Manga 75989 Boku No Hero Academia Reviews Filter Check 2

(This review only included the first 95 chapters since I decided to drop this manga due the the problems that will be mentioned in this review)

Personally, I have no problems with shonen manga having very common themes like rivalry, friendship and dreams etc. or having sort of childish humor. (If the gag talks more about the character I'll like it anyway.)
Some people like to despise shonen manga, saying something like kiddies shonen blah blah blah but I think there's potential for shonen manga. I love one piece, first part of naruto, dragon ball and hunter x hunter. I think if you tell a story ... well, even when the themes of the story may seem generic, it still can be a great story.
However Hero Academia isn't one of them.

Hero Aca has really good character designs. All characters look unique and match their own personality even when some of them are just background characters.
There is a wide range of characters in the main cast and all of them have interesting supernatural abilities (quirks). Quirks always match one's personality. That makes the characters feel more grounded.
And most of them have likeable and unique personalities that make you side with the characters when shit hits the fan.

However, the greatness of Hero Academia ends right there. (at least for me)

It's just way too spread out on its characters.
It's trying to talk about too many characters without going in depth with any of them except for a few. (Deku, Todoroki and All Might). A lot of the characters(like Ochaco, Eraserhead) can be interesting but none of them had their backstories explained or took a major lead in any of the arcs.

This simplistic characterisation for the main characters can be a great thing for long running shonen series. Main characters don't get fully developed in the early stage of the story so don't end up being static due to the length of the manga and ultimately harm the longevity and the quality of the manga.

Well it works for Hunter X Hunter.
Hunter x Hunter has a similar case before chimera ant arc. It has amazing villains like Hisoka, Phantom Troupe while the main characters have very little backstories but just interesting enough to get you root for them. In Chimera ant arc, Gon took a huge turn with his character and we can still see he's changing and learning more in the future. It isn't like One Piece where the bond between the crew is already so huge after timeskip. It doesn't show anymore about them when they sacrifice for their friends. And the story has been becoming more and more stale. (This can be controversial but hey, that's just my opinion.)

But that doesn't work for Hero Academia.
Villains aren't very well developed in this manga.
Like, their ideals(what exactly they hate about the heroes except they are smiling and can't save everyone), how they come up with their ideals (backstories), what's the relationship among them, those things don't seem very well told.

Main characters aren't as well developed than that in HxH either. In HxH, we've seen a main character went on a big revenge arc. We learned about Kurapika's goal and his way to achieve his goal, and how Gon and his friends react to that. While Gon, Killua and Leorio weren't getting a whole lot of character development. We still have something to think about the characters.
In Hero Aca, we just got a really short revenge arc for Tenya which is way more underwhelming than that in HxH.

You can go for a simplistic characterisation. But you gotta have good villains and one to two good main characters.

Not many shonen manga has truly great villains, but without even well developed main characters, the story just ends up feeling empty.

I don't understand why people hate Naruto with a passion but end up loving this manga. Naruto's part 2 (shippuden) had gone downhill and ninja war arc was shit. But its exam arc was actually good with a range of well defined characters like (nenji, hinata, lee, shikamaru, sakura and naruto himself), and a big interesting overarching plotline.

While some people may claim that Hero Academia's main weakness is its generic story, I tend to disagree. You can have a very generic structured tournament arc but still have a very good story by making the characters interesting. Just having characters with different/opposite personalities clashing each other, seeing them learning from each other and becoming stronger in terms of skills and mentality can be fun as hell like what I've mentioned about Naruto.

Up until chapter 92 in Hero Academia, I still don't see there are many memorable character moments for the characters except Todoroki and All Might. I still hate that the author tried to make the main cast saving the most unlikeable and annoying character in the manga which doesn't build up the emotion at all.

With a lot of similar traits with Naruto's, I just don't see Hero Academia have come close to its predecessor, not to mention having surpassed it. I'm passionate about shonen manga. Maybe I'm just a jaded old man who can't appreciate new shonen. Feel free to discuss with me by leaving comments in my profile if you think I'm wrong.

As this is my first review on MAL I’ll start with a summary of it:

Overall I liked the first arcs of Hero Academia, but it was too inconsistent plot wise for me to continue reading. The manga would do things to reel me in just to lose me the next arc and I decided to might as well drop it.

My problems can be explained in 3 aspects of the writing:

Deku as a protagonist:
Deku to me is a boring character. He has undeniably right ideals and motivation, he has an overpowered quirk and he never faces real consequences. His idea of a hero and why he ... wants to be one are too pure and cliche to be noteworthy. Mentally, he won’t change and in a long run that proves to be boring to me. Then, can his quirk make him interesting? Well, the story behind is, but a quirk that can just smash through everything is too plain in a series about how everyone has unique powers. Bakugou can use his explosions in creative ways, Uraraka has to be clever to fight with zero gravity, but Deku just powers up to the next percent and punches to win. And when he doesn't win per se, the situation always solves itself. He can’t use OFA or else he gets injured? Only happens in UA and he can be healed right away. He does get injured in an important battle? Doesn’t matter he can just man up. He breaks government or school rules? Oh, well you did good so let’s move on. I find supporting characters like Bakugou or Todoroki way more interesting but the problem is that everyone’s developments are tied too much to Deku. I know he is the protagonist and the plot is about him, but some characters should be allowed to shine on their own. As a rival, Bakugou’s development is obviously tied to him. Todorki’s arc revolves around Deku and his pep talks. Iida’s arc gets intense but of course Deku has to be there. And poor Uraraka, a lot of times she is just there to be Deku’s future love interest.


