, ideology, motivations and even the little detail like the way they moved and carried themselves.

I kind of already started talking about the characters in the art/sound category. In the same way that the art and "style" of this show is lacking the characters are as well. They are all characters we've seen before but what's sad is that they simply aren't better than those other characters. I have no problem with an "I want to be a hero of justice" character but I do have a problem with one that is to entirely uninteresting. His entire motivation comes from when he saw a superhero as a kid and thought he looked cool. I'm nearly certain every person in this fictional universe had that same experience at some point. He's certainly determined but possessing determination is not enough to create a character with depth. Early on he had the potential interesting quirk of being quick-less and still aspiring to be a superhero. Instead of having him struggle with that fact as he fights to achieve his goal he is instead given an OP quirk and the only notable thing about his character is erased.

The main saving grace of this show is that despite its mediocrity, it manages to be fairly entertaining. Honestly, I think everyone's just been in the mood for a new high budget shonen super series to dive into. There is some fairly decent action as well as a bit of that classic shounen combination of hype and feels. It keeps you just barely entertained enough to come back next week for another episode.

Yes, this review was harsh, but someone needs to balance out this shows mad hype train. This show really isn't anything special and it's certainly not a masterpiece. The shonen mega series of the past easily beat it. If this site had been this popular during the golden days of bleach and naruto then those two shows would no doubt have a much higher rating. Would those reviews be accurate? Hell no. Wait for your hype to die down, watch the show objectively, compare it to other things you've seen and you will no doubt realize that this show does not deserve the level of praise it receives.

WARNIN':
Anime is almost done but hey 1 ep could change my whole outlook on this shitepaste(no it couldn't)
TL;DR
Don't

Alrighty after quite some time I watched through all these episode of season 2 and can confirm that this anime is letting me down more than a quadriplegic Parkinsons patient.

Art and sound.
They didn't improve much from the original and even there they were nothing worth noting. I do not wish to stick on this for long until some adrenaline pumping action scenes come up. Opening is a bit of a doozy, the first one was definitely better at setting the mood for this type of anime but alas ... all good things must come to an end which is something I won't be saying when this anime comes to a close.
6

Story.
People have superhero powers, there's a school for shit like that, our protag gets into the best superhero school.
Alrighty now let's plunge deeper into the rectal cavity of this story. Initially we are met with probably best thing to have in your anime, a tournament arc. Unfortunately as it continues the quality of it keeps dropping until the point where it feels like creators just want to get it out of the way as soon as possible. Fights get wrapped up in moments and those that stretch for longer are extremely dull with fighters using the same move over and over again until one of them says ,, sod it,, and blows up half the arena. I will concur that next arc is good. It regards this hero killer dude called Stain and,despite being finished in just a few episodes, shows one of the most hectic and dynamic fights in the anime. As a conclusion we have yet,deep sigh, another training. Which is understandable cause it'd be quite weird if an anime about a hero school had very little school in it. However this conclusive arc is hit and miss in it's execution. Long story short it comes down to students fighting teachers. Students are in pairs but teachers are single with their limbs being weighed down with some classic weight bands or whatever. I have to say some of the fights are quite fun to watch keyword being SOME. Others as is already fashion with this anime are dull with whole thing being decided after a constant back and forth between two parties.
Here's a 6 because this anime keeps leaving me with dry feeling in both my mouth and heart as there's not even some moments like in season 1 where you could actually feel a semblance of emotion in shriveled black amalgamations we call hearts.


Characters.
Now this is something that actually changed . More focus has been set on characters that didn't get time to shine in the first season, this phenomenon becoming weaker as season flutters onward. As for our main character, the underdog crybitch of our story, he actually achieves some decent control over his power instead of having it break his own body whenever it's used.
Let me put another sentence in for MC. He is a whiny bitch and seems to spent most of his fights crying and yelling how he's going to give it his best and all that tripe.Not that he has to care much about harming himself when his plot armor can take a nuclear strike with no issue. Well to be fair I'm being a bit hyperbolic there but bollocks are there some moments where he keeps gushing the same crap we've heard dozens of shounens do and then have somebody or something pushing his arse out of a pinch.
Some characters got their motivations laid out ,which is always nice despite it being done in a really scrappy manner,and we are treated to a batch of new characters, that get all meaning and screen time kicked out of them by the second half of the arc.
Screw you here's a 5 there's about one good character to be made out of all the shallow, loud annoyances that are considered characters but could only pass as such in a deviantArt fanfic.


Enjoyment.
This part had me hooked but fucked it up so hard with it's goddamn annoying characters from whom some can have their whole dialogue written down on a one ply toilet paper.
Sure there's a few good moments and fights but if I wanted to scrape something positive out of a demented mess I'd work as a life coach.
What infuriates me is that this show somehow fucks up after every positive act it presents. I can't say that it's worse than part one, at least not in all departments, but I'll be fucked by the last of rhinoceros before giving this a higher rating for what it has put out. All my enthusiasm for this anime died after the Hero Killer arc and it's quite sad that a back alley mid tier hero killing enthusiast with a dumb ideology that makes no sense in light of what we've been shown is somehow a highlight of your show.
Here's a 6 and a trophy full of spunk for successful fuck up on every corner.

This review covers both seasons and will contain some vague spoilers.

For a show called Boku no HERO Academia there's definitely a lot of academia but not much heroism. Makes sense too since according to this show, the word 'Hero' doesn't have an actual definition.. Yeah, apparently being a hero is whatever you want it to be. this is something a character in the show actually says at some point and we're supposed to see it as some kind of profound gospel.

I'll start by saying that I think the first 2 episodes of season 1 was the show at its best. Deku's backstory had a good ... emotional punch to it and we get a glimpse of real heroism on the part of his childhood hero, All Might, via YouTube video. and in episode 2 Deku himself demonstrated real heroism by risking his life to rescue a kid who bullied him despite not having a super power. But before you know it, the show becomes no different from any other shonen that DON'T boast the word "Hero" in their title.. only with more training and a lot less fighting villains. It just becomes an endless barrage of competitiveness and egoism with actual heroic acts being an afterthought at best.

Everybody in this show just seems obsessed with the superficial aspects of being a hero, like the strength, the glory, the cool costume, the super hero nickname. Speaking of which, why do they even need a costume and nickname? Isn't that for keeping your identity hidden? We have half an episode dedicated to them picking out costumes and nicknames.. Which comes straight after a tournament that was broadcasted on prime time television and everyone in the street cheers for them while knowing their names and faces.. That's just one example of how this show comes off as gimmicky and disgustingly shallow, despite sometimes pretending that it has actual heart and a heroic spirit, none of it is convincing because the majority of content in the series doesn't compliment that at all.

