Boku no Hero Academia

[Kraco]

Participants would know quite accurately how many villain points they should be getting. Yet the end result of who got in wouldn't directly reflect that. Especially those who thought they would make it but didn't would want to find out. Considering Izuku had a zero villain score and the only thing he did was a single act of rescue, it doesn't take much to deduce something.

It's true absolutely nobody would tell if they were asked not to. But, you know, there's always that anonymous guy in the internets who reveals juicy facts just to make himself look more important.

[Edort4]

Im sure they all sign a non disclosure agreement

[shinta|hikari]

Is that even legal for minors?

[Edort4]

In a world that at age 5 they can blow things up? Who knows. Many questions arise in that kind of world. But Im sure the school could have court signed documents prepared to remove the "disability" of being minor and not being able of signing contracts along with the NDAs.

[MFauli]

If somebody could answer me without spoilers: Is this anime good? Tbh I never gave it a try because at first glimpse it looked like some moe harem crap. Yesterday, a friend who´s casually into anime, mentions how he likes this anime, which got me thinking about it. What´s the general mood of this? Is it a serious story?

[Buffalobiian]

Think K-ON but hero-themed.

[MFauli]

Ok, thx, pass.

[shinta|hikari]

Wait, what? Why K-ON?

Think Overdrive/Yowamushi Pedal and Soul Eater's bastard child. It's shounen to the core. Apparently it gets better later on so I'm currently staying on until then.

[MFauli]

So what now?

K-On = cute girls doing cute sutff

Shounen = exciting fights and coherent story

Which is it?

[Kraco]

So far this has been highly generic shounen with a total underdog main character who needs to work 10 times harder than anybody else to produce results. But he also has some luck and destiny on his side, like shounen heroes do. I don't like the MC, so I don't like this show as much as some do, but I'll keep watching for now, so it's not terrible.

I don't really know how K-ON fits in here. Bill must have been drinking as much as that Tiramii creature in his avatar pic.

[Munsu]

If somebody could answer me without spoilers: Is this anime good? Tbh I never gave it a try because at first glimpse it looked like some moe harem crap. Yesterday, a friend who´s casually into anime, mentions how he likes this anime, which got me thinking about it. What´s the general mood of this? Is it a serious story?

Combination of goofiness and seriousness in a pretty much standard shounen action series.

Entertaining so far, but not much more than that. Main character is annoying so far, but he figures to improve.

No harem.

[neflight86]

Episode 5

__________

If the parallels to shounen anime weren't strong enough before for you to pick up on (specifically Naruto; swap jutsu for quirks and a scarecrow teacher's book for a sleeping bag), this episode should set the scope of the remainder of the series. Its a formula that works for me, but I can certainly see people being put off by a fairly unoriginal mish-mash of tropes unless they are able to root for Deku and enjoy the dramatic overcoming of his obstacles. The pacing is painfully slow as well.

[Ryllharu]

And yet you didn't notice the series subverting many of the shonen formula tropes?

Foremost this episode being the assertion that a hero that hurts themselves overdoing it is completely worthless. Most shonen series will make such an action the pinnacle of heroics as some form of noble sacrifice. This one states unequivocally that if the hero themselves has to be rescued, they're better off simply not being in the field in the first place.

Kacchan is also one of those "rival" characters who comes off definitely more as a villain than he does as a hero, but overall, his motives seem pretty pure aside from wanting to be the center of attention. He hasn't been beating up Deku the way he used to ever since Deku saved him. I'd be pretty interested where it goes from here. How else can someone like him get ZERO rescue points, yell "DIE!" when he uses his powers, but not actively bully Deku? Something doesn't quite add up here.

[shinta|hikari]

I think that's not so much a subversion than just another character with another opinion. The trope is alive and well in All Might. It's not anything fresh either. In many shounen stories, there's always that moment when someone stronger, like a teacher or a rival, gives the protagonist (or his friends) a wake up call, saying that their shounen heart isn't enough to save the world.

This episode was good overall. Not being avant-garde isn't a bad thing. It just means... not being avant-garde. Again, that's only up until the latest episode. That may change, and I'm looking forward to that possibility.

[Ryllharu]

I found the message of this episode to be in stark contrast to the vast majority of shonen series. Considering he is their teacher, he has a valid point, one we'd already seen proven.

Deku saved Uraraka, but in doing so, he would have died if not for her in turn saving him. What's the point of saving someone if you're just going to die in their place? It's a death either way. A hero can do more good by surviving and saving many more people.

Eraserhead was saying that a hero who is self-destructive is only a liability later. The usual shonen will have their hero/heroine pushing themselves beyond the limit, a broken tattered thing, before being saved by one of their allies at the last moment in dramatic fashion.

