#bnha critical

[thearomanticcactus]

MHA is like those webtoons where the kids are always fighting and it's just like "where are the adults??" (like Weak Hero) except the adults are right there and just doing basically nothing.

[arceus-insanity]

In fact he was allowed to advocate for the bastard to be murdered

you know what I definitely will give ATLA credit for, in retrospect? no push for zuko to reconcile with his father. no weird, dissonant 'yeah he's an abusive fascist but He's Still Your Dad' thing going on. fuck you. he's going to jail.

[paesagex]

Shimura Koutaro and wasted occasions for depth within My Hero Academia

Thinking about Koutaro Shimura one day a realization suddenly hit me. If Gran Torino and All Might fully believed for five whole years that All for One was dead, but neither knew of Koutaro’s and his family's tragic passing in a “mysterious Villain Attack”, that means that they never tried to get in touch with him.

That’s not a big revelation, we already knew that, but the more I thought about the implications of this choice, the more fundamentally wrong it felt.

There was one sole reason Koutaro was sent away from his mother, and that was to protect him from Afo. but once Afo was “dead”, there were plenty of good reasons to try to look for him.

Out of minimum decency, Koutaro deserved at the very least an apology and an explanation for his abandonment. He also deserved to know that the death of both his parents had been avenged, as the man that is behind all his family’s trouble was believed to be dead. Besides, was Koutaro even ever informed of Nana’s death? If she tinkered with the documentation, it would mean that there was no legal proof that Koutaro was her son. Therefore, no government official would know to notify him.

One may counteract that they tried but failed, but that’s a weak argument.

Koutaro was a successful businessman who likely had a lot of social connections, and his name wasn’t even changed. All Might, with all his resources, should have been able to find out anything that Afo, the guy who Koutaro was supposed to be hidden from, could.

The motto of this story is “Plus Ultra”.

If it is the right thing to do, you should put the whole of yourself in achieving your goal, no matter how difficult.

Therefore, All Might and Gran Torino, thematically speaking, have no excuses to not have tried to make things right with Koutaro. Even if, let’s say, Afo had managed to make the whole ordeal of the Shimura’s mysterious deaths go mediatically unnoticed, the heroes aren’t excused from their inaction.

Or rather, the narrative that established this theme isn’t excused from not calling this out.

THE WEAKENING OF THE NARRATIVE'S OWN MORALS

In fact, this last consideration is really my main point. This essay is titled “wasted opportunities,” not “heroes suck,” after all.

The problem with this oversight from the two heroes isn’t really that it’s a clear show of neglect towards a man that lost his childhood innocence because of the choices heroes made for him.

It’s that they’re never called out about it.

Making characters mess up, make bad choices and ending up hurting others is not bad writing at all, actually it is very good. This shows that they’re complex and have multiple facets, and that their actions have consequences within the story, which is what makes them well written!

However, when the narrative fails to acknowledge bad, hurtful choices, especially if it is trying to frame a character as a “good guy”, then it creates inconsistency.

All Might’s arc is one of deconstruction, where he’s supposed to go from A, an untouchable idol, to B, a man with flaws and sins. However, this example I’m bringing up and many other ones people pointed out over the years shows that his arc really goes from A, to B, and then back to A again. The story never fully dives into all the things All Might could have been criticized for, it is afraid to touch upon Deku’s idolization of him.

Despite my opinion in the matter being that Koutaro and his right to know should be mainly Gran’s responsibility, as he was involved personally in the decision to abandon him, All Might is a much more important character, and should be challenged harder.

Of course though they’re both left off the hook, All Might to protect Deku’s moral integrity and refusal to question his idol, Gran because he’s specifically thought out as a stagnant old fashioned hero who represents the suppressive justice system which Deku was supposed (and failed) to surpass.

Letting the matter of these two heroes just leaving a presumably still alive man unaware of the reasons behind a huge injustice imposed on him when he was just a child makes them look bad, but not in a good sense. They seem indifferent. The fact that Koutaro was already dead by the point of Afo’s “head massage” is irrelevant. It’s the fact that they never even think about making things right with him that counts.

Heroes neglected Koutaro when they decided that his right to have a parent was less important than fighting Afo, and they just kept neglecting him even after they believed the fight was over.