Meh. This world is boring and unimaginative anyways. By reading the synopsis you'd know that 80% percent of the population now have super powers and yet the world is pretty much the same as ours, except they have super powered people working alongside the police and receiving tax payer money.. Which begs the question why the police is still needed or why the police aren't made up of super powered people but oh well. It's not like this setup is displayed well anyway.. When villains attack civilians in the street, all said civilians do is run away instead of using their powers to defend themselves, which most of them supposedly have...

But whatever, I don't really care about these nitpicks. The thing that bothers me more though is that most shonen consist of some cool fantasy setting where there's a lot to explore and potential adventure is at every turn.. while in this series the only thing to look forward to is seeing more people with different powers.. How exciting. And I don't think it's good as an American-stlye super hero show with a contemporary setting either (See the first three paragraphs)...

Out of 38 episodes so far there's probably only about 9 that AREN'T training sessions or a tournament and there's only so much of that I can take when the fights aren't that great and there's barely any dramatic weight behind most of them. Furthermore there isn't really much of a connection between the training and the non training parts either. Near the end of season 1, Villains invade the school and basically hijack what was supposed to be another training session in order to kill the mentor character, All Might. And the Hero Killer arc (which only lasted about 3 episodes in season 2) had no relation to anything happening in the tournament that preceded it and just generally felt like a detour before we go back to more training again straight afterwards (though admittedly a pretty badass detour). There's definitely something building in the background but it's hard to see this as much of a story in the traditional sense, so far.

Plus, I found the tournament to be fairly underwhelming as a whole. The less important fights ended very quickly and had unremarkable choreography (consisting of up to 5 unimportant fights per episode) and the more important ones that take up about half an episode or one whole episode and the fights in general play out as follows: fighter X repeats the same attack over and over again while fighter Y evades them until there's one strategic move employed by fighter Y which ends the fight without fighter X having a counter strategy. Not to mention that these fights are excessively interrupted with dialogue from spectators.

The tournament doesn't really do all that much for the characters either. Sure, you get to see everybody's powers (which we mostly saw already in the last 3 episodes of season 1) and see them interact some more, but the main purpose of it was just to move on to the internship which only lasted a few episodes anyway and then it was back to business as usual. The most notable thing to come out of it was fleshing out and developing Todoroki's character which was the only participant that had actual immediate dramatic weight to him fighting in the tournament.

Speaking of characters, they're all quirky, and vibrant as shonen characters should be and in a basic way of personality and appeal there's nothing really wrong with them. On the other hand they all have the same motivation of becoming a hero and with a lot of them it's for rather selfish reasons which are never called out on by their teachers (Student: "I want to be a hero because BOOBS!" Teacher: "oh how charming" ).

Also the more the show goes on I started to notice that there's a huge lack of good character interactions. As far as I could tell, the vast majority of episodes (with the exception of maybe the opening episodes to an arc) consist of one scene of a minute or two (or much less) where characters interact in a casual way while the rest is made up of either exposition or mid battle lectures. I started to notice this because these interactions are the most enjoyable part for me. I thought it was cute when Deku was excited over talking to Uraraka on the phone because she's a girl.. Why did it have to take 3 episodes (of one scene in each) to get to the punchline of that interaction? Well I guess because the show is too busy with training sessions and tournaments..

The most prominent characters that started proper character arcs so far were Deku, Todoroki and Tenya. I'll just point out that I didn't like how Deku was handled. They make his childhood hero his mentor - he becomes his mentor's favorite boy - and the one unique trait he had which was NOT having a power is taken away. All of this happens in the span of the first few episodes and through convenient happenstance, so it feels like most of his arc is already behind him and that he already achieved what he wanted, which makes it harder to be invested in him as a character. Todoroki's backstory is a little weird for reasons I won't go in to because of spoilers, but I generally thought it was at least a step in the right direction and there were some ok dramatic bits with him. I guess the same can be said for Tenya. As for Uraraka, we get to know her motivation and background but that didn't seem to go anywhere yet. She's still best girl though. I know there's also the rival character but he's cliched and overdone, it's like the author didn't know how to make a believable character like this so he's just angry all the time even in situations in which he shouldn't be and hard to care about for that reason.

We also have All Might who's seen as the ideal hero by pretty much everyone in the show (villains included) and we get a glimpse of what he's capable of in the beginning and end of season 1. And in season 2 we get some backstory for him which excuses why Deku of all people, is his favorite boy. Not a bad character, but since he's looked up to as such an ideal hero it would be nice to see him going out and doing heroic things without being forced to, instead of being shut in the school all day. He's more defined by the way other characters perceive him rather than his own actions.
The rest aren't really worth mentioning, they take up a lot of screen time and used for comic relief, and while some of them do have their own little character arcs that continue from the sidelines (which is good and all) there's still not enough in terms of any details that we know about them for me to have enough to talk about.

So basically the main characters in this show have about as much depth and personality as minor One Piece villains.. And really not much else can be said about the rest of them. To this show's credit though, I've definitely seen worse.
Speaking of villains, let's talk about the ones that were introduced (and actually did something) so far. Yes, All two of them.

The prominent one is.. Angry.. and itches his neck when he's angry.. and uh, he works for some guy.. and uh.. oh right he wants to kill All Might. yeah that about sums up what we know about him.

There's actually more to talk about with the less prominent one who appears only in season 2 for a few episodes which is the Hero Killer. His motivation makes a lot of sense for the world he's a part of and it's similar to my sentiment on the lack of heroism in this show that I brought up in the beginning of this review. There was potential with him to at least begin to address this issue, but the show doesn't seem to acknowledge that he may have a point and when Tenya (the character who confronts him) concedes that he's right and admits he's not a real hero... he only seems to be referring to himself for not preventing the hero killer from attacking someone near and dear to him, which he had no way of preventing anyway.
So in the rest of season 2 this theme is dropped.. Will it resurface? I don't know and I'm not convinced that sticking around for it is worthwhile, after seeing how the show danced around this topic the first time. And understandably so because if the show acknowledges that this villain has a point, it's an admission that what it presented to us up until then - was shallow and dumb..

And with that, I think that's about all I have to say about the story, characters and themes.

Visually this show as a whole is pretty good but far from perfect and I would argue, somewhat unappealing. It has a nice and fittingly bright color pallet and it knows when to mute the colors when there's a darker scenario. The character designs are somewhat creative for sure since they all have different shapes and sizes but a lot of them are also made distinct by having one special feature to them that's kinda ugly like big lips or a frog face. It can look pretty lame and ugly with some of them, especially when they're attached to otherwise normal looking designs.
Furthermore some characters are drawn with thicker outlines to the point where they look like they're from a different show.
In terms of backgrounds they're mostly made up of either generic school grounds or ok looking cities.

