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bnhaobservation · 5 months ago

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THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN BNHA - PART 1 (CANON TERMINOLOGY, REAL LIFE JAPANESE INSTITUTIONS, CHAP. 1 TO 97)

So this has started as a research to check which were the relations between Heroes, police and Hero commission. It expanded into a monster research for every scene in which the police or the HPSC appeared, as well as laws and regulations which were mentioned and how the justice system deals with Villains.

A lot of discussion ends up stemming in the fandom over such topics, especially when Japanese rules do not match with other countries rules and fancanon based on other countries rules spreads a lot so this research was meant to clear up some things.

Now, how all is this organized?

A first part is about canon terminology and info about things created specifically for BNHA which more or less affect the justice system in the story. You probably know them all already, or most of them, but let’s just play safe.

We’ve then real life terminology and info about real institutions in Japan that should exist in BNHA as well, as they likely were kept more or less the same.

Finally, for each arc we’ve what the chapters tells us about the police, about the law, about the prisons, about the Hero Public Safety Commission and, at the end, more cultural info, usually about how the real life Japanese justice system would apply to that arc or related to it. Note that they will include also things that aren’t tackled by the police through the story because in Japan they’re not a crime but can be a crime in other countries, so that you’ll know why the justice system ignored them in the story.

It’s also worth to mention I’ll try to focus on things as they were when BNHA started/was ongoing.

That’s because through the printing of BNHA things changed and are still changing but Horikoshi couldn’t know about future changed when he started writing his story and might not have updated it to adapt to the changes.

You might wonder ‘what about the Heroes?’

As the above parts also analyze the relationship of the Heroes with the police, with the law, with the prisons, with the HPSC, you’ll still find info about them… it’s just they’re split. I didn’t feel like giving the Heroes a chapter because it would often have meant to repeat the info given in the other sections.

Something else worth to note is that I do know that the characters’ opinions and actions are, in theory, peculiar of the characters, but as the police and the HPSC are seriously underrepresented, I’ll handle the opinions of characters members of those organizations as if they were the opinions of the ‘everyman member of the organization’ unless the story specify things differently.

Also, this will be split in parts because it’s huge.

CANON TERMINOLOGY AND INFO ABOUT THINGS CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR BNHA

The following info are about terms generally used in the story to refer to fictional things that are the norm in the story but don’t exist in the real world.

Superpowers: around 140 years ago people started having them. At the very beginning they were called ‘chōjō’ (超常 “paranormal abilities” lit. “transcend normal”) but then, when discrimination started, they were soon named ‘Inō’ (異能 “meta” lit. “uncommon ability”). As the government struggled to accept them, the name was shifted to ‘“kosei”’ (〝個性〟 ““quirk”” lit. “individuality/personality/individual nature/individual characteristic”) which in Japanese is always between quotation marks. When the story take place the 80% of the population has a Quirk. Who has no Quirk is called ‘“mukosei”’ (〝無個性〟 “quirkless” Lit. “no individuality/personality/individual nature/individual characteristic”). Bakugō calls people with weak Quirk ‘“bokkosei”’ (〝没個性〟 “dead/sunk/drowned Individuality/personality/individual nature/individual characteristic”) and we don’t know if others do the same. Quirks are classified as emitter/operative-type (発動型 ‘hatsudō-gata’ Lit. “operative/invoking/activation type”), transformation -type (変形型 ‘henkei-gata’ Lit “transformation/deformation/deformity/monster type”) and mutant/heteromorph-type (異形型 ‘igyō-gata’ Lit. “fantastic/grotesque/strange-looking/suspicious-looking/irregular shape”). However have emerged two other types of Quirks, the composite type (複合型 ‘fukugō-gata’) which is a mix of the above types and the mutation type (突然変異型 ‘totsuzenheni-gata’) which is a Quirk completely different from the ones of the parents. In addition there are also minor subgroups. They’re really relevant in BNHA justice system because their use is forbidden to whoever isn’t a Hero, making who use them a Villain.

Heteromorph (異形 ‘Igyō’ Lit: “fantastic/grotesque/strange-looking/suspicious-looking/irregular”): it’s generally applied to who has a Quirk classified as mutant/heteromorph-type (異形型 ‘igyō-gata’ Lit. “fantastic/grotesque/strange-looking/suspicious-looking/irregular shape”), however sometimes we find people who have an emitter or transformation Quirk combined with a Heteromorph shape. Of course, since Quirk were mixed, it’s possible that a person with an emitter Quirk married a person with an Heteromorph Quirk and the baby ended up with a combined Quirk which gave him ONLY the look of the parent with the Heteromorph Quirk and the power of the parent with the emitter Quirk. Although said term should apply to whoever has an irregular shape, it’s often not used if said shape is human looking enough. Since Heteromorphs are often victims of discrimination a large percentage of them ends up on becoming criminals.

Trigger (トリガー): it is a type of liquid drug that gives a boost to an individual's Quirk, weakening their sense of reason. There are variants of Trigger, one is legal and it’s used to stop baldness and erectile dysfunction, but can only be sold if one has a license to sell pharmaceuticals, and another is illegal and even more dangerous, which can be liquid or gaseous and it’s called Ideo Trigger (個性因子誘発物質（イディオトリガー） ‘kosei inshi yūhatsu busshitsu (IDEO TRIGGER)’ lit. “individuality factor inducing substance (IDIOTRIGGER)”) which, in addition to give a boost to the Quirk, causes its user to go on an uncontrollable rampage, also suffering a remarkable physical transformation and turning the tongue' color to black. There’s also a variant of Ideo Trigger that can be ingested and doesn’t cause people to go berserk. From the gaseous variant of Ideo Trigger can be produced an Ideo Trigger Bomb (個性因子誘発爆弾 ‘kosei inshi yūhatsu bakudan (IDEO TRIGGER BOMB)’ lit “quirk factor induction bomb (IDIOTRIGGER BOMB)”) that empowers so much Quirks that the ones inhaling the gas end up dying. Except for the legal variant, Trigger and its other illegal variants are used to commit crimes.

Quirk-Destroying Drug (〝個性〟を壊す〝クスリ〟 ‘“kosei” o kowasu “KUSURI”’): adrug capable of damaging the genetic mechanisms that compose someone's Quirk created by the Shie Hassaikai using Eri’s biological material. They also developed an antidote serum, which can nullify the effects of the drug and restore the victim's Quirk. The Quirk- Destroying Drug is usually administered through Quirk-Destroying bullets (〝個性〟消失弾 ‘“kosei” shōshitsu-dan’). This drug too is basically used to aid Villains to commit crimes.

Quirk registry (個性届 ‘kosei todoke’): each city hall has its own Quirk registry in which each citizen, starting elementary school, registers if he is Quirkless or if he has a Quirk and, if that’s the case, which kind of Quirk. The registration can be altered once or twice as long is not a major update. The Quirk registry is a way to control Quirks and therefore to track down who decides to use his own Quirk for criminal purposes, with the addition people from the underworld, exactly for this reason, don’t record their Quirks so as to make harder to track them.

Quirk counseling (〝個性〟カウンセリング ‘“kosei” COUNSELING’): A school education/program to correct distortions in self-understanding and other things, and to help people adjust social skills so as to develop a healthy mind. It is administered to elementary school kids as the early years of elementary school are an important time for personality development. Far from perfect, aims at teaching kids to act ‘normal’ but ends up as emphasizing differences and forcing people to suppress their own true selves. 8 years after the end of the second war, Uraraka will promote an expansion of the program. The initial Quirk counseling was said to have problems that, instead than helping people, made matters worse for them, increasing the risk for them to turn into Villains while the new Quirk counseling is praised as having caused a decline in the emergence of Villains.

Quirk marriage (個性婚 ‘kosei kon’): outdated and unethical practice in which a spouse is chosen for the sole purpose of passing on a strengthened version of one’s own Quirk to one’s offspring. In real life Japan had a period in which Japanese people were encouraged to choose a western bride under the belief it would strengthen the Japanese race. This idea was turned over a Japanese people were encouraged to marry only Japanese people so as to maintain the purity of Japanese race. Quirk marriage is not illegal in the story, but it’s likely watched with suspicion because it’s a call back to Destro’s ideology of Quirk supremacy, which is why people don’t go around telling they had one.

Quirk Regulations (〝個性〟の規制 ‘“kosei” no kisei’): they’re the rules/laws that regulate Quirk use. They allow solely licensed Pro Heroes to use their Quirks and go as far as consider Vigilantism a strong crime. This is obviously very relevant to the justice system as in the story we see law enforcers being usually called to act because someone broke Quirk regulations.

Rhode Island new state statute (ロードアイランド新州法 ‘RHODE ISLAND shin shūhō’): According to the spin off “Vigilantes” this is the law that put to place the first Hero licensing system in the world. The true goal of this law though wasn’t to endorse Heroes but to define what constitutes a Villain, to divide those using their Quirks into Heroes and Villains and put limitations on the latter so as to regulate Quirk on a societal level. This is also relevant as it created a new kind of law enforcers, the Heroes.

Villain (敵（ヴィラン） ‘teki (read: VILLAIN)’ “opponent/enemy (read: villain)”): generic term for an individual who uses their Quirk to commit crimes against society. Although the reading is given as ‘Villain’, the Kanji used is ‘teki’ (敵) meaning “enemy/opponent”, hinting at how they’re viewed as enemies of society (Heroes were created in response to Villains existing, which hints that Villains were named first and so the ‘enemy’ in their name can’t be a reference to how they’re Heroes’ enemies). They are basically one of the new kinds of criminals created for the series.

Nōmu (脳無 “brainless”): deceased individuals whose bodies have been bio-engineered (改人 ‘kaijin’) and heavily modified by Doctor Garaki Kyūdai in order to hold multiple Quirks and then reanimated to act as mindless super-soldiers. They are basically one of the new kinds of criminals created for the series.

Vigilante (ヴィジランテ): a general term for those who voluntarily engage in public safety activities using their Quirk without a license. They were the root of heroes as they began when people started using their own quirks to fight back against those who used their Quirk to commit crimes. Then, with Quirk regulations, a bunch of them was allowed to obtain a license and become a Hero while the others were considered the same as Villains, something that carried on till present day. They are basically one of the new kinds of criminals created for the series.

Pro Hero (プロヒーロー): an individual who obtained a license to use his Quirk to fight Villains. They’re civil servants paid on a commission basis (though their pay can be very high) who, in addition to fighting Villains and handing them to the police, help in case of accidents and disasters, and can do side jobs like working for the entertainment industry, appearing in commercials, and having merchandise with their face sold. Heroes offer to Hero students without a license a week of work experience (職場体験 ‘shokuba taiken’) and to Hero students with a license a much longer Hero internship (ヒーローインターン ‘HERO INTERN’). A Hero also has the right to educate (教育権 ‘kyōiku-ken’) Hero students who join his agency for work experiences or internship, although this right can be revoked if he fails to monitor them well. They are basically the new kind of law enforcers created for the series.

Sidekick (相棒 (サイドキック) ‘Aibō (read: sidekick)’): a Pro Hero who is hired by another Pro Hero to work in his agency. Many Heroes start as sidekicks then, once they had acquired enough experience, become independent and open their own agency, though a lot of them never manages to go solo and stay a sidekick forever. In addition to Hero work they often provide support to their boss, do desk work, investigations, information gathering, document preparation and managerial duties. They are basically a sub branch of the new kind of law enforcers created for the series.

Pro Hero license (プロヒーロー免許 ‘PRO HERO menkyo’): A license to act as a professional hero. By obtaining it, one can carry out hero activities using their "quirk", set up a hero agency, and act as a sidekick to a professional hero. Hero students can obtain a Pro Hero provisional license (プロヒーロー仮免 ‘PRO HERO karimen’) that will gave them the permission to act as Heroes against Villain or in order to rescue people from disaster scenarios without a Pro Hero guidance but ONLY in emergencies. Obtaining a license is difficult, and the success rate even at the provisional license exam is extremely low. This is the document that establishes that one is a specific kind of law enforcer.

Pro Hero agency (プロヒーロー事務所 ‘PRO HERO Jimusho’): an office started by a licensed pro Hero that can serve as a base of operations and point of contact. Agencies can team up with each other but each is still an independent business. Many agencies employ sidekicks, in a number that depends from the size of the agency and its activities. They are the offices of the new kind of law enforcers created for the series.

Hero Network or HN (ヒーローネットワーク): A national network which allows Pro Heroes to view Hero news, check Quirk data and submit requests for assistance. Only licensed Pro Heroes can use these services. It’s a new instrument created for the new type of law enforcers. [Chap. 135]

Villain insurance (敵災保険 ‘teki sai hoken’): a form of insurance that covers injuries and property damage caused by a Villain or during the capture of one. It’s a must have for Pro Heroes.

Hero deduction (ヒーロー控除 ‘HERO kōjo’): an aspect of the tax code that allows heroes to deduct job-related expenses and damages incurred on the job.

Hero Public Safety Commission (ヒーロー公安委員会 ‘HERO kōan iinkai’): the government agency (行政機関 ‘gyōsei kikan’) responsible for managing Heroes in a society where peace, law and order are upheld by said Heroes. The commission handles a wide range of administrative functions, such as issuing hero licenses, compiling and presenting the billboard chart ranking, managing public relations and even conducting intelligence activities. A gyōsei kikan is an agency that divides up administrative affairs of the nation and executes the laws enacted by the legislative body. According to the National Administrative Organization Act, there are four types of administrative organs: offices, ministries, committees, and agencies, with a Minister of State as the head of each organ, and local branch offices and affiliated organizations (various councils, facilities, etc.) that make up part of the organization. It’s a new government agency created to manage the new kind of law enforcers created in the story.

Hero high school (ヒーロー高校 ‘HERO kōkō’): schools who have a course which prepares its students to become Heroes, giving them all the education they need. Apparently they last 3 years. They usually also have a general study course, a support course where students learn to create support items and a business course. The most important Hero school is U.A. High School (雄英高校 ‘U.A. kōkō’), followed by Shiketsu High School (士傑高校 ‘Shiketsu kōkō’). They’re basically schools to educate the new kind of enforcers created for the story and that have special rules on their school ground.

Support company (サポート会社 ‘SUPPORT kaisha’): a company which manufacture, modify or sell support items and costumes designed with specific Quirks in mind it. It must hold a special license from the government which is granted after an inspection. They can be affiliated to Hero schools. Using support items can be done only by Heroes or Heroes in training but running experiments and tests in a lab is okay even for non-Heroes. For those individuals whose Quirk impedes everyday life, permits for special life-improving items may be granted after a rigorous examination. The West had done remarkable strides in compact technology (and Detnerat plagiarized them), while Endeavor did go through proper channels when he went to an American support company to request a costume equipped with the latest compression tech which was realized also with the help of Melissa Shield. They mostly create new items to support the new kind of enforcers created in the story.

