My Hero Academia just finished today and was one of the last of the big Shonen Jump titans. The only titles with over 400 chapters now are Black Clover and One Piece. It’s hard to even say if any others really have a chance but we’ll have to see. My Hero’s definitely a great title and does feel like a fun next generation of Naruto in some ways. The idea of a series about superheroes is always a good idea and you can bet there were a ton of big fight scenes all the way through. Hopefully we get a sequel series at some point.

The story introduces us to Deku who is one of the few humans who is born without any kind of super power. For the most part, everyone gets a special ability called a quirk and then a lot of people go on to become professional heroes to take down the legions of villains. The number 1 hero is a guy called All Might who is known as the Symbol of Peace. His abilities are so good that he almost single handily ended crime on his own. Unfortunately his powers are nearly at their limit and so he passes on his powers to Deku. This is supposed to be impossible but his quirk is an exception. Now Deku can do his best to become a hero but will he really be able to pull this off?

Deku was always a bookworm and so he knew a lot about various abilities and fighters’ tendencies. This would translate pretty well when he got the abilities because now he could fight efficiently. In a way All Might’s power is too good for a while there as Deku’s body isn’t really able to contain that level of power. He has to hold back a lot even during the big fights because otherwise his own body will be torn apart. So as you can see it is an ability that carried with it an incredible amount of risk and destruction. It is not to be used lightly in any situation. As Deku learns and get older he will be able to use 100% without any issue but that assumes that there is still a world to fight for. The League of Villains are doing their best to make sure that this is not the case.

We start off with a light pre arc but it’s interrupted rather quickly for the first invasion saga as Shigaraki and his friends make their big appearance. From the start Shigaraki is a tough fighter to go up against because with a single grab he can destroy you. Any kind of contact is absolutely fatal so you have to deal with him from afar. They also have a Nomu creature which was able to go toe to toe with All Might for a while. Considering that this is just the first attack from the villains, it is really impressive on all angles. This was a good way to setup the villains but also show what the students could do right from the start. Most of them aren’t really ready to fight but there were a few like Bakugo and Todoroki who were ready from the start.

Then you’ve got the Sports Festival with the big tournament among the heroes. It’s sort of like the Chunin Exams in a sense and a big part of this was about Todoroki finally facing his powers and learning to use them all even after his tragic past. He really went through a whole lot but at the end of the day he pulled it off. His fight with Deku was definitely a highlight and it was also nice see Bakugo take a massive W in his match. His ability is suited for combat really well after all so that’s not exactly a surprise. It goes by real quick for sure but definitely squeezed in a whole lot of content. Characters like Endeavor would continue to have a really big role up through to the end of the series.

It also led to the debut of Stain and his big fight with the heroes. It was a really good part in the series both with the stakes and also what happened. Stain goes around murdering heroes who don’t quite fit into his box of what a true hero is. His rationale doesn’t always make sense but he’s a villain so that’s to be expected. This was Ida’s best role in the series. Usually he’s just the mild mannered class president who follows the rules without any kind of complaint. He does what he needs to and that’s the end of that. In this arc, his brother was taken down by Stain so Ida wanted revenge. Unfortunately we never see that same level of vigor from him again but at least he was really fun to see in this arc. You were definitely rooting for him to do well and it made for a good team based fight to end the arc with.

After that we got more character development for the heroes when they had to team up against the professional heroes. Deku and Bakugo are naturally picked to be teammates since they are worst enemies and it goes about how you would expect it to. Bakugo keeps on causing problems and picking fights there. He goes as far as to say he would rather lose than work with Deku which is definitely a very drastic take. All Might definitely went rather hard on them here too so you really get to see him land some devastating blows. It was a pretty fun set of battles and it’s always nice to see these teamwork fights. You may have some doubts about if the students could actually take on some of these pros but remember that this is for practice. It’s not like the pros are going all out necessarily.

The first big high stakes are for a while is in the forest. The students had went over there to get some experience when they were attacked by the league of villains. This time we were talking full stakes with the villains here to murder all of the kids that they could. Dabi really got to show off more of his abilities this time around and the heroes were really on the back foot for a lot of this. Deku also had his own 1 on 1 fight with Muscular which was real intense. To date that is still one of my favorite fights in the series. I thought it was a perfect way to show off how much stronger Deku has gotten. Naturally he still has a ways to go in order to become the strongest in the verse but the fact that he was overpowering this guy who focuses on strength was super impressive. Already by this point in the series I would say that he could easily defeat any of his fellow students.