The animation is above average and there is a noticeable improvement in season 2 when it comes to character motions. But this definitely is a downgrade for studio Bones since their shows are known for having fluid animation and great fighting choreography and this does not. Plenty of moments look dull with panning shots over still frames of people just standing around. Not to mention the action can look stiff with speed lines and Pokemon style flashing backgrounds being fairly frequent. To be fair, you could argue that this show is going for a classic comic book look, but I don't think the art is pretty or detailed enough to justify that style.

I never had much trouble with the voice acting. All the kids sound enough like kids and adults sound like adults. The acting can get a little over the top and some voices are a little high pitched so it can get a little annoying but it's not too bad. It has some really nice and heroic sounding tracks, there's lot's of fast rock tunes and slower melancholic ones mixed in but it doesn't quite sound like something you would listen to on your own and the ops and eds i found to be fairly average and unexciting with the exception of op 2 of season 2.


So overall I find this show unimpressive, fairly dull most of the time and even insulting to the super hero ideals I grew up with (or the basic definition of the word). I know many people feel very differently which is fair. And sure, it has some cool moments and it even raises some interesting questions but its answers seem to either be rooted in moral relativism or it just cops out from an answer all together. So I think I'll spare myself from watching season 3 thank you very much.

Uh ok, so ... the only progress from Midoriya we see is after season 1, and after the first part of season 2? Is this a joke right? i mean... all of these episodes full of blah blah and fights, that made Todoroki have more mental progress than Midoriya. The MC keeps being a chiken after what we saw happened in first season, he is still full of openings like we saw through the whole story, but specially at that last episode.

Story. 4/10
What can i say, the first part of the whole thing aka the School Festival was boring, but let just say that the ... race and the chavalry competition were pretty boring while the Tournament was only boring. I would've loved to see more of the other side of the story, the author likes a lot midoriya and i get, he wants us to see his progress but there has not been remarkable progress since he got his powers from All Might. I want to see what happens to the others but with detail, not simple 10 secs of the other characters in where we see nothing but them talking on how Midoriya would act, like, be serious for once. Same goes for the tournament, and that's about it for the first part.

Then comes the second part and the one i think it's good, when we get to see Midoriya make progress in a long time. He finally got to control a small portion of his powers. We finally got to see more Pro Heroes in action such as Todoroki Adult as well as Gran Torino, althought from the last i guess they didn't show much considering he is an old man (?). The point of the whole arc, is Stain. His conviction was the worst if you ask me, same goes to Tomura. "Killing with a reason" "You are not a hero if you don't save someone" and etc. Such a generic commonly used topic for villains who try to fight the good guys. His thinking aside, his fight with the 3 students (Midoriya, Todoroki and Tenya) was full of the thinking already said, more than action it was more of a try to get them to think the same way as Him (Stain), in which case Tenya ended up being by his side (Only by his conviction), Action-wise it was pretty how they executed it, really clean and smooth compared to season 1. You the ending of this already, with the stress of Stain's Will passed into everyone and blah blah, ending the whole arc and starting a new bomb.

Next (ARC), we got a filler that was incredibly boring showing us how it was the other characters did their practice and surprise!!!! We actually got to see the other characters, since the author won't show us, the Animation Studio had to do something about it!. We got some small portions of test they made for a training camp that is coming of some sort, we got some new villains introduced and that's about it, that's the whole season 2 for you. It was decent at most.

Art and Sound: 6/7 out of 10
From the animation, to the drawing, this was clearly way better than first season, it was smooth and clear but at some times it felt confusing trying to figure out were they were fighting or their positions and stuff. The drawings were pleasant, first season was full of deformed backgrounds and deformed characters, but now we got the same, but in better quality.

Character development... 3/10 but i already said something about it in the Story part.

Overall: 5

PS: Don't like my review? You are free to create your own, i will try my best to search in my box for fucks to give.

The goddamn hero ideology....why.....what is it with that naive hero mindset?! Let's talk about Endeavor, the guy literally ABUSES his wife, but he's still a hero?!!! You hypocritical pieces of shit!! Such an unoriginal and annoying anime! It overuses some of anime's most annoying tropes. They took the worst characteristics of all the Shounen MCs from the past 10 years and created Midoriya....one of the most frustrating characters I have ever come across. Makes this one of the most overrated shows in Anime history. I really don't understand the charm of a nerdy coward, who is very very unrealistically nice to everyone. Although have to ... compliment the artwork, which is very unique and attractive. The best way to watch this show is to ignore Midoriya, and focus on Bakugo or All Might

I tried watching BNHA when it first aired in 2016, I got up to episode 5 and dropped it there because I couldn't deal with Izuku's crying. However recently I got back into it and I'm still not impressed. Not only did it take Izuku nearly the entire first season to stop crying, throughout both seasons he still injures himself after using his power. Even after Aikawa lectured him about control he managed to change nothing at all. He controls it in a few instances and not at all in others, I don't understand. He's had this power for over a year. And it kind ... of angers me that he has all this power and time to learn how to control it but he doesn't. I also don't get the hype over this show, it your typical school, superpower shonen at heart with flashy designs and characters. Only difference is Izuku is the weakest, wimpiest main character I've ever seen. I'm going to finish it but I don't see it getting any better at 23/38 episodes.

The first season of MHA was great after about Episode 3. Memorable characters like Iida, Tsu, and Uraraka helped maintain my interest for the remaining 10 episodes. The hallway scene where the entire place is being evacuated for trespassers was one of my favorite scenes in that season. However, 9 episodes into Season 2, and the magic is practically gone. The climax near the end of S1 was so fun to watch. But what happens after a huge incident like that? N O T H I N G. Everybody goes and plays sports. That is just flat out boring. Tournament arcs are some of the ... most drab, uninspired, and uninteresting things I've ever had the displeasure of sitting through. A show I loved dearly, Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, had like 3 tournament arcs. Arc-V is a very slow-paced show, with almost 150 episodes, and to have tournaments like that taking over (what seemed like) 10 episodes, was so sleep-inducing. But at least those tournament arcs had an impact on the future of the story. The first tournament would determine who would be in the Lancers, and the last determined the ending of the series. One of the few tournaments I don't mind in anime is in Pokemon, since it's a staple of the games (and anime at this point). XYZ's blew previous Pokemon Leagues out of the water and kept me on the edge of my seat until the very end. I cannot say the same for MHA2's tournament arc. In Season 1, the spotlight was on Deku, Uraraka, All Might, Bakugo, and Iida, for the most part. I hope you didn't like that, because that's GONE in Season 2. Now, the spotlight is focused on some kid who has fire and ice powers, who was not important IN THE SLIGHTEST in Season 1. Now he's suddenly more important than Deku? Why? Why is he bigger on the poster than Deku? Why not just put him in the center of the poster at this point? I don't care about him defying his father. We had never heard of his father until this season! This was never brought up in Season 1! We also have a focus on other classes. Why are they just being introduced now? Because it's suddenly important to have more than 4 main characters? This is an anime about children being born with superpowers (the main character being the odd one out in this case, making him even more interesting than other characters) for Christ's sake, and you choose to do a motherfucking SPORTS TOURNAMENT? There are endless possibilities you could have gone with for this story, and you chose the most boring and overdone option. I seriously hope the second story arc makes up for this boring choice. Aside from two intense battles I've seen so far and one touching moment with Uraraka, there has been nothing worth sticking around for for 25 episodes. Hell, I can't remember anything that happens in the first 5 episodes, that's how boring this story is. I could skip the first 1/5 of the season and I would have missed absolutely NOTHING of importance. I've only seen 9 episodes as of this writing, but so far, Season 1 had much more going for it than Season 2. If you're new to this show, skip the first story arc. It's incredibly boring.