Hero Billboard Chart JP (ヒーロービルボードチャートJP): The biannual ranking of current Heroes (in Japan) based mission completion rate, contribution to society, and public support. It’s generally announced in May and November and from what we see in Chap. 96 it seems it also shares quick news regarding the Heroes’ status (retirements, illness, leave). With the retirement of All Might at the presentation of the new Hero Billboard chart, for the first time Heroes were invited there. The public is always heavily invested in the revised rankings. It basically rank the new type of enforcers created for the story.

Quirk Crime division (個性犯罪担当 ‘kosei hanzai tantō’): A police division dedicated to catch those who commit crimes using their Quirk, aka the Villains. Tsukauchi and Tamagawa are part of it. New police unit created for the story to fight the new type of criminals created for the story.

Iron Maiden (移動式牢（メイデン） ‘idō-shiki rō (read: maiden)’ lit. “mobile style prison (read: maiden)”): A tubular cage a little taller than 2 meters and maybe larger 1 in which the police stuck tied Villains when transporting them and whose name likely comes from the torture device ‘iron maiden’. New structure created for the story to constrain arrested Villains.

Help Us Company (H.U.C.) (Help Us Company（HUC）): Organization of professional rescues which employs people of all ages, is highly in demand and also offers training exercises. Through practical effects and acting, the rescues help rescuers perfect the craft.

Villain hospital (敵（ヴィラン）病院 ‘teki (read: VILLAIN) byōin’): a hospital dedicated to Villain patients. The first and only time one gets mentioned is in Chap. 159 when it’s said the police wanted to carry Chisaki Kai and the other members of its organization to the Takodana Villain Hospital (鮹棚の敵（ヴィラン）病院 ‘Takodana no teki (read: VILLAIN) byōin’), while the injured Heroes and Eri were taken to a nearby university hospital. We can assume though that the place in which Todoroki Tōya is in Chap. 426 is also a Villain hospital. New structure created for the story to deal with injured Villains.

Anti/counter “quirk” maximum security special detention facility known as “Tartarus” (対〝個性〟最高警備特殊拘置所通称「タルタロス」 ‘tai “kosei” saikō keibi tokushu kōchijo tsūshō ‘TARTARUS’’): It’s a special high security prison for imprisoning extremely dangerous Villains. AFO, Stain, Lady Nagant, Overhaul, Muscular, Moonfish are among the criminals closed there. It is surrounded by high walls and the sea, the entrance can only be reached by a single bridge, its prisoners are kept underground, beneath layers of security and visiting an inmate requires complicated procedures. We see that some (if not all) Villains are kept in isolation, some are kept completely immobilized, and as soon as the activation of a villain's quirk is detected based on brain waves and vital signs, the Villain is killed with a machine gun attached to the ceiling. The prison was named after the term in Greek mythology that describes both a region in the underworld as well as a primordial good. An AFO controlled Shigaraki attacks it with the Nōmu, murders all the guards and causes all the inmates to escape. New prison created for the story.

Shian prison (紫安刑務所 ‘Shian keimusho’): One of the prisons AFO attacks with the Nōmu, they murder all the guards and cause all the inmates to escape. New prison created for the story.

Baagu prison (婆柩刑務所 ‘Baagu keimusho’): One of the prisons AFO attacks with the Nōmu, they murder all the guards and cause all the inmates to escape. New prison created for the story.

Kuin prison (九隠刑務所 ‘Kuin keimusho’): One of the prisons AFO attacks with the Nōmu, they murder all the guards and cause all the inmates to escape. New prison created for the story.

Mikuzu prison (水葛刑務所 ‘Mikuzu keimusho’): One of the prisons AFO attacks with the Nōmu and Muscular, they murder all the guards and try to cause all the inmates to escape but Tobita Danjūrō, also jailed there, will stop the jailbreak. New prison created for the story.

Shie Hassai kai (死穢八斎會 “Eight Precepts of Death Association”): Yakuza group who's currently controlled by Chisaki Kai after he caused the previous boss to fall in a coma.

Abegawa Tenchū Kai (阿辺川天忠會 lit. “Corner Near the River Sky Loyalty Association”): Yakuza group whose high-ranking executives are all killed by Stendhal.

REAL LIFE INSTITUTIONS

Law enforcement in Japan: it is provided mainly by prefectural police (都道府県警察 ‘todōfuken-keisatsu’) under the oversight of the National Police Agency, which is administered by the National Public Safety Commission, ensuring that Japan's police are an apolitical body and free of direct central government executive control. They are checked by an independent judiciary and monitored by a free and active press. They have two types of law enforcement officials, depending on the underlying provision: Police officers of Prefectural Police Departments (司法警察職員 ‘shihō keisatsu shokuin’), and Special judicial police officials (特別司法警察職員 ‘tokubetsu shihō keisatsu shokuin’) who deals with specialized fields with high expertise. Police officers are divided into nine ranks. The Commissioner General of the National Police Agency and Senior Police Officer are not legally ranks, but are listed here for convenience (BTW I took the name of the ranks from the English version of the NPA web):

RANK -: The Commissioner General of the National Police Agency (警察庁長官 ‘keisatsu-chō chōkan’) is the head of the NPA and the highest ranking police officer of Japan, but outside the framework of rank. While it appears in BNHA a couple of times (Chap. 95/173), he’s left unnamed. When Chap. 95 was released on June 20, 2016 the person in charge was Kanetaka Masahito (金髙雅仁), who’ll remain in charge until August 10 of the same year to be replaced by Sakaguchi Masayoshi (坂口正芳). Prior to Kanetaka, the one in charge was Yoneda Tsuyoshi (米田壮). None of the three has apparently served as inspiration for the guy we have in BNHA.

RANK 1: The Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department (警視総監 ‘keishisōkan’) is the rank given to the Chief of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) (警視庁 ‘keishichō’), or Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) for short, which is directly under the supervision of the National Police Agency and not under the control of a regional bureau.

RANK 2: The Senior Commissioner (警視監 ‘keishi jiān’) is a rank given to senior officers of the NPA, including Directors General and Deputy Directors General, and Chiefs of large prefectural police headquarters such as Osaka and Kyoto.

RANK 3: The Commissioner (警視長 ‘keishi-chō’) is a rank given to chiefs of the National Police Agency and Chiefs of small and large police headquarters.

RANK 4: The Assistant Commissioner (警視正 ‘keishisei’) is a rank given to the Directors of the National Police Agency, Section Chiefs of the Metropolitan Police Department, Chiefs of Prefectural Police Headquarters, Chiefs of a large police station. Tsuragamae Kenji (面構犬嗣) is called ‘Hosu keisatsu sho no shochō’ (保須警察署の署長 “Hosu police station chief”). I’ll assume the one in Hosu is a large police station so I’ll place him here. If the place is medium or smaller though, he would be a rank below.

RANK 5: The Superintendent (警視 ‘keishi’) is a rank given to counselor of police headquarters, chiefs of small and medium-sized police stations, section chiefs of prefectural police headquarters and such.

RANK 6: The Chief Inspector (警部 ‘keibu’) is a rank given to the chiefs of each section of a police station, assistant chiefs of a prefectural police headquarters, etc.

RANK 7: The Inspector (警部補 ‘keibuho’) is a rank given to the person in charge of the police box

RANK 8: The Sergeant (巡査部長 ‘junsa buchō’) is a rank given to who is engaged in practical duties as the core of the actual work, such as assisting Those with the rank of sergeant or above are considered judicial police officers.

RANK -: The Senior Police Officer (巡査長 ‘junsa-chō’) is not an official rank, but a hierarchical position given to those selected among those who have served for 10 years or more and are recognized as having excellent leadership skills. It has a different rank insignia and a higher salary level then Police Officers even if it belongs to the same group. Tsukauchi Naomasa in the story is referred as ‘keiji’ (刑事 “detective”), which is a name used for plainclothes police officer and senior police officers who belongs to a department engaged in investigating crimes. Tsukauchi, for age and abilities, is likely a “senior police officer”. The same likely goes for Gori, who is called ‘kachō’ (課長 “squad leader”) during the hospital battle and is defined a ‘keiji’ (刑事 “detective”) by the “Ultra Analysis” book, and Tanuma Eizō (from “Vigilantes”), who has the same rank as Tsukauchi and is called ‘keiji’ (刑事 “detective”) in his profile.

RANK 9: The Police Officer (巡査 ‘junsa’). Tamagawa Sansa is below Tsukauchi so he’s likely just a Police Officer. Kaniyashiki Monika (from “Vigilantes”) is referred as such in Chap. 32. However she is also called a ‘Sennyū sōsa-kan’ (潜入捜査官 “undercover investigator”) who apparently can do only undercover work so she might be part of the Special Investigation Teams (SIT) (特殊事件捜査係 ‘Tokushu Jiken Sousa Kakari’) which are tactical detective units of Japanese prefectural police forces. Special Investigation Teams are maintained by prefectural police headquarters (PPH) and are trained to handle critical incidents including criminal investigation and tactical operations.

National Police Agency (警察庁 ‘keisatsu-chō’) or NPA: it is the central coordinating law enforcement agency of the Japanese police system. The NPA does not have any operational units of its own aside from the Imperial Guard; rather, it is responsible for supervising Japan's 47 prefectural police departments and determining their general standards and policies, though it can command police agencies under it in national emergencies or large-scale disasters. It is under the National Public Safety Commission of the Cabinet Office which provides the civilian political leadership. In 2017, the real life NPA had a strength of approximately 7,800 personnel: 2,100 sworn officers, 900 guards, and 4,800 civilian staff. As said before, the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency (警察庁長官 ‘keisatsu-chō chōkan’) is the highest ranking police officer of Japan, regarded as an exception to the regular class structure. The Commissioner General is assisted in his duties by the Deputy Commissioner General (警察庁次長 ‘keisatsu-chō jichō’) which is chosen among the Senior Commissioners (警視監 ‘keishi jiān’) and is lower in importance to the Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department (警視総監 ‘keishisōkan’). It will be however the Deputy Commissioner General the one who will become the new Commissioner General. The Commissioner General’s staff is the Commissioner General's Secretariat (警察庁長官官房 ‘keisatsuchō Chōkan Kanbō’) which includes many more people than the 5 ones we see sitting at the table with him in Chap. 95 of the manga. The civilian political leadership is provided by the National Public Safety Commission.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (TMPD) (警視庁 ‘Keishichō’): it’s the prefectural police of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. It’s headquarter is located in Tokyo Koujimachi – Hanzoumon - Nagatacho in front of the Imperial Palace’s Sakurada-mon Gate. That building is shown twice in the manga, once in Chap. 84 and in Chap. 95.

National Public Safety Commission (国家公安委員会 ‘Kokka Kōan Iinkai’): it is a Japanese Cabinet Office commission. It is headquartered in the 2nd Building of the Central Common Government Office at 2-1-2 Kasumigaseki in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The commission consists of a chairperson, the Chair of the National Public Safety Commission (国家公安委員会委員長 ‘kokka kōan iinkai iinchō’), who holds the rank of Minister of State and five other members appointed by the prime minister, with consent of both houses of the Diet. The commission operates independently of the cabinet, but coordinates with it through the Minister of State. The commission's function is to guarantee the neutrality of the police system by insulating the force from political pressure and ensuring the maintenance of democratic methods in police administration. It administers the National Police Agency, and has the authority to appoint or dismiss senior police officers. The Hero Public Safety Commission (ヒーロー公安委員会 ‘HERO kōan Iinkai’) is likely based after it. Its president though is called The Hero Public Safety Committee Chairman (ヒーロー公安委員会会長 ‘HERO kōan iinkai kaichō’). The difference between ‘iinchō’ (委員長 “committee chairman” lit. “Commission member head”) and ‘kaichō’ (会長 “president” Lit. “association head”) is that ‘iinchō’ is often used to imply ties with politic, as it’s what you use for the head of a committee in the Diet or an administrative committee (like the NPSC) and was also used for the former leaders of the Japan Socialist Party and Democratic Socialist Party while ‘kaichō’ has a more neutral value, as it’s generally used to imply someone is at the head of a corporation or organization with no ties with the state. So while it’s unclear if the HPSC has replaced the NPSC, probably it didn’t and the two commissions exist at the same time, with the NPSC being a Cabinet Office while the HPSC might not be one.

The building in which the HPSC resides was shown 3 time and each time it was drawn different but the last 2 versions shown in Chap. 255/298 show a definite resemblance with the building in which the NPSC resides with two additions, what we consider being the symbol of the commission and a building next to it.

Detention center (留置場 ‘riyuuchijou’ or 留置施設 ‘riyuuchi shisetsu’): a facility located within a police station where suspects arrested for criminal acts are detained in order to prevent them from escaping or destroying evidence, and where police officers conduct interrogations and investigations. It is commonly called a “pig box” (豚箱 ‘butabako’). During the final war we see Geten, Atsuhiro and Garaki being held there.

Criminal facilities (刑事施設 ‘keiji shisetsu’): All of them are administered by the Correctional Bureau of the Ministry of Justice while the ministry's Rehabilitation Bureau operates the probation and parole systems. The penal system of Japan is, officially, intended to resocialize, reform, rehabilitate and punish offenders. Among criminal facilities we have: Prisons, Juvenile prisons, detention houses, super-maximum security prisons, medical prisons…

Prisons (刑務所 ‘keimusho’): they hold inmates who have violated laws and are serving sentences as a result of a trial. After sentencing, prisoners are required to wear grey prison uniforms, and the males have their heads shaved. Penal labor is considered a priority in Japan's correctional system and if a prisoner refuses work or neglects their labor responsibility, he will be punished. Work hours consist of eight hours each day over the Monday-Friday period and four hours on Saturdays although individual cases may extend or limit these procedures.

Juvenile prisons (少年刑務所 ‘shōnen keimusho’): they should hold male prisoners below 20 (It’s worth to mention that in 2022 Japan lowered the age of adulthood from 20 to 18) but can also have prisoners below 26 who are deemed to be eligible for focused correctional treatment and even above it, in fact, in reality, adult inmates make up the majority of the inmates. Mustard is likely imprisoned in one of them. It’s worth to mention female juvenile prisoners are held in the same facilities as adult female inmates, the women's prisons (女子刑務所 ‘joshi keimusho’), so no, Himiko wouldn’t end in a Juvenile prison. According to the Juvenile Law, in case a person under the age of eighteen commits a crime which is to be punished with the death penalty, he/she shall be sentenced instead to a life term in prison. This means in theory Himiko couldn’t receive death sentence as she wasn’t yet 18 when the final war took place (May), her 18th birthday being in August.