WHY THIS CHOICE (in my opinion)

I thought about it, I tried to find a reasonable explanation as to why Horikoshi would just pretend this whole deal wasn’t there. And the only one I could come up with is the same one I reached in trying to explain myself why nobody ever seemed to look into Shigaraki’s past once his identity as a Shimura was revealed:

Horikoshi had already planned the whole Afo/Ofa psychic connection and wanted that to be the way Deku grew any interest in understanding Shigaraki.

All Might and Gran Torino looking for Koutaro would have uncovered part of the mystery behind Shigaraki too early, while the author wanted the protagonist to be able to look directly into Shigaraki’s heart through the power of One for All, the Quirk Created to Save.

However, as many pointed out before me, the last arc and Deku’s newfound interest in helping villains feels incredibly rushed, his empathy forced, which is frustrating since there was, through the whole time of the story, a huge pile of information just lying there gathering dust that the characters had tons of good reasons to look into and be interested in.

MISTAKES AND USING THEM TO BUILD A STRONGER STORY

I fully believe that the story building would have worked better if Deku’s interest in Shigaraki had been gradually built from the start, and Koutaro was the key to achieve this.

Heroes are “forbidden” from focusing too much on the Shimura tragedy because that would ruin the story’s strong plot twists and tragic flashbacks, which are one of MHA’s main strong qualities, one might say. However, this isn’t a true problem.

In fact, if you think about it, making so that All Might was aware of Koutaro’s and his family gruesome death would have created 1) foreshadowing to Shigaraki’s identity reveal, 2) added weight to his shoulders, challenging not any hero, but the Symbol of Peace himself to face the consequences of his neglect directly, and 3) at first, it would have made the assumption that Shigaraki was the one to kill his family even more horrifying.

If we as readers had been aware of the level of violence that the death of the Shimuras involved before Shigaraki’s flashbacks, we would have been lead to believe, just as any character who would have bothered to do any research about them, that they were a perfectly normal, loving family that couldn’t possibly have deserved this tragic fate. Making Shigaraki, who is said by Afo to have killed them, look like an innate psychopath.

For these reasons, the emotional investment of Shigaraki’s flashbacks in the My Villain Academia arc would not have been undermined at all, actually it would have strengthened it, as in this case, they would work both as an explanation of how Shigaraki was manipulated from childhood by Afo and it would unmask an impression of superficial happiness and perfection, one of Mha’s big themes.

Moreso, a gradual investigation through the whole story on the main Villain’s past would, as we already said, have created a more earned interest from the protagonist, but it would have also… made a lot of sense logistically.

His Quirk was known, so was his real surname, by this point the fact that the police never connected the dots and didn’t manage to find his old neighbours, kindergarten teachers, anyone who could have testified that Tenko used to be perfectly normal and even exceptionally gentle before he was taken in by Afo is just a huge, unjustifiable plot hole.

CONCLUSION

Keeping All Might and Gran Torino so disinterested of Koutaro’s and his family’s fate is both a bad choice in moral consideration and, because of the way it is (not) handled, in writing, just as the gaping black hole that is the nonexistent investigation on Shigaraki when there was plenty of information.

The Shimuras are not only amongst the biggest tragedies of this story, they’re a missed opportunity for a fully deep exploration of the story’s themes. One of many, unfortunately.

One that fully reflects all the things that make MHA a hypocritical, double standard narrative that parrots its desire to uncover cycles of pain and violence and hold society accountable but then never fully commits to its message.

Koutaro and Shigaraki, father and son, led sad lives, neglected by the people who should have protected them and therefore becoming easy prey for Afo, and then died horribly without this sadness ever being really acknowledged, the people responsible never expressing their guilt appropriately.

There was no improvement between their two generations, Deku’s teachers didn’t manage to be a good example to the new Symbol of Peace by facing their mistakes honestly.

My Hero Academia presents the tragedies of the Shimuras as ways to uncover cycles of violence and societal neglect, when it is actually using them to create empty emotional engagement that isn’t used to add depth to the story and doesn’t even reach a real resolution.

To put it simply, they’re wasted.

[lacunammmm]

MHA Only Has Four Important Female Characters And The Rest Could Comfortably Be Removed With Zero Impact

You could remove almost every female character from this series and nothing changes. Rather than discussing who goes, let's start with who stays. The list isn't long.

-Toga, because she's one of the villain team's MVPs and removing her from the story leaves a massive hole where she used to be. -Uraraka, removing her takes away a major supporting member of Deku's cast. It COULD be done. You COULD just restructure all of the moments between Toga and Uraraka to happen with Deku instead. It would just be really janky.