Note: This is a review for all of Boku no Hero Academia. The reason I chose this season to review was because in my opinion, this is overall the weakest entry in the series.

Like several mainstream anime, My Hero Academia has serious problems that are overlooked by the majority of its viewers who are blindsided by its "creative style" and "exciting cast of characters".

As a long time reader and watcher of the series, I've grown to be hurt more and more by the unfortunate mediocrity this show likes to consistently stoop to.

Every time something relatively game changing or hype is in place, it's ... either used for plot convenience to make the main character look good/become more powerful, or it's outright done horribly.

My Hero Academia bathes in its own mediocrity and excels in nothing aside from your extremely generic shonen fare. There's justifiable reason it has been dubbed "Naruto 2" or whatever.

People see something that isn't there. They praise characters that are only used once in a blue moon to push the plot along or to garner unwarranted hype by said characters fans. And even then, easily 90% of the characters are one note tropes, or bland pieces of cardboard cut out to specifically cater to the lowest common denominator.

It's gravely unfortunate that stellar, unique series such as Dr. Stone or The Promised Neverland are typically sidelined in favor for this 50% abysmal, 50% average at best series.

[Slight Season 1 and big 2 Spoilers, and Manga Spoilers]


My Hero Academia (or Boku no Hero Academia) was released in 2016. With it being controversial for its crappy and see through concept, but amazing characters, said some people. When the show came out you either love it, or hated it. The fandom around the time of season's 1 ending was a toxic mess, but that's not what we're talking about today. This show got a squeal (multiple), This anime's first season blew anime fans out of their seats and we were all excited to see more seasons coming, with this amazing masterpiece getting a second ... season, what are my thoughts?

This season sucked

And here's why


Story, 4/10

This season's plot kind of triggered me in a lot of ways, this season starts off with the aftermath of the ending of season one (The USJ Attack), and then they wiped that out of the way and there-forth came the School Sports Festival. To me all I felt like season 2 was about was to get our characters ready and hype us up for season 3 (which to me I really enjoyed). The sports Festival included some new characters like Shinsou, Tetsutetsu, Kendo, and more. To me all this season felt like was a Chunk of filler, and taking off the training wheel's of some characters for all the serious things they had planned. The Stain arc didn't have much impact on me, but I hate how they keep making new characters then throwing them away completely (Stain, Shinsou, All for One). Yes i'm aware Shinsou comes back in the manga but holy crap does it take 2 seasons to bring back a great character asked by many? in my opinion it shouldn't.


Art, 7/10

Okay but like, we need to appreciate the art this season, the whole Todoroki vs Deku scene really hit me. The art for this fight, and like all of bakugos fight's I felt like were 100% full effort into the making of these scene's, and well drawn. To the Colours, the ideas, the everything, the art was truly something.


Sound, 5/10

What did I feel about the intro...? Meh. This intro is Iconic for its high beat fast sounds and it was spread worldwide fast, the ART for the intro was great, but the song choice felt poor. The sound for the fights though felt pretty good and defiantly something, However season 1's sound for there fights and just the whole season in general felt a lot better to me. F in the chat boys


Characters, 7/10

As I said at the start, this season was to prepare the characters for future seasons. Which this season did well, my problem was that that's all this season really felt to me. The character design's and their voice actors felt amazing to me, and truly great with High effort. Even the dubbed actors, and that's saying something. Having the idea of opening out Todoroki with him getting a high request for more screen time from Season 1, was Defiantly the right move, the whole "It's your power not his!", Scene became a meme with the fandom, and is a truly loved scene.


Enjoyment, 4/10

It took my friends and myself age to convince myself to continue the sports festival arc. I really didn't enjoy it and was think of dropping the arc altogether, I stand by my point by all this season did was improve characters with a big sized jar of Filler episodes, that changed the plot in a horrible way. Many ways could've been done to make season 3 better but they way they did it instead made me feel like it was missing a whole lot more, PIZAZ to it (and it was).


Overall, 5/10

This season felt empty and nothing to me, overrated and over-hyped as HELL. I could've spent my time writing a review on why Tokyo ghoul season 2 was the worst thing to come to my eyes, but instead i'm here saying why Season 2 of one of the most popular shounens out here, sucked bakugos thicc butt


There you go folks, my review on season 2

It's an above average season. Each arc of this season had its good moments, mostly with the main characters and a few of the supporting characters. It still had some bland scenes.

The sportsfest arc was it its best on the one-on-one battles. Other than that, it was boring, and at worst weird for me. I hate Bakugo by his very essence, but his fight with Ochaco was something I appreciate. His seriousness may be the only thing that's worth mentioning about him. Todoroki's moments are one of the bests in this season. I can't really find flaws in his character, there may be some ... but what makes him a good character still prevails. He may come off at first as an angsty character, this is justified by his motivations and the choices he has made. I really like how he is resolving his issues. He changes, in a gradual manner, which is something realistic. I feel like Deku is still the same person he was by the end of the first season. He's grown in power and in confidence, but he still has a long way to go.

For Iida, I don't feel strongly for him. I feel like he has been given the chance for growth but he may be overshadowed by those around him. That's not bad at all, everyone has their own pace. Momo shows potential with her strategies. She's potentially strong with her quirk as well. She's relatable enough being the character that's portrayed as book-smart having trouble with practicality. The other characters are just there. They're average, and I feel mostly bored during their battles. I'd also like to mention how I hate Mineta. He's just there for unfunny comic relief. He's the same with Bakugo, their motivations and their actions are both shitty that put others in harm. I hate that this prevailing perverted acts are still being normalized (is this how it is in Japan?). It just puts off the theme of the series about heroism when we've got characters who are unreasonably violent who think their harassment can just be brushed off because that's who they are. Imagine how it feels like for victims of sexual harassment and abuse to see these characters are normalized. They're worse than the generic villains that have been introduced so far.