Super-maximum security prison or supermax (スーパーマックス): they are high-security prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems. Fuchū Prison, the biggest Japanese prison, is often assumed to be a supermax prison but Japan doesn’t define it as such. In BNHA instead, Tartarus fits the bill. Legally AFO shouldn’t have been put there right after his capture as the police didn’t even have the time to question him and he surely didn’t underwent a trial.

Medical prisons (医療刑務所 ‘iryō keimusho’): Japan has prisons established to house people who require medical treatment, which might be the real life version of the Villain hospitals in BNHA. Why Kurogiri wasn’t moved in one of them when things turned ugly is up to speculation.

Detention houses (拘置所 ‘kōchisho’): they hold pretrial detainees (criminal defendants [刑事被告人 ‘keijihikokunin’]) after the police has finished questioning (before they are held in police custody) and those on death row (death row inmates [死刑囚 ‘shikeishū’]).

Capital punishment (おける死刑 ‘okeru shikei’): it’s a legal penalty in Japan however, although the law list 14 capital crimes in practice, though, it is applied only for aggravated murder. Executions are carried out by long drop hanging, and take place at one of the seven execution chambers located in major cities across the country. Death sentences are usually passed in cases of multiple murders, although there have been some extremely grave cases where individuals who committed a single murder have been sentenced to death and executed, such as those involving torture, extreme brutality or kidnapping with a demand for ransom. The death penalty can be given also to the ringleader of a riot for the purpose of overthrowing the government, usurping the territorial sovereignty of the State, or otherwise subverting constitutional order. In the past parricide was also a capital crime but it was ruled as unconstitutional on 1973 due to the Tochigi patricide case (栃木実父殺し事件 ‘Tochigi jippugoroshi jiken’). The execution of capital punishment though, can be very, very slow, to the point there had been cases of inmates dying of old age first. Concerns have long been raised about death-row inmates being notified of their execution only on the day it takes place and having inadequate access to legal counsel, among others. Moonfish was a dead row inmate who managed to escape from prison and join the league so yes, death sentencing exists in the BNHA world too. It’s easy to guess that if Shigaraki Tomura had been arrested and Todoroki Tōya weren’t about to die, both would have been sentenced to death (Shigaraki was seen using his Quirk to murder multiple people and Tōya confessed on television of having done so). As AFO was captured and had no troubles confessing his crimes he either was already sentenced to death or would have been. Sako Atsuhiro didn’t kill anyone during the first war but we know he murdered some of the members of the CRC and was co-responsible of the death of Snatch so, if this comes up, he can be sentenced to death. Iguchi Shūichi didn’t kill anyone during the two wars but, like Atsuhiro, murdered some of the members of the CRC and was viewed as a figurehead in the attack at Central Hospital. Yotsubashi Rikiya wanted to overthrow the government but gave up his leadership to Shigaraki and the Heroes attacked and captured him before the riot could start so I don’t know if he would be considered a ringleader but he murdered Miyashita and, possibly, others so they can still sentence him to death. Stain and Muscular were likely also meant to be sentenced to death.

Prison officer (刑務官 ‘keimu-kan’): a national civil servant of the Ministry of Justice 's Corrections Bureau who composes the staff of penal institutions. They’ve various ranks but, though the story, we only see people from the lowest rank, the jailers (看守 ‘kanshu’). They usually don’t transfers except for senior staff members and there is a lot of hereditary succession. Shishikura Seiji, who decided to become a Hero instead of a prison guard like his father, likely broke society expectations and, possibly, family traditions.

Ministry of Justice (法務省 ‘hōmu-shō’): it is the cabinet level ministries of the Japanese government which is responsible for the judicial system, correctional services, and household, property and corporate registrations, and immigration control. It also serves as the government's legal representatives. At the top of the ministry is the Minister of Justice, a member of the Cabinet, who is chosen by the Prime Minister from among members of the National Diet. The Diet of Japan has never enacted a protection of human right bill but the ministry claims to respect them.

Corrections bureau (矯正局 ‘kyōsei-kyoku’): it is an internal bureau of the Ministry of Justice that is responsible for guidance and supervision for matters concerning including security, prison work, education, classification, medical treatment and hygiene to provide appropriate treatment for inmates in correctional institutions (prisons, juvenile prisons, detention houses, juvenile training schools, and juvenile classification homes).

Yakuza (ヤクザ “8-9-3”) or Gokudō (極道 “the extreme path”): it is the name of Japanese organized crime syndicates, known for their strict codes of conduct, their organized fiefdom nature, and several unconventional ritual practices such as yubitsume (指詰め Lit. “finger shortening” basically “amputation of the left little finger”). Members are often portrayed as males with heavily tattooed bodies and wearing fundoshi, sometimes with a kimono or, in more recent years, a Western-style "sharp" suit covering them. The yakuza still regularly engage in an array of criminal activities even though they are said to be aging because young people do not readily join anymore. The Shie Hassai kai and the Abegawa Tenchu Kai are both Yakuza organizations.

UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations and countries, achieve international cooperation, and serve as a centre for coordinating the actions of member states. It is widely recognized as the world's largest international organization. The UN is headquartered in New York City, in international territory with certain privileges extraterritorial to the United States. In Chap. 328 we see that their building has been changed to resemble a H.

THE POLICE’S ROLE, THE WAY THE VILLAINS ARE HANDLED, THE HPSC’S ROLE, THE PRISON FACILITIES, THE LAWS EXCLUSIVE TO BNHA AND THE NECESSARY CULTURAL INFO

What follow is an analysis with commentaries of what the manga shows us, in the order in which is shown to us. It’s split in arcs but, when it’s relevant, I’ll mention also in which specific chapter something happened. When something is mentioned in an extra page in the volume I’ll tie it to the chapter immediately preceding it.

XX ENTRANCE EXAM ARC (1-4)

THE POLICE: The first time we see the police in the story is in Chap. 1. They didn’t coordinate the efforts of the Heroes in taking him down, nor apparently called them, the Heroes jumping into action independently as they’ll do through all the chapter, never being summoned or directed by the police. The police first merely worried to keep civilians away from the battle, then the role of the three policemen we see is just to take away a nameless giant Heteromorph Villain completely bound and gagged after Mt. Lady knocked him down, while Mt. Lady enjoys the spotlight after they had been nowhere to be seen while the Villain rampaged. Long story short, compared to how flashy the Heroes were, the police look very much like MOB characters even in-story.

Always in Chap. 1 All Might will be the next to mention the police, saying Midoriya should consider joining them if he wants to help people, because, even if they’re mockingly nicknamed 'VILLAIN uketori-gakari’ (敵受け取り係 “Villain custody officers”) because the Heroes defeat the Villains and all the police does is to takes them into custody, they still do an admirable work. All Might’s words confirm the police does a work that gives them little prestige compared to the Heroes, despite All Might still defining it admirable.

The police is shown again at the end of Chap. 1 holding the people at bay while the Sludge Villain was rampaging and after the Sludge Villain is defeated, always keeping away people while the Heroes collect the bits of the Sludge Villain. Again, they do little work and get little spotlight, especially compared to the Heroes, even the ones who weren’t All Might who, despite having been unable to help until All Might arrived, got to save other people, got on the move when Midoriya tosses himself against the Sludge Villain and even scolded Midoriya and praised Bakugō. As readers we are also shown their thoughts while we might completely miss the police is there as they are more a decoration to the scenes than anything else.

THE LAW: Kamui Wood talks of ‘Nōryoku ihō kōshi’ (能力違法行使 “illegal use of power/ability”), where with ‘nōryoku’ (能力 “ability”), he means Quirk.

Nishiya Shinji ‘Tsūkin jikantai ni nōryoku ihō kōshi oyobi gōtō chishō. Masani jaaku no gonge yo!’ 西屋森児「通勤時間帯に能力違法行使及び強盗致傷。まさに邪悪の権化よ！」 Nishiya Shinji “During rush hour illegal use of abilities and robbery resulting in injury. A true embodiment of evil!” [Chap. 1]

I’m not sure if the fact the crime took place during rush hour makes it worse. Later we’ll hear Quirk can’t be used at school either, even though the teacher kind of allows it. The story will later make clear it’s illegal to use your Quirk unless you’re a Hero. It’s possible though that the law forbidding it has outdated terminology as we’ll learn society struggled on how to call Quirks at the beginning. Bakugō attempting to use his Quirk to resist to the Sludge Villain isn’t blamed at all. Midoriya attempting to help him is blamed A LOT. We’ll later learn that if this has prevented a Hero from getting into action Midoriya could have been charged with obstructing public duties.

Midoriya’s teacher explains with the appearance of ‘chōjō’ (超常 “paranormal abilities”) the “Building standard act” (建築基準法 ‘Kenchiku kijun-hō’) was revised.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: //

CULTURAL INFO: Children of third-year elementary school age and below can legally be left unsupervised. A 2023 attempt at changing it due to unsupervised children dying was met with severe criticism nationwide so that in the end nothing was done. In short, the fact that 4 -years-old Midoriya and is friends are left alone in a park unsupervised is perfectly fine.

In Japan the ‘Gōtō chishō tsumi’ (強盗致傷罪 “crime of robbery with injury”) should include injuries that requires medical treatment by a doctor and the punishment is life imprisonment or imprisonment for six years or more. In short it’s considered a very serious crime. However when in chap.1 the people describe what’s happened, they don’t mention at all there was someone seriously injured, they just say the Villain tried to steal a purse and, when cornered, he went on a rampage. While it’s entirely possible someone got seriously injured considering the Villain’s gigantification Quirk, we see no one carried away from an ambulance or something so it’s hard to say if he really hurt someone or Kamui Wood is deliberately exaggerating his crime.

In Japan in 2013 was enacted an anti-bullying act which prohibits bullying, due to a 13-year-boy committing suicide in Otsu due to bullying in October 2011, and its parents suing three former classmates, their parents and the city in February 2012. The Act still does not stipulate any punishment for those who bully others. In the aforementioned case, in 2015 Otsu City established an independent panel that eventually concluded bullying was the direct cause of the suicide and reached a settlement with the boy's parents in 2015 and paid them 13 million yen or 117,000 dollars, in damages. In regard to the bullies, in 2019, the judge ruled that bullying was the main reason behind the suicide and ordered two of three classmates to pay compensation, but said the third classmate had only a small degree of involvement and did not find him liable (he was 13 at the time and exempt from criminal prosecution). Note that the 2011 case wasn’t the first case of a boy committing suicide due to bullying in Japan, other cases made it to the news, sometimes involving also the involvement of teachers, but the predominant ideas that “a bullied student is responsible for being bullied/has reasons to be bullied” and that “It’s a shame to be bullied therefore bullied students should conceal that they have been bullied” pushed people and teachers to turn their eyes away for a long time, teachers refusing to admit that bullying was occurring and in the previous Japanese civil suits, the bereaved families of suicidal students have been held responsible for proving such a causal relationship, the obstacles to doing so are almost insurmountable. You might say the aforementioned trial signed a turning point. “My Hero Academia” starts in July 7, 2014, when Horikoshi knew people could sue bullies but also that there were no precedents for people winning, when an act was enacted making bullying illegal but not stipulating any punishment for those who bully others. This ends up being why through the story the reaction to Midoriya having been bullied is overall negligible.

Japanese Police officers, in order to effecting an arrest, favor the use of a particular form of martial art called ‘Taiho jutsu’ (逮捕術 “arrest technique”), designed to disarm criminals using batons and their hands, compared to firearms. In fact, while the use of firearms is more easily allowed than in other countries and don’t comply with international laws, it tends to happen very sporadically. We can speculate Horikoshi decided to use this method of dealing with criminal for Heroes, as they tend to knock down Villains with martial arts and their Quirk, and only sporadically decide to kill them.

Japan has a long tradition of trying criminals with ropes around their waists, holding them to a leash to stop them from fleeing and, to this day, still carry special rope with which to secure their prisoners (of course handcuffs are also carried). The rope is also used by the police in Japan to cordon off areas and keep the public back during times of disaster, so its use is not restricted simply to the tying of prisoners. In 2021 lawyers have started protesting on how criminal defendants are also being hauled into courtrooms placed in handcuffs and with ropes around their waists to stop them from fleeing but, as far as I know, this hadn’t changed. The fact that we tend to see strong Villains tied as such likely is likely tied to this. Another thing worth to note is that in case of people being violent or drunk the police wraps them up in plastic sheets called ‘hogo SHEETS’ (保護シート “protection sheets”) or with other materials (some sources said Futons, some others showed some sort of hard plastic thing in which they could bundle up people), so this could have inspired Horikoshi to depict such tying methods.

In present Japan, Japanese police enjoy a good pay and a high social status, particularly in rural areas, and is generally regarded with a high level of respect and trust and admired by the public, also because it’s judged well-disciplined, strictly abiding by their code of conduct, keeping a low crime rate (which makes people feel safe). Among their duties there’s to get along with the community, acting polite and helpful and offering counseling, creating their own mascots and producing cartoon civics lessons for kids. Citizens take an active part in assisting police, mainly by serving as informants. As in BNHA the police is mocked and Heroes clearly get a higher pay and have a higher social status we can see things have changed quite a bit for the police.

In Japan, according to the Act Prohibiting Smoking by Minors a person not fully the age of twenty years may not smoke tobacco. Any person violating the preceding Article is subject to an administrative penalty through the confiscation of the tobacco and tobacco-related implements used for smoking in the violator's possession. Technically there are no other punishment for the minor however, police can do something called ‘Hodō’ (補導 lit. “guidance”) which basically constitutes into getting the minor’s data into the system and communicating it to their parents, school, and/or workplace. As what they had done was illegal, it will give their school/employer grounds for disciplinary actions, if they feel like it and, if they do something punishable in the future, the fact they were already on the record will be taken into account. Who’s with them can also be taken liable, which is why Bakugō yells at his classmates not to smoke while they’re with him. Recently depicting minors smoking in anime has been forbidden, so in the anime you won’t see them smoking.

In Japan, littering is called "illegal dumping" and carries a penalty of up to five years or a fine of up to 10 million yen so yeah, people definitely shouldn’t drop their trash on Takoba beach. It seems though that public beaches are either cleaned by volunteers or not cleaned at all. That’s why All Might complains new Heroes are against volunteer work, because clearing up is nobody’s duty.