Things move pretty quickly from there as we immediately turn the corner to Bakugo getting captured so Deku goes on a rescue mission. This leads All For One to show up and we finally get his big rematch fight with All Might. This is definitely some real good stuff and it’s another top fight in the series. It’s the last time we would ever get to see All Might fight at full power after all so you definitely needed to really savor the experience. It’s easy to see why he was the #1 hero for so long. He was definitely not someone to underestimate. The battle was definitely a turning point since the heroes no longer had a reliable shield behind them. I continued to expect one more stand by Al Might later on since we know he can transform for an instant but I suppose the timing was just too tight. Still, imagine how cool it would be to see him throwing a punch as slim might and at the last second he turns buff to land the full weight of the blow. That’d be awesome.

After that it was finally time to get the hero licenses! I will say this is definitely one part where the humans were always extremely unreasonable. Yes, the licenses are important but at the end of the day these are kids who have been saving everyone time and time again. It was always so annoying when the humans would show up to badmouth them and talk about how they can’t be fighting. Like cmon now, I get this for standard humans but even for them when it’s an emergency and you just saved a bunch of people, I think it’s 100% justified to have used the powers. Just tell the kids they did good and call it a day there.

After that is one of the most pivotal arcs in the series. There is a big villain gang around and they are going to team up with the League of Villains. At the head of this group is Overhaul, a guy who can destroy things and put them back together. He’s one of the darkest villains are he continues to inflict terror upon a little girl named Eri. This was a rough moment for Deku though which I never let him live down. He had a chance to end the arc before it even began by saving Eri but ultimately chooses to step aside. Yes, he was encouraged to do so by Mirio but there are times when you just have to attack and this was one of them. There is no room to back down or anything like that. You have to fight and show why you are the top hero. I could really accept nothing less. Still, Deku does his best to make up for this and we get some real intense battles in the arc. Mirio also comes into his own with some really good showings here.

You’d expect we need some time to calm down after that arc so we get a much smaller one with the Gentle Criminal. This was a really solid mini saga, I had a blast with it. He’s surprisingly very powerful and one of those villains that you can’t really underestimate. He was able to hold his own against Deku and is also very agile. Fact of the matter is he could probably crush most of the pros at this point in time. He gets a good talking to and while he does have to go to jail, you figure he will rehabilitate pretty well. He’s more of a lost soul than a hardened criminal after all.

Following that up is really the last chance for the heroes to have some fun. We get the joint training competition with the other class. Each of the characters get to have their moment to shine and we even have Deku start to learn some new powers. They may have been rather controversial but at the end of the day they are pretty neat. Most of Deku’s powers aren’t ones that will be super useful compared to his main super strength/speed abilities but they certainly don’t hurt either. I’d say the rival school deserved to win more rounds though, they had some really good plans and abilities at the ready.

The villains can’t be left out of the fun for too long though and they actually get their own mini arc to deal with a different villain group. This was pretty fun and it’s something I’d like to see more of in different titles. This is one of the only times I can think of where the villains got a whole saga to themselves to fight it out without any hero interventions. It’s not the literal only time but it’s extremely well and it was definitely a really cool story. It helps that the other villains were all really talented as well. It was to the point where the main villains actually needed a power up of their own to try and launch a counter attack. They ended up stronger and more unified as a result so they would be more of a threat in the next arc.

This would of course be the first big war with Shigaraki and his troops. We have all of the heroes jump in to stop them and it’s a really nice united front. This is one of the massive advantages of being a long running series. You can’t really pull this off to the same effect in one of the short titles because we just wouldn’t really know the characters and it wouldn’t have the same impact. With these characters though, we know them and have been with them for a long while. So it definitely hits a lot harder. The fights are all pretty high tier by this point with all of the characters really knowing how to fight. Definitely a lot of fun all around.

After that was the big tipping point with Deku transforming into Dark Deku. He decides to go it alone and take care of the villains. To be honest that’s pretty much the right call though and while that’s not supposed to be the case, I would argue the series accidentally agrees with me here. Deku takes down several formidable opponents on his own and even wins a battle while he has to protect someone. He’s fully capable of doing this on his own and the rest of the students would just hold him back. Yeah it’s emotional to be seeing them show up with their speeches and all but they are too weak to help. They don’t want to admit to this and I get it but Deku was taking care of business without them. I dare say if they had stayed back then he would have continued doing great things on his own. That is his power, that is why he needs to take the lead. The teamwork approach doesn’t work when he is this much stronger than the others and he surpassed them a long time ago. So the ending of the arc is pretty cheesy but it was still a lot of fun overall.