Anyway, I'm watching the series to see the growth of Deku, Ochaco, Todoroki, and Iida. As well as to see the extent of their battles.

(This is the second part of a series of video and written reviews called The Decline of My Hero Academy)
(SPOILER WARNING FOR HUNTER X HUNTER, FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST, AND NARUTO + SHIPPUDEN)

Season 2 starts off strong, with the best arc in the anime, the Sports Festival. Admittedly, a lot of why I like it is because it reminds me of my favorite arc from Naruto, the chuunin exams. Regardless, the Sports Festival is honestly pretty great. Tons of action and drama, a tournament of 1 on 1 fights, and most importantly: no villains around to distract Horikoshi.

Let's quickly run through the first 2 stages so we ... can get to the part I like:

Stage 1: Obstacle race

The first stage is pretty good, but the least interesting stage overall. Deku, Todoroki and Bakugo dominate this stage, settings things up for the cavalry battle.

Stage 2: Cavalry battle

Groups of 4 fight each other in weird formations. Need to grab other participants’ headbands to get points and pass. The higher you placed in the obstacle course, the more points you’re worth in this stage, meaning the bigger target you are to the other students. Deku finished #1 so he’s worth 1 million. This stage is also pretty good, except for the stupid part where some of the students retire from the festival because their memories of it are gone.

But where it really gets good is stage 3: the 1 on 1 tournament. This was the best part of Naruto, and I think its obvious Horikoshi took heavy inspiration from Naruto for this arc. In fact, some of the fights are basically copied from Naruto:

Like how Kirishima vs Tetsutetsu ends in a draw after both contestants knock each other out with punches to the face, aka the same way Sakura vs Ino ends.

And Bakugo vs Ururaka is basically Neji vs Hinata. Aka: female side character that's interested in the main character romantically tries to fight off arguably the strongest student, is inspired by the main character and fights on and on even when they're overwhelmed, and they end up collapsing.

I think this part of MHA outshines the rest of the show for a number of reasons, but the main reason is because it’s the most focused Horikoshi has been through the entire first 4 seasons of the show. Without poorly written villains running around to distract him, Horikoshi is able to focus not only on the strengths of what he’s created (characters, drama, setting), but also the strengths of the battle shounen genre itself.

You have characters informing the action, like Todoroki using his fire powers against Deku, and losing because he refused to use them against Bakugo.
The world building is informing the action, like Mei using her fight against Iida as an advertisement for her inventions.

The action is informing the character development, like Yoarouzu despairing because she lost so easily. Which becomes a plotline going forward.
It all comes together at once to create easily the best arc of the show, and also leads to the best fight of the show: Deku vs Todoroki.

If I had to compare it to another fight, I'd say this is MHA's Rock Lee vs Gaara. Deku's ability is actually pretty similar to Rock Lee's, where using their ability damages their body and overusing it could prevent them from fighting again. And Todoroki has always struck me as MHA's Gaara, what with his overwhelmingly strong ability, seemingly invincible defense, and how both characters hold back their full strength in every fight thus far, never being pushed enough to use it.

Which is what makes the 2 fights exhilarating. For the first time, you see someone actually get to them.

In both fights, the challenger (Rock Lee and Deku) is forced to overwork their bodies to dangerous degrees to level the playing field. And then, it happens. The thing we were told would never happen, happens. Gaara gets hit and is forced to use his real ability. Todoroki snaps and uses his fire.
And this moment, right here, is My Hero Academy’s peak. It is the moment where all of its strengths converge into one incredible moment.

This moment is great, but its the last time My Hero Academy reaches anything close to such a high. This is where the decline of My Hero Academy begins.

Bad Parts

After this arc ends, the first signs of a recurring problem the show has yet to solve through season 4 pop up: Horikoshi declaring stakes and then retreating to a safer option that's easier to write around.

1: Stakes

So. This is class A’s chance to show off their stuff for potential internships and hero agencies, as the event is broadcast across the nation but also tons of scouts are present. If you thrive, everyone will witness it but the same is true if you fail. It could hurt your reputation going forward.

Class A is also threatened with the possibility of being demoted to a lower class if they underperform. This one is interesting, as it adds a lot of pressure to the fights with class B students. After all, if a class A student loses to one from class B, there’s a high chance those 2 will be switching places.

The problem with this one is Horikoshi doesn’t follow through with it, as only class A students end up advancing and no one from class B is promoted.
In Naruto, all 3 of the sand ninja end up advanced to the finals of the chuunin exams. I liked this because it established the strength of the other nations, and indicated clearly that they're just as strong as Konohagakure and pose a very real threat to it. Which uh, yeah, turned out to be the case.
With MHA though, that doesn't happen. Now, I'm not saying that this decision is bad because MHA didn't do what Naruto did in a similar situation. Its bad because MHA does this consistently, creating stakes for a situation and then retreating from them, which constantly deflates tension and handicaps the potential for viewers to get invested in the drama in later arcs. Its not a huge deal here, but as you'll see when we get to season 3, it becomes a very large problem the series has yet to solve through the current season.

2: Deku's Body

Despite being told many times that Deku is risking his body by using his power the way he does, Deku never actually suffers any long-lasting consequences like permanently damaging his body, or being sidelined for a while so he can actually recover. Quick stop to the hospital and he's good to go next episode! This is again, not a huge deal now. But if you're going to create that subplot, you have to actually follow through with it somehow eventually. And Horikoshi never does, which again we'll get to in more detail in season 3.

Stain

So. The series is riding high after the sports festival arc, and I started becoming convinced that My Hero Academy could actually live up to its endless hype. After all, Horikoshi and Studio Bones proved capable of drawing out the show's strengths to overpower its weaknesses for one great arc. If they can keep doing that, the series is bound for greatness.
But like I said earlier, the decline of the series begins after the sports festival arc. And that decline starts with the show's next big villain, Stain.
Now, Stain himself is fine. Stain isn't a fan of current hero society. He believes that hero is a title that should only be bestowed upon those who accomplish good deeds. He thinks that the world has become overgrown with fake heroes, and that greed and fame have tainted what it means to be a hero.

The first time I watched season 2, I was confused by Stain and didn't understand what statement Horikoshi was trying to make with this arc, but couldn't really put a finger on why. On re-watch though, this line made me realize why Stain felt off:

"There are too many that act like heroes but are really money-worshippers" (E28)

Okay, now think: how many heroes can you think of that fit that description? How many heroes have we seen that are greedy, that will take bribes, that are willing to compromise their beliefs for money, or became corrupted by money? That's right.