Villains:
Extending the perfect protagonist point, he have to talk about villains. If our hero is too good, then we need a good villain to keep the narrative interesting. If the hero is too pure, then the villain should challenge him in a philosophical way. Either make him doubt himself or make an impression on the reader. If the hero is too powerful, then the villain should be able to challenge him to keep fights engaging; and if the hero progresses his power the villain should too. If the hero never loses, then the villain should be resourceful enough to keep things close. So far all the villains (Shigaraki, Stain, Overhaul, Gentle) have none of these traits. Now, they don’t need to be perfect too and hit on all 3 traits but one should be enough to make things interesting. All 4 are too crazy to sympathize with and too evil that they’ll never shake Deku’s ideals or motivations. All 4 are nowhere near close to Deku’s fighting prowess, and, if they somehow were, they would just get obliterated by the next OFA percent. All 4 are also incapable of forming interesting strategies. Stain, Overhaul and Gentle just straight up end up fighting the good guys up front without being even close to escape, and Shigaraki has to have his behind saved all the time.


Focus:
Now I did say that at first I liked the manga and that is true. When the author limited himself to a couple of students and All Might’s life in UA and how they dealt with their emotions as events unfolded it was a good read. The background of a school and setup of the classrooms to have at least 20 other supporting characters was promising. But, for some reason or another the author kept adding more students, more heroes, more villains before giving proper time to the ones we had already. This made one dimensional, secondary characters more plain that they already were that it makes me question why are they even there in the first place. The story went from exploring characters in this interesting world to trying to explore the world and then maybe the characters themselves in a really sudden change.


I really recommend reading the first few arcs. For me, they were good and they introduced some characters that I started to like and care for before they were thrown into the bench with little hope to dive into them as much as I would have hoped. The later arcs varied too much in quality for me and at one point the story took a different route that I don't really care for. Out of the 180 chapters I read I would say it was a 50/50 hit and miss ratio.

My Hero Academia has pretty much unanimously been touted as the new age shounen. With massive series like Naruto and Bleach ending BnH stepped up to the spot and has enjoyed an explosive wave of popularity. BnH does a great job of being a very approachable shounen manga with mass appeal. The fact that it has a superhero theme also helps since it has blasted into mainstream western pop culture as of late thanks to 3 well produced anime seasons.

But while this is a competent shounen story with tropes that we’ve all come to love, there seems to be a lot of problems with ... it regarding to its storytelling and characterization. It quickly became clear that BnH was content being a safe, by the books shounen story when it could be so much more, especially when you have 30+ years of material to learn from, from Dragon Ball to One Piece to Naruto and truly create something new and unique. Instead it follows a fairly clear cut structure that doesn’t want to be more than it could and should be. It’s a letdown especially now after seeing what new age shounen actually can be in Dr Stone and The Promised Neverland with unique premises and creative ways to carry out encounters.

Story 5/10

The narrative for the most part follows a very monotonous and boring structure, one training arc followed by a villain arc.

The plot points are also generic, encounters and battles for the most part in the story boils down to who is stronger and our protagonist Deku has been blessed with bar none the strongest quirk in the world. It makes for uninteresting fights because his quirk is as generic as they come, super strength. Super strength does not bring about unique or fancy encounters, it just comes down to who can punch harder which gets old real fast. In fact, most powers are basic with no unique mechanics to make it stand out. I’m not asking for it to be a Jojo, but One Piece is a great example of how unique powers can be introduced without it being extremely complex.

This new age shounen in many ways feels so dated and basic. Battles carry out in the most predictable of ways and there are no unique abilities introduced as yet much less any mechanics that can change the tide of the fight.

What’s weird is that the mangaka can try to make weird quirks if he wants and he did but when compared to the God tiered Deku, Bakugo and Todoroki it’s hard to believe that they’ll amount to anything. And I was right, in the Overhaul arc they don’t.

There also are essentially no signs of world building at all. It feels like everything happens in the high school and nothing really is affected beyond the students/ school staff making for no stakes at all. There really is no sense of geography or immersion within the world. We're essentially reading a hero vs villains story in a bunch of isolated places with no consequences. Characters are introduced and killed off or made irrelevant all within the same arc making for a lot of self-contained stories that do not having any bearing on the overarching narrative. The overarching narrative too isn’t intriguing since the main villain is weak.

Yes, most if not all villains are weak compared to the high school students. So there really is no point in fearing whatever trouble they seem to be in since the God tiered Deku, Todoroki and Bakugo can essentially end the villain's group if they want. I have never felt any sense of dread or danger in this story. The mangaka did try to add stakes in the most basic of ways, by killing off a character that he introduced in the same arc. I didn’t care one bit for his death by the way.

What also bothers me is the lack of comedy or bad attempts at comedy. There’re no solid gags at all which is kind of sad.

Art 7/10

I have no problems with the art style of the manga, there are very cool character designs and they are varied enough for me to differentiate one from the other. There are some shoddy panels here and there but that's fine with me.

What I do feel a let down by are the villain designs, they aren't anything great or captivating. I've never once been captured by a villain only from their design and that's upsetting. Overhaul's design was average at best and All for One's design was nothing unique.

Character 4/10

BnH suffers from the same things that most past shounen did which is funny since there’s been 30+ years of material to learn from. And even then, One Piece solved that problem effectively with others following suit and creating their own ways to counter that problem. This is the “power tiers making others worthless” problem. Quirks are made in such a way that one person is vastly stronger than the other, which isn’t a problem in itself. The problem comes when these students want to all become frontline heroes when a large chunk of them are clearly support who have no place in combat.

There really is no actual relevant battle beyond Deku’s battle, he’s by far the strongest. I don’t need to be shown battles from lower tiered people since they will always be less interesting and will have no bearing on the narrative. Not to mention I simply do not feel any attachment towards them, their flashbacks, motivations and personalities all feel like they are taken from preset molds that lack any creativity. It doesn’t feel original or new.