Currently the “Building Standards Act” is a Japanese law (Law No. 201 year 1950) that stipulates minimum standards for the site, facilities, structure, and use of buildings in order to protect the lives, health, and property of the people. Prior to it, there was the “Urban Buildings Act” (市街地建築物法 ‘Shigaichi kenchiku-mono-hō’) a law dated 1919. This tells us that the story is definitely talking place AFTER 1950, in case it wasn’t clear enough.

Corporal punishment is prohibited in schools under article 11 of the Education Law 1947, which states that disciplinary punishment may be inflicted but “in no case is corporal punishment permitted” (art. 11). A ruling by the Tokyo High Court on 1 April 1981 suggested this provision did not prohibit all physical punishment in all cases, and in 2007 a ministerial guideline issued to public schools relied on this in suggesting that some forms of physical punishment may be permitted in some circumstances. In 2012, the Government asserted that the said article of the Education Law “strictly prohibits corporal punishment” and that Ministerial guidelines and training support this, but did not comment on the High Court ruling. In 2014, the Government reported it was continuing its efforts to completely ban corporal punishment in schools. In 2020, a law was amended to explicitly and clearly state that all forms of corporal punishment against children are strictly prohibited. However, according to a survey in 2021, a certain percentage of Japanese adults still believe that using corporal punishment on children is a necessary form of discipline. Long story short in 2014, the year in which BNHA started being printed, despite continuous effort to ban corporal punishment, it was likely still administered in minor forms and went unpunished unless the students’ parents were to report it which is why we see Midoriya’s teacher hitting Midoriya’s head.

All high schools have an entrance exam, each prefecture has its own date in which entrance exams take place. U.A. high is in Shizuoka prefecture and, in 2014, this day wasn’t 26th February, which is the day in which begins the acceptance of the application requests, but 5th March. In case you’re wondering in Tokyo instead they’re held 24th February. Either Horikoshi changed it because, at the time, he didn’t want to reveal where U.A. high is or he mixed up the date of the entrance exam with the one of the application requests.

XX QUIRK APPREHENSION TEST ARC (5-7)

THE POLICE: //

THE LAW: Although law forbid the use of Quirks, students in Hero schools are allowed to use them on school grounds otherwise they couldn’t learn.

A teacher can have the power to arbitrarily expel students if the principal agree to it and can also use his ‘hobaku buki’ (捕縛武器 “capturing weapon”), a weapon designed to fight Villains, to stop and restrain students, apparently without repercussions.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: //

CULTURAL INFO: In Japan, an expulsion means “Permanent expulsion”. High schools aren’t mandatory so while you can try applying to another high school they can refuse you on ground you were previously expelled by another school if the motive was serious enough. The principal is the one with the legal power to expel his students, but in fact, the draft of them will deliberate at all staff meetings at schools. Students can also be suspended and be forced to spend at home a certain amount of time. Now you can get why Eraser Head expelling the students would have been such a terrible thing.

Japanese students have to make two insurances which protect them in case they get hurt or they hurt others or property. One is the “Personal Accident Insurance for Students Pursuing Education and Research” (学研災 ‘Gakkensai’), which is a supplemental insurance policy for students that covers physical injuries or accidents of sudden, unexpected, or external origin during educational and research activities. Illness is not covered by this policy except in the case where toxic substances are accidentally inhaled, absorbed, or consumed or you suffer a physical impediment as a result of sunstroke or heatstroke. The policy covers incidents occurring during educational and research activities, school commute, transit between school facilities, or during clinical training, while the other is the “Personal Liability Insurance for Students Pursuing Education and Research” (付帯賠責 ‘Futaibaiseki’), which is a supplementary insurance provides coverage against legal liability for injuries inflicted on others, property damage, etc. (excluding those resulting from traffic accidents), that occur during curricular activities, school events, extracurricular activities, or commuting to and from them (including internships, nurse training, teaching practice, volunteering, etc., and commuting to and from them which are set as curricular activities or school events by the university). I bet Hero school students have amazing insurances…

XX BATTLE TRIAL ARC (8-11)THE POLICE: It’s not really much but, in Chap. 11, we see a silhouette among those who know the truth about All Might. Some speculate it belong to Naomasa Tsukauchi, a policeman, thought it’s possible it belongs to Gran Torino.

THE LAW: //

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: //

CULTURAL INFO: Admission by recommendation is a system in which Japanese universities and high schools select students who have been recommended by their previous school. The students who gets such recommendations are called ‘Suisen nyūgaku-sha’ (推薦入学者 “recommended student”). This means Todoroki Shōto, Yaoyorozu Momo, Honenuki Jūzō, Tokage Setsuna and Yoarashi Inasa weren’t recommended by their families but by their respective schools.

XX U.S.J. ARC (12-21)

THE POLICE: They make a tiny cameo in Chap. 12, when U.A. high security level has been broken, causing the alarm to start ringing.

The breach in security was triggered by U.A. gate having been decayed allowing the reporters to swarm inside the school. The police is the one that drives away the reporters however we don’t see them remaining there to investigate the decayed door along with the Principal and other teachers. It can be though that they did investigate and their role was merely cut for plot convenience. There’s to say Erased Head and Present Mic, despite being Heroes, couldn’t disperse the press and had to wait for the police intervention. This is likely because Heroes can use their Quirk solely against Villains and likely have no authority over civilians, even when said civilians are breaking the law under their nose, as long as they aren’t doing it using their Quirk, or the Heroes are busy in a rescue mission.

They’ve another cameo in Chap. 13 where they’re holding people at bay as 3 Heroes are fighting a Villain and then when they receive that same Villain after All Might knocked down. The policemen claims they had their hands full with that Villain, which I’ll take means he committed many crimes and the police was forced to investigate on them. Clearly they aren’t talking of personally fighting him as the police wasn’t really trying to stop him, that duty having fallen on the Heroes.

The police has a bigger role in Chap. 21 when they go to U.A. high after the Villain attack at U.S.J. to arrest the Villains the Heroes captured. The Heroes acted without waiting for them. We see that Villains are tied differently, some are muzzled, some aren’t, the ones we see have only their wrists tied ahead of themselves, all seem to be held at the leash by a police officer.

We’re introduced to two policemen, Tsukauchi Naomasa (塚内直正), a detective in civilian clothes, and Tsukauchi’s subordinate (塚内の部下 ‘Tsukauchi no buka’), Tamagawa Sansa (玉川三茶), who wear a police uniform. For some reason Tsukauchi refers to Tamagawa by name and not by surname (are they that close?). Tamagawa counts the Villain while Tsukauchi counts the students both making sure they’re all there (except for the one with broken legs aka Midoriya).

It’s a bit odd to see them doing this job, especially the ‘counting the students’ part as all the teachers and the principal came there to do the rescue and they’re also Heroes so they should have done the counting and just reported it to Tsukauchi. At most it would make sense Tamagawa would recount the Villains to make sure they got them all. However it’s possible it’s merely a bureaucratic thing and the police had to personally do the count of the rescued kids and assess their status for the report as no teacher is seen around the kids. It’s unclear who drove the bus supposed to bring the kids back, if a policeman or a teacher.

Tsukauchi then gives the kids permission to go back to the classroom as the police will take their statements another time. He’s probably making them concessions as they’re kids who might have been traumatized and because he also plans and has more interest in taking the statement of All Might, an adult and professional Hero.

At Asui’s request Tsukauchi makes a phone call to learn about Aizawa, 13, All Might and Midoriya’s conditions and let the students know about them as well.

Tsukauchi then entrusts everything to Tamagawa as he goes to meet All Might. Before he could leave though, he’s warned by an oni looking heteromorph policeman that the Nōmu was captured 400 meters from where they are. The Nōmu is unharmed, didn’t resist at the arrest and appears to be mute so he wasn’t gagged but still this time they have bound him and his wrists (although they’re bound ahead of him and not behind his back), at least three policemen are holding the leashes attached to his bindings and there are around him at least other 6 policemen, 2 of whom are pointing their guns at him. There’s no Hero in sight so apparently the police did the arrest on its own.

I would say that the police takes custody of the Villains but, in a way, they’re ill equipped to do so, as they can’t fight them should they try to resist, which might explain the heavy restraining the Villains often receive. If the Nōmu had been capable to resist the fact that the police went to retrieve him on its own could have lead to the death of many of them… though it’s possible if he were to act hostile they would have tried to keep distance and called for a Hero to assist them. Considering the Nōmu could stand his ground against All Might though, they would have needed a high ranked Hero to help them, not a random one.

Tsukauchi asks Nezu to inspect the school and Nezu admits some might dislike it but that’s the police’s jurisdiction as investigations are their field of expertise so they can do what’s necessary. With this we start to see that although Heroes save the day and, so far, they had acted independently, the police actually has authority over the investigations, which is their field of expertise.

Tsukauchi then goes to visit All Might and it will turn out Tsukauchi, whom All Might calls Tsukauchi-kun is All Might’s old friend and knows the truth about All Might’s true form.

Tsukauchi would like to interrogate him but All Might interrupts him and asks him info about how the teachers and students are so Tsukauchi will tell him about their conditions.

I think All Might interrupting him isn’t a sign that All Might sits higher than him, but just of them being friends.

Tsukauchi says if the Heroes hadn’t risked their lives the students would have died but All Might counters the students risked their lives too and they’re going to be mighty Heroes. This shows that Tsukauchi has respect and admiration for the Heroes.

THE LAW: Thirteen remembers the students that use of Quirks is heavily restricted and monitored as it only takes one wrong move with an uncontrollable Quirk for people to die.

I do wonder if what they’ll call “Quirk” education (〝個性〟教育 ‘“Kosei” Kyōiku’) imparted in schools is what Thirteen describes when she claims with Aizawa the students learned of their Quirk hidden potential, with All Might they learnt the danger that the Quirk can pose and with her they learnt to use their Quirk to save lives as their powers aren’t meant to inflict harm. Quirk education is supposedly mandatory in schools but this is clearly a teaching limited to Hero schools. As we don’t see other schools, it’s hard to know to what it’s supposed to refer.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: //

CULTURAL INFO: Japan do have an “Act of the Protection of Personal Information” (one that was recently amended to make it even stricter) that would protect the privacy of medical information. I couldn’t find out if the situation at hand, in which Tsukauchi reveal the medical condition of the injured to the students would be a break to it or not.

Article 35 of the Japanese constitution protect people from unreasonable search and seizures, without a warrant or probable cause unless given consent. If a person refuses consent though, then this will prompt them being questioned as refusing is seen as a sign they’re suspicious. Anyway that’s why in the story we see Tsukauchi approaching Nezu and asking politely if he can inspect the school. I guess he could push on his duty to search for Villains since the school had been under attack, but he preferred not to as the school is a victim. This allowed Nezu to have the right to refuse, not that Nezu would.

XX U.A. SPORTS FESTIVAL ARC (22-44)

THE POLICE: Chap. 22 shows us Tsukauchi reporting their finding to the principal and the whole teaching staff of U.A. high. As he doesn’t ask for the Heroes’ cooperation this might merely be a pro forma to update them on the police’s efforts as they were the victims of that attack. As they’re Heroes keeping them updated might also be beneficial in case of a new attack. We’ll see the Heroes sharing their opinions, which Tsukauchi will keep into consideration, so even though he’s not directly asking for help, it might be he’s counting on such opinions as they can provide him help.

Regarding Shigaraki Tomura and his Quirk, Tsukauchi admits they couldn’t find info about him on the Quirk registry, to either track him specifically or his Quirk. The same goes for the one called Kurogiri. Tsukauchi assumes they’re using Villain names instead than their own names. The fact that their Quirks aren’t registered make them “people of the underworld” (裏の人間 ‘Ura no ningen’ Lit. “Men of the back/wrong side”). Now… since Quirks are registered in elementary school, this would also mean that either they were granted such Quirk from AFO or that the adults who were in charge of them when they were kids stopped them from registering their Quirk. As the word Tsukauchi used to say they’re people of the underworld might be also used to refer to the Yakuza, it’s possible he assumed that the League of Villains is kind of like a Villain crime family.

At this point All Might will give us a profile of Shigaraki which will labels him as a “man-child” (子ども大人 ‘kodomo otona’), a profile which the police will consider official to the point it will be later referenced by the Commissioner General of the National Police Agency. The problem is that while All Might has plenty of expertise punching Villains, and went to an university in the USA, as far as the story go we were never told he had knowledge on behavioral science and such things are normally done by a police laboratory assigned to this duty or an expert in behavioral science (which in Japan implies the knowledge of psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology and psychiatry). We can only hope that either All Might’s assessment was then confirmed by a specialist or that, although it was never said in the story, behavioral science is what All Might studied at University.

Back to profiling, to be honest the police doesn’t really show a genuine interest in knowing why Villains do things, Tsukauchi wonders why 72 back-alley thugs would follow Shigaraki but instead than questioning them, decides that it must be because their evil intentions were drawn to Shigaraki’s evil and the whole thing is never brought up again.

Tsukauchi promises they’ll expand their search and devote their efforts to apprehending the perpetrators… but I do wonder if this means the police will ask for help to other Heroes that aren’t the ones in U.A. high as on their own they can’t face Villains.

Last but not least, Tsukauchi again has words of praise for the Heroes.

Chap. 25 shows Tsukauchi Naomasa’s official profile.

In Chap. 41, as the Hero Ingenium lies on the ground and Stain, the Hero Killer, licks his sword, we hear a message saying that Hosu police station is requesting immediate backup. There are also sirens in the background… even if those details are cut from the anime transposition in ep. 24.

In Chap. 42 we see the police investigating the street in which the crime took place, holding people away from it. There also seem to be a crime scene investigator on the scene.

THE LAW: Chap. 22 reminds us that Quirks can be used solely with a Hero license, but that Heroes can have side jobs by showing us how Uraraka wants to become a Hero so she can help her parents with their construction company.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: In Chap. 22, Kaminari mentions how Pro Heroes will be looking at the school festival to see if they could become sidekicks after they graduate. What’s not explained clearly is that Pro Heroes will also get the chance to pick them up for internship, or more specifically for work experience (職場体験 ‘shokuba taiken’). While it’s not said out loud, those things are regulated by the HPSC.

CULTURAL INFO: Japanese police is used to compiling data on suspect profiles based on profiling into a database, which is being managed and overseen by the National Police Agency, with the aim of making the data useful in apprehending criminal suspects from 1988. They have a specific laboratory, the Criminal Behavior Science Division's Investigation Support Laboratory, which provide investigative support by compiling profiles through science's environmental research and psychology research. It feels pretty weird they don’t use this resource in BNHA but just accept the profile All Might made.