There aren't any. And this is why Stain as a villain doesn't work. None of the heroes of MHA align with the way Stain sees the world. His reasoning make sense, but its rather difficult to think of any that represent why what he's saying is a bad thing. All the heroes in MHA are too morally upstanding to reflect Stain's criticisms of society. The worst hero I can think of in terms of behavior is Endeavor, and he's the worst by a LOT. He definitely checks the box for being overly obsessed with fame via aiming for the #1 spot, but at the same time he is the only example of this. Ideally, you want your villain's criticism of society to be something that resonates, where you look everywhere and see it. With Stain, you have to squint to find any examples of what he's talking about.

As for the money thing, the only characters that come close to validating Stain's claims are Uraraka and Mt Lady.

Uraraka's motivation to become a hero is to make money, making her the only hero to have the motivation Stain is criticizing. And in her case, the money isn't even for her. Its for her parents. She wants money to take care of her parents, which hardly sounds like money-worshipping and doesn't stand to prove what Stain said correct.

As for Mt Lady: there are several instances of her acting like a jackass, but these scenes don't seem to be written in a way that criticizes her behavior. Horikoshi seems to be writing it as charming. And if Horikoshi is trying to say fame-chasing and the over-commercialization of heroes is bad here, then that message is contradicted by this moment in season 4 when Deku wins over Nighteye because he knew some absurdly specific fact about an All Might poster. I thought it was supposed to be a bad thing?

And just generally, quite a bit of hero society feels over-commercialized but A LOT of it is played straight, rather than more deliberately critical. I can think of many scenes where the celebrity status of heroes grosses me out, but none that I can think of and immediately say "oh yeah, the show is very clearly portraying this as a bad thing."

So for money-chasing, you have 1 example that sort of works and another that completely contradicts it. Not exactly an ideology that resonates strongly.

Stain's problem is that not enough effort was put into making his claims about society ring true. The show isn't consistent in how it treats fame-worshipping and over-commercialization, and there aren't enough examples of either problem in the show for either issue to feel systemic rather than isolated. And before you dismiss this as nitpicking, this particular issue is something other good battle shounens don't usually have a problem with.

There's a reason you feel some empathy for Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist. Because we know exactly why he's attacking state alchemists, and we know that there are bastards in the military that ENJOYED slaughtering his people, the Ishbalans. Beyond just that, thousands of other officers like Roy Mustang turned the other cheek or didn't take a stand. In a way, they're all guilty and deserve to be punished. Point being, we know what Scar believes and understand why he believes it because what he opposes is systemic in the world he inhabits. This just isn't the case for MHA. Stain is effectively opposing a strawman, a non-existent class of greedy heroes that we as audience aren't shown. As such, his words ring hollow. There's potential here, but you have to be willing to take risks like making more heroes less than perfect. Endeavor was a good start but you need more if you want a villain like Stain to work.

With all this in mind, its no surprise that Deku's takeaways from their encounter are nonsense.

In episode 31, Todoroki and Deku talk about their encounter with Stain, and conclude it with “its obvious we were left alive for a reason.”

Uh why is that? Stain left everyone alive! He failed to kill anyone! This ties into another issue I have with Horikoshi refusing to kill heroes. It isn't obvious he left Deku and the others alive for a reason rather than killing them, because we have yet to see him kill anyone. I don't want to dig too deep into this particular issue yet, so for now lets move on to Deku's other takeaway.

He also says something about in the end Stain was the only one standing against his opponents, which um??? Deku did that when he approached Stain in the alley? Deku's body moving on its own when someone is in danger or a hero is needed and so on is one of his signature personality traits. It’s THE THING that convinced All Might to pass One for All to him. So Stain having the courage or resolve to "stand against his opponents" isn't something Deku can or needs to internalize. It is his signature strength. Ideally, you want the main character to learn a lesson that they needed to at the end of an arc. They acquire some knowledge or learn something that changes them. This one is half-assed and isn't relevant to the character's growth.

Him being unafraid to stand against his opponents is literally his greatest strength. His takeaway from his encounter with Stain is meaningless! He already does that same thing, more so than any other hero! He's always done it! It's nonsense!

Deku not taking away anything from this arc due to Horikoshi's bad writing ties into another problem the show has: Deku as a main character. And yes, I did say I liked him as the protagonist in season 1. But that’s only in the context of season 1, ignoring the rest of the series. Now, there are things I like about his character like his thing where his body moves without thinking, and the way he inspires change in people reminds me a bit of the way Naruto does the same thing. But like in terms of him as a person? He isn't very good. There isn't much to him as a person after he gets One for All, they spend more time developing his powers than him as a character, and he has very weak interpersonal relationships with the rest of the characters except for All Might and maybe Bakugo.

But the problem I wanted to cover relative to Stain is that he doesn't believe in anything.

Deku Doesn't Believe in Anything

As you can probably guess, I have an issue with Deku's belief system. That is to say, there isn't one. And no, "doing bad things is bad", "you should always try your best", and "never give up" do not count.

I think Deku is most similar to Naruto as a protagonist, so that'll be the comparison I use to illustrate my point. In Naruto, it is obvious what the writer identifies as the bad parts of the shinobi world. It is war.

The event that caused Naruto's parents to die was an act of war. An attack by Tobi to get the nine-tails to attack the leaf village. Most of the villains are in some way raised by war, or the circumstances they currently face are the result of it.

Haku was an orphan due to an ability he inherited from his mother: Due to a war prior to Haku's birth, many in his clan hated and feared this ability, due to its association with the war and the fear that its existence would mean more war. These circumstances resulted in Haku's entire clan being wiped out except for him. He is now an orphan as a result of war. The same is true of Zaku later. He was taken in by Orochimaru after being found on the streets. And ultimately, Zaku was sacrificed as a means of another attack: the Konoha crush.

Neji's belief system of people being unable to change their fate is a result of his father's death, which was a cover-up to protect the family after a Kumogakure Head Ninja visiting Konoha took advantage of a peace treaty and attempted to kidnap Hinata in order to gain the secrets of the Byakugan.

Nagato ended up an orphan after his parents were killed by shinobi from the leaf village, and was forced to leave his village and search for food and shelter after killing those shinobi. After nearly collapsing from hunger, he met Konan and Yahiko, orphans like himself. They shared dreams of a future where they were in charge and could use their power to eliminate war. This group became known as the Akatsuki. They grew in numbers blah blah blah, and eventually the leader of Amegakure (Hanzo of the Salamander), felt threatened. Hanzo pretended he would work with the Akatsuki so that he could ambush Yahiko and Nagato, with support from Konoha's Danzo. Some shit went down, Yahiko dies, and Nagato severs all ties with Amegakure.