Finally we have the last arc. The big war against the heroes once again with everyone being involved like last time. This time the heroes decide to really make sure that the villains are all split up so they cannot help each others. It’s a pretty good plan and most of the matchups aren’t that bad. Putting Toga with some of the weaker fighters may not have been a good idea though. I would see Deku and Endeavor winning their matchups but for example Dabi’s another one who would have the clear advantage in his fight. It’s hard to see him losing that round but the heroes were doing the best with what they got. At the end of the day it’s up to the heroes to go plus ultra from there and take everyone out.

It’s quite the ride and with the series being as long as it is, it makes sense that there would be so many sagas. All of the characters really got to change with the times and everything. In general I would say I didn’t really like the ending but big manga endings can be a bit hit or miss at times. This one felt a little too harsh even with the final moment at the end. Still, you should never let an ending get in the way of good content. This is still dozens and dozens of great volumes of material all the way through after all.

What the series always did extremely well was focusing on the fact that this is an optimistic story about heroism. It’s a title you could pick up at any time and have fun with. There are tons of big battles and then also lots of interactions between the cast at school. You really got to know most of the characters and what they were thinking really well.

Naturally it goes without saying that the artwork is really good here. The series always gets a lot of praise for this and it is absolutely deserved. The close ups look real intense to the point of being borderline horror at times. The series does well with each of the tones and always shows a good amount of variety throughout. The writing is on point as well and it’s a series with a very clear premise that is easy to jump into. I expect even 20 years from now people will still be talking about the series. It had a real strong hold on top of the charts after all and was mega popular. People will never really forget this one.

Okay time to really dive into the characters. Get ready because there are certainly a lot of them running around here. No, the Vigilante characters never get to show up and save the day so you do have to relegate those to the spinoff series. It is a shame since at least the main guy could have really helped out a ton considering just how powerful he got by the end. He should seriously be one of the strongest heroes on the planet at this point in time. Still we have lots of other big fighters.

First lets go over some of the staff. Nezu is the principal and while he’s not really a fighter, the guy does have a lot of good tech at his disposal. He comes up with some pretty good designs to slow the enemy down with which isn’t easy. Additionally, he does defend the students at times. I had him pegged as the traitor for a while since he always seemed a little suspect to me but in the end I suppose he was a decent guy. He’s not my favorite character or anything but he does his best.

Then you have whose role as a teacher is bigger than a hero for most of the series due to his powers going away. As a teacher he’s only okay though. It’s pretty clear that he’s a hero who could do almost anything back in his prime so it’s harder to teach the skills. He still serves as a good role model for Deku though. Towards the end of the series he seemed to be losing it a bit though and I was sort of expecting a villain type arc. Not that he would join the villains but he would start to get more and more extreme as he got close to the line. Ultimately that wasn’t really the direction they were going for here.

Eraser Head is a pivotal character in the series. The guy tends to be harsh towards Deku all the time to the point where he even takes a shot at him in the very final chapter but he will always defend his students either way. His ability to take away someone’s quirk is extremely helpful all the way through to the end of the series. After all, most fighters are basically helpless without their quirk. Naturally that isn’t the case for the final boss but that’s one exception out of a whole series of fighting. So it’s still a really good deal if you ask me. He’s a fun character to have around.

Present Mic is Eraser’s foil and you could say the dynamic is a bit like Might Guy and Kakashi. Present Mic has way more fun with everything. He doesn’t take things too seriously and he likes being very loud. We actually do deal with a tragic event that affected both of them in the past but surprisingly that is really only in the spinoff series. So you have to read Vigilante to see the whole story. You can pick up enough here to still understand the context though.

Midnight is definitely more of a sketchy character. Yeah her gimmick is for humor but she’s just not the best kind of role model. Her ability has her conveniently stripping to power up which isn’t great. Although the series itself is actually great about not having much fanservice at all. It’s extremely tame so the series gets huge props for that since a lot of titles just can’t resist. That being said, it doesn’t save Midnight so she still ends up being one of the weaker characters.

Then we have Gran Torino who is a solid mentor type figure. His quirk is actually really handy since it’s basically like a mini version of One For All. He gets your classic super strength and super speed which lets him do a good job of training Deku. It was definitely super useful to have the whole time. You just know he would have been a top tier fighter if he was just a bit younger. As it was he still did a really good job in the series. He was definitely real likable.