It also becomes boring when everybody wants to be the “best hero ever” especially when clearly Deku, Bakugo and Todoroki will always ever be in the run for that title, so any conviction for that sort of title from any other character is basically mute and doesn’t make me want to be interested in them. Power creep hurts and if it happens this early it’s going to be a big problem in the future.

Not to mention the obvious main villain of the series is also weak, but more importantly he is not charismatic or menacing, so I really don’t yearn for the encounter. I’m not hyped for them to fight the same way I was hyped for Goku vs Frieza, Naruto vs Sasuke, Whitebeard vs Admirals, Luffy vs Doflamingo. There’s yet to be a villain like that. There’s yet to be characters that hype me up at the mere mention of them and I really like that aspect of other shounen series. It’s still early days but the series has introduced so many bland villains already. Stain was that guy at one point but he’s really low tiered in terms of power, hence he isn't menacing.

In my opinion, the characters are some of the weaker elements of the series.
Overall, I understand why BnH is so popular, it’s the least complicated shounen out there. There’s no intricate world building, no elaborate lore, no complicated power mechanics and more importantly no long drawn buildup arcs that many other “old age shounen” have. It’s super accessible and has well-paced “hype” moments, empty as they may be.

The thing is that when making a shounen like this, which is clearly meant to be accessible and simple to follow, it lacks soul or buildup or anything close to me feeling any emotional beat it clearly wants me to feel at moments. Having characters that have been made a million times before, having villains that lack charisma and are weak, having fights that boil down to who punches harder, it just all amounts to a story that doesn’t really excite me in any way.

And fine, I could still get over the story for being basic and unoriginal, but it needs captivating characters. Not ones that feel like they’ve come from a factory made shounen based mold. It needs a world that feels alive and is its own entity, not a mere backdrop for battles. The world here feels entirely based around the superheroes and superhero culture which isn’t interesting at all.

Again, you’ve got worlds like One Piece and HunterxHunter to learn from. Characters who have with their own paths and goals, they are not connected necessarily to the main narrative. The world goes on regardless, Marines do their work chasing bad guys, political meetings happen between the most influential in the world, different factions have their own aims, you’ve got one preparing to wage war on the world in one corner and in another corner there’s people trying to overthrow a dictator touted as the strongest. You need worlds like these to make me feel invested in this hero villains’ story, why is it a world worth saving?

It’s still early days for this series, it’s only 200 chapters in. The thing is I don’t think it’ll run as long as One Piece and if that’s really the case BnH has to pick up its slack and shake up the formula somehow.

This review will contain spoilers-

After reading 236 chapters and watching the majority of the anime aired i'm done with MHA at this point. I love shounen manga, I love almost everything I've read in Jump and MHA was no exception, but gradually I've come to dislike it.

MHA overall is a very good manga, Horikoshi Sensei's art is amazing, it's unique and he has a real talent for designing characters. The world that has been built is interesting and better than a lot of other shounen I have read. There are some really good characters and an recently some of the villains are finally getting ... the treatment they deserve. Unfortunately despite all these good things I don't enjoy the series anymore, which is something that hasn't really ever happened to me before.

I do not like superhero media, it's not my thing, so when I heard about a superhero shounen manga I thought that it might be hard for me to like, but I was completely wrong. Just like many other shounen manga it captivated me, I loved the idea of Deku being a huge underdog in a society where everyone has something special except him, All Might telling him he could be a hero was a very inspiring moment that honestly brought a tear to my eye, It felt like it was telling me anyone could be a hero (which is something shounen manga often does) but gradually changes in the manga either proved that it was not an intentional message or that the writing has poorly betrayed that sentiment.

Even at the beginning it doesn't deviate from the common trope that the main character gets "the best ability", and it later gets even worse when it just so happens that Deku is the one person with OFA who gets the "extra abilities". It felt like a big kick in the balls to watch as he developed because it trashed the idea that: "anyone can be a hero", Deku got extremely lucky and a once in a lifetime chance gave him exactly what he wanted. A lot of what I dislike about MHA is very personal and why that is is because it executes what I value in shounen manga poorly. A lot of shounen manga can be read as a sort of power fantasy, and similarly I think a lot of people read shounen to inspire and motivate themselves to work harder and succeed which are some of the core values that shounen manga hold. When I read shounen I want to be inspired, and often what inspires people most is the main characters of their manga like Luffy, Naruto, Ichigo, Goku etc, who keep fighting and struggling until they reach a hard earned victory. As the story progresses Deku gets insufferably annoying, as he whines and cries far too much, I could never be inspired by him since he acted so weak even though he had such a strong ability, and even when he does overcome this weakness he just feels bland, in comparison Asta from Black clover from the very start is incredibly upbeat and even at a point where he's seriously crippled for life he still remains optimistic and hopeful which is why I enjoy that series much more, it gets me pumped up and inspired, this is entirely subjective and my own opinion and I can understand why this wouldn't matter to most people but the way MHA is built up and how similar it is to other shounen I feel like it would deliver the same kinds of feelings I get from others, but it doesn't which leads me to feel betrayed somewhat.

Onto more understandable gripes is how the school setting ruins the manga in a few ways, firstly it promotes a larger cast size which it follows through with leading to MHA having far too many characters with some receiving barely any development but people still vouching that MHA has a very "deep" cast of characters. That's not so say there aren't developed characters as there are, it just so happens that the main 3 from class A are ones I dislike, Deku is bland and offers nothing new whatsoever except how much a crybaby he was. Bakugou is angry to a point of annoyance but a few interesting things are done with him. Todoroki has an understandable backstory but is very overrated in my opinion which can be said about the majority of characters in the manga. Whilst the fanbase should have no bearing on the bearing of the manga, it can irk me so much when they praise something for being the "best shounen ever" when almost every element is done better elsewhere. The fanbase is definitely something that's contributed to why I dislike the manga now which is a shame since i'd like to be as fair to it as possible.