If we stick to canon's story beats, you'd have a scene where Izuku watches Toga kill herself after their fight and then he rushes off to kill Shigaraki. Uraraka stays. -Nana Shimura, since she's All Might's trainer and also Tomura's grandmother. -And either Mei Hatsume or Momo to act as tech support. Objectively speaking, you don't need them. Momo's contributions in canon were making the tracking devices that led the heroes to Garaki's nomu lab during Kamino, and she made a gas that knocked Gigantomachia out...AFTER everyone got finished jumping him and landing their hits, of course. You could write Momo out by conveniently having Mei invent devices that the heroes use before they know they need them. Or you could scrap both of them. They find the nomu lab because the cops analyzed power expenditure rates in the city and saw the warehouse. They assumed this was either a hydroponics weed farm, or something shady was going on. It turns out to be a nomu lab. They beat up Machia just as they did in canon, except he goes down and stays down. -Eri, on the other hand, is an edge case. She contributes nothing but two things towards the end of the series: restoring Mirio's quirk and healing Deku's arms. She's underdeveloped as a character entirely. She's not a character. She's a trauma prop and a moeblob. She's a major plot device and a reason the Overhaul arc plays out the way it does. You functionally could replace her if the story was willing to have Aizawa get abducted and Overhaul figures out some means to create bullets out of the guy's DNA. You'd have Present Mic there to attack the Yakuza alongside Deku in this universe instead. It's messy and it turns the Overhaul arc into the Aizawa Rescue Arc but it could be done. You'd just have Mirio either not get shot, or he does get shot and we have consequences for once. Mirio in canon proceeded to do basically nothing after his arc, showed up later to defeat Mister Compress, then help stall Tomura. For the sake of not having to change much, we keep her. But I do think a story where Deku rescues his teacher has better bones to it, since Eri does nothing after her arc. They make her smile at a school festival and her years of trauma are fixed. -Recovery Girl is another edge case but the story doesn't care about her as a person. She's a tool to heal main characters and enable them to recover near instantly from their injuries. You could replace her with a talking healing pod from DBZ and get the same end result. We just replace the scenes where she complains with Nezu doing it. Nezu, to All Might and Midoriya who are both in healing pods: You guys really ought to go less hard, eh? But who am I kidding? Plus Ultra! The rest of them? You could functionally ditch and not much changes. I'll go through all of them in a lightning round. Mirko: Replace her with Gang Orca. You know, the really tough mutant guy who could fight Inasa and Shoto at the same time? The guy the story barely used after? Yeah, we dust him off and slot him in. Midnight: Even her two best friends didn't care about her after she died. If we have to kill a teacher who doesn't affect the plot, kill Ectoplasm. Hagakure: Besides discovering Aoyama, what does she ever do? Deku could have just as easily discovered Aoyama...when All For One orders him to capture Deku. It's REALLY OBVIOUS Aoyama is the spy when he's attacking! Tsuyu: She saves Izuku from a shark mutant at the USJ and then does nothing else until she becomes Uraraka's video game assist against Toga. Mina: Her arc is already shared with Kirishima. You just have him eat the rest of her screen time and story beats. Kyoka: Absolutely superfluous. She sings a song once, loses an ear to AFO, and then makes the quirks in him briefly rebel. Have Tokoyami fight alone and we end up in the same place.

All the girls in class B: Class B was a waste of space and shouldn't have existed. Nejire: The big 3 didn't need to exist. Clearly only Mirio actually mattered. The story wanted to show how great Mirio was at the time. Let him fight Nejire and Suneater's foes and show off his POWER. Ryuku: Her most notable scene was getting beat up by Tomura, then is MIA until the final war, where she fights a background character. Magne: She existed just to get brutally murdered by Overhaul. The author NEVER cared about this character.

Inko: If she was never seen and the story didn't bother to get into who Izuku's parents are, what changes? Nothing. So we have 5 essential female characters: Uraraka, Toga, Momo/Mei, Eri, and Nana. 4 if you're willing to do an Overhaul arc rewrite and ditch Eri. 3 if you decide Momo/Mei's contributions aren't needed. This isn't a problem unique to MHA, by the way, this series is just especially bad about it.

