Anime Review: My Hero Academia, Season 1

My Hero Academia, Season 1

Back when My Hero Academia got its first season, someone on this site asked me if I was going to review it episode-per-episode. I had said "no", for the simple reason that I had been following this series weekly in its manga format relatively close to when it first started -- at around chapter 11 or something along that lines. I thought that reviewing something episode-per-episode when I've done that in a different format isn't going to be fun or enlightening, considering that I'll basically be retreading old ground.

But it's been two years now, and My Hero Academia's gone through a whole lot of arcs after that. I was given the DVD set for My Hero Academia's first season, lasting 13 episodes, and it's definitely interesting to see how the anime adaptation handled these story arcs.

Of course considering my love for the superhero genre (gee, y'think?) My Hero Academia is going to be a series I follow no matter what, but watching these episodes again and re-experiencing the story for the first time in a while, it really struck me just how... different My Hero Academia is compared to its shonen brethren. And how different the series starts off. Honestly, a lot of people tell me that they had found it hard to get into My Hero Academia due to its rough first couple of episodes, and I don't blame them -- while the world-building of My Hero Academia is indeed pretty well-done even from the get go, the first "arc" of sorts detailing Midoriya and All Might's meeting, as well as everything revolving Midoriya's story, was very roughly handled.

After all, it is insanely convenient that the uber-fanboy that was born without a quirk ends up meeting his idol who also happens to be the number one hero, who also happens to be having a crisis of faith and also has a career-threatening injury, and also has a quirk that can be passed down to a successor. And the first couple of episodes really flip-flop between "chase your dreams no matter how unrealistic it is" and "sometimes reality is hard". It's a bit of a bizarre flip-flop of values just to establish Midoriya's unique consequences. And yes, the storytelling is good enough to mask it under a layer of Midoriya and All Might's emotional rollercoaster, but still, I really did feel that in retrospect, the beginning of this series is truly rocky and filled with plot contrivances.

Maybe part of it is trying to hit on both sides of the button? Trying to hit all the shonen manga tropes, while also trying to make it a superhero origin story? I dunno. Thankfully, the voice actors they got for Midoriya and All Might truly do get into their roles, hitting all the emotional beats near-perfectly throughout the three major arcs shown in this first season.


The beginning episodes and the training sequence feels pretty rough if competent, while both the entrance exam and Aizawa's little test feel more like world-building and slowly introducing more characters into the scene. I don't think it's not until the little mock battle between Deku and Uraraka against Bakugou and Iida that you really get a sense of the story the writer's trying to tell with its main character, and the subsequent little villain attack at USJ is genuinely a thrilling and badass four-parter to cap off a pretty fantastic season. Sure, world-building and character introduction is the name of the game for this season's shorter arcs, but it's honestly laying foundations for something special. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that My Hero Academia beats out a significant portion of other anime and manga in my personal list, despite, y'know, its rocky beginnings.

Fortunately, what the series lacks in tone consistency early on, it really makes up in its world-building and its handling of characters. It would've been so easy to write the rival character, Katsuki Bakugou, as a generic clone of so many "arrogant rival" archetypes seen in Japanese material, but even pretty early on Bakugou's easily one of the most interesting characters in the story, and the writing really shows that he's more than just a bully -- the dude has some self-image and self-confidence issues, and he's not evil, just someone also aspiring to be a hero with a shitty personality. The series takes an interestingly well-done stance with this, not making him a flat "evil bully" character, but neither does the show handwave away his asshat personality by going "he's a sad flower inside, so it's okay".

The other students other than Midoriya and Bakugou don't really get all that much screentime, other than Uraraka and Iida (both prominent in the entrance exam and mock fight arcs), Mineta and Tsuyu (prominent in the villain attack arc) and some very brief spotlights for Todoroki, Kirishima and Momo. Oh, and Aizawa gets to be prominent as well, and I completely forgot what a gigantic asshat he was in his original introduction. Shigaraki gets to be gloriously creepy even if the anime understandably tones down the original jarringly different artstyle  that he showed up in. Like Aizawa, I completely forgot what a silly video-game-lingo talking fool he was in his first appearance.

I do think that the anime made some of them far more distinctive by casting really great voice actors, though, so Tsuyu, Ashido, Jirou and Aoyama, for example, end up being far more memorable even before they become prominent in the anime due to their very awesome voices. I'm also a big fan of Present Mic's voice, which is pretty damn hammy.

Plus, y'know, colours, music and everything. That's a plus.

The animation itself is pretty fluid, which is to be expected for a 2010's era anime. The music's all right, with some really badass moments where they got the music cues right being around Midoriya smashing that giant robot during the entrance exam, as well as All Might's entrance during the USJ villain arc. Speaking of which... yeah, the series really didn't find its footing until everyone got into the school, yeah? Both the battle trial and the villain attack at USJ flow so, so much better than the rocky start.

Also, being able to release the series as part of a season instead of being forced to choo-choo through every week regardless of the availability of material like One Piece really ends up helping the pacing of My Hero Academia. Sure, there are some episodes where flashbacks or repeated exposition are done, but ultimately the 13-episode season flows very well without any pacing problems. I honestly wished more anime productions embraced this -- there is a reason I've never bothered watching Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto or any of the big name anime despite loving them.

What else? Oh, there are a couple of fun things that I forgot about these early arcs -- Midoriya's goofy-ass bunny-ear suit and the fact that Todoroki walks around with his fire half covered entirely in ice. Completely forgot both those details.

Anyway, it's been a huge blast. This first season flows very smoothly, it was some fun, easy watching, and I am a really huge fan of the genuine tension that they ratchet up in episode 12 where the two professional teachers Aizawa and 13 seem to be in real mortal danger. Other than the pretty rocky pacing and coincidences seen in the first couple of episodes -- which isn't the fault of the anime staff -- I pretty much don't have any sort of complaints about this anime adaptation. Pretty neat stuff that really does expand and fix some of the more iffy pacing problems that the manga has.