Some characters I did enjoy are Mirio who is well developed and I'd much rather him, be MC. Some villains are also well done in my opinion, Stain and Overhaul are the standard of shounen villains we should be getting with Love Lover and Gentle being my favorite, The arc they where in was perhaps the last time I enjoyed MHA since their motives and story was very touching. Twice is also a recent edition to characters I liked which can't be said about the rest of the League of Villains. On that subject I will say that around the time of dropping MHA Shiguraki is finally getting some much needed backstory, for a main villain who is meant to directly oppose the main character we have barely known anything about him for years which has annoyed me so much over the couple years I've been reading, at this point I am thoroughly displeased with what I have seen as it's some of the edgiest stuff I've seen in shounen and it also doesn't give me any reason to like him or understand him, he is one of the most overrated characters I've seen and his motives from what I understand stem from when he was a very young child and have not changed since, his father who beats him is much more sympathetic than him which is a big problem for a main villain.

The quirk system is a decent shounen power system for the fact that it allows Horikoshi to be creative when making characters and their powers, however I think it's very underutilized as we usually get a very standard ability like fire and ice generation or something stupid like having a tail or getting angry if you eat sugar, HxH's Nen and Stands from JBA do the unique power system way more justice. Deku's ability is another downside as it's very simple and I think that's beginning to show as I imagine that the recent events with him receiving new powers is either his own or an editors way of admitting that combat might be getting stale. You could make up any quirk and you give your MC super strength, it just seems like a wasted opportunity. I'd have liked the series much more if Deku still had no quirk but managed to become the top hero as it could do justice to how Deku is portrayed to be more intelligent where perhaps he could find out his opponents weaknesses and use their quirks against them.

I'm aware that this has been more complaining than reviewing but I just need to express my gripes with this series in words before I can move on and stop reading it. If it does get amazing later I might be tempted to try it again in a few years but for now I don't enjoy reading the manga at all.

Story: 5/10 - Some arcs are well done and present interesting dilemmas and further characters but a lot of weight is lost to the events that take place as the students just return to school, because of this stakes often feel low and fights don't seem to matter much.

Art: 9/10 - Horikoshi Sensei's Art is amazing, he illustrates action very well and has really good character designs for the most-part.

Character: 5/10 - Often shallow or dis-likable, with the character that do get attention either being well developed or offering nothing new, a real mixed bag with the overwhelming majority being duds.

Overall: 6/10 - Not the worst by any means but definitely overrated and over-hyped, if you like shounen manga give it a whirl but I wouldn't recommend it over something like One Piece, JoJo's, Hunter x Hunter or a bunch of other manga.

I'm open for discussion on MHA if people want to enlighten me on certain aspects of the story or characters but for now i'm tired of it and don't enjoy reading it weekly.

So picture this: You're Japan's greatest hero, your power is fading fast because of the terrible injuries you sustained while fighting your archnemesis while you were at full power. You know he's going to return and you need somebody to pass your powers on to so that they can stop him. Do you choose:

A) One of the top 3 best students in the best hero training school in the country with 17 years of practice handling a high difficulty ability that makes him nearly invincible, the attitude and drive of a professional and a recommendation and combat training from your trusted sidekick who can see ... the future
OR
B) A kid who threw his bag at a villain, ran into danger with no plan whatsoever that you met that day but he said he wanted to be a hero and cried about it despite not even putting in the effort to be physically fit.

If you answered B you have what it takes to be the number 1 hero in Japan according to this manga.

In case you were still unsure from that one example the characters in this are as flat as the paper they're drawn on and act in ways that are beyond my mere mortal understanding.

We have our main character Midoriya "Deku" Izuku a boy who was born without a quirk like around 10% of the total population in the HeroAca world. Instead of choosing to get a normal job he decided that because of a YouTube video he watched when he was like 5 he wanted to be a hero, not just any hero mind you considering all kinds of heroes exist in this world but a hero like All Might, the punchiest , liftiest hero in all of Japan. He plans to accomplish this through a strict regimen of doodling in notebooks while whispering to himself and crying until one of the strongest abilities in the story falls into his lap along with a free mentor character. The story also wants you to believe that Izuku is a very smart boy but it took him until much later in the story to realize that kicking was a thing. He moves the story along by doing nothing at all until the next arc finds him.
The rest of the cast are just as bad going from the background fodder who have like 1 character trait (read literally every U.A student that isn't a main character) to Endeavor the man who mentally scarred every single member of his family but it's cool now because he had an awesome fight scene.
The best character is Shigaraki Tomura the villain that is being built up as Deku's nemesis since he is the only person in the story who learns and develops as it goes on and has a clear motivation.

The setting of HeroAca is as baffling as its cast. Imagine if everyone in the world suddenly got superpowers, for good or bad society as we currently know it is done. Yet in this world the only difference is that there is a new job called "hero". That's it. No different infrastructure to accommodate the different kinds of people that have evolved, no tension from people with bird heads riding the bus with you, everybody is fine with needing a license to use their quirks except for the most extreme villains or unorganized street thugs.
The majority of the story takes place in U.A the hero school the main characters attend yet somehow we've only managed to see 3 senior students. Where the hell is Class 2A? Nobody knows.

The art is great and Horikoshi is a master of character design. The fight scenes are well drawn and if the characters had as much personality as their designs promised this manga would have been excellent.

The story is bland shonen fare and anybody that tells you " but it does shonen better" is wrong. If you like shonen you'll like this ( at least for a while till the inconsistencies and lack of depth get you). There are no surprises, no plot twists worth mentioning. The students go to school and do school stuff, villains do their thing, they fight, students win. Rinse and repeat with differing scale and a different person defeating the villain each arc and congratulations you have the story so far. I can't wait for the arc where the heroes lose, everyone acts sad for a bit and then they come back and win.

