Boku no Hero Academia 165 Review: It Boils Down to a Fight

Boku no Hero Academia, Chpater 165: Win the Brats' Hearts

I don't actually have much about Team Bakugou's attempts to win over the little brats' hearts. It's well-written, with Bakugou and Inasa's insane hotheadedness being fun to look at and Todoroki just being the sort of introvert that's just not good at all with kids. None of it is repetitive or annoying or bad in any way, but it's just kinda... yeah. I'm not sure if the backstory of the kids' troublesome manners are necessary, and there's a part of me that's disappointed that it all ends up boiling down to a generic 'fight the kids to earn their respect' instead of actually trying to be symbols of peace and hope. It's all well-written, but it kind of pales compared to the far more fascinating conversation between All Might and Endeavour. 

It's the closest we get to Endeavour's mental state and goals, because in the past he's just the 'rival' to All Might and the abusive father to Todoroki, but here he tells All Might that he's always entrusted his goals to Todoroki because he knew that while climbing to the 'number two' spot... the summit that is All Might is way too high for him to reach. Endeavour also notes how he wants to be the 'strongest', not a crowd-pleaser that smiles to the crowd like All Might is. All Might's retort about how the symbol of peace is a light and he just never put too much thought about it and focused on inspiring people most of the time isn't anything new, but All Might noting that his own hero complex caused him to push away those close to him, like his old sidekick Nighteye.... and All Might tells Endeavour that he shouldn't try to mould himself to be All Might, and that Endeavour should be the type of hero he wants to be.

Which is very nice and well-written, because it could all just devolve to an insipid, predictable ham-handed "I don't like to smile!" "But heroes must inspire civilians!" argument and that Endeavour would see the error of his ways from looking at the children's test as they try to inspire the kindergarten brats, but looking at All Might and Endeavour's respective backstories and having these two adults who's been through a lot of emotional turmoil just talk about how Endeavour should aspire to be the hero he wants to be is amazingly done. It's the sort of thing that lesser shonen like Promised Neverland or Fairy Tail completely misses the point about, where they will idealize the main character so much to the exclusion of villifying everyone else's points of view... and here All Might and Endeavour both acknowledge that they've both made fuck-ups and that none of them are 100% right. It's a pretty great message to send home, and this sort of writing that still  manages to remain optimistic without being saccharine is why My Hero Academia is one of the better-written shonen currently running.