In Japan the 90% of junior high schools offer work experiences to their students so that they can gain work experience at various workplaces in the local community within the framework of special activities or comprehensive studies in the curriculum of junior high schools. They usually last from three days or less, with some lasting five days or more.

In Japan, due to the April 1, 2022 revision of the Civil Code, under Article 4 the age of adulthood was moved from 20 to 18. They also revised article 731 of the Civil Code effectively ended child marriage, raising the minimum age that girls can get married from 16 to 18 with parental permission. There’s no change for the boys as they could already marry at 18, though previously they needed parental permission (as they were considered minors). Now both boys and girls can only marry after turning 18 and without needing parental permission. While we don’t know at which age Rei married as we don’t know how old she is, there’s a part of the fandom who wonder if she was married young. In that case the minimum age she could have was 16 and, since she clearly had her parents’ permission, the thing would have been legal.

Arranged marriages (as in parents picking up a candidate for their child to marry) are legal. The children have however the power to refuse a partner presented to them by the parents. Also, when organizing an arranged marriage it’s fair for both parts to investigate the other party and check if the family doesn’t have undesirable genetic traits (mental illness cases, lack of pure Japanese blood, relations with people belonging to groups considered impure) so that the children won’t inherit them. For this reason too Enji and Rei’s marriage is legal.

Japan, in June 2022, passed the Child Basic Act, the country’s first national law for the rights of the child, based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and revised the Child Welfare Act. The revisions included a measure to address financial incentives for institutionalization of children without parental care, and introduction of mandatory judicial review for determining whether a child should be removed from their family, for which the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has urged Japan at the latest country reports review. Japanese parents were banned from physically punishing their children solely in 2019 following several fatal cases of abuse dealt out in the name of discipline however Japanese law does not provide for this in terms of prosecutorial considerations. The most that will be done is to take the children away if they fear for their life. Abusive training (which includes beating, name calling, humiliation, overworking…) is not forbidden (although guidelines recommend not doing it) and, of course, as a consequence, Japanese law does not provide for abusive training in terms of prosecutorial considerations. Basically, when BNHA started, it was legally okay for Enji to beat Shōto during training and that’s also why no one did anything to protect/help Shōto.

Japanese law does not provide for domestic violence in terms of prosecutorial considerations although domestic violence is forbidden by 2001 and the police wasn’t even obliged to investigate when ‘domestic disputes’ were reported, and the most they would do was offer counseling. The law has been changed in 2024 and things are a little better (even though Japanese law STILL does not provide for domestic violence in terms of prosecutorial considerations police is encouraged to investigate and the court may consider to impose penalties for crimes related to domestic violence aka assault and injury). Basically no, it’s legally not okay for Enji to hit Rei but he wouldn’t be punished and the police would turn on the other side not because he’s a Pro Hero but because this is judged a private thing. Hence no one will raise a finger to help Rei and she can’t do much about it.

In Japan the standards of proof, as inthe level of certainty and the degree of evidence necessary to establish proof in a criminal or civil proceeding, requires that facts be proven to a high probability similar to beyond a reasonable doubt opposite to a merely a more-likely-than-not standard used in other countries. This makes extremely difficult for victims of abuse to provide the necessary evidence to prove they were abused. In short Rei, same as all the other Japanese women, would have a really hard time proving she was being abused.

In Japan divorce comes with a great social stigma especially for the mother but also for the children and, as a general rule, you cannot get divorced if either spouse is not agreeing. Yes, there is the possibility to get a divorce if your husband abuse you, but first you should prove it and, as said above, it’s still very hard and things have improved from when BNHA started and, anyway a court may still dismiss a suit for divorce if it finds that continuing the marriage is reasonable taking into account even if one of the spouse were abusive. In case of a divorce, regardless of the spouses agreeing to it or not, only one of them will get the custody of the children. It’s worth to mention though, in 2024 the parliamenthas approved a change to this law, which will allow divorced couples to share custody of their children from 2026. Long story short it would have been very hard for Rei to get a divorce, which is part of why she doesn’t even consider it.

I’ve found no info about being legal to tie and muzzle people who don’t want to take part to an award ceremony so that they will be forced to take part to it and accept a medal in Japan. It’s true though, that abuse in spot isn’t illegal and the school festival is basically a sport competition so the school could take advantage of it. I’m not sure if Horikoshi is asking us to suspend our disbelief for comic purposes or, since Bakugō will later kidnapped due to this, he’s subtly denouncing the whole thing.

In Japan, according to the Medical Care Act, hospitalization for mental illness is done, in principle, in a psychiatric ward and the form of hospitalization in the psychiatric ward is regulated by the Act on Mental Health and Welfare for People with Mental Disability. That act includes stipulated requirements for Voluntary Hospitalization, Emergency Hospitalization, Hospitalization for Medical Care and Protection (compulsory hospitalization with consent of the individual’s family), Involuntary Admission (compulsory hospitalization by the prefectural governor's order), and Emergency Involuntary Admission (compulsory hospitalization by the prefectural governor's order). The latter category of hospitalization is indicated when the patient is at risk of self-harm or of harming others. Very likely though, as mental illness comes with a strong stigma that affect the whole family, Rei wasn’t compulsory hospitalized, as this would require her to be put in a psychiatric ward. She was likely diagnosed with ‘shinkei-suijaku’ (神経衰弱 “Nerve-weakness’) and accepted voluntary hospitalization. In English it should be the equivalent of neurasthenia, an old term to denote a condition with symptoms of fatigue, anxiety, headache, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, neuralgia, and depressed mood. Alternatively it can be called as nervous breakdown. In Japan neurasthenia isn’t considered a mental illness and so it isn’t associated to social stigma. We also see Rei can leave the hospital ward of her own free will so this too seems to imply she wasn’t compulsory hospitalized, never mentioning ‘Ultra Archive’ defines her as ‘worn out by Enji’s actions’ and that Enji apologizes to her ‘for wearing her down’ both statements seeming to confirm it was assumed she suffered of neurasthenia.

Only an adult can rent an apartment, however minors can live alone in it. This means Uraraka’s apartment was rented by her parents, and she was allowed to live there without adult supervision.

XX VS. HERO KILLER ARC (45-59)

THE POLICE: In Chap. 47 Tsukauchi goes back to All Might to leak info about the investigation, claiming he believes he has to know. He explains they’ve been trying all sort of tests on the Nōmu since he doesn’t talk nor react to anything, among which a DNA test.

The problem is… for all they know the Nōmu is a human, at least that’s what Shigaraki claimed. In fact he said the Nōmu was bioengineered and that he was a punching bag but both times referred to him as a human/person.

Shigaraki Tomura ‘Tai heiwa no shōchō kaijin “Nōmu”.’ 死柄木弔「対平和の象徴改人〝脳無〟。」 Shigaraki Tomura “The anti-symbol of peace, the modified person Nōmu.” [Chap. 16]

Shigaraki Tomura ‘Nōmu wa omae no 100% ni mo tae rareru yō kaizō sareta chōkōseinō, SANDBAG ningen-sa.’ 死柄木弔「脳無はおまえの100％にも耐えられるよう改造された超高性能、サンドバッグ人間さ。」 Shigaraki Tomura “The Nōmu is a ultra-high performance human punching bag, modified to withstand 100% of your strength.” [Chap. 19]

Now it’s perfectly fair to make a DNA test on the Nōmu but the all sort of tests seems to open up the possibility they’re experimenting on him, which will turn out to be true later on. Also no one is conveniently worrying of how All Might’s blow might have caused it mental damage and that’s why it’s unresponsive.

Anyway the Nōmu is kept seated and completely tied, wearing a straight jacket so as to stop any chance it has to move.

According to the DNA test, the Nōmu has the DNA of some petty criminal known for assault and extortion, mixed with the DNA of 4 completely different people and that his body has been altered by drugs and chemicals. Tsukauchi claims he was bioengineered to tolerate multiple Quirks and that his extraordinary low brain activity is the result of that burden. Normally though, taking in additional DNA alone (when you receive a transplant you receive also the donor’s DNA) wouldn’t result in extra Quirks unless there’s some other transference factor at play like a Quirk that bestows Quirks. In short Tsukauchi is thinking AFO could be involved, hence he reported his finding to All Might.

In Chap. 47 we see Īda accompany the Hero Manual in his patrol. There is no policeman supervising what Manual is doing, and he explains his role is usually to just wait around for a call to come in.

Chap. 48 presents us with some Heroes describing their work. From their description we can infer which are the relations between police and Heroes. Fourth Kind explain since he’s paid by the state he’s technically a government employee but given his status he’s not like the average government worker. I think the idea is he’s comparing Heroes to the police, pointing out how his Hero status makes him important. He also says his job is getting a handle on crime and that when something bad happens, the police calls him for help, with each district sending their requests in batches. Gunhead instead explains he writes reports in which he explains how much of a help he was at capturing Villains and saving people and once the ‘Senmon kikan’ (専門機関 “specialty organization”) does its little examination they put the money into his bank account, his work being mostly on commission.

What all this tell us? That the police doesn’t have the duty to supervise Heroes, they’re called to help the police but, as said from the start, they enjoy a higher status than the police.

Chap. 49 shows us on a newspaper the image of the police cordoning off the area where the Hero Killer hit in Shiono City.

Chap. 53 again shows Heroes acting on their own, without waiting for the police’s call when Enji figures Stain will hit again and goes in Hosu to investigate with his sidekicks and his son.

Chap. 56 shows the police tying the white Nōmu Gran Torino knocked off, putting him in restrains but without gagging him. It’s unclear if the black Nōmu Endeavor defeated is alive as he’s still on the ground, held by Heroes, a policeman looking at him but he seems unresponsive.

We’re introduced to Tsuragamae Kenji (面構犬嗣), “Hosu Police Station Chief” (保須警察署の署長 ‘Hosu Keisatsu Sho No Shochō’), who goes to visit Midoriya, Iida and Shōto while they’re recovered at the hospital. He’s a Heteromorph, as in his face is the one of a dog and he even keep on saying ‘woof’.

He informs Midoriya, Iida and Shōto that Stain is in treatment for burns, broken bones and a number of other serious injuries.

He then explains that at the dawn of the extraordinary era the police moved to prioritize leadership and to maintain the status quo so they decided not to use Quirk as a weapons, which allows the profession of “Hero” to rise to fill that void. Originally this decision was criticized because such powers could easily kill, but then it gained public support because past Heroes acted morally and complied with the laws. As the law mandate in order to act one has to have a license, this means that those who instead acts without it, inflicting harm without explicit instruction from a Hero supervising them, even against someone like the Hero killer, break the law. Hence both the students and the mentors must be punished.

Tsuragamae Kenji ‘Chōjō reimei-ki… keisatsu wa tōsotsu to kikaku o jō yō shi shi, “kosei” o “bu” ni mochiinai koto to shita. Soshite HERO wa sono “ana” o umeru katachi de taitō shite kita shokuda, WAN. Kojin no buryoku kōshi… yōi ni hito o ayame rareru chikara. Honrainara kyūdan sarete shikarubeki korera ga ōyake ni mitome rarete iru no ha senjin-tachi ga MORAL ya RULE o shikkari junshu shite kitakarana nda, WAN. Shikaku mishutoku-sha ga hogo kanrisha no shiji naku “kosei” de kigai o kuwaeta koto. Tatoe aite ga HERO goroshi de aro utomo kore ha rippana kisoku ihanda, WAN. Kimi-tachi san-mei oyobi PRO HERO ENDEAVOR, MANUAL, GRAN TORINO. Kono roku-mei ni wa genseina shobun ga kudasa renakereba naranai.’ ’面構犬嗣「超常黎明期…警察は統率と規格を乗要視し、〝個性〟を〝武〟に用いない事とした。そしてヒーローはその〝穴〟を埋める形で台頭してきた職だ、ワン。個人の武力行使…容易に人を殺められる力。本来なら糾弾されて然るべきこれらが公に認められているのは先人達がモラルやルールをしっかり遵守してきたからなんだ、ワン。資格未取得者が保護管理者の指示なく“個性”で危害を加えたこと。たとえ相手がヒーロー殺しであろうともこれは立派な規則違反だ、ワン。君たち三名及びプロヒーローエンデヴァー、マニュアル、グラントリノ。この六名には厳正な処分が下されなければならない。」 Tsuragamae Kenji “In the early days of the paranormal… the police placed emphasis on discipline and standards, and decided not to use their ‘quirks’ for ‘military’ purposes.And Heroes were a profession that emerged to fill that ‘gap’, woof. Individual use of force/military power... of the power to easily kill someone. The reason these things that should be condemned are publicly accepted is because our predecessors strictly adhered to morals and rules, woof. An unlicensed person using their quirk to harm someone without instructions from his guardian. Even if the other person is the Hero killer, this is a clear violation of the rules, woof. You three, as well as the Pro Heroes Endeavor, Manual, and Gran Torino. Severe punishment must be meted out to you six.” [Chap. 56]

So… Tsuragamae is painting a pretty picture of how things went in the past, but the police deciding not to use Quirk to fight what will be later called Villains, basically rendered the police helpless against them. We’ll see through the whole series that they just can’t fight them and need Heroes to do the job, and the fact they instead decided to stuck on not using Quirks, make me think it’s due to the confusion that there was at the start, in which who had a Quirk was discriminated against. By not using their Quirk, the police remained ‘reliable’, while people who instead decided to use it as it was the only way to fight Villains, had to prove themselves they were people who would stick to the rules and have a moral code where the police had to do nothing… but eventually we see how the balance is shifting and the police is mocked for being justVillain custody officers, where the Heroes are basically celebrities, this likely also thanks in part to the huge ‘Hero propaganda’ as we saw in this arc how it was explained they can take time from their working hours to do side jobs like taking part to commercials, but also thanks to the fact that almost everyone in the population now has a Quirk, so that having one is judged the new normality and who doesn’t have one is the odd one.

Shōto, despite being in a Hero school and being a Hero’s son, seems unaware of how the law doesn’t allow the use of Quirk not even to save a person, protests and gets scolded for not having been properly educated by Endeavor and U.A. high and I’m not sure if the scolding is for how rude he’s being with a person in power or for how ignorant he is in this regard.