Overall it's a mediocre manga with great art, terrible characters with excellent designs and a world with as much depth as that generic fantasy world that every bad Isekai is set in.

Case 1: Naruto - I'll become the strongest Ninja ever *rasengan!*
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Case 2: Bleach - I'll become the strongest Soul Reaper ever *getsuga tenshou!*
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Case 3: One Piece - I'll become the strongest Pirate ever *gomu gomu no!*
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Case 4: My Hero Academia - I'll become the strongest Hero ever *detroit smash!*

It's the same old wine, now in a fancy new shining bottle. Standard main characters. Standard side-characters. Standard villains. Standard relationships. Standard power-ups. Standard plot. To justify this critique further, I encourage you to do a little thought experiment for me. Replace the Hero world with Ninjas, substitute Midoriya, Bakugo, All-Might ... and Akatsuki with Naruto, Sasuke, Jiraya and Villains respectively. Ta-daa! New manga series!

This isn't to say that the mere presence of these shounen tropes makes Boku no Hero Academia so mediocre. Far from it. If that was to be the case, then we wouldn't have so many versions of Shakespeare's Hamlet. What makes this series mediocre is that the author doesn't attempt to do anything new with his characters. It sticks to the power-ups and plot developments as if it was being written by an AI machine-learning robot. There is zero sense of anything exciting or new that would make a reader sit up and say "now, that's interesting!" The only place where the author did attempt to do so is with the character of Endeavor - a flawed superhero who seeks redemption. Sadly, given that this is a shounen-manga aimed at 12-18 year old boys - Endeavor is and will remain a side character not getting as much focus as I would have liked.

I understand the popularity of this manga amongst the current young readers who haven't either read or are still exploring older shounen canon like Naruto, Bleach, Shaman King, Hunter x Hunter, Rurouni Kenshin etc. However, as an older reader who has read and watched these series - I can safely attest that (as of chapter 275), there is absolutely nothing in My Hero Academia that is uniquely original or which hasn't been already been attempted in past shounen manga. The only positive aspect of this series as compared to older series is that it is well executed, highly polished and has an excellent marketing push from the Shueisha execs who are desperately trying to recreate the next money-spinner franchise given that the Naruto, Bleach and Gintama franchises are over.

This standard manga deserves a standard rating: 5/10.

This is what years of shounen jump creates. The ultimate trope, I think BNHA is the ultimate shounen. That does NOT mean it's the best shounen. However, it is the MOST shounen shounen. Everything that you think will happen, will fucking happen. That or everybody reading is a fucking prophet. If you like to be right or be pandered to, this is the series for you. I'll be honest I'm only invested, because of that punch Deku did at the beginning against that bobot. The backstory of One For All is also very cool. However this shit is corny, creamed corn corny, midwest America cornfield ... corny, corn kernel corny. This show can best be described as my original review that had didn't meet the character count minimum, "shounen jump moment."

First, MHA is an overall decent series that I would recommend to anyone asking for suggestions. Second, I'll group the material based on the season it was covered for (personal) clarity.

The main cast members are memorable, enjoyable, and fun to read about fan comics of their antics and interactions. Deku is a refreshing change in the stereotypical shonen protagonist with his greater maturity and intelligence; at the same time, his lack of goofiness also makes Deku less likable and makes me appreciate the stereotype (ex. Luffy and younger Naruto). For the villains, they're mediocre and disappointing--especially Shigaraki, Deku's rival.

I enjoyed the material in seasons 1 ... & 2 and would give it an 8, BUT my disappointment with the season 3 material until the present brings down my rating. The Forest Training Camp Arc seemed to drop the ball: the villains attack causing the students to rise to the occasion, but the their' victory feels unjustified and again paints the League of Villains as incompetent and too poorly written to be a daunting major, long-term antagonists. The Provisional Hero License Exam Arc picks the ball up somewhat as do a few major moments, BUT the series never recovers. The Shie Hassaikai Arc was hyped up by all the manga readers, so I expected it to be just that; it...did not live up my to expectations.

Honestly, the story and villain writing hurt my enjoyment for this series. It didn't really hit me until Horikoshi said in an interview with Eiichiro Oda that he would like My Hero Academia to surpass One Piece. The disparity between the two's quality just seemed so obvious then that that was the end of any enjoyment I could have and the new arc doesn't seem worth reading right now. I'm dropping it, for now, and just ignoring the series for a while (I did this with One Piece a year ago and I'm able to enjoy it again, so here's hope that it works).

If you can enjoy this series, then keep reading it and PLEASE ignore the fandom/make your own viewpoints. Don't let false expectations ruin this series for you.

My Hero Academia is your typical light-hearted series, but actually is backed by a lot a deepening of a lot of characters that gives the series a more mature look.
The story starts off really slowly, with things that everybody has seen already in other Shonens, but the character designs, the relations and their motivations, pushes you to keep reading. It may seem childish at first but it has a lot of mature themes.
That being said, some chapters are a chore to get through. The series' named "My Hero Academia" and the "academia" part is really where the show slows down in order to make ... the characters be stronger, even though some of the scenes are really unnecessary. And still, it doesn't really work because, in the last arc, characters pull out insane moves and it is only explained (after they used it) in flashbacks.

MHA could be a top tier Shonen, but, after chapter 306, the cracks start to show. It quickly gives a 180º turn and abandons what it made the series great to begin with: slow characterization that paid to readers who paid attention, carefully constructed arcs that tied into each other, characters having good backstories... All of that was abandoned at this point.
The "Meta Liberation", "My Villain Academia" and "Paranormal Liberation War" arcs were where the show really peaked, it was where you noticed the mature themes kicking in. But after that, the decline came, because the author really wants to end it.
The "Dark Hero Arc" did nothing to show us a declining world. The "Stars and Stripe Arc" didn't really needed to exist.
And the worst of all, in the new war arc, the plot is so fast paced that you can't believe it is 1/4 of the series. Things happen with no context, with context being add after the action is done, almost every chapter end with a reveal or a cliffhanger and some of them even lie to the reader.