[arceus-insanity]

PS. Star Wars and Western Superheroes were a major inspiration for MHA, so there's additional connection to these tropes and expectations

I think one of the main problems with MHA is that it's not anti-establishment enough. Like, in this era of media and pop culture, we (as viewers) are used to seeing stories of underdogs, of resistance groups fighting against authority. The most famous example of this would be Star Wars, which was commentary on the Vietnam War/Cold War. And then you have examples like the Hunger Games and the YA dystopia boom of the 2010s - all focused on resistance against government systems. (This of course, speaks towards the current sentiments on modern-day governments) I mean, hey, you've probably seen those cringy posts about "how does the government expect us to be complacent when we were raised by characters who resisted fascism." You know the ones.

While this genre of YA media is most prominent in western culture, MHA *has* become a part of mainstream western culture, due to its success. So many of the ppl active in the fandom, making fanworks, etc, are exposed to this trope as (mostly) the norm. And, in comparison to this trope, MHA just doesn't...sit right.

From the start, the world of MHA is flawed. I think everyone can agree with this. Quirkiness kids are bullied, one of the top heroes beats his children, there's an organization creating child soldiers, etc, etc. Hell, in the first episode, there's even a mention that literally every single kid wants to be a hero when they grow up! That can't be good for the economy, can it?

But instead of working to fix this, hori just gives us a worse evil to brand as the enemy. Asking the viewer to choose the best of two evils, hoping we will ignore problems like discrimination to overthrow the people who are literally making human puppets. Hori wants the world of MHA to appear "black and white" but really, it kinda just appears..."black and ehhhh...grey." Which, I mean, is quite realistic given our *current* world but...I guess it doesn't fit the genre? It's not satisfying, really. Or particularly well executed.

On top of this, the problems present in the hero world are ones that Hori's viewers might very easily relate to. Bullying, domestic violence, discrimination, even sexism (though that one is one that is VERY MUCH not deliberate on hori's part...ugh). Which is why, even though, realistically, Bakugou telling Izuku to k*** himself isn't worse than AFO making LITERAL MONSTERS OUT OF CORPSES, it feels that way. Because, y'know, I don't think any of the MHA viewers out there are at risk of being nomu-ified.

So, what happens? No matter how evil Hori tries to make Shiggy, people will still like him. Because he's not violent in a way that is relatable, he's just...edgy. And also hot as hell.

tl;dr? Hori created a morally grey world and refused to fix any of its problems, so we all simp for the murderous hand-man.

[embers-of-the-league]

Okay, so here's where we're at apparently

Tomura is dead

Toga is dead (or, let's just call it as it is, she committed suicide) - this is despite the fact that if she died other characters (read: heroes) should have died as well, but didn't (Bakugo and Edgeshot for example)

Dabi is presumably still in the hospital (since we didn't see a funeral), unable to move or do anything on his own

Spinner wrote his book, but where he is and how he's actually doing is unknown - presumably he still has to deal with multiple quirks that aren't his own and are tearing at his body

Compress is alive but where he currently is is unknown - he read Spinner's book (and that's it)

Kurogiri exploded?? And nobody has bothered to mention anything about him since

Twice has been dead for a while, but his murderer is not only free of charge but also the head of the HPSC (which still exists btw)

Other things:

The hero ranking system still exists

Seemingly no real changes have been made which would help victims like the LOV before they felt like they had to turn to villainy to be heard/seen/understood

Deku gets to be a hero again by the power of ~technology~ - kinda making the whole deal about him losing his quirk feel pointless

Not from this chapter, but I still feel like it's very important to point out that it's heavily implied that Rei is just gonna take care of Enji (her abuser) now and probably for the rest of time

The few good things:

Ochako bringing more focus on mental health

That was it, I have nothing else

[tardigradetheking]

I actually feel sick to my stomach about what happened to dabi. I'm not being hyperbolic. I was never abused but the fact that Dabi's abuser gets to visit him even though everyone knows what that man did is sick. Endeavor gets to stare at him through a pain of glass like dabi is a goddamn monkey in a zoo and dabi is too weak to even object.