At this point however Tsuragamae, after having told them he was obliged to tell them such things because he is the police, makes them a proposition: if he’ll deal with this issue publicly, letting society be aware of what they’ve done, they’ll be praised but unable to avoid punishment but if they keep the nasty business to themselves he can claim Endeavor was the key operative and will receive the accolades while they won’t be punished and the small number of eyewitnesses can be hushed without problems. Tsuragamae claims he is making them this proposition because they’re young and promising and so he doesn’t want to pursue charges over an admittedly massive indiscretion.

It’s not really that inspiring, as for start this means that if in their place there had been a person who wasn’t young and a promising Hero he would have pressed charges, and, to continue, he teaches them it’s all right for the police to lie and hush people over what happened. Lastly, he claims the world is unfair so they won’t receive the commendations but only his thanks.

Honestly I would have preferred the story to address the unfairness of the world and try to fix it as, as far as we know, this law was never changed but whatever.

Is Stain included in the people the police can hush and, in this case, how? (did they threaten him? bribe him? or he agreed to keep silent to protect Midoriya?)

We’ll never know.

Supposedly Stain should have a trial, and in his trial it should be explained he attacked Manual and how he was stopped. In theory Stain could also sue Midoriya and Co. for the injuries he received so hushing Stain was important… but the story doesn’t explain us how they did it.

Chap. 57 shows an image on a newspaper depicting the Hero Killer, heavily tied despite his injures state, being dragged away by the police.

On an odd note here it’s said the Hero Killer Stain murdered 17 Heroes and injured an unknown number of Heroes as well in 7 different cities before being chapter… but in Chap. 326, for mysterious reasons, the number of Heroes killed by Stain is 40. Poor investigation from the police? A retcon? Did Stain started murdering Heroes again after leaving Tartarus? We don’t know. We also learn that even though Midoriya, Iida and Shōto weren’t punished, Gran Torino got a pay cut and his right to educate Hero students was revoked for 6 months. “Ultra Archive” confirms the same happened to Manual and Endeavor due to their negligence in monitoring the students. I do wonder how they managed to accuse them of this if the whole happening was hushed. I mean, it’s clear Endeavor and Co. couldn’t complain about the punishment but didn’t have the police to write more than just ‘they failed to monitor them’?

The last bit that Chap. 57 tells us is that there’s a video about the Hero Killer, that the police understands the video is going to draw people toward joining the League of Villains and all they do is… to take the video down instead than address the problems it raises.

THE LAW: Chap. 45 has Class A students think Aizawa will have them study about Hero law. As Kirishima says he sucks at that, this means they should have studied it before, it’s unclear if at U.A. high or it was also part of their middle school lessons. As Kaminari fears they’ll have a quiz, probably they studied it at U.A. high.

In Chap. 48 Uwabami says Heroes can do side work (like commercials) in their sanctioned public service hours due to them being popular and in public demand. This means even though Heroes should be in service of society during such hours, they’re allowed to do extra things that basically also promote their image and allow them to gain more. There’s to say that promoting their image is also important for Quirk society, as in the past having a Quirk and using it was seen negatively, but still the fact they’re allowed to do so in their service hours means they’ll neglect helping the population to commercialize other products.

In Chap. 50 Manual tells Īda how Heroes don’t have the authority to make arrests or dole out punishment, they can use their Quirk thanks to the advance in Quirk regulations but Vigilantism is strictly against the rules and if one is caught going off on his own is considered a major crime. While the ‘make arrests’ part is reserved to the police so it’s just a law that split the job of dealing with Villains between Heroes and police, probably in an attempt to preserve police power and limit the one of Heroes, the ‘dole out punishment’ part is a bit questionable as we’ll learn Heroes can be out to kill Villains (they were supposed to kill Shigaraki before he could wake up). Also we’ve learnt early on that use of Quirk for committing crimes make you a Villain, but in this arc we see even use of Quirk to fight Villains if you aren’t a licensed Hero is considered bad. I’m not talking solely of hunting Villains for revenge purposes, Midoriya and Shōto end in troubles for having tried to save Īda and Manual.

We end with Chap. 56 in which Tsuragamae tells Midoriya, Shōto and Īda that Quirks can’t even be used to fight a Villain in order to save a person.

So, till now, what we’ve learnt about Quirk regulations? Quirks can’t be used to commit crimes, and we’re fine with it, they can’t be used at school, where it doesn’t even get used when making gym tests and okay, we can be fine with it. Quirks can’t be used to hunt Villains, be it for arresting them or punishing them and okay… but now we’re being told if we want to save a person we can’t use a Quirk to attack a well known serial murderer who wouldn’t desist not even when he’s one against three. It’s true the Hero Killer got hurt quite a bit and that, probably, they could have tried grabbing Native and moving him away contenting themselves with just blocking the Hero Killer path. Stain seems to favor attacking in small back alleys so he might not have followed them if they were to go on a bigger and more frequented street but I genuinely don’t know if they would have made it.

Chap. 57 has Giran teach us that producing and dealing in support items and costumes without a license is considered a major crime.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: As said before in Chap. 48 Gunhead explains he writes reports in which he explains how much of a help he was at capturing Villains and saving people and once the ‘senmon kikan’ (専門機関 “specialty organization”) does its little examination they put the money into his bank account, his work being mostly on commission… and of course we can wonder if the specialty organization is the Hero Public Safety Commission.

However in Japanese ‘senmon kikan’ points to international organizations specializing in fields such as economics, social science, culture, education, and health, which are also United Nations agencies that have concluded agreements with the United Nations Economic and Social Council based on the provisions of Article 63 of the Charter of the United Nations and have a collaborative relationship with the United Nations. As Gunhead is said to talk in a cute manner, I’m not sure if the trick he’s not using the right world, if originally the HPSC was meant to be an international organization that worked with all the Heroes, or if the trick is it’s an international organization and what we see is just the Japanese branch. After all, if he’s talking of the HPSC, this would be its first appearance and it’s possible Horikoshi hadn’t yet defined it well.

CULTURAL INFO:

I couldn’t find info about Japan having laws against unethical human experimentation, just many stories about what Unit 731 did in China and how after the war, Supreme Commander of the Occupation Douglas MacArthur gave immunity in the name of the United States to its director Surgeon General Shirō Ishii and all members of the units in exchange for all of the results of their experiments and how they were allowed to continue to experiment on Japanese people in the following 10 years. Among the other info I found there is that Japan's clinical research ethics regulations are unplanned and unsystematic, and there is no consistency between the guidelines, which is causing confusion in the field of ethics review today. Ethics committees that should cover all clinical research and were legally regulated in 1997, are not included in clinical research other than clinical trials, making them legally irrelevant. Current legal norms towards informed consent and information disclosure are obscure in Japan (Es: physicians in Japan do not have a legal duty to inform patients of a cancer diagnosis). Informed consent is often obtained without the patient’s understanding, physician’s recommendation, or adequate time to think and is limited to informed consent regarding medical treatment, and did not mean the right of self-determination of subjects in medical clinical research. BTW, BNHA fans should be familiar with it due to the controversy born on which was supposed to be the name of the doctor working for AFO. Originally Horikoshi planned to call him Shiga Maruta, but the name caused an outcry in China and the banning of the manga as ‘maruta’ (“log”) was how Unit 731 called their test subjects in order to dehumanize them.

Japanese police can end up in video promoting something but what they’re promoting is usually Traffic Safety Education Campaigns or anti-scam messages (one of those videos went viral in 2024). Heroes instead are clearly promoting commercial products.

XX FINAL EXAMS ARC (60-69)

THE POLICE: In Chap. 69 all we learn is that Uraraka calls the police due to Shigaraki having held Midoriya captive in Kiyashi ward shopping mall up until then. This tells us that all the calls about emergencies still normally pass through the police, if common people want the help of a Hero they must search one on patrol. I’m not sure if they can phone to a Hero agency that works in that area but, I guess, they can try to.

THE LAW:

THE PRISONS:

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION:

CULTURAL INFO:

XX FOREST TRAINING CAMP ARC (70-83)

THE POLICE: In Chap. 70 we see how the police, after being told Shigaraki was there, shut down the shopping mall and evacuated the people so that they and all the Heroes in the area could search the area. Still, despite their quick response they couldn’t locate him. Tsukauchi and Tamagawa arrive and take Midoriya to the police station to interview him.

It turns out that due to the attack at U.A. high and the incident in Hosu the police response to the league was to establish a “special investigation headquarters” (特別搜査本部 ‘tokubetsu sōsa honbu’), with Tsukauchi being part of it. I hope that the existence of the task force isn't meant to be kept top secret because I already find hard how Tsukauchi tends to tattle things to All Might, but him tattling secrets to Midoriya would be too much.

Midoriya, in an interrogation room because yes, they still have them, describes Shigaraki and tells him what they talked about and, as a response, Tsukauchi comments, due to what Midoriya told him this means the league isn’t completely unified but it’s still targeting All Might.

Now, this is probably a writing problem (Horikoshi wanted to give more importance to Shigaraki telling Midoriya about how he’s not connected to Stain that such discussion deserves to have) but, after this observation Tsukauchi causes the whole police force to look as incompetent as they can get. Let’s recap.

Stain and the League had never attacked a place at the same time before and, although this time they both had attacked Hosu, their attack wasn’t coordinated or did anything to hint they were working in tandem, actually many trustworthy Heroes has witnessed Stain killing a Nōmu to retrieve Midoriya, which is kind of a BIG hint that he’s not really on the same page as the League. The police has had Stain in custody by a while and I doubt Stain would refuse to say he isn’t working with the League, IF questioned, which makes me wonder ‘did they question him?’. Also, if the police had spent 5 minutes having an expert making a profile of both Shigaraki and Stain, it would be easy to see their goals are hardly compatible, with the League out to kill All Might and Stain worshipping him and thinking he’s the only one worth to kill him. I mean, you actually don’t even get an expert to figure this out, it’s kind of obvious Stain isn’t out for All Might’s blood while the League is, the whole idea the two could be working together is based on speculation from the press which has seen them in Hosu, both attacking at the same time… but I would expect the police to need a little more evidence than just this to claim that the League and Stain are connected, because honestly, what they had to support that idea is so little it might as well be nonexistent… yet they somehow believe it as true and valid.

However, if a teenager tells them that Shigaraki came and told him he’s not connected to Stain, oh, let’s trust Shigaraki on this one, Shigaraki going to tell a teenager he’s not joining hands with Stain is a clear proof he isn’t, it absolutely can’t be part of Shigaraki’s plan, Shigaraki has to be sincere. Whatever, let’s go on.

Midoriya claims he wished he could have stopped Shigaraki and Tsukauchi’s answer is to fundamentally praise him because he remained calm while he was being threatened so that nobody got hurt. This is very nice, but probably Tsukauchi should have been informed the last time Midoriya tried to stop a Villain (Stain) he used his own Quirk, which was a break of the law. I would say that the implication he wanted to do the same here it’s pretty clear (how else could Midoriya stop Shigaraki from leaving?), and since among the police’s duties there’s counseling people, Tsukauchi should have reminded him he didn’t even have to consider using his Quirk to fight him.

Tsukauchi and Tamagawa accompany Midoriya outside the police station where they meet with All Might. Midoriya asks Al Might if there’s someone he couldn’t save and when All Might admits plenty of times he couldn’t save people… because he was unaware they needed saving as they could have been somewhere in the world away from him. So he stands tall and smiles so that everyone will know he’s the symbol of peace and can have a light shining on them. Except those who were far and so he failed to save them. Like all the Heteromorphs who live in small cities who hardly have Heroes or police supervising them for example. Just saying.

Understanding Midoriya could still be bothered by what Shigaraki said, Tsukauchi waves Shigaraki’s words away. In the English version he says he believes Shigaraki is just a sore loser, but actually in the Japanese one though he claims maybe it’s a matter of ‘sakaurami’ (逆恨み), a word that means “unjustified resentment through misunderstanding” as each time All Might appeared he always saved everyone. While this is less bad than waving Shigaraki words away claiming he’s just a sore loser, they’re basically giving Shigaraki’s words zero relevance.

They could have instead used the info Shigaraki feels victimized by All Might to try and track down why, so as to discover Shigaraki’s origin, to discover which was his real identity but no, let’s focus on how All Might now saves everyone when he manages to reach the place… and not on how the system also needs to be revised to spread Heroes and police forces better.

I’m not saying all this in defense of Shigaraki, I’m saying it as a criticism to the police which here is represented by Tsukauchi.

To have a valid profile of a criminal/Villain could help them to understand him and predict his moves or find a way to deescalate troublesome situations. If they had had a decent profile for Shigaraki and Stain they would have figured it was highly unlikely for them to cooperate, even without Midoriya telling them Shigaraki said they weren’t. Also, if, through Shigaraki, they had figured out AFO was grooming children, they could have checked orphanages and saved his other potential victims. But no, this doesn’t matter.

Acknowledging the system has spots that go unsupervised, places that are not protected by Heroes in a society OVERSATURATED with Heroes could help spread Heroes better, small cities for example might not have flashy crimes but they still deserve protection, a light shining on them. The police can deploy Heroes there but… they don’t.

Overall Tsukauchi, dismissing Shigaraki’s resentment as unjustified, defends the image of All Might and of the perfect society the HPSC likes to cultivate, it makes me wonder if the HPSC isn’t selling what the police wants them to sell.

This is a case though, while I can’t really sure if Tsukauchi is representing the typical policeman or he’s speaking as such because he’s All Might’s friend… I think the former influences him but the latter is probably stronger. So far the police hadn’t shown sympathy or interest for the Villains’ reasons while they’re all for how great Heroes are.

When Inko arrives Tsukauchi orders Tamagawa to arrange to send them off.

Tsukauchi and All Might talk a little more, Tsukauchi claiming the meeting seemed coincidental but there’s a chance that they’ll keep on targeting Class A students so the police will be on high alert but the school should also need to be vigilant.

I guess the part about the police being in high alert means they’ll investigate and that’s it. They just don’t have the means to stop the League. It’s on the school and, especially, on the Hero teachers that will fall the duty to protect the students.

The rest of the dialogue with Tsukauchi saying he already told All Might he’s not suited for being a teacher and that this time they’ll catch AFO is more a friend talk than a police statement so I’ll let it slide.

In Chap. 77, when Aizawa figures out Midoriya has done it again (break his bones in a fight) Midoriya remembers what Tsuragamae told him about how it’s a crime to inflict harm to others without instructions from someone allowed to give them.

In Chap. 83 we see the police had reached the students at the summer camp along with the rescue workers. Muscular is wrapped in bindings and then put in a iron maiden, Moonfish, despite being knocked out, is also wrapped in bindings. Mustard seems just arrested.

