How my appreciation of My Hero Academia has grown

This month, Kohei Horikoshi will be finishing My Hero Academia. Ten years worth of weekly chapters and I think it will end up being 42 volumes. 

While there are works like One Piece that are over a hundred volumes, that’s still ten years and a lot of pages. And it’s clear that My Hero Academia is telling a single complete story.

I’ve read thirty-five of the volumes and only stopped because that’s how much the library had lol And my enjoyment and appreciation of My Hero Academia has only grown as it has gone on.

And, as I keep reading it, I kept adjusting my expectations and impressions of the series.

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I had initially described My Hero Academia as school for superheroes. I ultimately feel that I was wrong. It is an inter-generational saga where some of the action takes at a school. I’d actually say it’s less about good versus evil and more people who want to help versus people who want to hurt.

And the concept of Superhero is central to the work. Not just the concept of super powers but the idea of using them to help people. At first, in a world where 80% has super powers, the government is actively involved in licensing heroes and super heroics is big business, it felt like Horikoshi was deconstructing Superheroes. However, after the setting was established, he began reconstructing the concept.

 

And the centerpiece to that reconstruction is Midoriya, the protagonist but still part of a sprawling ensemble. Basically, personality-wise, he is Superman. The Superman of My Adventures with Superman, not Zack Snyder’s Superman. (Although, to be honest, given the timeline, I wouldn’t be surprised if My Hero Academia influenced My Adventures with Superman) Midoriya is empathic and caring, even when in life and death battles.

In fact, the two students who get the second most focus, Bukago and Shoto, are different flavors of anti-hero. Mind you, they are both shown to be able to grow and be good people (Bukago hides his better side very well) But it is

Midoriya’s compassion that is a key component to his ability to make a difference. That and incredible powers.

And this is what ultimately sold me and got me hooked. Midoriya may have a silver age outlook but he isn’t in a silver age world. The villains are absolute nightmares whose actions have serious body counts and cause societal collapse. There are serious stakes in My Hero Academia.

I feel the Dark Hero arc has been the most striking for me so far. Midoriya has left the academy because he is so dangerous to be around. And, at his lowest point, when he is neglecting basic hygiene and nutrition, Midoriya is relentlessly trying to help people, fighting violent criminals and rescuing people. Even at his lowest, Midoroya still needs to save everyone but he needs his friends to remind him that he also needs save himself.

I don’t know My Hero Academia will end. (I’m mean, I’m pretty sure it will be a happy ending) Considering it’s become a multi-media franchise with spin-offs, this month isn’t the end of the setting. But I hope Horikoshi will end the central story well.

My spoiler-free first reaction to My Hero Academia

I heard enough about the manga  My Hero Academia over the years that I finally decided to give it a go.

It’s basically school for superheroes. 

Yes, there’s a lot more going on than that and I’m pretty sure it will go beyond that. However, superhero school is the cornerstone and if you can’t get beyond that, it’s just not going to work.

(Is it weird that to me while the X-Men were technically always a school but it never felt like one until the 2000s because there was never a real student body until then?)

It is a Shonen manga and, oh boy, is it ever Shonen. It reads to me like mashup of Sports story and an action/adventure story.  Midoriya, the protagonist, is having a coming of age story as he slowly masters his Superman-like potential. It’s like the creator Horikoshi wrote a checklist of Shonen elements.

So, is it any good?

I have to admit that I was not impressed at first. It felt like a parody of a sports manga with being a superhero being a comedic standin for being a professional athlete. All Might, the Superman/ Captain America figure, in particular, seemed like a parody. The initial introduction of superhero economics seemed silly and the world building felt shallow.

But I kept trudging away, hoping to find the magic everyone said was there.

Then came the point when actual supervillains showed up. Not rivals at the school. Murderers and terrorists. Serious, dangerous plot elements.

Suddenly, My Hero Acamdeia had stakes.

The world stopped being one where superpowers were economic commodities and one where they were matters of life and death. Characters get horribly hurt and death seems like a real possibility. 

All Might stops being  a silly figure as we are shown how much he has risked and sacrificed. More than that, as opposed to an ideal word where super hero shenanigans just get to happen, we are shown that his example of morality may be all that keeps the world from sliding into a dystopia.

I went from wondering why I should care to Shogoth got real.

It took a bit but I eventually saw why folks get engaged by My Hero Acadenia and why the characters are interesting. How there is a deeper world beneath the shallow sports metaphor and that world is scary.

So I’ll keep reading. (I was on volume four when I started writing this and I’m on volume ten as I finish it up lol)