The author did a good job of giving just about everyone in Class 1A something to do but to be honest not everyone really turned things around. First up is Kota and I’ve got nothing against the guy but he just wasn’t ever very big. His power isn’t the most useful and so he never got a chance to shine. Sero has his tape which isn’t going to do much against most of the villains. He gets a moment or two but that’s about it for him as well.

Jiro has her sound abilities which are considerably more helpful than some of the others. I’ll give her that and she did good in the festival as well as some of the other events. Her personality is also a lot of fun, she’s not afraid to talk smack with the rest of the fighters. If any of the side characters was going to get a bigger role she would be my pick. Sato by contrast is a character who doesn’t get much to do and doesn’t have much potential. He has super strength but to a fairly low level. Not much is going to happen from that.

Shoji surprisingly gets a bigger role by the end of the series. He will try to help end the monster discrimination but until then there isn’t much for him to do. He doesn’t have any powers that would stop the stronger opponents and so he would be caught lacking in the end. Ojiro is in a similar spot where all he has is a tail. It’s a strong tail but…that’s just not going to be much of a game changer when you get down to it. He seems like a nice guy though.

Now we start getting to the bigger characters. First is Hagakure and in a lot of ways the reason she got big was because everyone thought she was the UA traitor. Her invisibility just made this a done deal. Of course when you look at actual screentime she is near the bottom. I enjoyed her character though even if a lot of that is for reasons outside of the series. I’ll never forget the fun debates about her criminal intent.

A character with actual criminal intent is Mineta though and he is a terrible character by every metric. It’s a shame he wasn’t expelled because the guy was crazy. Unfortunately a lot of series still have the obligatory perv character and that was Mineta’s role here. He would always be around to harass someone and his power’s also rather lame. You were definitely rooting against him in every match.

Then we have Tsuyu whose role isn’t huge either but she is consistent. Unfortunately she was consistent in a very bad way. She would usually have the worst takes on things like saying Deku shouldn’t go to save Bakugo and that it would make him a villain. I really needed her to brush up on what it means to be a hero. Ultimately she isn’t bad or anything like that but definitely not a top tier character by any means.

Aoyama is one of those characters you feel bad for because his own power gives him a bad stomach. That’s just such a cruel twist of fate. He can barely muster off one blast before falling to the ground. I would feel so massively scammed by that point. I’m not a big fan of his though, he likes to be flashy but there isn’t much to his character beyond that. He gets his share of development and big moments but they didn’t do much for his character for me.

Ida as I said earlier looked great during the Stain arc. He was ready to land some punishing blows and that was real impressive. Where he really ended up faltering was the fac that after that he learned the wrong message. Ida never wanted to break the rules again even if people were in danger and that was a shame. He really has a lot of potential too. The thing to always remember is that following the rules is the right thing to do but never check your common sense out by the door. You gotta keep it with you and continue to push forward.

Mina is a fun character and she’s always at a bit of a disadvantage because her acidic powers are super lethal. If someone gets hit with that then they’re probably dying and she has to live with that. So part of the dilemma here is that she has to hold back just enough which is difficult. Still, she always tries hard and gets her share of emotional moments. She steps up even when it’s hard and that’s why I have a lot of respect for her.

Next up on the list is Uravity. She is more of a supporting fighter no matter how many times they tell us about her gunhead martial arts. She should have lost most of her fights in the series. She was a reasonable character for the most part but starts to fall off a cliff as the series ends. She just gets way too emotional about taking down a mass murderer. She did everyone a favor but it’s breaking her down inside. I get being upset, but I jut thought this was a little too much. They should have held back somewhat at least. Her goals aren’t bad but it was annoying to see her fall for the propaganda a bit.

Kaminari strikes me more as the kind of guy who would keep things real. For sure he doesn’t want to murder anyone but if he does end up saving the world then he will take it in stride. It’s what he does and his thunder powers are fun. He has a huge drawback like Aoyama which is that he ends up frying his own brain but at least that’s something he can train at as he gets stronger. You definitely want to get to the point where you don’t have any drawbacks to your power.

Kirishima actually got through those issues on his own. He used to not be strong enough so he would chip and start to fall apart as he fought. Now he has made himself hard and strong enough to the point where that is not a problem. He just takes the whole thing in stride. I like his confidence as well and he ends up being one of the better students. He’s also one of the only ones where you could say he and Bakugo are genuinely friends. That’s a feat in itself.

