Boku no Hero Academia

[Buffalobiian]

Alternative title:
My Hero Academia
僕のヒーローアカデミア
Genres: action
Themes: school life, special abilities, superheroes

Plot Summary: Mankind has developed superpowers known as "Quirks" with 80% of the population having some kind of superpower. These new abilities see the rise of both superheroes and villains. A prestigious school known as the The Hero Academy trains superpowered hopefuls into the heroes the world needs. Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he's part the 20% without a Quirk. Unwilling to give up his dream, he plans to take the exam and be accepted into a high school for budding heroes. Through a series of serendipitous events, he catches the eye of the greatest hero, All Might, who agrees to train him. -ANN

Links: ANN, AniDB, MAL, Official.

Downloads: HS


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It only took 4 episodes to get the ball rolling, but we're finally here. I almost dropped the show after the first episode due to how depressing it was. In a way, that made it a great episode if conveying despair was the aim of it.

Thankfully the author delivered some hope; I really needed that.

Episode 04 was great, even if it was predictable. Just as our MC said, it's so satisfying to finally see him be able to act on his sense of justice.

And bless his chubby mum. She felt so guilty for ruining her son's dreams through no fault of her own. :')

[shinta|hikari]

Chubby moms suck. Youkais ftw.

[Ryllharu]

No, his chubby mom was adorable in this episode.

[Buffalobiian]

Come to think of it, All Might is actually in a worse condition than Izuku. Now they're going with "your body is used to it" instead of being fit vessels.

And the OP's sung by a group called "Porno Graffiti"

edit: so quirks are all physical really. You can augment them with technology, but they're fundamentally physiological. Then.. where does thingo's "laser beam" come from?

It's too low to be the umbilicus, and too high to be the urethra. It's like he's shooting out of a suprapubic catheter.

[Munsu]

I've enjoyed the series from the get go, flaws and all, but episode 4 was certainly a step in the right direction.

The instant healing ruined it a bit for me, would've loved some more scenes with Izuku's broken body.

[Ryllharu]

edit: so quirks are all physical really. You can augment them with technology, but they're fundamentally physiological. Then.. where does thingo's "laser beam" come from?

It's too low to be the umbilicus, and too high to be the urethra. It's like he's shooting out of a suprapubic catheter.

And spoil the ambiguity?

Uraraka throwing up from overexertion was also adorable.

The instant healing ruined it a bit for me, would've loved some more scenes with Izuku's broken body.

With regards to the instant healing, it is a necessary evil. The school as a concept couldn't really exist at all without that or something similar. I assume that once she kicks the bucket, if they don't have a replacement, the school will close down.

[shinta|hikari]

Watched episode 4, and I'm still finding it hard to see what makes this any different from the usual shounen stuff, except maybe the slow pace and annoyingly dumb and jittery protagonist.

I liked the release of his power. The sound and animation were cool in that scene.

It's probably a good execution of the shounen story. The problem is, if you've seen enough of those, this is just like watching a replay. This reminds me of overdrive and that other geek biking story. Even the "twist" about him passing, if anyone can even call it that, could be seen by those new to the genre a mile away. In fact, it makes me question the intelligence of the other "hero candidates" who just left a girl to be crushed. Isn't that worthy of being failed? Are they just gonna leave someone to die in the real world if it isn't convenient for them?

And what's the big deal about this academy? I know many awesome heroes graduate from it, but wouldn't you be able to do good without being a harvard hero grad? Look at Saitama. He saved the world as an unknown hero a few times. Is this story promoting the reward of being recognized over the actual act, the precise opposite message of OPM? But then again Izuku got recognized for being heroic despite having no power... It's a bit of a mixed message.

The chubby mom didn't suck as much this episode because she didn't put down her son, but she did nothing worthy of praise either. She's... normal. And fat.

[Munsu]

And spoil the ambiguity?

Uraraka throwing up from overexertion was also adorable.



With regards to the instant healing, it is a necessary evil. The school as a concept couldn't really exist at all without that or something similar. I assume that once she kicks the bucket, if they don't have a replacement, the school will close down.