Yahiko's death ultimately convinced Nagato that his philosophies about achieving peace were foolish; the world would never willingly end the cycle of death and hatred it had operated on for so long. Only through direct experience of war and all the losses and agonies it brought could anyone truly desire peace.

The scars of war are inflicted on many characters throughout Naruto, and Naruto himself embodies the things that the shinobi world needs to change, such as a willingness to forgive those who don't deserve forgiveness (such as the villagers who shunned him as a child) and compassion even towards your enemies.

The fact that Deku doesn't have a similar level of depth is for a lot of reasons, but a large part of it is that the villains lack an ideology that is followed up and/or informed by the world around them.

Deku doesn't represent a change needed in hero society. He just wants to be like All Might. The villains all say there are problems with hero society, but none of them actually have a point. When you look at what Pain says about continuing the cycle of death and hate, you understand what he's talking about. Because you've seen it in tons of characters. Naruto having to live in a village that hates him for something he can't control and having to grow up alone because his parents were killed during his birth. Sasuke's entire clan was wiped out. His entire existence is based around getting revenge and killing the person responsible. Tons and tons of examples.

And when I examine MHA's world in a similar way based on Stain's ideology, there's very little there. The things that the villains claim are just that, things that Horikoshi wrote for them. They aren't based on anything Horikoshi worked into MHA's world. As a result of all this, the villain arcs of MHA feel hollow. The pieces are there, but by not having opponents or a world that challenge the protagonist as a person, there isn't that emotional core they need. I really wish Horikoshi would just change his approach to writing villains to something more simple, as he never puts in enough effort to make a villain like Stain work.

Or alternatively, write a villain based around your protagonist. Remember when Deku didn't have a quirk at the beginning of the series and it frustrated him to no end? Write a villain around that. You could very easily write villains that abuse their powers and don’t appreciate what they have. That's something that would naturally infuriate Deku given he knows what it’s like to not have a quirk at all. I thought this is what he was going to do with Overhaul, but the show never touches on the idea.

Before I go further, I'd like to clarify this so my point doesn't get misconstrued: Stain isn't bad because he isn't Scar, and Deku isn't bad because he isn't Naruto. Stain doesn't work because he requires the world to be written in a certain way, and Horikoshi's failure to do so has a negative impact on Deku's potential development, and that impact is best illustrated by other, more effective protagonists like Naruto and better villains like Scar.

Conclusion

That's about all I have to say for season 2. It’s harder to judge than season 1 because half of it is great and the other half is...sloppy. Overall though I think its decent, and has yet to hit truly bad.

A very typical shounen anime. I am not addressing originality, as this is not something required for the genre. As such, there are certain tropes it needs to deliver like the whiny insecure protagonist, the Goody Two-Shoes girl, and the explosive shouting sidekick and they are all available in the series. The animation is quite good (without the totally deformed silhouettes we are used to seeing lately) and the voice actors are doing a great job.

Unfortunately, during the second season, the series becomes more and more fragmented and the characters more and more confusing and shallow. Some are given more screen time, some less for ... no particular reason; there is no real structure so the entire storyline crumbles.

The lead character is, unfortunately, quite weak while his sidekick Bakugou becomes more and more comic and less and less likeable. The trouble for both is that they have not evolved at all within 24 episodes. It is like watching season one with slight changes and a tad more details. An example is how Midoriya seems to have discovered his resolve and the secret to his powers about 10 times and how Bakugou displays the same aggression and lack of hero morals even after a few teachers and pro heroes have expressed their concerns. There is also the classification of Todoraki as a "main" character when he is getting less background story and less screen time than Asui, for example. Yes, I agree it is difficult to tell 10 or 12 stories, but then again - why try instead of focusing on one main storyline and a few lead characters you can fully build and develop?

The lack of development and clear idea or message in the series pretty much makes the "great rivalry" in the show ridiculous. Appears like Todokari, Bakugou and Midoriya are all confused by who motivates who, who challenges who and why. It is hard to take seriously or be interested in a three-way rivalry where people often lose motivation and focus.

All in all, it is a good pastime shounen anime but overall a hot mess with no real purpose or idea.

Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season, or My Hero Academia, but I like to call it My Cliché Academia/ My "Hero" Academia.

I have no idea how but they managed to make it worse than the first season, of course, those reading must be like how? The scores on the second are better than the first, sorry kiddo but it ain't any better and I got a chunk of explanation to back my view up. Plus, if this is the highest-scoring season out of the series, god am I not excited by the next one. To start, why the fuck did they take so long at ... the sports festival plot. A long chunk of 11 episodes just to fit the festival, what's worse is that it doesn't even feel complete. What do I mean by complete? I just feel that it served very little purpose to the plot and that it didn't even touch on all the characters. The majority of the screen time is on Midori or Baku or Todoroki, every other character just felt like being dusted under a rug. Plus, why does the show say Midori is quirk-less? He clearly has the power of unlimited tears and word rambles. By no means is the festival close to being fair, the match-ups are fucked, rules kinda crooky and hell, how does this even add up to a "school sports festival". I know you must be thinking that it's the UA Academy so it's fine but that's not what I'm going for. A sports festival is somewhat base on sportsmanship and while competitiveness plays a part it is not the dominating factor. What the show did was remove any forms of sportsmanship and built beating others as the top ideology. My gosh was it a pain to see all the students so desperately trying to beat one another, like it's so bad that it's pointless of the whole 'festival' gimmick. But whatever, I'll swallow the pill, but what they showed was absolute bullshit, an example is Midori versus Shinsou (mind control dude). In no way should Midori have won but he still won anyways due to stupid plot armor, damn was I piss when I saw that, cause I really liked the Shinsou guy. Urgh, now we move on to the next half where it's about them getting an internship. I don't mind the concept but how the show executed the scenes is just awful. What I find the most troubling part is the villain Stain's design, he just looks like a TMNT rip off. I love his intensions but his doings are just so poor, yes by killing more heroes will I get my beliefs out to the public. I mean he did but his character was such a sort termed thing. I know people applaud the show for its amazing fight scenes, but don't let that fool you from its painful and super annoying emotional moments throughout every fight that anyone encounters. Truly, this repetitive format is what defeats the purpose of the fight scenes for me. Must everything be so damn emotional? Like I appreciate the Slice of Life and the school life parts but it's always disrupted by Midori's ultra emotional thinkings or sayings. Additionally, I can see that the series is slightly underbudgeted or under-produced. Now, you might think that's ridiculous but it's true, have you notice the amount of reused scenes and the super heavy text load one character says. Plus I counted the beginning and end of each episode, you are only getting 18 minutes of screen time. Well, the studio does a good job of hiding it I just wanted to point it out. Lastly, the villain, still such a weak and unlikeable side of the series. Plus what's worse is that this whole season is just for Shigaraki to realize that 'oh, I remembered my job'. Truly the writer sucks at making a good villain. I can go on but I think this will cover it.