It is obvious that the series is ending and that the author wants to end it. This war serves, not as a narrative point, but as a way to give us cool scenes, but damn, are some of them cool.
With all being said, I still recommend this series, it peaks at chapter 300, but what comes afterward may not be the best material but at least is eye candy. The series still hasn't ended but I think it will not change the score.

Ok, before I start I would like to say I do not hate My Hero Academia in any way shape or form. I am just here to give my opinions on this specific series. First of all let's talk about the good things about My Hero Academia, and why it is so loved in this community. First of all the good thing are the fact that it's so easy to get into no matter who you are or what you like my hero academia is one of those series you can pick up and give a read. It's not a specific topic that you have ... to like to get into My Hero Academia, its generally pretty decent to read and one good thing about this series is that unlike other shonen this series well at least the manga doesn't really suffer from pacing issues. I feel like the author knows how to pace the story without it feeling way too fast or too slow. To be honest, there aren't many amazing things about this series except that it just copies the shonen formula without adding anything new. It follows the same tropes that other shonen's end up following. One main problem this series follows is the fact that it is too scared to actually try something new, it's just similar arcs we have seen in other series with its own take on it. I mean its fine borrowing ideas but at least add some new things to it, that's why series like jujutsu kaisen are stronger in terms of writing because they aren't actually scared to try something new. Another problem I specifically despise are the characters, you see these characters are so bland with pretty much one character trait and they feel very 2d, we have an angry kid (bakugo), wimpy but determined mc (Deku), cool kid (todoroki). Yes, they do act differently sometimes but this doesn't remove the fact that they barely have any other character traits making them feel horribly 2D. My Final conclusion is that if you want go and try my hero but just don't expect anything different or new its just the same highschool op mc diddle daddles to save the world and becomes the greatest,

My Hero Academia (or Boku no Hero Academia as some people call it) is easily one of the most popular manga of the 2010's out there.
But why is it so popular? What makes people like it so much compared to other battle shounen? I'll give my thoughts and feelings here to try to answer this question.

Story - 6
The story of My Hero is a fairly simple one: About how a young boy who got bullied for not having a power required to become one gets one and how he becomes the best hero of all time.
From the get go, you'd think this would make ... a good underdog series... But it's not: The main character is by no means weak in any form, and he befriends people quite easily, making his underdog status moot, despite it being very pronounced in the first 3 or so chapters.
Then there's the fact that he's already one of the best heroes out there, due to his incredibly heroic mindset... making his quest to become the best hero feel half-hearted.
It then goes on about the society he lives in, which is much more interessting than the main character himself: As the manga goes on, more and more people who succeed and fail based on how a world with superhero powers work get shown.

Characters - 7
They all have likable designs and likable personalities, and they have alot of good chemistry together, especially the main hero class the hero is in... But their actual depth and reason for being there in the plot are not as good as that.
Even after 6 years of running weekly there are still a ton of characters who are just there and not fleshed out... despite being part of the main ensamble the hero finds himself in.
And the characters that are good in my eyes (barring villains) are under utilised and barely get any screentime, while Todoroki, a main character, gets alot despite his entire personality being daddy issues.
In contrast, the villains fair much better in retrospect, as they all have great backstories relating to how hero society treated them, as said earlier.
There is a reason my favorite arc is the one where the main villain's backstory gets shown.
Overall, they are likable and easily recognisable, but only the villains are what i can call ''good characters''

Art - 6
The art in and of itself is very, very good: The characters are unique and recognisable, The backgrounds are well drawn...
But the fight scenes.
They are just hard to follow at times.
When you make a battle series and your audience has a hard time following what's going on in the battles, you screwed up somewhere.

Enjoyment - 6
My Hero Academia is, to me, a perfectly fine battle shounen that could be so much better than it is.
The hero could have been one to see how screwed the current society is (and maybe he will later, but it's been 280 chapters by now...), the underutilised characters could do alot more, but we're stuck with the bland hero, underdeveloped screaming kid and the one with daddy issues manga.
When the manga is about other things than them, like the villains, I tend to find it alot more enjoyable.

Overall, I think I can see why it got so popular:
-It's a manga about superheroes made after the MCU was made
- The characters are recognisable and very likable
- The superpower system just screams ''make your own OC!''
Unfortunately, none of these things are things that make me instantly like things.

While currently up to chapter 318, I'll start off by saying;
Holy crap, it was A SLOG to get through. I've dropped this so many times, that I wonder why I didn't just stop. But finally, towards the latest arc and chapters, it finally became something amazing.

I will not recommend this manga to everyone. I think most people, even before reading this, see how often it has been called "mid" or "boring".
And honestly, as it went on from the earlier arcs to the middle, it was precisely that.

Story: 7
The story had zero stakes or extremely minimal, most fights ended in mediocrity and some with such large ... build-ups, it became a disappointment. Despite it having genuinely compelling characters and arcs, the story slowly became boring or at the very least, very predictable. It followed a formula that was repeated with a slight change, but the stakes were never there. I would've rated this a 5, definitely lower if it continued the same path.
But it didn't.
A story that went from zero stakes to something that was built up from all the past years, up until now. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll say that much, much later on, everything starts to make sense.
The story that somehow had zero bets in the pool suddenly went all in, with heroes proudly and actually putting their lives at stake, as the author knew what they were building up towards and understands the gravity of the arc. The villains have meaningful backstories, albeit presented with constant flashbacks which might honestly deter others from reading.
The author finally made the story not just black-and-white, that the heroes are always in the right and always win. But now, a hero story muddled with gray and zero certainties. There are still issues with how it was handled, but that'd go into spoiler territory.