[nagitosstolenhand]

i don't like the growing opinion that people are being 'too hard' on deku for his failing to save shigaraki.

i've seen quite a few people complaining that a lot of the bnha-critical crowd are being too mean to deku for getting tomura killed, arguing that it isn't really his fault, and that hes a 16 year old child soldier who's been failed by almost every adult in his life, why should we be putting all of this on his shoulders? hes just a kid after all?

and the truth is, they're right. deku IS a 16 year old boy whos had the fate of the world thrust on his shoulders. but the story itself just plainly refuses to acknowledge this.

the narrative doesn't acknowledge how fucked up having a school that trains literal children how to be combo cop-celebrities is. it only tentatively acknowledges the fact that a universe having combo cop-celebrities is fucked up, and even then the only people who ever point this out are antagonists, who are portrayed and treated in-universe as untrustworthy. the narrative doesn't care how fucked up dekus circumstances are. the narrative treats deku like hes a fucking messiah here to touch the hearts of the evil depressed villains with his magical empathetic heart of gold before they get blown up or just sent to fucking superhell for daring to challenge the status quote.

deku isn't a person. he's barely even a fucking character at this point. he's a plot device, and a mouth piece for the objectively shitty themes bnha is trying to spout. the themes that tell you that if you're mistreated by society and want to do something about it, you're a villain. that disrupting the status quote and refusing to repent to some random teenage boy spouting empty platitudes at you means you deserve to get sent to fucking superhell. the themes that portray people fighting for civil change as mass murdering supervillains. the themes that look the audience dead in the eye and can call deku the greatest hero to ever live.

deku, who barely spared a second thought to lady nagant telling him the truth about the hero commission. who spouts meaningless platitudes about heroism and morality at nagant, and aoyama, and toga and shigaraki, when even the thought that he should question the world around him comes up. who's constantly talked about as this truly kind, empathetic person, but hasn't spared an empathetic thought to literally anyone who is classified as a villain. who listened to every authority figure around him except the ones who asked him to question his worldview. who saw la bravas tears, shigarakis various breakdowns, himikos plead for understanding, chisakis catatonic state, lady nagants truth, and barley batted a fucking eye. deku, who killed tomura shigaraki.

people don't criticize deku for failing shigaraki because they just hate deku. people criticize deku because of what he represents. because hes a mouthpiece for the atrocious morals and themes of this ideologically rotten manga. because any character he had was chopped up to bits in favor of the incomplete husk we have now. people criticize deku because hes the main character of my hero academia. theres nothing more damning then that.

[doodlegirl1998]

It's wild and obscenely damaging to a child's psyche - particularly when that child already has self esteem / self worth issues.

Kinda funny how Aizawa gets mad at Izuku for not being able to fully control his Quirk as if it's not literally his Job to make sure he can. Like. Did you not read his file of did UA not find the fact that Izuku's Quirk was registered that year important enough to write it down. It's bad either way

Also telling someone they have no potential and would only be a liability to their face is wild, especially to a Child

[writerswho]

Aizawa is a terrible teacher. I love Aizawa, but I love the fanon version of Aizawa. Even when he's a bad teacher in the fanfics, he's still better than the canon. But what made me realise what a crap teacher Aizawa is was Kalego. After watching Iruma-kun and starting to read the manga, I realised that Kalego, the uptight, grumpy, tired and kind of sadistic teacher who gives his students extra work just because he can, is everything Aizawa tries to be, but isn't. Because Kalego cares about his students in a way canon!Aizawa would never. Like, yeah, Aizawa would die for his students, but that is not due to the fact that his a good teacher. It is because he is a hero and that is what heroes do. While Kalego would also die protecting his students and even kill for them, he also pays attention to their needs as students. Half of the 1-A need help with their regular grades and the other half need help finding ways to use their quirks without hurting themselves. We all joke about Midoriya and his bone juice, but why does nobody think about giving that kid some extra help? Why didn't his homeroom teacher try to find a way for him to use his quirk without blowing himself? Or a way for Kamimari to use his quirk without frying his brain? Aizawa ignores de most basic things about his students' needs, like finding ways for them to use their quirks without damaging their bodies and health. Or the way Midoriya is around Bakugou, who tried to attack him on the first day and almost killed him on the second day. Kalego-sensei, on the other hand, took his time to make a personal notebook for each of his students and worried about finding ways to utilise their strengths regardless of how seemingly meaningless or nonsensical they may be and so many other things. Kalego-sensei cares about his class, about their growth and their future and is trying to find the best alternative for them. Everyone talks about what a bad teacher All Might is, but All Might is a rookie teacher with less than a year on the job (and nobody knows if he has a teacher's licence or not) while Aizawa is believed to be one of the oldest people on Nedzu's payroll. I am comparing Aizawa to Kalego because when I first saw Kallego, I thought he was the demon version of Aizawa. I now realise that if Aizawa were a third of the teacher that Kalego is, maybe these child soldiers would have a chance. When Iruma tried to do everything by himself/messed up, Kalego scolded him, obviously, but he made it clear that if Iruma had another problem, he could ask for help. Because Kalego is his teacher, and he's there to help him in any way he needs. But when Midoriya messed up/did everything by himself, well, they just yelled at him and made him feel guilty, and think that the solution isn't to ask for help or trust the adults next time, but to find a way not to get caught. Aizawa should spend a few days with Kalego and learn to be a real professional and a teacher who does what's best for the students.

