I did it. I finally did it. After many people telling me to watch it, I watched My Hero Academia. After the storm of “it’s amazing” and “you have to watch it”, I finally did.
I watched everything that is currently out, except for the movie. So, three seasons.
My thoughts? It’s cool.
…yep. That’s it. Nothing over the top, just cool.
This article contains light spoilers up to season 3
What I Liked
I guess I should just start this off on a positive note. There were many things I liked about the show. I mean, that’s why I continued watching it after all. If I didn’t have things I liked, I would’ve just dropped it.
Izuku Midoriya / Deku
I really didn’t expect to like Deku that much. This is a shounen, so I just kinda figured that the story would always find a way for him to win. I was pleasantly surprised to find out just how much he fails.
He fails, and that’s alright. The way his character is built is really inspirational. Every time he fails, he learns something. Even if he’s not the most powerful, he is always strategizing. It’s nice to see a character put together that actually uses their head instead of just being so blatantly OP that strategy doesn’t matter.
I found myself rooting for him. I mean, he’s the underdog. It’s easy to root for an underdog. It was cool to go on the journey with this kid who wants to be a hero so badly that he does nothing but try to improve himself (often hurting himself in the process). It’s quite refreshing to see just how hard he works.
The Fight Scenes
I’ve watched a lot of shows where the fight scenes just didn’t live up to the hype. Where there are some elements of your typical shounen genre in this show, aka talking and flashbacks, the fights are usually really well done.
What I like most about the fight scenes is the emphasis the show puts on strategy. It could be easy just to show characters smacking each other down, but the show likes to take the perspective of the fighters. It shows their reactions and thought processes.
The Comedic Timing
My Hero Academia always seems to know the time and place for some good ol’ comedy. The show started off light-hearted enough, but got deep quick. I assume it will only continue to get darker as the show progresses, so some good comedic relief is necessary.
The comedy never really seems forced, and always manages to get a chuckle out of me.
Nice Character Development
It’s always nice to see characters develop as the show goes on. As a viewer, you want to grow with the character as they go on this journey. The show does a good job of showing all of the characters progressing, not just the main ones.
Sure, we have main focus on Deku and his training, but we also get to see how his classmates are trying to improve themselves. Well…at least most of them. I have no idea how sticky ball boy and invisible girl got into the hero course let alone improved their skills. Same goes for belly light dude.
What I Didn’t Like
There are some things that everyone dislikes in every show, and this show is no exception to that rule. There were good parts, and there were bad parts. That’s just how it goes.
The Hero Class
There are two hero classes / courses each year, class A and B. That’s all well and good and makes sense. What I can’t wrap my head around is how some of the people in the hero course got into the course in the first place.
How can you explain the invisible girl passing the practical exam? What has she actually done in the entirety of the series? The sticky ball guy is the same way. They make him somewhat useful in certain situations, but it just doesn’t make sense to me. The belly light guy is such a coward, I don’t know how he would’ve passed.
There are people from the general studies classes that seem to deserve being in the hero course more.
“Everybody Wins”
This is a common theme that I’m seeing with this show that kind of gets on my nerves a bit. I’m a fan of watching a character, or characters, struggle and fail and pick themselves up from that failure. Class 1A seems to come through no matter what. Any situation, they find a way, even though they aren’t even close to the best.
A great example of this is the provisional license exam. It is already said that them being first years and taking the exam is crazy, but what’s even more crazy is they all pass. All of them. Yeah, Bakugo and Todoroki fail, but they will get their license later. What really puts me over the edge is the fact that all of class 1B passed as well.
So you’re telling me 40 first years from UA high beat out all of the other upperclassmen from all of the other schools? 40/200. They literally made up 20% of the passing licenses…as first years. That just doesn’t make sense to me.
Tournament / License Tasks
This may seem a bit nitpicky, but I found that during the UA tournament, and the provisional test, some of the tasks they were asked to do just made no sense to me. The UA tournament is an individual deal, so why would they make them to a cavalry challenge? Yeah yeah, teamwork. Couldn’t they come up with a better idea though?
The first round of the provisional license bothered me since it seemed more like schools helping their top students get licenses instead of an actual individual test. The test showed groups of like 20 going after groups of 3 to 4. That means, out of that group, a maximum of 2 would pass if they won. So that strategy shows a group of 20 people trying to help 2 of them pass, which is not what the test should be about.
Those were just little things that bothered me while watching.
Conclusion
Did I enjoy it? Yeah. Is my wife happy that I finally watched it so she can talk to me about it? Yeah. Am I excited for My Hero Academia Season 4? Sure!
I’d call it a good show. I’m enjoying the story and the characters, so why not keep watching it. I wouldn’t go overboard to talk about how great it is, but it is good. I’m curious to see how the show progresses; whether it keeps a “good guys always win” theme or if some heroes are going to start dying.
Guess I’ll have to wait and see. Oh, and I should probably watch the movie at some point.
Thanks for reading!