Being honest with myself, I can say this: superheroes have never been my thing and they still aren’t. Batman, Superman, Catwoman… none of them ever caught my eye when I was younger and consumed by Pokemon. Even now, they still haven’t.
I’m not entirely sure they can have a chance at holding a candle to “My Hero Academia” at this point, however.
As described by another fan of the series that I met at Barnes & Nobles regarding the characters in this series: “It’s like gaining your own little league team and being proud of them on a constant basis.” Nothing can ever sum up my feelings about this cast as well as this one phrase from a person I never even got the name of.
There are many things I can speak on regarding this series, mostly positive with a spattering of some negative. However, the negative points absolutely do not weigh down the series as a whole.
To get it out of the way, my main complaint rests in a problem I see with many shounen series: the lack of attention towards the female characters. While a couple receive decent arcs, others have been put on the backburner when they could have easily gotten more attention at times.
I also have a heavy distaste for characters that are just there to be a pervert and nothing else, an unfortunate presence in the beautiful cast the rest of the series presents us. Compared to these two issues, I can definitely give at least ten reasons why I love this series in return.
From my perspective, I generally base my enjoyment of something based on the three episode scale/three chapter scale: if I don’t start to enjoy it in that time frame then I need to drop it and move on. It’s incredibly rare for something to hook me in as fast as ten minutes into the show, but “My Hero Academia” gave me an opening scene that tugged at my heart immediately, and made me feel some sense of anticipation when the theme song came through my headphones.
This series presents a type of story I love: an underdog story. It follows the protagonist Izuku Midoriya on his journey to become the greatest hero of all time. However, his dreams are crushed at the early age of four when he learns he doesn’t have a quirk, the official term for a power in this universe.
The absolute heartbreak from this scene still sticks with me along with many others that rank up with it in terms of drawing tears out of me.
Still, the drive Midoriya shows in his life in spite of a diagnosis like that is awe-inspiring and the quote regarding it even more so: “that was my first and last setback.” His character is incredibly relatable in many facets, making him an extremely enjoyable protagonist to support.
The rest of the cast has just as many wonderful stories and attributes to show off. My favorite character from the cast overall is Ochako Uraraka, a girl with a bright personality and the optimism to back it up. Her quirk is zero gravity, allowing her to nullify the gravitational pull on any object she touches. Her story itself is charming as well as her character design and I couldn’t help but fall in love with her.
However, the spot for many of the other characters is hard to determine when it comes to favorites: if I want to be technical, several would rank in the top ten with only a few hanging around in the dislike pile.
Putting aside the cast before I ramble too long about how much I adore every single one of them, let me return to the story and it’s telling once more. “My Hero Academia” goes through several arcs where characters tend to fall in and out of the main focus at times, depending on who is needed where.
My favorite arc has to go to the Sports Festival Arc for showing off not only the main cast (Class 1-A), but also introducing the characters of Class 1-B and a couple others from the school.
Most, if not all, of that matches during this arc gave me a run for my money in terms of guessing who would come out as the victor. The build-up to every major segment of the Sports Festival manages to captivate me no matter what, getting me to cheer on my favorites (aka all of the characters essentially) in an effortless manner.
Overall, I can say this: there’s a character for everyone in this series and story arcs that keep things interesting even if it doesn’t involve antagonists. It’s a show I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for something to invest themselves in a bit and enjoy.
Erika Brandenburg
Staff Writer