While Tsukauchi and Tamagawa were getting statement from Eraser Head and Vlad King, they discovered they might have pinpointed the league of Villains’ hideout as two weeks before, Tamagawa was out, searching for information, and learnt a man who looked like Dabi, entered in a building with no tenants. At the time they searched (the records) about past (known) criminals (犯罪者 ‘hanzaisha’) around 20 but found no match.

I want to point out Dabi did nothing wrong back then. Entering in a building with no tenants isn’t a crime, he might have gone to see it because he was curious, a homeless in search of a place to hide, someone who wanted to buy the place. Dabi though is described like a ‘Kaojū TSUGIHAGI no otoko’ (顔中ツギハギの男 “Man with a face patched together”) so the police’s first reaction is to check if he’s a criminal, then they make sure if there’s something inside the building… and yes, there’s something, a hidden bar, the owner of the place doesn’t hesitate in sharing that info so, although the bar is called an hidden one, it’s not even that secret, AFO didn’t make pressure on the owner of the place so that he wouldn’t reveal this detail.

Honestly I would have thought it would have made more sense for Tamagawa to check the place to make sure there’s really nothing in the building before checking if Dabi was a criminal just because he has a messed up face. It’s also worth to mention they find nothing about him, so they drop the investigation.

Anyway since there are no info about Dabi being a criminal and there was a bar inside the building which he might have been visiting and it doesn’t seem connected to their investigation they let him be. However now Eraser Head and Vlad King had told him about how Dabi looked and so they had connected the dots and the first thing Tsukauchi does is warn All Might while Tamagawa gives Eraser Head some coffee.

He adds they want to raid the place as soon as they have enough evidence and this is TOP SECRET but Tsukauchi believes All Might has to know.

Honestly Tsukauchi is like All Might’s personal spy in the police business, it’s the second time (that we know) he shared with him reserved information.

At the same time it feels weird he would tell him reserved information since he wants to ask him to join them and should know All Might would say ‘yes’. Couldn’t he first ask him to join and then share info?

Besides the cheering is kind of premature. So far they know Dabi had been there and that the place hosts a bar, but this doesn’t mean that’s the base of the League. Dabi was seen there TWO WEEKS AGO. He wasn’t a criminal before the attack at the training camp. When Tsukauchi says they plan to raid the bar, they hadn’t investigated yet if someone else suspicious got inside the building, they just found Dabi had been there in the past, and since the owner had no troubles saying there’s a bar inside, one would expect the bar isn’t an illegal commercial activity. But let’s raid it because the script says it’s owned by the League… okay, sarcasm aside it’s too early to say if it would be a good idea to raid the place or not. If that place is just a bar Dabi went, raiding him might alert him and the others.

It’s probably a problem in writing, as Horikoshi knows that’s the bar of the League, but still the police comes out as excessively ready to raid places.

This chapter also tells us the police went to question Midoriya and Yaoyorozu. When they visited Yaorozu, the one there was Tsukauchi who, with All Might, learnt Yaoyorozu placed a tracking device on the Nōmu, a discussion also overheard by Kirishima and Shōto.

Again, Tsukauchi doesn’t shine for attention as he missed those two Hero students eavesdropping from the OPEN door.

THE LAW: In the notes for Chap. 77 Horikoshi discusses the Quirk regulations. He reminds us that harming another with a Quirk is against law, which is why Quirk use in public spaces is forbidden by law… with the exception of self defense, in fact, as long as one was attacked first, they’re allowed to defend themselves. However this is different than ordinary self defense (which would involve punching or pinning someone) as Quirks vary a lot in nature and the law can’t account for every existing Quirk. That’s also why there’s a heavy-handed law which states “no one may use their Quirk to harm another!” Horikoshi points out though that the law that forbids to use Quirk in public spaces nowadays is not taken that seriously if the use of it is not dangerous (ex: if Midoriya’s mom were to use her telekinetic Quirk to pick up something she dropped few people would consider giving her troubles for it) but become serious if the Quirk can actually harm people (like Bakugō’s). Horikoshi also tells us that Anti-personnel Quirk use is allowed on Hero school grounds, so as to allow Hero students to learn and train… but things would have changed if the students had killed or nearly killed a Villain during the battle at USJ.

THE PRISONS: //

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: In Chap. 71 Aizawa says after the summer training camp ends the students should be strong enough to acquire their provisional licenses. While this isn’t a direct reference to the HPSC, they’re the ones behind the handing of such things.

CULTURAL INFO: In Japan the police can question minors even without their parents present.

In Japan the law, including the Constitution and specific laws like the “Act on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and Other Detainees”, aims to ensure humane treatment of detainees. This means they technically can’t beat them to force them to talk about something. If we assume the law works in the same way for the Heroes and the police this means Eraser Head didn’t have the authority to break Dabi’s arms to force him to talk. It’s true though that in Japan, despite legal protections, there have been reports and allegations of police misconduct, including physical abuse, during interrogations and detention but since this is still illegal it surely doesn’t paint a nice picture of Eraser Head’s actions.

XX HIDEOUT RAID ARC (84-97)

THE POLICE: In Chap. 84 we see that at the Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters, Tsukauchi is meeting up with All Might, Endeavor, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot and Tiger.

Chap. 86 has Nezu, during the apology press conference transmitted on TV, explanining that all the students received psychological evaluation, none of them seeming to have suffered emotional trauma. I don't know though if it was a forensic psychological assessment, or just an evaluation made by a hospital or something U.A. high offered to his students. He also claims that he’s cooperating with the police to retrieve Bakugō.

As for the police and the Heroes (among them now we can also see Gran Torino, Gang Orca, Kamui Wood, Mt. Lady, X-Less) they have moved closer to their target, the Leagues hideout in Yokohama city in Kanagawa, Kamino Ward. Actually maybe it’s the building in front of the one of the League. Endeavor complains he shouldn’t clean up U.A. high mess, to which Tsukauchi answers this isn’t for U.A. high only and that he should try to see the big picture as the preservation of their entire Hero society rides on this operation.

Tsukauchi knows AFO could be behind the League, all right, so he’s not exaggerating, but this info about AFO’s possible was not shared with the Heroes and we’ll see it’ll have negative consequences.

Tsukauchi explains they’ve discovered the League has multiple hideouts thanks to the tracking device placed by one of the students (why not acknowledging it was Yaoyorozu?) but their investigation has determined the location of the abducted student (aka Bakugō).

I’d like to know how they know Bakugō is there as they reached their hideout thanks to Kurogiri so they didn’t need to go around and, clearly, they hadn’t let Bakugō leave.

Anyway retrieving Bakugō is the team Top Priority so they’ll send the bulk of their personnel there, while the others will go attack the other hideout. They think this will cut their way of escape.

Tsukauchi, wearing a personal armor, then urges the Heroes not to give the Villains the time to do something. They’re using the press conference as a way to lead the League think the Heroes are in disarray so they wouldn’t expect them to counterattack on that same day. The group leaves the building, the Heroes preparing to fight as Tsukauchi tells THEM and not to the other MANY policemen with him, it’s time to turn the tables. Tsukauchi evidently knows the police is there solely for decoration and arresting Villains after the Heroes are done.

In Chap. 87 we see that while the Heroes attack the League’s hideout the police remains outside with Endeavor, who demands to know why he was stuck on guard duty while All Might gets to lead the charge. Tsukauchi claims it’s because, if a Villain were to escape, he would be the best equipped to deal with him. I guess this is for narrative purposes but again it doesn’t paint a good picture of the police that’s coordinating the attack, because such things should have been discussed BEFORE the attack were to start, while here it seems Endeavour found out he would have to stay n guard duty just then.

Meanwhile, in the League’s hideout All Might claims that thanks to the relentless police investigation they managed to find where the Nōmu Shigaraki was meant to use were. We see the police is with the Heroes who’re attacking that place. The problem here is… that it’s a lie. They found the hideout not thanks to the police investigation but thanks to Yaoyorozu’s tracker. I mean, even Midoriya and Co. easily tracked it down thanks to Yaoyorozu’s tracker. All the police had to do to check if it was the right place was to peck though a window like Midoriya’s group did.

So… the police found the Nōmu’s hideout thanks to Yaoyorozu and the League’s thanks to a lucky coincidence. Color me ‘not impressed’.

In Chap. 88 Gran Torino says that working with little intel and even less time the police managed to figure out the identities of Magne, Mr. Compress, Spinner, Toga Himiko and Twice.

Was it a great work?

So, we know everyone has to register his Quirk at the Quirk registry, meaning it’s easy to track down people with peculiar/rare Quirks…and tracking down Himiko’s identity, after she introduced herself to Midoriya and she’s already known to the police, couldn’t really be a big deal.

Considering Atsuhiro’s age and backstory he didn’t turn into Compress overnight and his Quirk, look and style are pretty recognizable so again, not a big deal.

Jin is also a well known but easy to identify criminal due to his peculiar Quirk.

Magne is also a well known criminal as she was recognized by Tiger when they faced off, Tiger listing her name, her Villain name and her crimes (Chap. 75).

Honestly the only one hard to track was Shuuichi, who was a Hikikomori previously so I don’t think he had criminal file and whose Quirk is hardly peculiar… though the police had Mustard, Muscular and Moonfish to question. Mustard is young and I doubt he’s a professional criminal. If he had info about Shuuichi he might have tattled them out… if the police ever considered to question him. In this story sometimes they just don’t do it.

Still, it doesn’t feel like an impressive job.

Anyway, now that the members of the League are all tied the police barges in, weapons in hands… only for the League to disappear and two Nōmu to appear. Outside more Nōmu appears as well in between the police that was still waiting there and Endeavor starts fighting them, ordering to Tsukauchi to expand the evacuation zone.

Tsukauchi replies that their investigation confirmed that this hideout was their location and asks Best Jeanist if he has everything under control but gets no reply. This too could be a narrative problem but anyway, in the moment of danger, it’s Endeavor who orders what to do and it’s Tsukauchi who doesn’t immediately follow his instructions but checks on Jeanist.

Back to the hideout with the Nōmu we can see the police too is there in form of a ‘Kidōtai’ (機動隊 “riot squad”) but they’re doing nothing as the Heroes capture the Nōmu and it’s Best Jeanist that orders them to bring in quickly the Iron Maidens.

So while the police seemed in control before, as they called the Heroes and they organized the mission, both here and before with Tsukauchi and Endeavor but also with All Might’s group, we see that it’s the Heroes who do handle things, the police instead waits for them to solve things, wait for them to tell them to bring in bindings for the Villains and wait for them to find a solution if things gets troublesome.

In Chap. 89 we see two policemen commenting on how All Might defeats 4 Nōmu at once.

Keikan 1 ‘Keiki no ii bukkowashi-buri da na…!!’ 警官 1「景気の良いぶっ壊しぶりだな…！！」 Policeman 1 “What a great way to destroy the economy…!!”

Keikan 2 ‘Koto ga kotodakarada! Teki ni shūchū shiro!’ 警官 2「事が事だからだ！敵に集中しろ！」 Policeman 2“Because the situation is a special situation! Focus on the enemy!” [Chap. 89]

They should also fire at the other Nōmu but in the manga we don’t see them doing so (there’s no noise nor signs of their weapons firing), though in the anime they try to do it (but manages to do nothing and it’s Endeavor who defeat them) so it could be a manga problem… otherwise they’re useless.

Someone (in the anime it’s Endeavor) wonders if the Nōmu come from the other hideout and Tsukauchi says/replies he can’t get in contact with Best Jeanist so it’s possible his group has been compromised to which Endeavor replies it’s a mess while continuing to fight at the same time.

? ‘Koitsu-ra… atchi kara nagarete kiteru no ka! ?’ ?「こいつら…あっちから流れて来てるのか…！？」 ? “These guys… are they flowing from over there…!?”

Tsukauchi Naomasa ‘JEANIST-ra to renraku ga tsukanai. Osoraku atchi ga shippaishita!’ 塚内直正「ジー二ストらと連絡がつかない。恐らくあっちが失敗した！」 Tsukauchi Naomasa “I can't get in touch with Jeanist and the others. Likely over there they failed!”

Todoroki Enji ‘GUDAGUDA janai ka mattaku!!!!’ 轟炎司「グダグダじゃないか全く！！！！」Todoroki Enji “This is absolutely a mess!!!!” [Chap. 89]*

*GUDAGUDA means something is disorganized, unfocused, or out of control; lethargic; “not good”. “Gdgd” is an internet slang used on bulletin boards and such to say so.

All Might asks to Endeavor and not to the police if he’s all right (meaning if he can handle the situation), to which Endeavor tells him he can and that if he has to go, he should go.

Note how in this discussion the police isn’t involved at all, they aren’t considered at all even though they were supposedly the ones organizing things. Endeavor and All Might are deciding things and they aren’t considered part of the discussion.

Back to the other hideout, seeing AFO, Best Jeanist remembers the police warned him there should be a mastermind behind the League, someone who has strength on par with All Might and that who is sly and leaves nothing to chance so he won’t reveal himself if he’s not sure of his own safety. That’s why they wanted to first deal with Shigaraki’s gang. The one who told so isn’t Tsukauchi but some guy behind a desk (in the manga he only has one companion with him, in the anime there are many guys behind a desk).

Best Jeanist though now thinks that the guy talking with them was wrong as, contrary to what they seemed to think, AFO manifested himself. Honestly I’m not sure why the police didn’t outright say they believed he could be the mastermind, to me it seems a big lack of information, the Heroes needed to be ready to face him should he decide to show up.

In Chap. 90 Midoriya remembers again what Tsuragamae told him when he sees All Might fight AFO and is aware they aren’t allowed anymore to fight. Definitely the guy was, in a way, a positive influence on him.

In Chap. 92 we see the police is helping everyone to evacuate. We also see Nezu worrying about Tsukauchi and All Might.

In Chap. 93, outside the League’s hideout we see Tsukauchi and the police bind the Nōmu Endeavor defeated while all the Heroes went to help All Might fight AFO.

In Chap. 94 while the Heroes are helping with the rescue efforts we see the police put a very much bound AFO inside an Iron Maiden, apparently under Endeavor’s direction as All Might watches the scene.

In Chap. 95 (Ep. 50) we see that at the Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters the police is evaluating the situation.

Now we’ve to make an obligatory premise.