Characters: 7
I honestly despised some, if not most of the characters, and would've rated this much lower. They were so incredibly bland and boring, and some characters were introduced that completely threw the story to why it was so mediocre. The protagonist, albeit interesting in the beginning, slowly lost his charm and felt so one-note. While I still think the characters became much weaker within the story (not in terms of physical strength) and some completely sidelined, especially with how the protagonist was evolving, it felt like some of the favorites were left off. The power scaling felt ridiculous, it was the DBZ effect all over again.
But with the recent arcs, most if not all had a role to play.

Everyone truly shined later on. The bland, boring heroes fill up the roles they've trained years to be, and the compelling ones play a major part. The same goes for its villains, having motivations that you see they truly believe in, and won't suddenly get swayed by words, considering in their own actions. Even then, neither are entirely forced into the roles of "heroes and villains". Their wills sway, corrupted by both sides. And something that I've wanted for a very long time, the regular, everyday people living within the cities, finally have their own voices. Finally - I can actually see the heroes, villains, and even the crowds as genuine people.

But still, a little too late. So many chapters yet took so much time to actually mold these characters and mobs. But not all characters are lost, fortunately. There are plenty left that will bring everything, but sadly maybe not be your favorite.
Nevertheless, there are actual consequences of the characters' actions later on, and you realize that this story won't end with pure happiness.

Art: 8
I'm not an art critic, I know when how much hard work is put into art. I tend to judge how art evolves and what it became, not what it used to be.
It started off fairly simple much like the story but had a certain style that everyone immediately recognizes, albeit still nothing amazing. As time went on, it became more and more detailed, and the style still shined through. The distinct character designs somehow pushed through all the numbers of characters, I'm genuinely surprised at myself for recognizing most.
But just having a style doesn't make art a masterpiece. It's how much thought put, into each panel is. And I can promise you they push every thought into each panel, especially later on with the raw emotions built.



Overall: 7.5
I won't kid myself to say it's a masterpiece, not even close. It's still a fairly simple story overall, and I won't blame anyone that left early. The story became weak, more predictable, and had zero stakes as it went on, and the characters introduced became lazy or just boring. Even some where forgotten, poorly used, or just forgotten. The whole manga was a downward spiral, with the only thing improving was the art.

But, I promise you, if you somehow stuck through all of the boring crap, the 'real' story starts to unfold, and you can genuinely see something becoming great.
Now, this might completely change towards the end, but I really hope that it'll continue down its current path.

My Hero Academia draws heavy inspiration from many Shonen masterpieces and american comics that came before. A highly derivative work, as original and fresh ideas are quite scarce, but Kohei Horikoshi's art is so damn good that it makes the reading highly enjoyable despite all of the issues and shortcomings of the writing. His electrifying artistic verve imbues the work with a strong stylistic identity: his character designs are wacky, diverse and vibrant, making characters memorable at least on a visual level despite their (mostly) dull and static personalities. Similarly, the plot seldom takes unexpected turns or interesting scenarios, but the emotional weight of climactic ... moments and the kinetic power of action sequences is almost always spectacularly visualized by Horikoshi's striking, cinematic paneling and clean art. Even when the story fails to deliver something interesting, on a visual level My Hero Academia has always been a delicious treat.

A work with a perfect beginning and half, but with a troubled final stretch.

I started reading Boku no Hero a long time ago and the story grabbed me to the point of being one of my favorite mangas, to the point that I collected the physical work too. With this I can say that the work is good but it has declined in story quality over time, the way the work wants to treat certain characters as pure even if it is of the worst nature possible is very frustrating as this is very disconnected from the reality that We experience what is difficult for ... ME to apply the suspension of disbelief, making the work ultimately disconnected from my sentimentalist side. I believe this doesn't affect everyone but it affected me a lot, especially at the current moment in the manga (chap. 418).

That said, the good part is not completely overshadowed by the bad part, we have as an example of a good part the fact that the author turns characters that seemed insignificant into characters that really affect the direction of the work, such as the doctor himself who examined Midoriya right away. at the beginning of the work.

Anyway, I believe that readers should consider this manga as a Japanese "HQ" because just like the comics, there are things in the manga that are very absurd to believe but there are also many fun and intense things to see.

I recommend it to anyone who likes hero stories but doesn't expect a masterpiece like Berserk or Vagabond.

With 80 chapters and 10 volumes in, I think I can share my thoughts so far on this manga. Until now, the story swings on bad and quite good. And I don't know what the idea of protraying Midoriya as some kind of naruto, but it's very depressing and unfair. I can count how many times Kohei shows us a good scene or statement of Midoriya. And for me, at least, a story who don't "trust" on its on protagonist, is not good. Far from it. Up until now, he spent a lot of chapters portraying how Midoriya is WEAK besides the others, always showing ... that he's a person with no confidence at all and that he just have some rare moments of lucky and force. These moments are quite cool, but I can't help but think that's so unfair. 80 chapters in, I've seen plenty of scenes of bakugo and todoroki, always worshiping them as they were more special than Midoriya. I don't like that. Following a show that don't praise its on protagonist is weird, kind sus. But I'll read it till the current chapters. This is my opinion till now.

To start this review I understand the hype around this manga, It's easy to see why people flock to it like seagulls to a picnic. However that does not reflect the poor writing so evident in 80% of the story, which fails to spark even a hint of interest in me.