I don't mind the instant healing, I just didn't want to see it happen right away after.

[Buffalobiian]

It's probably a good execution of the shounen story. The problem is, if you've seen enough of those, this is just like watching a replay. This reminds me of overdrive and that other geek biking story. Even the "twist" about him passing, if anyone can even call it that, could be seen by those new to the genre a mile away. In fact, it makes me question the intelligence of the other "hero candidates" who just left a girl to be crushed. Isn't that worthy of being failed? Are they just gonna leave someone to die in the real world if it isn't convenient for them?

I don't think anybody else saw the girl. They made no mention of it when they talked about him. The speed guy saw Izuku and left him sitting there. That's the same as not helping the girl.

UA is like a police or military academy I suppose. You can become great without it, but going there boosts your chances since they train you.

[shinta|hikari]

Let me rephrase then. Everyone just ran away and left Izuku to be crushed. He certainly wasn't making it out of there alive at the rate he was going. To top it all off, everyone else thought he was crap, so they knew he wouldn't be able to survive that robot.

I guess I'm too jaded with shounen and automatically cringe when tropes are repeated carbon copy. I generally prefer shows that subvert the tropes or make fun of them at the very least. That isn't to say that this show is bad. It's just not my thing anymore, at least at this point. I'm still hopeful it'll surprise me later. Preferably with more lolis and waki.

[Buffalobiian]

Preferably with more lolis and waki.

But there's Nice Person!

Let me rephrase then. Everyone just ran away and left Izuku to be crushed. He certainly wasn't making it out of there alive at the rate he was going. To top it all off, everyone else thought he was crap, so they knew he wouldn't be able to survive that robot.

That's true. I'll assume everybody else saw him even though only Speedy-kun (Applicant #7111?) is the only one we can confirm.

I do think that there is a difference between Speedy (not) saving Izuku and Izuku saving Ochaco though.

1) Izuku was frozen with fear, not a cement block. Arguably it doesnt' matter, but it gives the impression that it's "psychological" and that one can "get over it".

2) Izuku was further away to the machine than Ochaco. He was in less immediate danger.

3( Izuku feels he has personal responsibility towards Ochaco. She saved him from falling out of the kindness of her heart. He feels obligated to reciprocate that. I'm sure his hero complex would have driven him to help out anybody regardless, but nevertheless it's there and speeds up decision making.

Speedy-kun sees Izuku as a rival, and this whole thing as a competition. Not performing simply means you're not good enough. You chose to take this exam, after all.

The assumption here is that Ochaco would have been gravely hurt or even die by that machine. I'm not sure what the death toll of these exams are, but if the perception is that "she'll be fine" then a lot of this can be explained.

After all, I let my squad and other players die all the time in games since "they'll be fine" in the real sense. You wouldn't shouldn't bait your squad members in real life. Actually, you can bait them but it's not nice to let them bite.

[neflight86]

Really enjoying this, but as a manga reader I'm biased. I'm not worried about cliches in shounen anymore so long as they are delivered entertainingly. The slow pace is a tragedy if no second season is confirmed soon, but this one is doing itself right.

[shinta|hikari]

@Buff - The exam death toll shouldn't really matter. The mere possibility of someone getting hurt or squashed should move these wannabe heroes to help them. Heck, even normal people are somewhat expected to do that by law in certain countries. The hilarious thing is they just watched the broken Izuku like a strange animal. That scene was really weird, even if they knew that a nurse would show up to heal him (which they didn't, at least not all of them).

By the way, glasses guy did see nice girl trapped because he commented that Izuku got hurt saving her. He might have seen her a bit late, but he still didn't do anything when he did. He even made an excuse, and in the process realized the highest scoring potential in the test is saving those in need. I mean... they're heroes. What did any of these kids really expect..?

[NeoCybercoin]

I like how they didn't change their rules when they saw that their biggest machine got wrecked. Zero points is still 0 points. This ain't freaking Hogwarts where they give out points on a whim.