[class1akids]

One thing I never understood about Midoriya and Bakugo is why Horikoshi is that determined to center their relationship? It doesn’t help the fact that Midoriya started to make friends at UA who treated him far better than Bakugo did in his entire life, yet Horikoshi chose to center his friendship to Bakugo. I get that he used Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki to explore All Might’s legacy but still I don’t get why he didn’t chose to focus on his other friendships (I mean this in the sense that it helps him develop his own self worth and move on from Bakugo for good) and instead he has to center his relationship with Bakugo.

I don't think Horikoshi centers Deku on Bakugou, but rather the other way around - he centers Bakugou's character arc on Deku.

Hori didn't do a good job of giving Deku a strong arc, but I think what remains pretty consistent is that Deku brings out the HERO in everyone he meets. He reconnects them somehow to their inner hero dreams or idealistic self. Which also results in the situation that so many of the characters feel like their only anchor to the story is Deku and their defining characteristic is the admiration they feel for him.

And because Horikoshi decided not to develop Deku, all of that feels a bit one-way (think everyone's speeches at Class A vs OFA).

Because Bakugou gets the second most screentime after Deku, 90% of which is spent on reflecting Deku's hero qualities that he himself lacks, it feels like a huge part of the story - but in reality it impacts the main plot (AFO vs OFA) fairly little until the final arc.

As to why Hori spent less time on other friendships as a way to develop Deku's self-worth? It's a good question. Unfortunately, in order to give Bakugou a successful redemption, Hori simply decided at the end of Act 2 that Deku's self-worth is not an issue that needs to be explored.

Or rather, it's tied up in a bizarre pivot, with focusing only Uraraka, calling her "his hero" and making her the final "win" for Deku.

[teapetal44]

TW: ABUSE, CHILD ABUSE

“He wants to air this dirty laundry to the world does he…? Dabi, you fiend…you’ve been waiting for this moment…when they couldn’t prevent mass destruction…and faith in heroes is wavering.” - chapter 292

I truly, wholeheartedly, believe that MHA as a story upholds the myth of the perfect victim. I do not want to discuss if Horikoshi did that on purpose, or subconsciously because of inner bias – I find no meaning in doing so. For me the execution of an idea, in the grand scheme of the narrative, holds more value than the intention of the author. I’ve also had my fair share of people infantilizing Asian authors in the anime community for their poor writing decisions for one lifetime. It’s patronizing to both the author and the people reading it. Whether or not Horikoshi intended for his themes of abuse to paint the picture they did does not matter, because that’s how it reads as.

MHA puts victims of abuse in narrow boxes and softly dictates what’s an acceptable reaction to said abuse. Victims are continuously walking a tightrope between being deserving of compassion and sympathy and being unredeemable monsters who are too far gone and are only good for martyrdom after being put down.  

Eri fits the clean cut depiction of abuse victims that media usually gears towards. She is untouched by the cruelty around her - she preserves her innocence and kindness. She isn't assertive, but rather meek and passive. She doesn't fight back with force. And when offered help, she is receptive to it. That is not to say that Eri's depiction doesn't have a place in fiction, or that her portrayal can't be representative of the experiences of some - as we all deal with trauma and the inhumanity people throw at us differently. We see the same thing in the portrayal of Fuyumi, who shares many of the qualities discussed above. The same thing applies to her - i personally love the idea of all the siblings having different reaction to their childhood trauma and abuse. It shows that victims are not some type of monolith.

But the narrative treats the "forgiving" or "receptive to help/support" victims of abuse with more grace and with much more kindness. if you are willing to forgive, or the very least be quietly tolerant, the story grants you a happy ending. Forgiveness isn't a bad thing, it is an individual choice - but an abuse victim shouldn't have to do it for them to have a happy ending.

In a vacuum Eri and Fuyumi's character arcs and depictions of abuse are good but it becomes a problem when that's the only experience and type of victim we ever hold in high value or recognize as valid and deserving of compassion. Which the story reinforces.

