My Hero Academia: Expectation vs. Execution

SPOILERS THROUGH EPISODE 30

By all accounts, My Hero Academia should be one of the most generic anime series there is at this point. It’s set in high-school, the characters are young teenagers that get into battles way out of their league, and they’ve all got unique powers. On paper this show doesn’t stand out at all. At first, I had little interest in it outside of how good the music was. However, off the paper, and through the execution and how it avoids and sometimes manipulates tropes, My Hero Academia has become the shining example of what shonen-anime should be in the future.

The best parts of My Hero Academia (MHA) are the characters, both primary, secondary, and superfluous. There are reasons for so many people to be enthralled by characters like Ochaco, Froppy, Bakugo, and Todoroki—they’re great. They’re unique, interesting, have good motivations and backstories. The series places all of those elements right into the forefront. MHA relies less on plot and more on how the characters are going to evolve in the situations they’re placed in.

These characters evolve, too, through their powers, or Quirks, as they’re called in the series. The Quirks often reflect the characters and their personalities, like Bakugo (who can manifest controlled explosions) often blowing up and fuming with rage, or Iida Tenya (who has super-speed) often rushing into things, like the recent bout with Hero Killer Stain.

The emphasis on characters gives the show it’s own unique flavor, too, as every episode feels different if it’s focused on a new character. While Izuku Midoriya is our main character, he is not our only POV character. Episodes that focus on Iida, Todoroki, Ochaco, or other secondary characters provide their own flare given the personalities that the characters have, creating an electric feel for the show that viewers will always get something different.

Even if they’re all in the same place, it’s always great to see characters interacting with those you wouldn’t expect. The big Festival arc that started the second season of the show allowed many new faces and for several new personalities to clash. The Cavalry battle was a great way to see how various characters may interact, including some of the minor ones from some of the other classes. Mei, a Support-Type student, was one of my favorite characters from that arc and I got excited each time she might’ve been there.

In a regular show, new characters are introduced and used in such a way to service the plot. Perhaps they have a power they can use at a convenient time. In MHA, while they sometimes service the plot, they are often used to highlight their own personalities and allow our characters to grow with new insights on things. Again, going back to Mei, she was one of our first insights into the Support-Type students, and when allied with Midoriya, he got a better understanding for how it is that part of the school operates. Plus, she was handy in the cavalry battle.

Hunter x Hunter does this quite often, too. Think back to the Hunter Exam arc, where Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio are stuck fighting the prisoners alongside some cheapskate Tonpa. We’d already met him earlier on, but introducing him allowed us to see that not everyone is in it for the prize, and he added a new dimension to the exam. Killua’s family, the Zoldyck clan, also create another element to the mix by showing us our first glimpse of how strong characters can get, and when we see Killua’s father and grandfather fight a member of the Phantom Troupe, it’s our first MAJOR destructive battle. Hunter x Hunter manages to tow the line a bit better when it comes to characters servicing character AND plot, like with Zepile, who comes along in the YorkNew City arc, and shows Gon and Killua how to make it big in the betting business.  

Another show that sort of subverts expectation, up to a certain point? Dragon Ball, all of it. From the base show up through “Super,” Dragon Ball has had a funny way of making it so viewer’s aren’t entirely sure what’s happening, and much of it is quite based in character. Gohan’s evolution over the course of “Z” is largely played in the background and initially seems random, but when Vegeta’s off-hand remarks of Saiyan half-breeds being rumored to possess incredible power, it’s easier to see truth in those rumors. Plus, for as light-hearted and fun a show as it is, Dragon Ball deals with death quite often. Dragon Ball Z plays fast and loose with it, and “Super,” so far, hasn’t delved much into that just yet.

Dragon Ball and My Hero Academia share a similar quality in how their plots aren’t quite as strong as their characters, and it seems like that’s on purpose. What is, after all, the plot of Dragon Ball? Find the Dragon Balls and stop the bad guys. What’s the plot of MHA? Pass the next obstacle to becoming a hero.

Vague plots like these lend themselves to tons of character growth and allows audiences to grow more connected to these characters. When the characters are placed in dire situations, we care more for them and how they’ll get out of it. The environment it’s in, too, helps us connect with these characters. A world where 80% of the population has super abilities means that there are those with those super abilities, but maybe they don’t quite know how to use them. Following Midoriya as he becomes a hero, quite slowly, is a great way to get sucked into the show, especially since we see him, as a kid, flipping out about the chance to get super powers. He’s instantly relatable and we’ll follow him anywhere.

The plot of MHA doesn’t have to be so convoluted because, right now, the characters are still finding out who they are and what they want to be. It’s tough to make something work if the story is going in several different directions and we haven’t gotten to know our characters yet. Think about how lackluster the tournament arc would be if we hadn’t gotten the first test examination where we got to see our characters pitted against one another and have their first taste of both interaction and combat.