Tokoyami is another really powerful student. His dark energy bird is definitely tough and the fact that he gets even stronger at night is great since you figure most crimes would take place in that period. It makes him extremely well suited to being a hero, even more than a lot of the other characters without a doubt. He is not the guy that you want to leave on the bench.

Momo has cool powers of her own like being able to make anything she understands the mechanics to. That’s definitely a great ability even if she doesn’t have the stamina to keep it up for too long. She also has good tactical skills which makes her very difficult to defeat and helps her be a good supporting fighter as well. Momo always means well and has a likable personality.

Then we get to Todoroki who is one of the biggest characters in the series. After all the Todoroki family in general has a lot to get through. He had a rough upbringing due to Endeavor breaking their family apart and Todoroki had a hard time using his powers because he didn’t want to glorify his father. Eventually Deku helps him out and from there Todoroki becomes a top tier hero. He’s definitely one of the best characters in the series. I thought he handled his subplot extremely well like a professional. He is always fair about everything and you can count on him to have your back.

Bakugo is the big rival in the series and he always keeps Deku in top form. If Deku slips up even a little bit then Bakugo could end up surpassing him. Bakugo is always rather rude to everyone and that’s the way he aims to be a hero. Even through to the end he’s still yelling at everyone and hasn’t changed as much as you might expect. At least he does respect Deku now. He’s come a long way from being a petty bully and telling Deku to jump off a building. You can bet that those things don’t happen anymore. He may be rude but he’s certainly no bully. Bakugo is a real stand out character and the fact that he gets to be so strong with what I would call an average quirk is super impressive. Mini explosions usually don’t make you the equivalent of an S rank fighter.

Of course then we have Deku, the main character himself. He starts out a bit rough with being super timid the whole time. It takes him a little while but eventually he gets full confidence in himself and starts to take initiative. He has his flubs like the Eri moment but in general he is a good main character. The series is actually rather harsh to him I’d say when we go back to the ending but on the whole at least he got to accomplish a lot. Like with Uravity he does fall into a bit of a trap in terms of being a little too sad about how things turned out with the villains. At the end of the day they made their choice and Deku was forced to make his. Deku tried every possible alternative out first so he should have nothing to feel sad about. He gave it his all and I agreed with the call. Deku’s best mode was Dark Deku though, I’d love to see that return at some point.

Hawks is one of the pro heroes who shows up later on and he’s definitely fun enough. With his feathers he can fly at super speeds and he has a lot of power. He’s one of the most powerful all around heroes as a result. He has to put up with a lot by being an agent for both sides. The amount of intel he gets is really good and he had to put himself in a ton of really dangerous situations to get it. So nothing but respect to the guy, he did good.

Monoma is a really fun character. His copy ability really makes him a threat to any opponent and he also has a ton of confidence. The confidence is really what makes him the great character here because that’s what you love to see in a character. He was always ready to stand up for his class and prove that they were just as good as 1-A. Nobody else really had the gusto to pull that off so I’d say it was a rather big deal. It shows that he had a lot of guts at all times and so he was easy to root for.

Hatsume is a mild character from the support agency but she gets props for being super good at what she does. When the heroes need some kind of gear or equipment she is able to whip it out in no time flat. Nobody else could pull that off and that’s why she is the boss. There is nobody even close to her in terms of technical know-how.

Now lets go into more of the heroes. We’ve got Edgeshot who doesn’t have a huge role for most of the series but becomes absolutely pivotal by the end. He can get into any crack and exploit it. The guy is fast and hard to detect. Considering that he’s one of the top 10 heroes you know he is strong but I really do wish we could have gotten him to fight more. You never really get to see exactly what he can do in a true combat scenario for very long.

Then you have the Suneater who mostly gets overshadowed by his two teammates in the series. He can eat food in order to metamorphize his body which seems like an extremely useful technique to have. He has his share of contributions at the very end of the series but doesn’t do a ton of things on his own so that’s what keeps him from keeping up with some of the others. Also, he’s a bit too nervous and you know how I tend to take points off for that. I need him to show some more absolute confidence!

Nejire is a fun character. I like her lasers and she tends to stand out a lot. She’s another character where I would have liked to have gotten to see her do more. Her fights tend to mainly stay off screen but on camera she would absolutely dominate. You feel like most villains without regeneration wouldn’t be able to do much against her lasers but maybe it is difficult to limit them enough to not absolutely destroy the humans.