Touya and Tenko's backstories aren't pretty nor comfortable or easy to sit through. Their responses to abuse aren't either. Reactive abuse is very much real.

[darkonekrisrewrite]

This ☝️♾️

Mha ending isn't "realistic" its convenient.

Convenient for a "i want to end this as soon as possible" mindset.

If it had a realistic resolution then, it would have taken into account that once the main villans are defeated, there would be a power absence in the criminal world, and there would be MORE villans trying to get into power, but that wouldn't be convenient so other criminals just, stopped trying after the big bad was defeated.

In a realistic ending, other characters would question ochako quirk program, which main premise is "let's play with kids and hope for the best" any character with a bit of grey matter would question her method, and put in spotlight the many ways it can fail, but that wouldn't be convenient, so every character accepts it and praises it

The end of a war would make people feel relief at first but also feel scared and more open to question heroes, specially after watching people die on national tv, but naaah that would require time and we need to end this now so everyone is fine with it who cares.

Deku after losing ofa choosing to focus on being a teacher instead of focusing on hero work even when he never had a previous interest in teaching isn't realistic, if it were, then whe would've an arc or previous mention he enjoys teaching but that would require time and that's isn't convenient so lets just wrap in the last two chapters that teaching is fulfilling to him but also let's give him a hero suit to sell figures and have a excuse for the inevitable "my hero academia 2: more academia than ever, now with deku son beku"

Convenient, to marketing, to storytelling, to just getting rid of this, event's in this no longer have a weight or consequence, things just simply happens according to end it all.

You all know how much I HATE, when people call mha ending "realistic" it's dumb, it doesn't have a basis, and is misinterpreting the concept of "realism" because to some people realism is just, misery and bad, sad endings, because reality = shit, when that's not the case, realism in writing is just an objetive view of reality, an exploration of the life of people with the purpose to make a change, not every realistic work is miserable and hopeless. Realistically oppose fantasy so mha is at its core unrealistic, just because deku end in a job with a suit that he didn't really wanted at first doesn't make it a realistic ending, it simply makes it a bad ending.

[lacunammmm]

Do you think UA is really the so called best school for heroes or they just surf on the fame of their big name former students like am and endy (and others)?

UA is a school written by an author who didn't have much interest in the academia of MHA. MHA is a story about escalation and it puts the story beats of where the author is headed above organic storytelling. Example: UA doesn't like Izuku's habit of hurting himself. Aizawa has seen this multiple times now. -The entrance exam. -The quirk aptitude test. -The battle trials. -The USJ where he saved All Might's life. All of these resulted in the guy breaking something and needing to see Recovery Girl. Organic Storytelling: The teachers don't like this, so they address the problem head on: If Izuku breaks bones in the sports festival he really wants to do well in, he's out. So, he won't break his bones. But, this would go against the author's goal to show Izuku competing and hurting himself. So despite the fact that these people have his education and career in their hands and can dictate any command to him and he has to follow if he wants to remain a student there, they just complain after he does something.