Story arcs (4): Training, training, and MORE TRAINING ARCS. I don't mind manga which focus on the characters growth in strength and technique, series such as hunter x hunter and ashita no joe do it very well and dedicate a percentage of nearly every arc to train their main characters. The training is shown explicitly ... and given an adequate amount of screentime to show their growth before leading to the all so satisfying release of their new power and technique. In this manga however... we get entire arcs solely dedicated to training where our main characters simply seem to "power up". They lack creativity in their powers and simply rely on force... i genuinely don't understand how momo is so weak she can create ANYTHING. You'd think she'd spend those eternities while training maybe studying the creation of unique compounds to help her in battle but NOOOO she becomes a useless side character while the whole story focuses on the boring trio: Deku, Shoto and Bakugo.... I'll get to them a little later. There were 2 arcs in the series which I really enjoyed, those being the sole reason this manga is not rated a 2. These arcs being the sports festival and the villain academia arcs. The sports festival managed to finish it's arc without being interrupted by plot (looking at you chunin exams and grand magic games) and for that I enjoyed it. It's also the only arc in the series where nearly the full cast of characters gets actual development and screen time (well most of them..) so props to the author for that one. I also liked the villain arc.. blah blah blah twice and shigaraki are cool the arc had decent writing too... as you can see i even got bored thinking and writing the review for this series i honestly could not find a blander cast of characters then the main cast.

Save yourself some time and don't read this series.. shonen tropes can be seen much better in a bunch of other manga :))

This has become one of the most popular 6/10 manga's I've read, before dismissing this review of the manga I will tell my reasoning. Please read this view in its entirety because the value of a series can't be explained merely by a figure.


This is apart of the rising star of jump this and the promised neverland basically taking naruto place, combining elements of Naruto and one piece seamlessly while making some unique. I've been reading this series from day 1 since it's been releasing in Japan and it was fun however as time got passed and absurdly overhyped this manga has become a ... lot of the problems starts to get noticed.


Story -5.5

The story for a lot of shounen series is really never the point its the journey itself that's the real point. Like for Jojo part 3, the plot is whatever because we know the outcome like Naruto, however, "It's the Journey, not the Destination that counts" ( credit Reddit post).


The General plot, for the most part, is that the protagonist Deku gets introduced to something, works harder, affect the characters around him, has a moral message then beats enemy or just do whatever he can to be a hero. Also each arc they always 1 or 2 side characters that get proper character development so by the end of the series in we know the classroom characters really well it's not doing a naruto problem where too many characters to keep up. Its slowly developing the entire classroom so everyone has something to do.

A lot of the best chapters in the series really nothing to do with the "plot" its really the interaction, the main characters is not really interesting or complex he's actually pretty meh however how he interacts with his environment is probably the best element because we are seeing the world within his limited perspective.

Anyways the plot is serviceable to deliver some memorable moments.

Character Designs - 9

the best element of this series is by far the character designs they are all striking as heroes should be, so know how I said a side character starts development after 1 arc that's apart of the classroom. This works so well because of character designs look unique and different that author can suddenly start developing the classroom characters. Its just weird how great the character designs are for both villains and heroes but how bland the environment and the setting of the series.

How deku clothes each arc and just looks awesome as it progresses his clothes really represent his development as a character, showing visually representation of his progress.


Setting - 3

This probably the worst thing of the series the setting as its set in modern day city life of Japan but you have characters with cool designs but you have these bland environments. Instead of exploring cool locations, to contrast with the cool character designs and how the world would most likely operate completely different due to the high percentage of people with superpowers. You think the economy and setting would change in a fantasy way like with one piece. However, the only thing we explore is the school area, a Colosseum, Forest.....

To limit your world just modern city of Japan is boring especially with a premise that this manga has, instead of having other countries involved like Italy, Germany, USA, Australia, England, India ...... Which limits the potential of the world as all the best superheroes are only in Japan. I wouldn't really care that much if the city they live in felt lived in, but it isn't. It feels more isolated than anything else, it doesn't feel tangible. Like one piece has its own economy, lived in worlds, politics you feel connected, for me, this manga just screams wasted potential.


Art and composition - 8.5

the best thing about this manga is the art and composition of an image, even though the writing is weak at times the how the mangaka frames his drawings conveys so much raw emotion that's probably why its so beloved when Deku achieve something you feel that from his raw emotions how he expresses himself, this not due to the art itself but how its framed to make a lot memorable moments, when the anime recreates does impactful moments they don't really stray from the storyboard of the manga as the author did a great job with a lot of those key moments.

Also, Deku shoes are awesome but this is why even when the logic makes no sense at times but the art showcases a pure emotion so your still emotional invested.

Writing - 6 and at times it becomes like 7


A lot of the writing is fairly component nothing more than that, i explained my issues with the setting and how it's a lot of wasted potentials that was apparently due to the writing of the characters. The writing isn't bad but just serviceable, at key moments it actually becomes really good mainly with Deku interaction with his main rival Bakugou. Even though the main protagonist is okay bakugou is so fun to read how he deals with the situation and subverts the common tropes in Shounen.

However what the writing does well is the continuation of events, that each arc is important for something, characters don't need to die but still have a sense of losing while winning at the same time. the character development with Deku is nice to see, how his personality changes subtly also the personality of the side characters are fun.

Overall - 6

I use to rate this 8/10 however as the arcs have been progressing the writing has become weaker, a lot of this manga is emotion over logic, is this bad no however it gets stales over a long time. I starting to get tired of the same pattern after 192 chapters.

An exchange program or just a different environment would be nice to see tbh anyways if u want to read this manga I'll be honest just watch the anime because it has an incredible English dub and the choice of colour in a superhero manga is important, after you Up-to-date with the anime I recommend the manga however not being really seriously involved with it but for time pass plus this manga introduced a whole new set of fans to start read manga and watch anime so I'm grateful for the sheer impact its made also the author is a passionate dude who deserves a level of respect.