Mirio is a character who had a rough start with not saving Eri but at least after that he made this his primary mission. He would save her no matter what and he did a good job of that. Even at the cost of his powers, he really went all in. Surprisingly in the final war he doesn’t do as much as you would expect. I feel like with his abilities he should be a top tier fighter from start to finish. Maybe it just wasn’t a great matchup for him. Either way he does end up being a real fun hero all the way through and does more than a lot of the pros.

Take Wash for instance, what does he even do here? He makes the washing machine sounds but that’s about it. You forget that he’s around half the time which is too bad. Woods is another high tier hero but he really can’t keep up with anyone and is written out real quick. At least he seems like a good hero though so power isn’t everything. Mr. Lady may not be the most powerful hero on the list but she always rises up when necessary. She gets some pretty solid moments near the end where we see her determination. She gets some good props there.

Jeanist is one of those guys who actually gets a good amount of screentime and is strong. What really holds him back though is the fact that it’s hard to take his powers seriously. He can control denim to make something super tight or loose. It’s a good way to trap people but the strongest villains just aren’t going to be tied up for very long. He has a good amount of confidence though so he’s okay. Ryuku is a hero I expected more from though. She’s one of the top 10 and has absolute killer power. That should be enough to easily crush most fighters but she only gets maybe 2-3 battles and we don’t see her much. Felt like the series left a lot of meat on the bone with her.

Gang Orca has a cool design but doesn’t seem like the strongest hero. He didn’t do much at all when Toga was around after all so he lost points there. I know he was helping against the nameless minions but you have to do more than that. Mirko is the perfect example of a pro hero who came in and really took names. She did have the unfortunate habit of losing limbs in most of her fights but this never discouraged her. She would just come right back into the mix and land more blows. She felt like a grownup version of Bakugo. Definitely a great addition to the series and she was an instant scene stealer.

Fatgum had some moments as well. He’s not my favorite character bus his super durability while in fat mode is definitely real handy. You do not want to mess with Fatgum, that’s for sure. Then back to some of the students, we have Shindo who was really cool. He’s a character that I initially did not notice much in the series but then the anime helped bring him to the forefront. He does his best to stop the villains and nearly had Muscular on the ropes so I have to give him that.

Yoarashi is one of those real petty characters. He apologizes after creating a mess of things but the character motivation was rather weak. I almost would have preferred he just stay antagonistic the whole time but I suppose now he can always be used more freely in the future. Then we have Shinso who has been moving around quite a bit. Currently though he will be back with the main class which is handy. The ability to immediately brainwash/control someone is super useful and with how everyone loves talking, you can bet he will be useful for a very long amount of time. He needs someone to respond to him for the ability to activate but with how villains like monologuing that won’t be a problem.

Nighteye is an assistant but one who can move fast and read the future. This actually allowed him to dodge Deku’s strikes which might be a little bit of a stretch. My think with this is even if Nighteye knows where the hits will be, I don’t see him physically being fast enough to do anything about it. He should still be getting absolutely washed in a fight if you ask me. Either way he was a fun character to have around though.

Then we have Endeavor as one of the top tier fighters. He is a super combatant so I want to say that strength is not something that he is lacking. The guy definitely has true skills but the reason I didn’t like him is because of his backstory. Basically he was abusive to his wife and kids. The series goes to great pains to work on the character redemption saga but ultimately it wasn’t enough for him. He just went way too far by that point so there’s no turning back. I’m glad that he’s on the right side now but yeah I had 0 real sympathy for the guy. He created all of the big problems and now has to live with them for however long he lasts.

Star and Stripes is the final big hero here and she ran into the issue of being too powerful. Her ability basically let her alter reality by making anything she says come true. It’s extremely difficult to stop that, in fact you could say it’s borderline impossible. The best way would be to speedblitz her before she could get any orders out but the problem is that she built her body to be All Might level in terms of speed. She always has one rule up to keep herself that way so that plan won’t work. You’ll be shaking your head at how she goes down but either way she is a great character.

Now onto the villains! I want to give a quick shoutout to the villain from chapter 1. He never gets to do much of anything but was pivotal to the series. Without him making a move in the first episode, everything would have turned out super differently. Low key it also seems like a pretty good power and even All Might had a hard time catching up to him.