So far, all of the arcs of MHA have been based around characters. The Festival arc focused on Todoroki and coming out of someone’s shadow to make life yours. The U.A. vs. Villains arc highlighted Midoriya accepting that he doesn’t need super powers to be a leader. The focal points of those arcs, also, come down to character conflict. The best parts of when Todoroki and Midoriya fought aren’t when they’re actually fighting but watching Todoroki struggle to accept his powers as his own and Midoriya wanting him to go all out. Midoriya doesn’t necessarily want to lose but he doesn’t want to see someone struggle with such a great gift. Ochaco’s battle against Bakugo shows both ruthlessness on his part and an unrelenting desire to prove herself on Ochaco’s part. We get to learn so much more about them than if they were just sitting around and talking as we get to see them not fighting, but battling.

And I think that’s a key point. Yes, it’s true that you learn a lot about a character given the way they fight. Look at Naruto. Sasuke tends to do try and fight all on his own, informing us that he’s a bit of a loner. Itachi implores a torture technique, implying that he has some affiliation to pain (though, really, it’s probably a self-inflicted pain). Naruto’s own sporadic fighting style for the first half of the series shows us an eccentric personality, and the mastery of the Rasengan shows that he’s finally able to mature himself enough both in battle and outside of it.

MHA uses those same ideas. Midoriya tends to overthink things and this comes up a lot in his fights, but it turns a simple fist fight into a true battle. He calculates each move he can make and each move he should make, unlike Bakugo, who constantly thinks he has the superior hand. Character personalities are always reflected through battling, not fighting. Iida’s character traits shine when he has to battle himself and will himself to stand against Hero Killer Stain before he can actually fight him.

Midoriya and Bakugo’s brief encounter in the examination battle, where Midoriya uses his knowledge of Bakugo’s fighting style to gain the upper-hand, really isn’t much of a fight as much as it is Midoriya doing his best just to survive, which is indicative of how his character has grown thus far. He gets by not with luck or by convenience but by thinking things through. How often in shonen anime do we see characters just run into a fight and somehow come out on top? MHA inverts that idea. Things often don’t work out for characters without a plan, or characters that aren’t paying attention in a fight. If you go in blind, you’re not going to do well.

MHA tends to also place severe limits on things, putting things out of reach for characters and it gives them a goal to strive for. There aren’t any random power-ups characters are given and we’ve seen the extent to which characters can reach. Midoriya doesn’t just master One-For-All overnight—in fact, during his bout with the Hero Killer, he still suffers an injury to his arm when he thought that’d been all healed up. The only reason those three defeat Stain is by his Quirk, and I’ll get to that in a moment.

I think in most other shows, the battle against Noumu would’ve involved Midoriya summoning up enough strength to defeat the beast with a sudden, random burst of power from One-For-All. Instead, it created a tense situation wherein All-Might had to jump in and really go in on Noumu because he was basically all out of power. Midoriya, and all our main characters, were pushed to the side because of this, but it makes sense. It had to happen.

These limits also make it feel like characters do earn their individual victories. The obstacle course part of the festival highlights this in a few ways. First, it sets the bar for what Midoriya is going to be up against when Todoroki freezes the giant robots with ease. Immediately we’re meant to think that he won’t be able to win with his powers, and, in actuality, he doesn’t. It’s his superior intellect, and I think the only reason that happens is because the creators are smart enough to know that if they were to have Midoriya use his Quirk to win it would be unrealistic for the environment they’ve created so far. Instead, he gets away with his smarts, something he’d been relying on the entire series thus far.

Another time that it seems like characters earn their victories is when Iida becomes class president. It’s a smaller moment, and while Midoriya gets the vote for sentimental reasons, it would be more prudent for the class to have someone like Iida as president for the hard work he’d shown so far, and for his ability to show structure to a pretty wild class.

Sometimes these limits the show places can hurt, though, creating moments that seem just a bit too convenient. The ultimate victory over Hero Killer Stain comes because of a clause in his powers, allowing Midoriya and Iida to land the final blow against him. It was entirely implausible that they could defeat him without this clause, and so it created a pretty notable moment in their battle.

But still, these limitations do add character depth. Todoroki’s character places limits on himself in fear of becoming more like his abusive father, but once it’s lifted, we do see an immediate shift in his character. Ochaco has limits in terms of her abilities as well, but it only pushes her character forward more. She hasn’t broken beyond anything yet, but it’s inspiring to see her never giving up in the face of all this while she strives to be a hero. On paper it’s pretty flat, to see character struggling with self-imposed limits. However, the added layer of depth through backstory and action gives it all a whole new meaning.

My Hero Academia greatly subverts the expectations one would have for the show through both charisma and charm. Characters are incredibly likable and easy to follow, and it’s interesting to see how they develop with their counterparts, as several personalities are constantly at war, often leading to good comedy. There’s an emphasis on characters and their individual journeys throughout the series that creates a good substitute for an overarching plot and allows us to explore their real motivations each episode. The use of a familiar atmosphere, while initially seeming like a bad idea, actually allows us to be one step ahead of the game as the show takes off in new, unexpected directions, and grounds us with a deeply relatable character in Midoriya. It succeeds due to effort, not just relying on what people know and love.