[Buffalobiian]

Glasses guy saw Ochaco after Izuku acted I reckon. She was under the rubble and was pretty far back. He only saw Izuku because he ran past him, and saw her when he was at a safe enough distance to actually look back.

I don't think that it's a given to save someone if it's a competition and you're meant to die trying, which may have been the rules for this type of exam. See Hunter X Hunter for the brutality that can go on during exams.

[shinta|hikari]

But this clearly isn't that type of exam. Hunters are different from heroes.

About glasses abandoning people, I think it's pretty much established he did so willingly. He even commented about it himself, saying he would've acted differently if it weren't an exam. Whether he abandoned kind girl or cry boy isn't as important as the fact that he abandoned someone.

@Neo - Only they hid a huge rule from everyone. Izuku became one of the top rankers just because he saved that girl. And judges DID give out points on a whim. Izuku passed because of the points given to his heroism, a mechanic none of the participants knew about (which they should've if they had any common sense).

[Buffalobiian]

1) It's an exam situation. I don't help you out with your maths question in an exam because the whole point is to show how well you do in exams. I'd be more willing to help you if that wasn't the case.

Yes, Glasses abandoned Izuku. It's import to know why he abandoned him. Because it's an exam. Because he doesn't qualify.

Izuku thought She needs help. She helped me before.

He didn't care about the exam and helped her. Glasses thought about this in the context of an exam, with them being rivals. You don't help rivals.

It's different than say, Glasses running to his exam but found some helpless person on the way to the exam room.

[Kraco]

@Neo - Only they hid a huge rule from everyone. Izuku became one of the top rankers just because he saved that girl. And judges DID give out points on a whim. Izuku passed because of the points given to his heroism, a mechanic none of the participants knew about (which they should've if they had any common sense).

They should know about it from the earlier generations, especially since it's an elite school in Japan. I mean, there's a whole huge industry in Japan arranging extra courses for students for the single purpose of getting into the next school in their studying career. It got treated like nobody knew in this episode, but that's bullshit. Maybe, and just maybe, in the heat of the moment and with the strict time limit, the emphasis on the villain points, and the large amount of (fake) villains, it's psychologically quite plausible that nobody really paid attention to it or remembered it. Plus it's a lot harder to try to catch situations where you could save someone compared to just beating one of the hundreds of robots.

I do find it quite funny that a hero who can control gravity or levitate objects, whatever it is, was pinned down by random rubble on top of her feet. Kind of like a fish trapped in wet water, huh...

I still hate the MC. I can't help it. I don't know how he could have kept dreaming of becoming a great hero his whole life but is such a scared and nervous crybaby all the time. He was bullied, but not that badly. The fact he can still talk and interact with his childhood acquaintance means the bullying wasn't so brutal. But I'll keep watching for Nice Person's sake. Or something.

[shinta|hikari]

@Buff - Like I said, it's a hero exam, which as the name implies, tests your qualifications to be a hero. These wannabe heroes should've known better. But they didn't, and it cost them. Some of the weaker ones could've passed if they figured out the hero point mechanic. So in that sense, everyone except Izuku screwed up.

It's like a trick question in an exam.

So I'm not only faulting their lack of heroism. I'm also faulting their lack of insight. It's like these kids haven't read a single shounen manga in their life despite being in Japan. And they wanna be heroes for crying out loud.

[Buffalobiian]

@Kraco: She may need to slap it. At the very least she needs to concentrate to use her powers.

@Shinta: Heroes have many qualities which they assessed: intelligence, threat elimination proficiency and selflessness. The last bit needs to be hidden from examinees, which was the case here. It doesn't work if you have perceivable gains from your actions.

What shouldn't have happened was to have All Might talk about the secret part of the exam to a candidate.

You don't have to be self-sacrificing to be a hero, which is why there's no minimum score.

To answer your original question: "Isn't that worthy of being failed? Are they just gonna leave someone to die in the real world if it isn't convenient for them?".

No, it's not an automatic fail. You can still maintain peace without being entirely selfless.