Eraserhead is saying that kind of behavior is unacceptable for their profession.

[shinta|hikari]

Sure, but All Might was saying the exact opposite and praising Izuku for being selfless just an episode ago. So it's just one of the messages in the show. In fact, if that was the main message of the show, Izuku wouldn't even be the hero because he was a quirkless guy who just got power because of his shounen heart.

A subversion would be something like Izuku failing the exam, becoming a vigilante, suffering from his lack of power, sacrificing his shounen heart to gain power, and then actually getting love and recognition after that. Y'know, like a less emo and miserable Archer.

Or just failing the exam. That alone would've been Madoka level subversion because of the show's title LOL.

Maybe he can apply as a janitor and become the strongest janitor alive after learning from many heroes in school outside of class.

[Ryllharu]

What exactly does "subverted trope" mean to you?

It isn't take trope and do the literal opposite. It's merely bait trope setup, but do something different.

The expectation is that a sacrifice is heroic. The realization in this series is that it is viewed as worse than doing nothing.

All Might has that view point because he is so strong that it doesn't ever really happen. Eraserhead and the other teachers obviously believe otherwise. What Izuku did in the exam was reckless. What if the school nurse wasn't around? Izuku would be in traction for months, then rehab for years. Her existence is to allow students to cut loose. The teachers have a different viewpoint once the students are enrolled.

Don't forget that All Might is teaching there for the first time. The other teachers are veterans.

[shinta|hikari]

That's what I meant by subverted trope. Make people think he's gonna pass, then fail him. Make a story with Academia in the name, but the hero isn't a student. It doesn't have to be opposite, just different.

Sacrifice is heroic. As I said, All Might realized that because of Izuku. I think none of these heroes really behaved like heroes from the get go, as shown in the earlier episodes. They were like efficient workers, just doing their job the safe and right way. In that aspect, the trope about sacrifice you are talking about has already been subverted from the very beginning.

The problem is, Izuku defied all that by actually being able to gain immense power and attend that school through self-sacrifice.

Moreover, I think that detail you mentioned is quite minor compared to the number of tropes that the story does hit, making it almost irrelevant.

I actually don't think it matters much, really. Whether or not Academia subverts anything does not detract from its (current) appeal. It's a shounen story done right.

[neflight86]

And yet you didn't notice the series subverting many of the shonen formula tropes?

Foremost this episode being the assertion that a hero that hurts themselves overdoing it is completely worthless. Most shonen series will make such an action the pinnacle of heroics as some form of noble sacrifice. This one states unequivocally that if the hero themselves has to be rescued, they're better off simply not being in the field in the first place.

I would disagree with you here. Firstly, the series does not unequivocally suggest that 'heroic sacrifice' leading to a exacerbated need to rescue is worse than inaction. Eraserhead does. In the second episode, All Might praised Deku for trying to save Kacchan from a quirk user (slime) he had no hope to defeat. There was no way he could expect to get out of there without great harm to himself, yet good somehow came from it. Silly or not, that line of thinking (moved before I could think about it) worked out.

What Eraserhead is saying is that fully disabling yourself every time you use your quirk because you can't control it is unsustainable as a professional crime fighter. I think his delivery is a bit 'school of hard knocks', and merely sounds like he is Jaded against underdog overachievers.

Deku never planned to destroy himself after each attack (his image training shows this), but Eraserhead has no way of knowing this. Not knowing the circumstances, he sees a boy unable to control his quirk that will not make an effective Hero unless something changes. It would be irresponsible to certify him as a hero (or waste school resources fixing this fundamental problem) to the same degree All might said it would be irresponsible to tell him he could be a hero without power.

In short, I strongly believe the shounen 'noble sacrifice' trope to be in full effect in this show, even if sensei Eraserhead won't tolerate Deku requiring noble sacrifice for every little thing he does.

But we're on the same side here. I think we both enjoy the show.

[Kraco]

Eraserhead is simply biased because of his own power, erasing. In front of him, nobody is special because he can erase their quirk. So, one person is the same as the next one. However, when Eraserhead isn't present, there could be a villain who could slaughter ten thousand people. If a hero sacrifices himself stopping that villain, the hero has saved ten thousand people and lost one (himself). If he does like Eraserhead suggests and doesn't sacrifice himself, he saves a single person, himself, and loses ten thousand people. Eraserhead simply can't see this as due to his personal power, the villain wouldn't be able to murder any more people than any random joe from the streets, so any cop with a gun could stop the powerless villain.

It's really troublesome to have a teacher who can't see beyond his own limited point of view.