Lady Nagant is more of a serious villain though. She is dispatched to take out Deku and the fact that her gun strikes can even come close to the guy is super impressive. By this point in the series Deku’s speed is absolutely insane so keeping up with him in any kind of capacity is certainly a trick. She gets a whole backstory which was handled well and I like how her character ended. she was a good character through and through.

Then we have Stain who is always fun. Again, his idea of who is worthy to be a hero can be a bit vague. You’d figure Ida’s brother would have met the criteria but at his core you have to remember that he is still evil. He gets a good moment near the end and in general his abilities are super useful in a fight. If you get paralyzed even just once then it could be all over. He uses blades after all so unless you are wearing some armor then that’s it.

Next we have Mustard who is a fairly minor villain but the guy has a gun which is absolutely crazy here. Most pro heroes aren’t bullet proof so if you get the attack in then it could be super dangerous. The heroes have to take him out real quick each time since he shouldn’t be underestimated. At the end of the day he is just a normal guy with a gun but that’s why he’s so scary. Because you know that someone else could copy him in the future. Then there’s the Nomu. By the end of the series there are a lot of them. I would say that none of them ever manage to surpass the original one from season 1 but a few of them certainly come close. The high end who fought Endeavor comes to mind. Especially since that one could talk, that was a lot of fun.

Another strong fighter is Gigantomachia even if he can be a little too big at times. If he could scale down somewhat then I dare say he would be the bigger threat. It would be harder to lock onto him and everything. He could then appear out of nowhere and deal devastating damage. Yeah that would have been rough. As for the Doctor, not much to say about him. He’s basically your average scientist villain concocting plans and getting in everyone’s way. He’s not what I would call a massive threat or anything like that.

Then you have the Gentle Criminal and like I said before the guy is a lot of fun. I like his fighting style and his gimmick is also pretty neat. It’s not like he is going around murdering anyone either. He knocks out anyone sent to stop him but that’s about it. Meanwhile he has his partner La Brava who handles the tech and his social media. They really make for a good team all the way through.

There aren’t really any other teams though. After that we have Muscular who has a big grudge against Deku after the first fight. Don’t expect him to be just following orders all the time. I like that kind of rebel character so it’s no surprise that I enjoyed his character quite a bit. He ended up beating Spinner for me as an example. Spinner had his whole subplot with the creatures but I felt like it didn’t go anywhere quick enough. Additionally Spinner just wasn’t the smartest character a he let himself be manipulated so easily. Definitely not a good look there at all. He basically became a mindless monster.

Twice was a nice guy. Also a bit gullible but he would always do his best. Now during this writeup I do want to underscore that he is still a villain. He fell in with the wrong crowd and led a life of crime but at the end of the day he still has to take accountability for that. You don’t get a pass just because you were tricked. After all he still knew exactly what he was doing.

Mr. Compress doesn’t get a ton to do but he was a loyal fighter and a pretty good character all around. His abilities were super handy and we even get a brief backstory which wasn’t half bad. I would have liked seeing more of him. Kurogiri is another character who could have used some more screentime. We know about his backstory but like I said before most of it is in the spinoff anyway and not here. Most of this guy’s scenes are all from the very beginning of the series and then he’s gone for a very long time. Teleporting is always super handy though so I liked him but I wish he wasn’t held captive for so long.

Then you have Toga and you have to remember that she is super sadistic and evil. I feel like the manga tries gaslighting you a bit on this with Toga and the others but this isn’t some random victim. Toga was causing a whole lot of destruction throughout the series and had to be stopped. There’s no real way around it, if you don’t stop Toga then it’s all over. She was going to tip the scales before she was defeated. I think she makes for a decent villain when that is how she’s being presented at least. Her blood copying abilities are definitely hard to stop.

Dabi is the standout villain and the best in the series. He was ditched by Endeavor early on and just kept on training. He’s the only character that All for One could not manipulate which already gives him a ton of hype. Factor in that he has the strongest flames and it’s a wrap. He had a rough backstory so I’d say I sympathize with him more than the other villains. In a way they made him too sympathetic at first so they added some stuff to make him go lower again. That’s fine, he’s not someone you are supposed to look up to anyway. He just so happens to have a really cool design and everything

Now we’re at the two big villains. First up is Shigaraki who gets a whole lot of screentime. I didn’t care for his origin story since it involves some animal violence. Miss me with that but it is easy to see how he turned evil. The environment didn’t do much to help him there but by no means is it the old lady’s fault. Later on we get a scene where some people think she should have acted but I reject the premise out of hand. By no means should she have been expected to go and do something about this. Shigaraki continues to get stronger and stronger throughout the series as his ambitions also grew greater. He is a very interesting and well layered villain. I dare say the series wrote themselves into a bit of a hole with how he can destroy anyone by touching them though. It means that none of the fights can have any contact for the most part so they have to work around that. Since he is as fast as All Might later on though, that starts to feel a bit impossible. There are definitely some power level issues there but all in all I liked Shigaraki. His group also know he has their back. They actually stick together and you love to see because I actually like loyalty among villains.