-SCORES-

Character- 6/10: Fuck the villains, trashy and unlikable as in the first season. Midori and Baku are like repelling magnets that the show just keeps trying to push them together. It is to a point where it's like a toxic relationship and it feels so forced. Clearly Baku can be a nice guy like to Kirishima but no, for Midori, I MUST BE STRAIGHT-UP CANCER and I'll use being a hero as an excuse. I love the other classmate, especially Kaminari. I just wished there was more scene time on them and not on Midori all the time.

Art- 8/10: It definitely spells out a very heroic kind of show, definitely love the ''EAT THIS" moment. I just wished there was less talking during fight scenes are they would actually just fight for real without interruptions.

Writing- 4/10: So cliché that it's sad. I know the show wants to built a strong fanbase and I do feel that motive to get involved in the characters but majority of the writing is just dog shit and bad. An example of how it could have been more interesting is to see work departments that utilizes people with a particular quirk in that area. I just want to see more creative incorporation of people's quirk in life. I love that they explained that having quirks stopped progression in civilization, which is understandable but I feel that it would be more interesting to dwell on that path instead of giving some shitty and shallow superhero show about just beating the villains. Oh please.

Sound- 4/10: The first intro sounds as if the microphone is far away from the band and the second intro just feels as if the band is just giving their 'practice' go at the song. Also, the show had the balls to play super emotional music at emotional scenes just to trick the audience into it even more. A bold move and I hate it.

Overall, I feel like ton of potential is wasted here. I feel a reason why this season is worse than the first is that the studio stretched the season out to 25 episodes. This made quantity over quality which I do find a shame. I'm probably going to watch the third season but I don't have high hopes on it.

Light 5

My Hero Academia is a strange series.
It has a terrible pace, predictable plot twists, an obnoxious protagonist and an even more insufferable rival. But it has its moments, good action scenes and interesting villains.

If you haven't seen the first season of this show, you can go on, because it's barely a prologue to this 25 episode second season, that is divided in three main arcs, one more predictable than the others: a fighting tournament, a fight with a ninja with superpowers and an exam (which is actually another tournament).

To start, MHA is about Izuku Midoriya, a guy that has no superpowers in ... a world where 80% of the population has one. One day, the greatest superhero of all, All Might, gives him his own powers and so he can fulfill his dream of becoming a hero. But he has first to graduate from the Yuuei, the most important superhero academy of the country.

Starting with the fact that a "Superhero academy" is a stupid idea, the point with MHA is that is pointless. The series would be about overcoming your own weaknesses in order to become better, but the protagonist, who has no powers (and this could be used in a "I'll become the strongest powerless human" scenario) obtains powers because they are given to him. He goes from being the weakest to be one of the strongest character with no actual fatigue (and no, a montage of him cleaning a beach won't convince me of having worked hard to achieve the best superpower in the world). It's like Naruto, who is actually from the start one of the strongest character in the manga/anime, but is hold back from, basically, being an idiot. Why I should care about such characters? And don't make me start talking about Bakugo, a character that is both a parody of the "angry warrior" (Wolverine, Gatsu) archetype and the apex of the edgy teenager.

Luckily, the author(s) of MHA created some fairly good villain, with Shibaraki and Stain, who seem to come from an horror film and who have some motivation. But what I liked the most is the commentary on the "coolness" of being a bad guy, on the fact that people feel fascinated from this characters just because they are on the dark side and have a motivation for what they do. It is interesting: finally someone tells you "ok, the Joker may be cool and all, but you must remember that he's some f**king mass murderer".
I also really liked the arcs of the secondary characters, especially Shoto Todoroki, who has a great backstory with which many could relate to. Even Iida's storyline makes more sense than everything related to All Might, Midoriya and Bakugo. I could argue that one of the main problems of MHA is having chosen the wrong protagonist.

The action scenes are cool and the animation very good, much better than the first season. The sound design is very good too, but I find the soundtrack not that great, despite the famous "You say run" track.

My hero academia is undoubtedly funny to watch because of all the fights and the spectacle, but is very shallow and falsely inspirational, with a supporting cast immensely more interesting than its main cast. Its success is to me a mistery. Maybe the "hero mania" of the first 2010s due to the success of the Marvel movies? Maybe. But what does this series adds to the already existing 80 years (at the time of the release, about 75 years) of superhero comic books? Nothing new.

My Hero Academia 2nd Season

This is without a doubt the ONLY season of MHA that stood out from the rest. Not only did this one have relatively fast pacing, but also a lot of character screentime and content.

Starting with being introduced more and more into the world of MHA, you also get to know the school system and also realistic aspects of the hero world. How much their appearance and image will be important in the future and how hero politics works. In the sports festival, the strengths, weaknesses, and motivations of many characters are taken and put into very entertaining fights and games.

At ... the same time, the second half gets a bit darker and is again about the Villains League and an assassin who targets hypocritical heroes. This again provides a relatively interesting and critical approach to "how true heroes" are defined. Is it right to call yourself a hero but at the same time demand wealth and fame for your deeds? Or is a hero really just a self-sacrificing symbol, which is only meant to warm people's hearts instead of enriching oneself?
Despite everything, I personally agree with the villain philosophy on this point, as their definition of a "true hero" is the correct one.

The further seasons of MHA will have the same concept. The first/second half of the season will be about the story and the other half will be just about school events and various actions. Unfortunately, the later school events are far more sluggish and uncreative than the sports festival from season 2. Likewise, the pacing suffers tremendously later on and MHA turns into "Flashback Naruto Academia" over time.

[Music 7 & Animation 8]


Musically, I found the first intro more appealing, but this one also possessed its own charm. The Osts remained impressive and very motivating.

The animations varied from above average to explosively dynamic. Not to mention the Stain fight and Midoriya and Todoroki clash.

[Conclusion 6]

This season has everything an upcoming shounen must-have. A decent training arc that was well involved in the story. Character motivation merged with dynamics and interesting fights. As well as a following serious plot about villains and hero philosophy.

Unfortunately, this is by far the BEST My Hero Academia season, which disappointed me a bit, because I really like MHA. For me personally, it's one of the best shounen out there. Unfortunately, the quality often speaks against it.

[Enjoyment 8]