In Chap. 95 of the manga we don’t get the names/roles for all the people involved. Later, much later, in Chap. 173, one of them will be defined ‘Keisatsuchō chōkan’ (警察庁長官 “Commissioner General of the National Police Agency”), though the credits of episode 50 of the anime will call him ‘Keishichō chōkan’ (警視庁長官 “Commissioner General of the Metropolitan Police Department”), which is likely a typing mistake as the “Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department” is called (警視総監 ‘Keishisōkan’). The anime credits label the guy who’s reporting things as ‘Keishichō hōkoku-kan’ (警視庁報告官 “Metropolitan Police Department Reporter”) while everyone else is labeled with the generic term of ‘Keishichō kanbu’ (警視庁幹部 “Metropolitan Police Department Executive Officer”)… a term that applies to Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department and to the other Senior Commissioners but also to the members of the Commissioner General's Secretariat (though it contains more than just 5 people).

This creates some confusion because one of the guys we see in Chap. 95 and that here is supposed to be a “Metropolitan Police Department Executive Officer” is also shown in Chap. 191/192/243, again without name or ranking but the anime credits for episode 90 this time will label him as ‘Kōan kanbu’ (公安幹部 “Public Safety Executive Officer”) basically making him a worker for the Hero Public Safety Commission, something confirmed from the credit in the movie too where he’s labeled as ‘Kōan iin kanbu’ (公安委員幹部 “Public Safety Commission Executive Officer”). It’s worth to mention in the anime the guy we see in Ep. 50 and the one we see in Ep. 90 could be different people, as they’ve the same face but different hair colors (so they could just be related)… but it’s harder to buy it in the manga where no visible difference is shown.

For the sake of a smooth presentation of this scene for now I’ll call him just ‘executive officer’ and I’ll discuss later of the implication of him being either in the police or in the Hero commission.

So, the scene starts with the reporter reporting that the captured Nōmu are the same as the others, don’t react to the stimuli like ordinary humans and they can’t gather any new info from them. The warehouse in which they were in was completely destroyed and they can only try to investigate the methods by which they were created. I think that, with this, they mean they’ll investigate it by experimenting on the Nōmu.

The Commissioner General of the National Police Agency points out how the warehouse was a decoy all along, as the location was far too accessible and hill-suited for biological experiments, and asks if anything at the bar hideout has given them more leads or info on the rest of the League, only to hear they’re still investigating.

This basically tells us not only the police traced such places thanks to Yaoyorozu transmitter and luck that Tamagawa had coincidentally heard about a guy whose description matched Dabi not much before entering in a certain building, so the investigation wasn’t that great to begin with, but also that fundamentally what they found was a decoy! So much for the investigation of the police All Might and Gran Torino praised so much.

The Executive Officer claims that even if they have the ringleader in custody, Shigaraki and the others are still free so, if they’re being generous, they can call it a draw.

The Commissioner General disagrees, calling him idiot (馬鹿野郎 ‘bakayarō’, which is pretty rude) because they had just lost the symbol of peace and the world knows of his weakened state, which means foreigners and Villains know about it too.

The man next to the Commissioner General points out how that’s the price they pay for always relying on one man (All Might). Considering where he sits, he should either be the‘Keishisōkan’ (警視総監 “Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department”) or the ‘Keisatsuchō jichō’ (警察庁次長 “Deputy Commissioner General of the National Police Agency”). Do your pick.

The Commissioner General comments on how the League got this far by basically gathering together a bunch of stupid (馬鹿 ‘baka’) but he’s worried by how by now, everyone is aware of this. He went on saying the initial profiling painted Tomura as a man with a childish disposition but each plans Tomura comes up with becomes more and more intricate and he’s completely focused on the effect he can have on society as a whole as Tomura learns from his mistakes. The Commissioner General thinks without All Might they’re less equipped to stop him, his league growing stronger with each defeat and now he got all the clout he needs to expand his organization’s scope and influence.

At this point I’m face palming so hard it hurts.

Avoiding how he’s using a derogatory ‘stupid’ for Tomura’s allies, he’s still using the profile All Might did… which I really, really hope an expert confirmed, because otherwise this is plain dumb but whatever, let’s talk of Tomura’s dastardly plans.

The first, which gained him the profile of man-child, was to attack USJ with a huge bunch of low class Villains. It failed.

The second was… to send three Nōmu to attack Hosu while the Hero Killer was also there. There’s basically no plan here, he sent them to make a ruckus and they went.

If we want to be generous the third was talking with Midoriya. Not impressive at all.

The forth was attacking the summer camp. This time Tomura got better troops, they had a goal and they managed to complete it even if they lost 3 men… but the way they complete it was left up to them, they didn’t really act following Tomura’s plan, it was more a ‘let’s jump in, attack, make chaos and snatch Bakugō’. Getting Ragdoll in the process was a bonus and it’s unexplained how they did as none of them is seen catching her, though the Nōmu is seen with her headphones. Since it was AFO who wanted her and not Tomura, it can be after the Nōmu knocked her down, AFO just sent Kurogiri to warp her away.

That’s it. I honestly wouldn’t even consider the second and the third as plans, they’re spur of the moment decisions, and since the police didn’t question AFO, they don’t even know if plan one and four were made by Tomura or by AFO.

I genuinely think Horikoshi didn’t mean it, that this is an error in writing to make the League more scary than it is, but the Commissioner General comes out as dumb, especially if we consider the fact that, from now on the League, without AFO backing them, will go through lot of troubles and will manage to go back on being a threat only thanks to the lucky circumstances of the Meta Liberation Army targeting them, losing and being forced to join them and Garaki deciding to back them up as well.

I do passionately love the league but they’re very, very far from being an organized group with a leader capable of intricate plans like Lelouch and the Black Knights of “Code Geass” were.

It makes me think the police is just too used to Villains who are disorganized thugs with not really strong Quirks and zero ambitions or Villains who have strong Quirks but work solo and, again, with zero long term goals and organization.

Anyway, back to the Commissioner General.

He claims they’ve to capture Tomura because, as the police, they need to prove they can do more than just simply taking in the Villains that the Heroes defeat, so they need to make some changes.

Keisatsuchō chōkan ‘Wareware keisatsu mo “teki (read: VILLAIN) uketori-gakari” nado to iwareteru baai janai. Kaikaku ga hitsuyō da.’ 警察庁長官「我々警察も〝敵（ヴィラン）受け取り係〟などと言われてる場合じゃない。改革が必要だ。」Commissioner General of the National Police Agency “We, the police, can no longer be called 'enemy (read: villain) receivers'. Reform is necessary.”

I’ll spoiler you and say that this pretty speech will lead them to… ask the Hero Commission to revise their criteria for handing Hero provisional licenses focusing more on candidates capable of teamwork. Because the police, who wants to be more than being just the guys who take in the Villains that the Heroes defeat, now wants to be the guys who take in the Villains that COOPERATIVE Heroes defeat. It’s such a great improvement in the police structure I’m impressed. Ops, no, it’s actually an improvement in the Heroes that will be selected.

The police will investigate more yes, but they will be never up for fighting Villains and they know, and they won’t come up with a mean to fight Villains without using their Quirk either. It’ll be always Heroes who’ll do it, see for example All Might who’ll come up with the idea of getting himself a suit, or Nezu who’ll turn U.A. into a fortress.

So the Commissioner General being upset because the police is mocked as all they’re capable of is taking Villains into custody and claiming they’ve to reform only for the reform to affect the Heroes feels honestly very telling of how the Heroes, who started as someone below the police, someone who had to win the public trust that instead the police had in abundance, are instead the new effective way to stop criminals.

It reminds me of how samurai complained because katanas were being replaced by rifles, making the police’s honorable choice not to use their Quirk in fighting Villains just a leftover of an old and prejudiced mentality.

Now… let’s go back a bit to the whole matter of the identity of that Executive Officer.

Considering how he knows about who Hawks is and how he was trained, if he works for the police, this means the police also was aware of what Lady Nagant was doing for the HPSC. It might have been an idea of the previous president, but he likely needed to have the green light from the police. It makes sense as the police is also throwing its weight around to force the HPSC to change the how the do the licensing exam.

The HPSC might have a little more freedom if that guy is actually a member of the HPSC who went as a representative of the HPSC to the reunion the Commissioner General had. It’s clear the HPSC is still seen below them considering how the Commissioner General don’t hesitate to call him an idiot (馬鹿野郎 ‘bakayarō’, which is pretty rude).

Overall I would say that this reunion in a way marks the fall of the police, who thinks to improve by improving Heroes, and the slow rise of the HPSC as they’ll be the one to organize the first war and, without them, the police is not even capable to make the paperwork to ask foreign Heroes to come help Japan. This though, might be just my impression.

Meanwhile Tsukauchi is with Gran Torino to visit All Might at the hospital. Tsukauchi thinks All Might shouldn’t believe AFO’s words that Shigaraki is his master’s grandson and asks if they interacted with Shimura’s family. Gran Torino says her husband was killed so she put her son in foster care to protect him, asking them to stay out of the boy’s life. Tsukauchi observes how that promise was turned over. All Might would like to search for Shigaraki but Gran Torino says he and Tsukauchi will do it.

I’m going again to be mean here but… checking if Tomura’s real identity was Shimura’s grandson was really something too hard for Tsukauchi to do? Kotarō kept his family surname so he wasn’t adopted, he was likely given in foster care. They could start by tracking his fate, see if he has a son, try to see if they can find a sample of Tomura’s DNA in his hideout to compare with the one of the remains of his family, because they could show some interest in Shigaraki Tomura’s backstory so that they could make a better profile of him and understand him better and anticipate his moves and… oh, yeah, professional profiling is for losers in this story. We can just ask All Might for another random definition to slap on Tomura and bring it to the Commissioner General. He’ll take it.

The last info this chapter gives us about the police is that after having escaped Bakugō went with the police.

In Chap. 96 we’ve a last info about the police, which is they told Bakugō not to wander outside. Honestly I find this pointless because, considering there’s no one guarding outside or inside, if the League wanted to try to snatch Bakugō again, they could have had just asked Kurogiri to warp them inside his home, grab him and leave.

THE LAW: //

THE PRISONS: In Chap. 90 All Might says he wants to smash AFO in a prison along with the League of Villains.

In Chap. 94 we’re told that the day after being captured AFO is carried at Tartarus, a special detention center without a trial or sentencing.

Midoriya Izuku ‘Kare wa koto no ōki-sa kara tokurei-chū no tokurei to shite kei no kakutei o matazu tokushu kōchijo e haire rareta.’ 緑谷出久「彼は事の大きさから特例中の特例として刑の確定を待たず特殊拘置所へ入れられた。」 Midoriya Izuku “Due to the seriousness of the crime, he was taken to a special detention center as an exceptional case, without waiting for the sentence to be finalized.” [Chap. 94]

Note that the test says ‘the day after’ but the battle took place during night. When it finished Midoriya’s group reconvened with Shōto’s group, Bakugō went with the police and, a few hours after, when it was around 8:00 AM Midoriya and Co went home. This likely means AFO was carried straight at Tartarus, no stops in between.

Once there, AFO, who’s wearing a straightjacket, asks where he is and the guard pushing the wheelchair on which he’s tied.

When he asks where he is, he’s told this should be obvious and that he would be lucky if they were to give him the death penalty as that’s the place where scum like him is put.

Kanshu ‘Damatte iro! ! Mireba wakarudarou! ! Shikei sura namanurui hodo no zainin ga ikitsuku basho da!’ 看守「黙っていろ！！見ればわかるだろう！！死刑すら生温い程の罪人が行き着く場所だ！！」 Jailer “Stay quiet!! If you look, you can see it!! This is the place where criminals for whom even the death penalty is too lenient end up!!” [Chap. 94]

AFO notes that there are far too may sensors who mess up with his sensing abilities. On the ceiling there are also plenty of rifles following movements.

The jailer seems to realize only then that AFO couldn’t see, which doesn’t really speak of a brilliant jailer since AFO’s eyes are basically nonexistent, and, without them, it’s kind of obvious he can’t see.

Tied to what I assume is a chair, face still bandaged, we can see Stain too. Stain was arrested in May and we’re in August. I hope they didn’t keep him tied for 3 months as it’s not healthy.

This is a good moment to point out how in the manga there is no contraption that’s capable to stop Quirks from working, no Quirk cuffs, or Quirk suppressers or Quirk whatever. That’s why prisons like Tartarus get away with keeping their prisoners completely tied or even drugged and have turrets that would shoot them should they try to use their Quirks.

Quirks themselves can have their own limitations, AFO complains the sensors in the prisons affect his own infrared Quirk but unless you’ve an erasure Quirk like Eraser Head, or a rewinding Quirk like Eri or you just remove the infrastructure for the Quirk to work (Eraser Head’s eyes, Overhaul’s hands), before the invention of the rewinding bullets there was no way to stop a Quirk from working.

THE HERO PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION: In Chap. 96 there’s a little speech made likely on the TV. It seems it’s done by the Hero Billboard chart JP, the biannual ranking based on mission completion rate, contribution to society and public support… or more likely by someone behind its making. The speech shares with people some quick News. From them we learn people from Japan, but also from USA were surprised by All Might’s true form. After what had happened All Might had been forced to announce his retirement. We’re also told Best Jeanist will be out of commission for a long while and Ragdoll of the super popular Pussycats is still unable to use her Quirk so she’ll go on an indefinite leave. Also we’re told that a great number of Heroes has had their lives suddenly affected in the event known as the Kamino nightmare. There’s no mention here of the NPSC but since they’re the ones handling the Hero Billboard chart JP, it can be that it’s one of their men that shares those quick news on TV in name of the Hero Billboard chart JP.

CULTURAL INFO:

Sorry, I couldn’t find out if Japan has forensic psychological assessment. Probably it does but I genuinely don’t know.

In Japan, one can be arrested on the spot in which case no warrant will be shown but the police must provide the person arrested an explanation or, if it is an arrest by warrant (normal arrest), the police will show the one arrested the warrant before placing you in custody. Then he will then be taken to a police station for questioning and stuck in their detention centre, which is located in the police station and remain there until it’s either decided there are not enough proofs to indict you and so you’ll be released or until after you’ll have your trial. There is no bail before indictment and after it, bail is rarely granted. If you’ll be judged guilty you’ll be moved to a prison with hard labor. This is why moving AFO directly to a prison was an extraordinary measure.

Very likely, contrary to normal Japanese prisons, Tartarus doesn’t have a hard labor system and prisoners are just held in cells, possibly restrained or drugged or, if it has, it’s only for people with not dangerous or controllable Quirks.

#boku no hero academia #mha meta #bnha meta #bnha spoilers #Tsuragamae Kenji #Tsukauchi Naomasa #Tamagawa Sansa #Kaniyashiki Monika #Tanuma Eizou

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