Finally you have All for One from the main villain group. The guy was always so mysterious and doing things from behind the scenes but man did he fall down hard near the end. He was panicking left and right as everyone barreled into him. There was a time near the end where he spends maybe 10-15 chapters getting crushed by everyone. He makes so many mistakes and looks so bad. I still like the villain of course and most crack by the end but this was definitely real drastic. You just couldn’t help but laugh at him a bit as well as he lost all of his charisma. He definitely needed to get out of his old body and that would have helped out a lot. Instead it was time for him to get humbled big time. So fun villain, but Shigaraki is definitely higher.

Then we have the alternate villain group led by Re-Destro. Re-Destro is one of those villains who was amazing at first and then from there he really ended up going down big time. He had a lot of aura and leadership potential but then he squandered it all and became more of a loyal lapdop. No, that was not my Re-Destro! It was a shame to see him lose everything that made him a cool villain. So by the end of the series I can’t say that I was much of a fan. He still had a really awesome intro though.

Curious was one of his big fighters and she was cool. Her fight with Toga was really solid and in a lot of ways you could say she should have won that battle. She played the matchup to near perfection and had counters ready for every tactic. That’s the kind of fighter you absolutely do not want to underestimate or it’s all over. She is one of those villain psychos who has a gimmick and stands by it which I appreciate. Of course the best member of the group is Geten. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see more of him. His ice is so powerful that he was able to hold his own against Dabi for a while which is absolute insanity. I would say that automatically puts Geten near the top of the verse and that’s probably why they couldn’t show him too much. He would be absolutely dominating everyone who made the mistake of getting in his way.

Rappa is a fairly minor villain in the grand scheme of things but I liked him. He always enjoys a good fight and didn’t want any cheap tricks to get in the way. He was extremely strong but also had an honor code. So you actually didn’t mind when he was winning. He’s still a villain without a doubt but at least he has a purpose/focus. I think it could have been pretty cool to see him go up against Deku at some point.

All of the One for All previous user get to show up in the vestige world and everything so that’s pretty neat. I wouldn’t say we get to know too much about them but we know what we need to. The theory about Backugo from the future may not have panned out but that was fun while it lasted. Imagine having 6 people living rent free in your head though. That could have been a little funny subplot to keep going in the background if the series had just wanted to keep that up.

Finally we have the last two characters who supported Deku a lot. His mom gets several appearances in the series. I wouldn’t say she ever gets to look good here but unfortunately her role didn’t permit much time for that. She’s mainly here to get emotional a whole lot of times. It would have been nice to ser her step into the action like she found a way to improve her quirk or something. Meanwhile Eri is also around as a wild card. I would say she is a true wild card because the whole time you’re waiting to see her use her youth powers again. The way they write around this can be a bit annoying but she still gets to help out as needed. She’s put up with a whole lot as a kid so you can bet that I’m not going to be all that harsh at all.

The series does have a lot of power level issues mainly due to Deku himself. He has the strongest quirk around and continues to grow during the series. He should be crushing most of his competition with ease like All Might used to. There are times like when Toga grabs him that you just have a hard time believing it. Likewise when Shigaraki is fighting and doesn’t manage to grab anyone even with his super speed. The issue is that Deku and Shigaraki are both just way too strong for anyone else and that leaves to some unbalanced environments. Every series has power scaling issues of course but this one tended to appear more drastic because of skilled these two were.

Overall, My Hero Academia is definitely a great series and what Shonen Jump is all about. You’ve got a large cast of fun fighters and a whole lot of battle scenes within it. You’ll be blasting through the series real quickly as you eagerly await what happens next. The pro heroes could never keep up for the most part but at least this paves the way for the kids to become the next wave of heroes. They will do what the grownups could not and really make the world a utopia. It’s a bold goal but they are ready for it. This was definitely quite the writeup and I can assure you that I still left out a bunch of characters and events. If you want the full experience then it’s time to binge the series. Get ready for a real good time!

Overall 8/10