As far as UA being the best school? Let's say...yes. The others aren't relevant. They do nothing. Shiketsu is allegedly as good as UA is and is its rival, but Shiketsu is only a handful of names characters. Where was Shiketsu and it's army of graduates when hero society fell? We saw what UA was doing: saving the country/the world. Shiketsu? They sent some guys to help during the final war arc. So by default, since the rest of the schools are non entities or do nothing, UA is the best. Is UA good? No. UA is a comical failure as an educational institution. It's a school where despite having the alleged best educators around and experts in their fields, the student's growth and development is entirely attributed to themselves. Aizawa repeatedly deflects any credit for his student's growth. He's a hands off teacher. He provides them exercises and training methods and the burden of doing the work and improving is on the students themselves. While this makes the class look more bad ass in the eyes of the audience, it asks the question: what are they here for? I think the principals behind UA's methods are very interesting. WHY do they do this? The answers are fun. So, you know how we get Aizawa and Shinso saying how unfair the entrance exam is and how it favors a certain type of quirk? My take is that this is 100% intentional and this mentality informs most of UA's methodology. They only teach students how to hit harder. Technical quirks or abilities that require effort to master can't easily translate into MORE POWER, so they prioritize people who will be top level heroes. Anyone who has a quirk like Endeavor's could be a top hero. The goal is to find as many people like him as possible, teach them to become stronger and hit harder. And teach them restraint and non lethal capture via sparring matches with their classmates. The constant fighting with their peers shows them how to hold back so they only use the exact amount of force needed in the field. As a factory to produce a very specific kind of hero, UA does a very good job. The school is just calibrated to creating a hero who succeeds in All Might's era of hero society. A self reliant hero who is used to doing things by themselves mirroring the solo and highly competitive nature of heroics. By definition, this strategy will exclude a lot of good eggs. So, we have the back paths: -Rescue points, enabling people who can't beat robots to score enough points to get in. Since the teachers are the ones who score this and they assign the points, Nezu could ensure anyone he finds interesting passes the entrance exam. -The Sports Festival, where those who do well and impress the teachers have a chance to move up to the hero course. This is designed to market those powerful hero students and get their names known even before their debuts. It doesn't matter for powerful heroes if people know their weaknesses and how they fight, because they're so strong that they simply obliterate all obstacles and opposition. Is this the intended reading of UA? That Nezu designed the entire curriculum to cater to people like Bakugo and Shoto and ensure they succeed because people like them are the most reliable and viable heroes you can create? Probably not. The author likely was just focused on escalation and making cool scenes. But when you look at it, this all makes sense. I wouldn't call this "good" but it's crafty and it speaks to the world it exists in. It's a fascinating system that's immensely cynical. A microcosm of the MHA world itself.

[nyc3]

I find funny how the anime constantly makes Shigaraki look like Lou Ferrigno in terms of muscles, in some cases his head looks like it doesn't belong to his own body:

But then you have Horikoshi drawing him like this...

Like sure, the muscles are still there but he's not this giant hulk with biceps the size of his head.

Even the manga in the first war arc doesn't have him looked like the anime does:

And I remember even the wiki copes with the idea that the surgery was supposed to give him extra muscles, but that was never stated officially and in any case his natural muscles came from the training in MVA.

Idk what's this obssesion the anime has for making all male characters buff as hell, even Dabi when canonically he's also a pipsqueak.

[solitairedeere]

i was never as optimistic about the ending of bnha as some villain stans were, but i never thought it'd end so badly it left me wondering why horikoshi ever bothered to humanize the villains or make them complex characters at all.

like-- i expected that at least 1-2 of the 3 villains who were heavily foreshadowed and outlined by the narrative as people to be saved would be, you know, actually saved. i didn't think that was a high bar. i've been let down before in fandoms where everyone was certain a character would live and then they didn't, so i tried to keep my hopes low. AND YET.

what happened to tomura was upsetting, but i wasn't that shocked after how disinterested the manga has seemed to be in him for like, the past 100 or so chapters. a bit surprised, because you'd think if anyone would succeed in the 'saving' mission it would be the MC, but whatever. dabi, well, they've spent a lot of time showing the way his quirk destroys his body even before this arc, so that also sucked but at least it didn't feel completely out of left field.

........but they're not even letting toga live???

i just-- what have we even been doing here? when zero out of the 3 characters that were marked out for saving were actually saved, you have to acknowledge that something has gone seriously fucking wrong with the storytelling. not even just from the perspective of a villain fan but from the perspective of someone who likes stories to be thematically consistent or satisfying in any way.

you can set up an expectation of these characters being saved and then subvert that and turn it into a tragedy- if done well that could even be worthwhile and interesting. but you can't turn it into a tragedy and then just... keep trucking along with the happy ending messaging and act like anything in the manga has been resolved and that the characters have somehow successfully completed their heroic origin stories.

like, maybe i shouldn't have expected this much from a shounen- at the end of the day it is still a shounen so i didn't expect to feel that it truly satisfactorily wrapped up all the themes it brought up around societal ills. but i expected it to at least resolve those things in a shounen-y way where they punch the problems and help these specific people and then you can feel good assuming that the state of things will continue to improve in the post-canon world of the manga.

instead we got... uh, none of that. the story refused to answer a single one of the larger questions it's been outlining for the past 400+ chapters. in the end, it was all flash and no substance, which again could've been fine, if it weren't for the way the story seemed to spend significant chunks of time trying to delude you into thinking it had substance.

truly makes me wonder what horikoshi thought he was doing the entire time. can it really all be blamed on burnout? the most that can be said for this ending is that it is, well, an ending. fuck dude, it is that.

and that's just... such a sad way to end a project that took up 10 years of your life.